The Texas A&M University System approved a sweeping new rule on Thursday that requires professors across its 12 campuses to obtain authorization from their campus president before teaching specific subjects involving race, gender, or sexual orientation. The move marks one of the most far-reaching efforts in Texas to regulate how public universities address identity-based topics in the classroom.
According to the Associated Press, under the new directive, no course may “advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” without prior approval. System officials said the rule creates a formal process for reviewing sensitive content. Still, faculty critics argue it represents a direct intrusion into classroom autonomy and could violate core First Amendment protections.
“It really strikes at the heart of what education means and what universities do, which is circulate the exchange of knowledge without fear of retaliation, without fear of censorship,” said Rana Jaleel, who chairs the American Association of University Professors’ academic freedom committee.
The policy arrives amid intense political attention on universities’ approaches to diversity, equity, inclusion, and campus speech. Institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Texas at Austin have faced heightened scrutiny from conservatives and the Trump administration. Just last month, President Trump pressed nine major universities to adopt measures eliminating race and sex from admissions and boosting conservative representation on campus.
Texas A&M’s policy defines “race ideology” as any idea that “attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity, accuse them of being oppressors in a racial hierarchy or conspiracy,” or assigns “intrinsic guilt based on the actions of their presumed ancestors.”
“Gender ideology” is described as a “concept of self-assessed gender identity… disconnected from the biological category of sex.”
James Hallmark, vice chancellor for academic affairs, told regents that the aim was to create “transparent and document cocurricular review, not policing individual speech.”
The vote comes months after a viral classroom confrontation led to the firing of Melissa McCoul, a senior English lecturer whose discussion of gender identity in a children’s literature class sparked political backlash, including from Gov. Greg Abbott. She was dismissed shortly before Texas A&M’s President Mark A. Welsh III resigned.
Faculty members say the new rule appears to cement those political pressures. “Our job is to teach facts, teach the truth,” said Leonard Bright, head of the university’s AAUP chapter. “And if we have to use a litmus test of whether or not it meets someone’s approval… then we have no truth.”
Despite significant faculty pushback, Regent Sam Torn defended the move, saying it ensures the system is “educating, not advocating.”
Texas A&M, one of the nation’s largest universities, is located in College Station, about 95 miles northwest of Houston.
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