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Texas A&M System tightens restrictions on discussing #race and #gender in class
Under the new rules, discussions on “race or gender ideology," sexual orientation or gender identity appear to be barred from introductory-level courses

by Jessica Priest
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/18/texas-am-race-gender-courses-new-rules/

About a month after adopting a policy requiring approval for courses that address race, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, #Texas A&M #University System regents on Thursday approved changes that faculty

Texas A&M system revises rules on discussing race and gender in class without publicly releasing restrictions

According to emails circulating among faculty, discussions on "race, gender ideology" and sexual orientation could be barred from introductory-level courses.

The Texas Tribune
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worry might effectively ban those topics in introductory-level courses
Regents approved the revisions during a special meeting on Thursday without reading the updated language aloud or discussing its substance in open session. System officials provided a copy of the new language hours after regents had approved it

According to the revised text, “no system academic course will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity,” with a narrow exception

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for certain non-core curriculum or graduate courses. Those exempted course materials must first be reviewed, show that they serve a “necessary educational purpose” and be approved in writing by the campus president
Faculty members shared with the Tribune emails that two department heads sent before and after the vote with the policy’s revised language, but the text in their emails described the courses that could be exempted as “specific upper-division or graduate courses in some disciplines.”
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That language was removed from the revised policy regents ultimately approved
Martin Peterson, a philosophy professor who chairs Texas A&M’s Academic Freedom Council but said he was commenting on the new policy as a private citizen, called the changes approved Thursday “#outright #censorship”

#censura en Universidad de Texas
Peterson said he believes the revised policy will bar him from teaching parts of his PHIL 111: Contemporary Moral Issues course, though he has not received formal guidance

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from administrators. He said the course has typically covered moral questions related to race, gender and sexual orientation, including whether affirmative action is ethical, the moral justification for Texas’ bathroom bill and differing views on sexual relations and gender identity.

“My students are adults and need to learn to structure their arguments for or against,” he said.

Another faculty member, who asked not to be named out of concern that speaking publicly could affect their job,

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said the revised policy raises questions about how it could affect degree requirements for all undergraduates
Undergrads have to choose a class from a list to fulfill a cultural discourse requirement. The list includes courses like Introduction to Race & Ethnicity, Introduction to Women’s & Gender Studies, Social & Cultural Anthropology & Contemporary Moral Issues. The catalog says those classes are intended to help students “hold respectful discussions & discourse on difficult topics,”
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understand self, including personal #bias and #prejudices,” examine power, privilege a& conflict from multiple viewpoints
The professor said those courses necessarily involve discussions of race and gender, and that the new restrictions could affect most of the classes on the list
The #Texas A&M #University System adopted the first version of the policy in November, after a student’s secret recording of a professor discussing #genderidentity in a children’s literature class sparked conservative
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backlash and scrutiny of course content across the system
The earlier policy required campus presidents to sign off on any course that could be seen as advocating “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” It was approved alongside new rules barring faculty from teaching material inconsistent with approved syllabi
Other university systems have also launched course audits in recent months, saying the reviews are necessary to comply with new state laws
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or presidential directives, though no state or federal law explicitly bars professors from teaching about race, gender or sexual orientation

Read the Texas A&M University System’s revised policy restricting how race and gender are taught

https://www.texastribune.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/08-01-Exhibit-ADOPTED-VERSION.pdf