Texas A&M navigates limits on teaching gender, race

Faculty at Texas A&M University have been told that roughly 200 courses in the College of Arts and Sciences could be affected by a new system policy restricting classroom discussions of race and gender.

- BY JESSICA PRIEST AND SNEHA DEY

The changes were made days before the semester begins and after some students have registered to attend.

The Texas Tribune obtained emails sent by college administrators showing the policy has already led to courses being canceled or renumbered to remove them from core curriculum credit, with professors directed to alter course content or teach different classes.

The A&M System Board of Regents approved a policy in November requiring campus presidents to sign off on courses that could be seen as advocating “race and gender ideology” or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. The move followed a student's secret recording of a professor discussing gender identity in a children’s literature class that went viral on social media, sparking conservative backlash.

Regents revised the policy in December, barring most discussion of those topics in introductory or core curriculum courses unless administrators determine the material serves a “necessary educational purpose” and approve it in writing. This set off a rapid review of courses ahead of the spring semester’s Jan. 12 start.