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Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton has implemented new restrictions on the topics of race, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms, and instructors who fail to follow them may face discipline.
Creighton said instructors cannot promote the idea that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another; that a person, by virtue of race or sex, is, intentionally or unintentionally, inherently racist, sexist or oppressive; that no person should be discriminated against or receive unfavorable treatment because of race or sex; that moral character or worth is determined by race or sex; that persons bear responsibility or guilt for the actions of others of the same race or sex. or the qualifications or a strong work ethic are racist, according to a memo to university presidents, “creating sexism or harassment.”
“Promotion” was defined in the memo as “presenting these beliefs as true or necessary and pressuring students to affirm them rather than analyzing or criticizing them as one viewpoint among others.”
The memo includes a flowchart outlining a new approval process for any course material that includes restricted topics. Faculty must submit materials to department chairs, university administrators, and the Board of Regents for their review and approval.
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Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton implemented new restrictions on the topics of race, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms. (Getty Images)
Instructors are asked to first determine whether the material is relevant and necessary. Then, they will be asked if the material is necessary for professional licensure or certification or for patient or client care, in which case the material can remain in the curriculum, but the Board of Regents will be informed. If the material is not needed for those purposes, instructors must seek approval to keep it by submitting it to their department chair, dean, and provost, who will forward their recommendation and justification to the Board of Regents.
Creighton said in a news release that the new rules are intended to “provide clarity, consistency and guardrails that protect academic excellence.”
A system representative said the memo sought to serve as a guide for faculty as they prepare for the spring semester and that the system expects the new approval process to move quickly.
“The integrity of this process depends on the honest participation of each faculty member,” the memo said, adding that noncompliance “may result in disciplinary action consistent with University policies and state law.”
Kelly Cargill Cook, a professor emeritus who founded Texas Tech’s business communications department, said the memo prompted her to remove a class she planned to teach this spring, deciding instead to write a resignation letter.
She told the Associated Press, “I’ve been teaching since 1981 and this was going to be my last class. I was very eager to work with the seniors in my major, but I couldn’t stomach what was happening at Texas Tech.” “I think the memo is clever in the sense that the assumptions it lists are taken at face value, something you can agree with. But when you think about how it would be put into practice, where a Board of Regents approves a curriculum — people who are politically appointed, not educated, not researchers — then that move is a slippery slope.”
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Faculty must submit materials to department chairs, university administrators, and the Board of Regents for their review and approval. (Getty Images)
She said she was surprised by the description of some race and gender concepts in the memo as “one viewpoint among many,” adding that it assumes established facts “such as George Wallace being racist is a viewpoint,” referring to the former Alabama governor who defended segregation.
Creighton’s memo said the new requirements are a “first step” in the Board of Regents’ implementation of Senate Bill 37, which he authored before resigning from the Texas Senate to become head of the Texas Tech system. The law requires the Regents to conduct a comprehensive review of the classes that all undergraduate students must take to graduate to ensure that they prepare students for civic and professional life and reflect Texas’ workforce needs, with the first review scheduled to take place in 2027.
System leaders imposed limits on how faculty can discuss gender identity in classes in September after a viral video of a Texas A&M professor teaching about gender identity led to public criticism from conservatives, the professor’s dismissal and the resignation of the university’s president.
Angelo State University, one of five institutions in the Texas Tech University System, was the first to adopt the changes, and quietly instructed faculty to stop discussion of transgender identity in class in September.
Texas Tech’s then-Chancellor Ted L. Mitchell subsequently issued a systemwide directive that faculty must follow President Donald Trump’s executive order, a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott and House Bill 229, which recognizes only the genders of male and female.
Professors told the Texas Tribune at the time that Mitchell’s guidance forced them to delay lessons, eliminate words like “transgender” and self-censor.
Creighton took over as chancellor last month following Mitchell’s retirement.
The new policies in the Texas Tech University system come after that controversial video The Texas A&M University System approved a new policy last month that requires every campus president to sign off on any curriculum that could be construed as advocating “race and gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity,” though Texas Tech’s new rules appear to go further as it requires a formal approval process that ends with the Board of Regents.
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Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton said the new rules are intended to “provide clarity, consistency and guardrails that protect academic excellence.” (Getty Images)
Other universities that announced curriculum reviews following the Texas A&M viral video controversy or in response to SB 37 have also sent new instructions to faculty.
Andrew Martin, president of the Texas Tech chapter of the American Association of University Professors, criticized Monday’s memo as “deeply disappointing.”
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He said, “We hoped that our new chancellor’s time visiting the system’s campuses and getting to know students, faculty and staff would encourage common ground and recognition that academic freedom is a freedom we all share, which is fundamental to a free society.”
Martin argued that the new rules and procedures violate the First Amendment and that the law harms transgender students and colleagues.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
