AUSTIN, Texas (Nexstar) — Texas A&M schools are quickly working to implement changes required by a systemwide policy change barring advocacy of race or gender ideology in most classrooms. The change — implemented last year — drew the ire of many academics who felt the change will limit academic freedom.
“As we understand it, they are restricting our ability to teach things that relate to race, gender, sexual orientation, and have even argued that we are unable to teach things that we don’t specifically outline in… what they call an approved course syllabus,” Leonard Bright, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Chapter at Texas A&M University-College Station, told Nexstar in November when the first version of the policy was up for debate.
A couple months later, Bright said he believes there are hundreds of syllabi the university has flagged.
“I heard secondhand regarding a meeting that (the College of) Arts and Sciences had with a group of faculty where they explained that there were about 200 or so classes that they’ve identified as being problematic,” Bright said. “That’s in arts and sciences… and so we don’t know how much more than that, but we know there’s going to be more.”
‘I can’t even talk about Plato’
One flagged syllabus has drawn national attention — the removal of two lectures in the introductory “Contemporary Moral Issues” class on “Race and Gender Ideology” with the assigned reading being selections of Symposium by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.
“I’ve been able to teach this course in the past,” Philosophy Professor Martin Peterson said. “I taught it in 2024, more or less the same content. But now I’m no longer allowed to talk about race and gender issues. I can’t even talk about Plato, and this is a philosophy course.”
On Tuesday, the AAUP shared the email sent to Peterson informing him of this change and giving him two options.
“1. You may mitigate your course content to remove the modules on race ideology and gender ideology, and the Plato readings that may include these. 2. You may be reassigned to teach PHIL 482 501-514. Lecture times for the course are T/Th 8:00 – 9:15,” the email said, giving Peterson a day to respond.
In a statement, Texas A&M pushed back on the Plato-censoring narrative, saying “Texas A&M University will teach numerous dialogues by Plato in a variety of courses this semester and will continue to do so in the future. In alignment with recent System policy, university administrators are reviewing all core curriculum courses to ensure they do not teach race or gender ideology.”
“I read that statement and I found that very entertaining actually,” Peterson said. “They seem to be saying that it’s not so bad because we can talk about some parts of Plato’s works. But come on, this is a philosophy department. Philosophers should of course be allowed to read and discuss everything Plato wrote.”
The university did not respond to a follow-up question about why its statement says “do not teach” when the new University policy says “no system academic course will advocate race or gender ideology.”
Peterson acknowledged the cited sections of Plato propose a narrative contradictory to modern conservative views on gender.
“He does not agree with the narrative that there are two biological sexes… and everyone should be heterosexual,” he said. “So it is controversial, but that’s the very point of including him in the syllabus. That’s why we need that voice in the classroom. Having a discussion about contemporary moral issues and just present(ing) one perspective — the mainstream perspective, makes little sense.”
State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, has welcomed this change by the university and thinks Peterson crafted his syllabus to make a point.
“This is a completely manufactured scandal. Texas A&M has not banned Plato,” Harrison said. “What happened here is a liberal professor — because I forced A&M to clamp down on transgender indoctrination — it appears he slipped in a couple of sentences of Plato into a section of his syllabus that promoted gender indoctrination, knowing it would be cut. When it was cut, he went and ran to his allies in the mainstream liberal media and the next thing you know, you’ve got headlines coast-to-coast saying that Texas A&M banned Plato. Completely cynical, disingenuous, false.”
Peterson admitted he updated the language in his syllabus, but said the changes are nominal and not substantial.
“I have taught this course with the same content in the past in 2024. I used the same textbook, the same textbook chapters. I’ve just updated the label in the syllabus to reflect what A&M is now using,” he said. “I used to call it ‘race and gender issues.’ It’s now called ‘race and gender ideology’ because that’s the term A&M is using.”
Peterson decided to acquiesce to the university’s request and remove the selected lectures from his syllabus. His proposed replacement, he said, still has not been approved.
“I have replaced the banned modules with lectures on free speech and academic freedom,” he said. “The assigned reading is an article in the New York Times about this case.”
‘It is having a detrimental effect on Texas A&M’
When Nexstar asked Bright how the change may affect faculty recruitment and retention back in November, he said “I think there will be a slow death to our status, to our reputation.” Two months later, he sounds more pessimistic.
“I don’t even have to speculate anymore, it is having a detrimental effect on Texas A&M,” Bright said. “It is one of those swan songs where this great university is being literally slaughtered and it’s declining and it’s going to be something to see in years — it’s going to be painful to watch. But if nothing changes, things continue on, that’s the reality.”
Bright said the focus right now is getting things in writing and telling professors “don’t voluntarily comply with orders to remove course material that they know, as an expert, students need to know.” He also said the AAUP has been working with partners at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the ACLU and the NAACP on what their next steps might be.
According to FIRE Faculty Legal Defense Fund Fellow Graham Piro, Texas A&M could be violating the First Amendment.
“There’s one Supreme Court decision that described academic freedom as a special concern to the First Amendment. Another decision described a college classroom as peculiarly the marketplace of ideas,” he said. “So when a public institution like Texas A&M — or other public institutions across the country that are bound by the First Amendment — when they start taking actions that violate academic freedom, then they’re violating the First Amendment. Courts are likely not going to look favorably on that.”
Harrison sees the situation completely differently, saying it’s fine to learn about these restricted topics — just not with taxpayer dollars.
“Because of the work I have delivered… our public universities are for the first time in decades limiting the promotion and the advocacy of transgender ideology,” Harrison said. “There are no First Amendment issues, there is no censorship issues, despite what the liberal media says. If you want to study transgender indoctrination from any author of any period, every text is free to do that. But do it with your own damn money.”