Texas A&M University System regents unanimously approved a policy requiring each campus president to sign off on any course that could be viewed as advocating “race and gender ideology” or addressing sexual orientation or gender identity.
The policy defines race ideology as “attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity” or anything that “promotes activism on issues related to race or ethnicity rather than academic instruction.” Gender ideology is defined as “a concept of self-assessed gender identity replacing, and disconnected from, the biological category of sex.”
Regents also approved a rule barring faculty from teaching material that strays from an approved syllabus. Both the ban on “race and gender ideology” and the syllabus requirement take effect immediately, but enforcement will begin in the spring 2026 semester, reports the Texas Tribune.
The Recordings That Sparked the Crackdown
The changes were approved in response to a conservative student’s secret recordings of a professor discussing gender identity in a children’s literature course. The student claimed the concept of gender identity violated her religious beliefs and President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring there are only two genders. She also recorded a conversation with the university president, who refused to fire the professor.
The recordings circulated widely on social media, sparking conservative outrage over what they claimed was an attempt to “indoctrinate” students into accepting gender identity as valid.
Regents Chair Robert Albritton said the board received 142 letters of written testimony on the new policies but defended the proposal.
“It’s not a matter of discussing any of these things,” Albritton said at a November 13 board meeting, referring to the topics requiring prior approval. “It’s a matter, then, of expressing an opinion of one way or the other versus both sides of the equation.”
Albritton denied that political pressure influenced the university’s decision, indirectly referencing a social media thread from state Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian), a Texas A&M alumnus who has railed against liberal professors and courses touching on LGBTQ material. Harrison was among several Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who called for the professor’s firing.
The new policies are already causing confusion among some faculty, according to the Tribune. In an email obtained by the publication, Simon North, interim dean of Texas A&M’s College of Arts and Sciences, acknowledged lingering questions about how the rules will be implemented, including “the criteria that will determine when course content is considered relevant, controversial, or inconsistent with a syllabus.”
North said he is working with the provost’s office to address those questions and will seek input from other college leaders and department heads.
Regents also imposed new rules to audit course content across all 12 campuses each semester to ensure professors adhere to approved syllabi. Each university must feed its syllabi into a database that will be scanned by artificial intelligence for material that strays from approved course content.
The university will also launch a 24-7 system for students to report “inaccurate or misleading course content,” with complaints reviewed and addressed by university officials.
The new policies have drawn criticism as a form of censorship, with free speech advocates and professors arguing they are vague, ill-defined, and an assault on academic freedom.
“Hiring professors with PhDs is meaningless if administrators are the ones deciding what gets taught,” Robert Shibley, special counsel for campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in a statement. “Faculty will start asking not, ‘Is this accurate?’ but ‘Will this get me in trouble?’ That’s not education, it’s risk management.”
The Professor Caught in the Political Crossfire
Critics also note that professors were already worried about self-censoring after Melissa McCoul — the professor at the center of the viral video controversy — was fired by former Texas A&M President Mark Welsh III. Welsh initially defended McCoul but ultimately dismissed her and demoted both the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the head of the English department, allegedly under pressure from Texas Republican lawmakers. That pressure persisted, and Welsh himself was eventually forced to resign.
McCoul has appealed her termination through the university’s Committee on Academic Freedom, Responsibility and Tenure. Last week, a university committee found her firing “unjustified,” saying the university failed to follow proper procedures and did not prove good cause, according to The Associated Press.
The university said in a statement that interim President Tommy Williams has received the committee’s non-binding recommendation, meaning he is not required to follow it.
A separate faculty panel concluded in September that McCoul’s termination violated her academic freedom, according to the Tribune.
McCoul’s lawyer, Amanda Reichek, told the AP she expects the dispute to end up in court, saying the university appears poised to fight the committee’s finding and that Williams faces the same political pressure from Republicans that Welsh did.
“Dr. McCoul asserts that the flimsy reasons proffered by A&M for her termination are a pretext for the University’s true motivation: capitulation to Governor Abbott’s demands,” Reichek said in a statement.
The Alabama Public Library Service Board of Directors, which oversees the state’s public libraries, has voted to remove books discussing transgender identities from teen and children’s sections statewide.
On November 20 -- which coincided with Transgender Day of Remembrance -- the board approved an addition to an existing rule requiring youth sections to be free of "sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate." The amended rule now specifies that materials discussing "transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders" are inappropriate for library sections aimed at children and teens.
The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to enforce a policy mandating that U.S. passports list a traveler’s sex as assigned at birth, based on biological characteristics.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. government would recognize only two sexes, effectively erasing transgender identity. The order, which pledged to uphold "the biological reality of sex," directed the State Department to revise its passport policies to "accurately reflect the holder's sex."
Apple has pulled two of China's most popular gay dating apps from its App Store after receiving an order from the country's top internet regulator and censorship agency.
According to Wired, the tech giant removed Blued and Finka from both Apple's iOS App Store and several Android marketplaces over the weekend. New downloads are now blocked, though the apps remain functional for users who already had them installed.
"We follow the laws in the countries where we operate," an Apple spokesperson told Wired in an email. "Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only." The spokesperson added that the apps haven't been available in other countries for some time.
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