Students at 11 Texas A&M University System schools may soon have fewer classes related to LGBTQ literature, climate change and women writers that would meet graduation requirements under a proposal to remove more than 200 classes from general-education course lists.
System regents are scheduled to vote Thursday on scaling back the classes that qualify because a new state law requires them to review at least once every five years the classes undergraduates must take regardless of their majors.
Regents must ensure those courses “are foundational and fundamental” for a college education and that they prepare students for civic life and the workforce, according to Senate Bill 37. The system’s review comes ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline.
The law also requires public university governing boards to consider the potential tuition, fee and time costs of those requirements to students.
The agenda packet contains 360 entries marked “remove” across 11 universities’ general-education course lists. However, some courses appear more than once because they are listed under multiple departments or in more than one general-education category.
Texas A&M University in College Station has the most removal entries with 103. Texas A&M-San Antonio has 76; Tarleton State University has 48; and West Texas A&M and Texas A&M University-Texarkana each have 21. The other six universities have between 13 and 18 removal entries on their lists.
Proposed removals at the flagship school include introduction to women’s and gender studies; LGBTQ literatures; introduction to Latinx literature studies; women writers; introduction to race and ethnicity; gender and health; Blacks in the United States; Bible as literature and climate change.
Leonard Bright, president of the American Association of University Professors chapter at Texas A&M-College Station, described the latest course review as an overreach of SB 37. Bright said the pattern of courses up for removal suggest the regents are bending to conservative pressure.
“This is a political decision,” Bright said. “You are basically telling us now that the globalness that it once valued and said that it was going to protect is no longer a priority. …They’re going to basically whitewash our pre-programs.”
Bright raised concerns about whether students will be prepared without these courses that he said shapes their understanding of the world.
In a written statement, Texas A&M System spokesman Chris Bryan said each university conducted its own course-by-course review. He did not identify who at each campus conducted the review or explain why particular courses were recommended for removal.
Bryan said the reviews determined only which courses should count toward the core curriculum and that “it was not a determination of whether a particular subject is appropriate for study or whether a course may be offered.”
Universities may continue offering the courses outside of the core, he said.
“Each institution’s core varies because its mission and academic offerings are different, but all were reviewed against the same requirements in state law and system policy,” he said.
Courses on the removal lists for other system schools range from those that study women in the U.S. to those that study literature from authors of various ethnicities.
For example, at Prairie View A&M, a historically Black college/university, the removal list includes Mexican-American culture and sociology of minorities. A course titled diversity was on the removal list for East Texas A&M.
The system has 12 universities, but Texas A&M-Central Texas has no removal entries. That school does not offer the lower-level core courses at issue as it serves transfer students who typically complete those requirements at community colleges or other universities.
The agenda packet also lists 27 entries marked “add” at seven universities.
Those additions include human nutrition at Texas A&M in College Station, precalculus at Prairie View A&M, Mexican American literature at Texas A&M International, professional ethics and environmental sustainability at Texas A&M-Kingsville, astronomy and anatomy courses at West Texas A&M.
The core curriculum review is separate from a policy A&M regents adopted last fall after conservative backlash over a classroom lesson on gender identity.
That policy bars any academic course from advocating “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” Only specific non-core or graduate courses can receive an exception, with prior written approval from the university’s chief executive and a demonstrated necessary educational purpose.
Gender ideology was defined by the regents as treating self-assessed gender identity as replacing, or more legitimate than, biological sex. The policy states race ideology includes concepts that shame people, assign them racial guilt or portray them as oppressors or lesser contributors because of their race or ethnicity.
The American Association of University Professors and four A&M System professors sued the system in an attempt to block the policy on Aug. 3, arguing it violates their First Amendment rights. A judge has not yet ruled in the case.
Texas A&M is not alone in reviewing its core offerings under SB 37, though universities are taking different approaches.
At the University of Houston, regents cut the flagship campus’ core-course menu down from 241 to 144. The removals included introduction courses on global climate change and on LGBT studies, the Houston Chronicle reported.
UT-Austin President Jim Davis presented a proposal from a faculty task force he appointed that would replace the current choose-from-a-menu core curriculum.
Instead, students would have to take a course covering each of 12 specified subject areas, including Western civilization, American politics, world politics and cultures, science, computer science and artificial intelligence, and “Great Questions of Human Life.”
Faculty could develop courses to meet each subject-area requirement, but university officials have not yet decided which classes would count. Classes left out of the new core could remain available as electives.
Sneha Dey contributed to this story.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: Texas A&M University and The Texas A&M University System have been major financial supporters of The Texas Tribune. Open Campus, Tarleton State University and University of Houston have been financial supporters within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.
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