The Texas State system includes TSU, serving about 102,000 students. (Photo by Shutterstock)
The vague new order requires the university to ensure all curriculum is taught in a “value-neutral” manner, which critics said encroaches on academic freedom.
Faculty at Texas State University are pushing back against an order from the university system demanding curriculum reviews, the latest chapter in a crackdown on academic freedom at public colleges across the state.
On Oct. 10, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Pranesh Aswath notified faculty and staff that the Texas State University System is charging its campuses with a complete curriculum review and demanding that a summary of their findings be shared by Jan. 20, according to the Texas State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
The order asked departments to “verify course descriptions, outcomes, and academic intent” and to determine whether programs meet “workforce and community needs.”
The review is also meant to “reaffirm the academic value” of all courses and includes a new requirement that all classes must be taught in a “manner consistent with ‘value-neutral instruction,’” which the AAUP-TXST said is vague and appears nowhere in university policy or Texas education law.
The review will also halt the approval of new courses and programs.
The Texas State system includes TSU and six other schools—Lamar University, Sam Houston State University, Sul Ross State University, Lamar Institute of Technology, Lamar State College Orange, and Lamar State College Port Arthur—that serve about 102,000 students.
AAUP-TXST said the review threatens academic freedom, bypasses long-established rules of faculty governance, and shifts decision-making away from experts and into administrative offices.
“Curriculum review is already a continuous and rigorous, faculty-led process,” Aimee Villarreal, a AAUP-TXST spokesperson, said in a press release. “What’s being ordered now is a top-down, politically motivated audit that erodes trust and corrupts the university’s established policies.”
The AAUP-TXST is calling on the Texas State University System to immediately reverse the curriculum review order, which gives the university only 60 business days to complete.
They are also asking the university system to explain in writing the educational justification for the action, to return authority to faculty experts to lead any curriculum review or policy revision, and to ensure transparency and faculty involvement in any new future processes or guidelines developed for reviewing courses and academic programs.
Texas State recently made headlines for firing Thomas Alter, a tenured associate history professor, on Sept. 10 after comments he made during a virtual meeting organized by several socialist groups were shared on social media.
Alter sued over his termination, and a district court judge issued an injunction and ordered the school to reinstate him. However, the university decided to uphold his termination following a court-ordered due process hearing.
The university-wide curriculum review also comes at a time when several other Texas universities are cracking down on how their professors can teach gender identity in classrooms.
In September, Texas A&M University fired a children’s literature professor for discussing gender identity in class. Then, Texas A&M President Mark Welsh resigned after Republican lawmakers criticized him for not moving quickly enough to fire the professor.
The Texas Tech University system also ordered all faculty to refrain from discussions of gender identity—including transgender and nonbinary people—in the classroom. The system’s new policies remove all trans-related content from syllabi, prohibit the use of preferred names for students, strip pronouns from email signatures, and ban LGBTQ+ flags on campus.
The University of Texas, Texas Woman’s University, and the University of North Texas have followed suit, ordering course reviews related to gender studies, according to The Texas Tribune.
Additionally, President Donald Trump has asked nine universities, including the University of Texas, to sign a “compact” that pledges loyalty to his conservative agenda in exchange for better access to federal funding.
“Texas higher ed is lurching through a turbulent stretch,” the Texas American Federation of Teachers said in a statement. “Each development lands differently, but together they point to the same through-line: shrinking space for shared governance and academic freedom, with ripple effects for campus climate, instruction, and student well-being.”
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