Texas A&M Board of Regents – Race and Gender Ideology Policy

On November 13, 2025, the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M University System unanimously approved two system-wide policies restricting how faculty may teach topics related to race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The first policy bars courses from advocating “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” unless the course and all instructional materials receive prior approval from the campus president or a designated official. The second policy amended faculty academic-freedom and tenure rules to require that instructors not teach material inconsistent with an approved course syllabus. Both policies took effect immediately, with enforcement beginning in the spring 2026 semester.

The policies define “race ideology” as instruction that attempts to shame a race or ethnicity or promotes activism rather than academic study, and “gender ideology” as concepts of self-assessed gender identity disconnected from biological sex. Regents said the changes were intended to ensure faculty educate rather than advocate and to align instruction with approved course outcomes. The action followed controversy earlier in 2025 after a student secretly recorded a professor discussing gender identity in a children’s literature course, prompting administrative review and political scrutiny.

In the weeks after the vote, faculty and students across campuses reacted while preparing for new syllabus approval requirements. Faculty members submitted letters, spoke at regents’ meetings, and publicly debated the changes, with many objecting and some supporting them. Administrators warned that the approval requirement could affect a wide range of courses and would require scrutiny of any classroom discussion touching on race, gender, or sexual orientation.

In December 2025 and early January 2026, departments submitted syllabi for review. Administrators identified roughly 200 courses within the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M as potentially affected. Some courses were canceled, others were renumbered or removed from the core curriculum, and many were directed to revise or remove content addressing race, gender, or sexuality. A philosophy professor was instructed to remove course units addressing race and gender ideology — including readings from Plato on love, gender, and human nature — or face reassignment. The instructor ultimately replaced the material with units on free speech and academic freedom. English faculty were advised not to teach works with major LGBTQ+ plotlines in core courses unless those themes were not central to assignments or discussion. A history-of-film course was directed to remove units on feminism and queer cinema and later reappeared as a non-core special-topics offering. Later guidance allowed textbook chapters on transgender identity to remain so long as they were not discussed in class or tested.

Several introductory and core curriculum courses were canceled or reclassified after administrators concluded they could not comply with the new rules. Faculty were told that classroom discussions of race, gender, or sexuality must match syllabus language approved in advance. Graduate and specialized courses could seek exceptions, though approvals were reportedly limited to cases where the material was deemed academically necessary.

By early February 2026, implementation of the policies led to the termination of the university’s Women’s and Gender Studies degree program, with current students allowed to complete their studies but new enrollments halted. On February 4, 2026, former lecturer Melissa McCoul filed a federal lawsuit alleging that her termination violated her First Amendment and academic-freedom rights. The complaint states she was dismissed after teaching a lesson on gender identity that later drew public criticism and that she had not violated university policy.