BY AAUP STAFF

Following the extreme and widespread censorship of curriculum and courses at Texas A&M University, both the university’s local chapter (AAUP–Texas A&M) and the national AAUP have started the new year with a rigorous defense of academic freedom in the Lone Star State. Initial outcries centered on the censoring of over 200 undergraduate core courses that included teachings on race and gender went so far as to censor the teachings of Plato and other ancient thinkers, a decision AAUP President Todd Wolfson noted as “an academic absurdity and a textbook violation of academic freedom.”

This pattern of censorship has only escalated through the month of January, and both AAUP–Texas A&M and the national AAUP have stayed vigilant in protesting the infringement of students’ right to learn and faculty’s right to teach. AAUP–Texas A&M President Leonard Bright had a class of his own canceled on the grounds of proposed course content, and spoke to a rally held on January 29 in College Station denouncing the restrictive policies and the damaging effects of such stringent rules:

“We are being asked to predict the future of our classroom discussions. To sanitize our lessons in advance and do so under threat of losing our jobs. That demand is not serious. It is incompatible with serious teaching.”

With the recent news that Texas A&M has ended its programs in women and gender studies and the subsequent doubling down on content that deals with race, gender, and sexuality, it is clear that this is a situation far from settled, and will require robust defense on both the chapter and national level. The support shown at the January 29 rally should serve as inspiration and motivation to continue the fight for academic freedom and the rights of both students and faculty to pursue education unfettered, without overreach by partisan administrators on the basis of political agendas.

Photos provided by AAUP–Texas A&M and AAUP national staff.