Texas A&M University announced Friday that it is eliminating its women’s and gender studies degree program.
University leaders made the announcement alongside the results of a campuswide course review launched after a video of a student confronting a professor over gender identity content went viral last fall and sparked political backlash.
Interim President Tommy Williams made the decision because of low enrollment and cost, College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Simon North and Senior Executive Associate Cynthia Werner said in an email to faculty obtained by The Texas Tribune.
“We know this is devastating news,” the administrators said. “One of the primary duties of university administrators is to be good stewards of public money. Even the smallest programs require ongoing investment in faculty time, staff support, and administrative oversight.”
Texas A&M offered a bachelor of arts degree, a bachelor of science degree, an undergraduate minor and a graduate certificate in women’s and gender studies. The program has 25 students seeking a major and 31 seeking a minor. Students already enrolled will be allowed to complete their programs over the next six semesters, but no new students will be accepted.
Women’s and gender studies at Texas A&M is an interdisciplinary program rather than an academic department and does not have tenure-line faculty, relying instead on professors from other departments to teach its courses.
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti, an associate professor of sociology who has long taught in the women’s and gender studies program, said it served as one of the few spaces on campus bringing students and faculty together from across disciplines. She said she met an English professor through the program, a connection that eventually led to a book they wrote on the #MeToo movement.
She said she taught a feminist theory graduate seminar last spring that enrolled 15 students from multiple departments, an unusually high number for a graduate course.
Lakkimsetti said she was saddened the program would no longer exist as a space for that kind of collaboration.
“We have to keep fighting and standing up for our students’ right to have an education that is critical for the times they live in,” she said.
After last fall’s controversy, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents passed a policy restricting how race and gender could be discussed in class and ordered a sweeping review of course offerings. Specifically, faculty may not advocate “race or gender ideology” or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity unless a campus president grants a written exception for certain non-core or graduate-level courses that serve a necessary or educational purpose. System officials have not defined what qualifies as a necessary educational purpose.
University officials said Friday they examined 5,400 course syllabi for the spring semester and canceled six courses, or about 0.11 percent of courses offered. Officials said academic advisers ensured the cancellations did not disrupt students’ progress toward graduation.
Faculty leaders disputed that framing. Leonard Bright, president of the Texas A&M chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the six-course figure reflects only the most visible outcomes of the review and understates its impact.
Bright, whose own ethics course was canceled earlier this month under the same policy, said many faculty changed syllabi or removed material to avoid scrutiny.
“The cancellations and the exemptions are just the tip of the iceberg,” Bright said.
The university confirmed that the six-course total announced Friday does not include courses that faculty revised or altered earlier in the review process.
The Tribune previously reported that North told faculty that roughly 200 courses in the College of Arts and Sciences had been identified as potentially affected by the policy, with some classes canceled, renumbered or altered before the spring semester began.
The canceled courses the university announced Friday were spread across the Bush School of Government and Public Service and the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Education and Human Development.
The university later identified canceled courses as Introduction to Race and Ethnicity; Religions of the World; Ethics in Public Policy; Diversity in Sport Organizations; Cultural Leadership and Exploration for Society; and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Youth Development Organizations. All six were undergraduate courses.
Officials said the bulk of the course content review was performed by faculty and their department heads, who altered hundreds of syllabi. Deans forwarded 54 courses to the president and provost for final review. The president granted 48 exceptions.
Texas A&M has made similar cuts in recent years. In 2024, regents voted to eliminate dozens of low-enrollment minors and certificates, including an LGBTQ+ studies minor, a decision faculty said was made in response to conservative criticism and with limited faculty input.
Regents are expected to hear a presentation Thursday on low-performing academic programs across the system’s 12 campuses, according to an agenda for its quarterly meeting.
PEN America, a national advocate for freedom of expression, criticized the decision Friday, saying Texas A&M is “running roughshod over academic freedom.”
“Forcing faculty to restrict what they teach censors the knowledge accessible to students,” said Amy Reid, program director for Freedom to Learn at PEN America. “Limiting what can be taught in a university classroom is not education, it’s ideological control.”
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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