On February 10, 2026, PEN America, joined by a broad group of 36 organizational partners, wrote to the Board of Regents of Texas A&M University to request that they rescind two policies, passed in fall 2025, that have resulted in the censorship of academic courses across the institution, and the announced closure of the University’s Women’s & Gender Studies Program.
The letter explains that these policies are not only a threat to academic freedom, but, put simply, that “Censorship undermines the quality of education that faculty can offer students.” As recent news reports are making clear, these policies are limiting students’ access to education, particularly when it comes to course content related to race, gender, and sexual orientation.
What follows is the content of that letter in full.
February 10, 2026
Dear Texas A&M University System Regents,
We, the undersigned organizations, are writing in defense of academic freedom to request that you rescind the recent changes to Policies 08.01 and 12.01 that have resulted in censorship of course content at Texas A&M, including the cancellation of certain classes and the announced closure of the University’s Women’s & Gender Studies Program. As stewards of the Texas A&M University System, the Regents have the obligation to uphold academic freedom and encourage, rather than stifle, open inquiry in and out of the classroom.
The revisions made in November and December 2025 to Policy 08.01, Civil Rights Protections and Compliance, prohibit academic courses from “advocating race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” The campus president may review and exempt “specific non-core curriculum or graduate courses in some disciplines” but only “in limited circumstances upon demonstration of a necessary educational purpose.” Revised Policy 12.01, Academic Freedom, Responsibility and Tenure, prohibits faculty from teaching “material that is inconsistent with the approved syllabus for the course,” with no allowance for flexibility.
These policies limit students’ access to course content related to race, gender, and sexual orientation, and constrain professors’ ability to teach effectively by prohibiting instruction responsive to class discussions or current events. National organizations – including PEN America, the AAUP, and FIRE – joined the Texas AAUP-AFT, the Texas AFT, and local stakeholders in raising concerns about the chilling effect of these policies.
Unfortunately, a wave of content restrictions and mandated syllabus revisions has since swept across the Texas A&M System. Courses have been cancelled, including a graduate course on Ethics in Public Policy that was cancelled after the start of the semester. In addition to the forced removal of Plato’s Symposium from the syllabus of a philosophy class on Contemporary Moral Problems, university officials reported that hundreds of syllabi were altered to remove
content related to race, gender, and sexual orientation. An interdisciplinary program in Women’s & Gender Studies that serves both undergraduate and graduate students is now slated for closure.
The extent of the impact of these policies is still coming to light, but already, they are an unacceptable incursion on the principles of academic freedom that form the well-established bedrock of American universities. Censorship undermines the quality of education that faculty can offer students.
Aggies – students past, present, and future – deserve better.
Robust commitments to academic freedom ensure faculty can teach freely and without fear of retaliation in their areas of expertise, including on topics related to race, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We call on you to rescind the recent changes to Policy 08.01 and Policy 12.01 and to uphold the proud traditions of academic freedom so that Texas A&M students are able to pursue an education free from government censorship.
Signed,
- PEN America
- Alliance for Higher Education
- American Anthropological Association
- American Association for Italian Studies
- American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
- American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
- American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
- Texas AFT
- Texas AAUP-AFT
- Texas A&M University–College Station AAUP Chapter
- Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi AAUP Chapter
- Texas A&M University–San Antonio AAUP Chapter
- West Texas A&M University AAUP Chapter
- East Texas A&M University AAUP Chapter
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas
- American Council of Learned Societies
- American Educational Research Association
- Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
- American Historical Association
- American Library Association
- American Philosophical Association
- American Sociological Association
- Black Brown Dialogues on Policy
- College Art Association
- EveryLibrary Institute NFP
- Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
- Modern Language Association
- National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education
- National Coalition Against Censorship
- National Council on Public History
- National Women’s Studies Association
- Organization of American Historians
- Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT)
- Samara Consulting
- Scholars at Risk Network
- Spitfire Strategies
- Texas Freedom to Read Project
