(NEW YORK)–PEN America today is leading a delegation of nationally renowned writers to Texas A&M University in defense of academic freedom and free expression on campus. The delegation comes as PEN America and 36 partner organizations sent a joint letter to the Texas A&M System’s Board of Regents urging them to rescind two policies that have led to widespread censorship of course content, cancellation of classes, and the closure of the university’s Women’s & Gender Studies program.
The delegation, composed of acclaimed authors Jennifer Finney Boylan, George Packer, Sandra Cisneros and Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, are meeting with faculty, students and administrators over two days, and participating in a public event, “Free Expression and Academic Freedom: Where Do You Stand?” at noon in Rudder Tower Room 601 on campus. The panel will focus on fostering open discourse in higher education amid growing state-level restrictions on teaching about race, gender and identity.
The discussion is moderated by Jonathan Friedman, PEN America’s Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expressions Programs, with participation from Graham Piro, Faculty Legal Defense Fund fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). The event is open to the media and the university community.
“The essence of universities is the freedom to think, to facilitate open inquiry and engage with the ideas of others,” said Friedman. “When universities restrict what faculty can teach and students can learn, they put that in jeopardy, undermining academic freedom, and the core purpose of education itself.”
The delegation was organized in response to actions by Texas A&M taken since last fall, including the removal of material related to race and gender from hundreds of courses, the prohibition on teaching Plato in a philosophy course, the cancellation of several classes, and recently announced plans to shutter the Women’s & Gender Studies Program. These actions followed revisions to university system policies passed in fall 2025 that prohibit courses from “advocating race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity, absent special approval, and sharply limit faculty flexibility in teaching beyond approved syllabi.
The February 10 letter to the Board of Regents warns that these policies represent “an unacceptable incursion on the principles of academic freedom that form the well-established bedrock of American universities.” The letter was signed by a broad group of organizational partners including the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), FIRE, American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association, Modern Language Association, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
“Censorship undermines the quality of education that faculty can offer students,” the letter notes, calling on the Regents to rescind the revised policies and reaffirm their obligation to protect open inquiry across the Texas A&M system.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Malka Margolies, [email protected], 718-530-3582