Updated on September 10, 2025
(NEW YORK)— Shortly after we issued this statement the president of Texas A&M University fired the faculty member.
“The precipitous firing of this professor on top of the removal of academic leaders makes clear that academic freedom in Texas is under direct attack. This is a dangerous turning point, with higher education being weaponized for political ends rather than being a forum for open and respectful exchange,” said Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America.
(NEW YORK) — Following a political firestorm over the content of a children’s literature course related to understandings of gender, the president of Texas A&M University yesterday announced the swift removal of a dean and department chair from their roles. The announcement came after much direct pressure from Republican state politicians, who have called for the professor, and even the university president, to be terminated.
“We are witnessing the death of academic freedom in Texas, the remaking of universities as tools of authoritarianism that suppress free thought,” said Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America. “The decision to remove these academic leaders to satisfy politicians’ demands is an excessive punishment for the alleged violation of transparency requirements. When university presidents have little choice but to dismiss faculty members’ expertise and enforce ideological edicts, the space for free speech and open inquiry on our campuses is undeniably being suffocated.”
The controversy began after Texas Representative Brian Harrison posted a thread with “hidden camera video and audio” of an upper-level English seminar on Literature for Children at Texas A&M. In one video, a student complains that a faculty member was “illegally” teaching about gender diversity (in alleged violation of an Executive Order from the Trump administration that decreed that there are only two sexes). In the thread, Rep. Harrison calls for Governor Abbott to fire university officials and for the Trump administration to investigate. Within hours, this led to the removal of a department chair and dean and even threats that the Justice Department would “look into” it. Governor Greg Abbott has since called for the professor’s termination as well.
“Unfortunately, this kind of direct bullying and intimidation of professors and university leaders is on the rise nationwide as a means to exert direct political control over college teaching,” Friedman continued. “Faculty at Texas A&M and across the state have been put on notice: they must not teach about any concepts politicians disfavor, because Big Brother is watching. Such a chilled climate is detrimental to students’ education and the very purpose of an institution of higher learning.
“President Walsh should reconsider and reverse course, reinstate the campus leaders he sidelined, and reassure all faculty that their ability to teach will not be sacrificed to political whims.”
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