As students return to colleges and universities across the state, questions remain regarding discussions of gender and race on Texas campuses.
At Texas Tech University, system chancellor Brandon Creighton released a memorandum in December, outlining the standards for the inclusion of race, gender, and sexuality in course materials.
The memorandum also provided the review process for course content, going through the faculty member's department chair, dean, and provost.
In an interview with NBC DFW last week, Creighton said the intentions of the guidelines are to determine if course curriculum is "necessary or required for a degree of value, for a license, or for a credential."
Creighton told NBC that those interested in teaching or learning gender studies should not go to Texas Tech.
Shortly after Creighton issued his Dec. 1 memorandum, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression – or FIRE – sent letters to the president of each campus in the Texas Tech University System, requesting that they not restrict academic freedom in accordance with the memorandum.
FIRE requested a response from university presidents by Dec. 18.
The author of the letters is Graham Piro, with FIRE's Campus Rights Advocacy team. He told KTTZ that the organization did hear back from the university system, defending its actions.
"They disagreed with some of our assertions," Piro said. "Basically said that they were going to stay the course."
Piro said that for the leader of a public university system to discourage people interested in a certain topic from attending that institution could "lead down a really, really dark path for education, just starting to target disfavored ideas."
He stressed the importance of protecting viewpoint neutrality in free speech conversations.
"Because once you open the door to targeting specific ideas, it becomes a sheer power struggle and power contest," he explained. "And I would warn any advocates of that sort of approach. What happens if a person who you disagree with gets the same sort of authority and they start targeting classes or ideas that they don't want taught?"
Furthermore, Piro said this kind of approach does a disservice to students and their quality of education.
While FIRE is not currently pursuing a lawsuit against the Texas Tech system, Piro said it "will keep all options open," continue to support the First Amendment rights of faculty and students, and advocate to expose First Amendment violations.
"I think you're seeing in Texas A&M's university system the sort of chaotic impact of how this can cause classes to be canceled, can cause materials to be pulled from classes left and right," Piro warned. "So I think we are definitely still in the process of determining the best route forward, but we still urge faculty members who feel as if their course material is being affected by this to reach out to us."
Last week, Texas A&M University faculty were told that about 200 courses in its College of Arts and Sciences could be affected by a policy similar to Texas Tech's regarding the teaching of race, gender, and sexual orientation.
Passed in November, that policy requires campus presidents to approve courses covering those topics.
According to the Texas Tribune, before the semester began, Texas A&M administrators have canceled classes, had classes removed from core credit, and directed professors to change course content.
Outside of the classroom, the A&M system is at the center of a different gender and sexuality controversy in public universities.
Jan. 14 marks the beginning of yet another hearing in the ongoing dispute over a drag show ban at West Texas A&M.
The lawsuit against West Texas A&M was filed in 2023, when WTAMU president Walter Wendler canceled an on campus drag show organized by a student organization.
With representation from FIRE, students with the organization have challenged the cancellation as a violation of their freedom of expression.
A little more than a week after the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas begins its proceedings, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be rehearing the same case.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the enforcement of the ban in August 2025, but that decision was vacated and the court is set for a rehearing on Jan. 23.
Concurrent with litigation against WTAMU, the A&M system's board of regents instated a new policy banning drag performances on all of its campuses, which was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in March 2025.
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