The University of Texas at Austin is restructuring seven ethnic and gender studies departments into two new departments, causing concern among students and faculty.
The decision was first announced by the dean of the College of Liberal Arts in a 30-minute meeting with department chairs on Thursday. The changes are likely to be finalized by September 2027, faculty from the departments said in a written statement. A university spokesperson said there's no official timeline for the consolidation.
In a message to the UT community sent afterward, President Jim Davis said the departments of African and African Diaspora Studies; American Studies; Mexican American and Latina/o Studies; and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies will be consolidated into a new Department of Social and Cultural Analysis. The departments of French and Italian; Germanic Studies; and Slavic and Eurasian Studies will also be consolidated into the Department of European and Eurasian Studies.
Davis said curriculums will be reviewed to determine what majors, minors and courses will be offered. He said students currently enrolled in the affected departments can continue pursuing their degrees as the changes are implemented.
Faculty members said they were not given specifics at the meeting on Thursday on what the review of curriculums would entail. It is also unclear how the consolidation of these departments will affect institutes, research centers or staffing.
Davis said these changes come after an evaluation of the college revealed fragmentation across departments. He also said the restructuring of the college would allow students to have access to a "balanced and challenging educational experience."
Karma Chávez, a professor in the Mexican American and Latina/o Studies department, says the consolidation will take staff's attention away from students for the next couple of years while they figure out the new governance structures of the college. She said it could also have implications on what faculty teach.
"In one way, it already is sort of an encroachment on our academic freedom," she said. "It's also potentially going to be a threat if, from the top down in these curriculum reviews, certain classes are unable to be taught even though they're based in research and in a faculty member's area of expertise. So I think the implications on academic freedom are quite grave."
In the written statement, faculty said "these changes have been rushed through with minimal weigh-in from faculty and no input at all from staff or students." The group said more than 800 students would be affected by these changes.
Alfredo Campos, a first-year student majoring in government with a minor in Mexican American and Latina/o studies, said he initially viewed UT as a longstanding institution, but during his first semester the rumors of consolidation were disconcerting.
"You expect some stability," he said.
Campos said students were left in the dark about the process and had not heard about the consolidation from university officials until Thursday. He said he still doesn't understand what it means for his degree or the classes he's interested in taking.
"I was not expecting this coming into UT," he said.
Faculty, staff and students have worried for months about a potential consolidation after the UT System began auditing courses related to gender studies in October.
That same month, UT Austin created the Advisory Committee on Administrative Structure to consider modifying the structure of the liberal arts college. Daniel Brink, the college's associate dean for academic affairs, announced the creation of the committee and potential "loss of autonomy for small units" but did not provide further details at the time.
Chávez said most of the affected departments were born out of student and community demands for the curriculum to reflect their lives. She said impacts of these changes will be felt in communities in Austin and across the state, especially with other universities leaning in the same direction.
"We're seeing a nationwide trend in attacks on ethnic and gender studies and attacks on American studies departments that those on the political right view as providing a view of both history and contemporary society that they don't like, because it provides an analysis of this work specifically around issues like race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity," she said.
Campos said he worries that UT administrators will continue pushing for "conservatism" at the university.
"I plan on staying and advocating because we are the flagship school of Texas. We are the example for the rest of Texas, and we set up precedent," he said. "So it's my imperative and it should be imperative of the rest of the student body to resist these kinds of policies."
The decision comes at a time when Texas universities are making changes related to their sex and gender curriculums and resources. In January, Texas A&M University eliminated its women and gender studies degree program. In December, the Texas Tech University System banned professors from promoting race or sex-based "prejudice" or mentioning the existence of more than two genders. Additionally, the University of Houston replaced its longtime women and gender resource center with a parent and family office at the start of the spring semester.
KUT News reached out to UT Austin for comment. A spokesperson pointed to Davis' statement to the community.
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