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On Thursday, Texas A&M University adopted a new policy requiring all courses on race and gender to be preapproved by university presidents. Houston Public Media's Kyle McClenagan says that faculty and education rights advocates equate the policy to academic censorship.
KYLE MCCLENAGAN, BYLINE: The new policy will apply to at least 200 courses across the system's 12 Texas campuses. Joan Wolf is a sociology professor at Texas A&M's flagship campus in College Station. She spoke against the new rule before the system's board.
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JOAN WOLF: My job is not to teach you what to think. I tell students, if you leave more confused than when you came in, I've done my job. I want them to be uncomfortable in their certainty. That's what education is.
MCCLENAGAN: Under the new policy, faculty can be put on leave or dismissed if they stray from the approved course syllabus. Each campus president has oversight authority over the material taught in classrooms. The new policy comes two months after the Texas A&M campus president resigned following a controversy over a gender-related lesson that became a flashpoint online.
Robert Shibley, special counsel for the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, a national organization that advocates for free speech and education, says this policy risks stifling academic freedom.
ROBERT SHIBLEY: That would subject, I mean, dozens or potentially hundreds of courses to the veto of high-level administrators.
MCCLENAGAN: James Hallmark, the vice chancellor for academic affairs for the Texas A&M system, says the policy is not intended to interfere with what's being taught and discussed in classrooms.
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JAMES HALLMARK: This does not diminish academic freedom. It reinforces the balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility.
MCCLENAGAN: During the board meeting, Professor Adam Kolasinski said he agreed with the policy.
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ADAM KOLASINSKI: Many disciplines have been so corrupted by intellectually vacuous and morally bankrupt ideologies.
MCCLENAGAN: But Shibley, representing FIRE, says policies like this could threaten the First Amendment rights of faculty members.
SHIBLEY: These sort of vague and overbroad policies invite the kind of abuses to the extent that they're basically inevitable.
MCCLENAGAN: The policy goes into effect immediately, but the board said it will not be enforced until the spring semester.
For NPR News, I'm Kyle McClenagan in Houston. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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