Dive Brief:
- Texas Tech University System has ordered its institutions to conform their classroom instruction to a January executive order from President Donald Trump that directs the federal government to only recognize two sexes.
- In a Thursday memo, public system Chancellor Tedd Mitchell told leaders of Texas Tech's five universities — two of which focus on medical education — to review "course materials, curricula, syllabi, and other instructional documents" to ensure they comply with federal and state "compliance obligations" and recognize only a male-female binary.
- Mitchell's directive garnered prompt backlash from free speech advocates. Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, on Friday called the order "obvious censorship that has no place in the United States."
Dive Insight:
Trump signed the executive order on the first day of his second term. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed Trump's position the following week, directing state officials to comply “with the law” and “biological reality.”
The sexual binary espoused in both Trump and Abbott's directives run contrary to decades of research from the scientific and medical communities, and neither directive represents a legislative change.
The chancellor also cited a new Texas law, HB 229, that strictly defines "male" and "female" as biological determinants based on reproductive systems. It does not offer an alternative to the male-female designations for intersex individuals. But the four-page law, which took effect in September, does not address academic instruction.
Civil rights and LGBTQ+ groups like Equality Texas and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas disavowed the legislation as a means of erasing the tens of thousands of transgender and intersex people living in the state.
Mitchell on Thursday said Texas Tech's "adherence to these requirements is fundamental to our responsibilities as stewards of public trust."
He said the university system will continue to monitor this "developing area of law" and told faculty with questions to reach out to their deans and provosts.
"I recognize that members of our community may hold differing personal views on these matters," he told campus leaders. "Regardless, in your role as a state employee, compliance with the law is required, and I trust in your professionalism to carry out these responsibilities in a manner that reflects well on our universities."
Steinbaugh decried Mitchell's order as an overstep that would stymie free expression and inquiry at Texas Tech institutions.
“Matters of sex and gender are among the most-discussed social and political issues in our country. But at Texas Tech universities, you can debate and discuss these issues anywhere other than a university classroom," he said in a statement. "That’s the one place where the exchange of ideas should be most free. The First Amendment protects that exchange of ideas and no president’s directive, governor’s diktat, or chancellor’s command can override the Constitution."
Mitchell's edict comes a couple of weeks after political furor over classroom instruction at Texas A&M University ended with its president stepping down.
Earlier this month, a conservative state lawmaker shared a video of a Texas A&M professor teaching about gender identity and, joined by Abbott, called for the instructor to be fired.
Texas A&M President Mark Welsh quickly complied, but he ultimately stepped down amid the public maelstrom.
Mitchell in July announced his plans to retire within the year. Republican state Sen. Brandon Creighton — who authored the legislation banning most diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at Texas colleges — has been named the sole finalist for the chancellorship. The system's regents are set to approve his appointment on Tuesday.
Texas Tech also made news earlier this month when its flagship expelled a student for allegedly taunting mourners at a memorial for conservative activist Charlie Kirk and hitting another student on the head. "Any behavior that denigrates victims of violence is reprehensible, has no place on our campus, and does not align with our values," the university said in a statement.
