Texas A&M votes to restrict gender, race ideology in classroom after ‘Gender Unicorn’ outcry

The Texas A&M University System approved policies Thursday aimed at keeping race and gender ideology out of the classroom, clamping down after an uproar spurred by a lecturer caught teaching the “Gender Unicorn” in a children’s literature course.

The Board of Regents voted unanimously to pass a ban on classes that “advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity,” unless the course and relevant materials receive advance approval by the college administration.

The board also passed a companion proposal clarifying that faculty may not teach material “inconsistent with the approved syllabus for the course.”

The measures were introduced after lecturer Melissa McCoul was fired in September after an undercover video showed her booting a student who challenged her for teaching the “Gender Unicorn,” an infographic that promotes the idea that there are multiple genders.

The undercover video went viral after it was posted online Sept. 8 by Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison, ultimately leading to the resignation less than two weeks later of Texas A&M President Mark Welsh.

The changes also come with the Trump administration fighting to eliminate DEI and increase viewpoint diversity in higher education, in some cases pulling or threatening to pull federal funding from major universities.

At the board meeting, James Hallmark, the system’s vice chancellor for academic affairs, insisted that the changes would not introduce “new limitations on scholarly inquiry.” 

“This does not diminish academic freedom,” Mr. Hallmark said. “It reinforces the balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility.”

Even so, several faculty members raised objections to the proposals during the public comment period, arguing that the rules would hamper the ability to teach important material and shortchange students in the process.

“Your proposal restricts the experts from discussing bona fide facts, like history of slavery in America, the differences between gender and sex, and the importance that LGBTQ+ individuals be treated with dignity and respect,” said Leonard Bright, professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service.

 “These truths have shaped every academic field, from medicine, public policy, engineering, business and law,” he said. “Your proposal would rob students of their inherent right to learn, question and even understand these impacts.”

Many professors also called for Ms. McCoul to be reinstated. A faculty council found that the firing violated her academic freedom, according to the Texas Tribune.

“As someone now in my 12th year teaching at Texas A&M, I want to honor the wonderful students I’ve had the privilege to teach, most especially the queer Aggies, the trans Aggies, the nonbinary Aggies, and all other Aggies whose experiences these proposed changes threaten to erase,” said English associate professor Ira Dworkin.

On the other side was finance professor Adam Kolasinski, who said that “academic freedom does not mean you get to teach whatever you want. A geologist doesn’t get to teach that the earth is 3,000 years old.”

Some professors argued that faculty, not administrators, should be in charge of maintaining the integrity of the curriculum, “and in normal times, I would agree with them,” Mr. Kolasinski said.

“But today, many disciplines have been so corrupted by intellectually vacuous and morally bankrupt ideologies like what you’ve defined to be race ideology and gender ideology, ideologies masquerading as scholarship, that correction from the outside is necessary,” he said.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents unanimously voted to approve proposed policy revisions that restrict the discussion of gender and race ideology in the classroom at a regular meeting on Nov. 13.https://t.co/nOdFDJuyCO

— The Battalion (@TheBattOnline) November 14, 2025

The updates to the system’s Civil Rights Protections and Compliance policy also included definitions of gender ideology and race ideology, which drew pushback from faculty members.

Race ideology is defined as “a concept that attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity” or “accuse them of being oppressors in a racial hierarchy or conspiracy,” prompting one professor to say it would prevent her from teaching the Holocaust.

“If we look at the history of Germany from 1945 to this moment, a large part of German history is about accepting responsibility for the murder of 6 million European Jews,” said Miranda Sachs, assistant history professor. “It is official German policy that they are responsible, and yet the policy as written, the new revised policy, would in fact make it impossible for me in a classroom at A&M to teach this history.”

Mr. Kolasinski challenged her interpretation, saying, “I read the policy here. It’s saying you can’t scapegoat an entire ethnic group. You can’t say that people are somehow guilty for the crimes of their ancestors.”

“Well, I don’t know, if you’re teaching a class that all Germans today are somehow responsible for the Holocaust, I don’t think you should be able to teach that,” he said. “That’s morally repugnant, frankly.”

He also warned the board that nothing will change unless the university is prepared to replace deans and department heads who “look the other way” while the ideologically charged material is taught.

“You need a provost who’s willing to fire deans, you need deans that are willing to replace department heads, and you need department heads who are willing to review this stuff and correct it where it’s appropriate,” Mr. Kolasinski said. “Until you make those kinds of changes, nothing’s going to happen.”