Yesterday, Texas Tech students traded their “Guns Up” for “Heads Down” as they staged a literal funeral for academic freedom. Nothing says “I’m getting a world-class education” quite like a horse-drawn carriage hauling an urn and some censored books across campus while the Board of Regents watches from the safety of their tax-funded air conditioning.
The wake was a response to Chancellor Brandon Creighton and the Board of Regents deciding that “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” are apparently too spicy for the classroom. According to the university’s new “course oversight standards,” these are now “prohibited advocacy concepts.” Because, as we all know, the best way to prepare for the global workforce is to pretend large chunks of the human experience simply don’t exist until you accidentally bump into them at the 19th Street HEB.
Chancellor Creighton, performing a masterclass in West Texas gaslighting, claimed that diversity is “alive and well” because you can see people who look different while walking to your next sanctioned lecture. It’s a bold strategy: “We won’t let you study the nuances of modern society, but hey, look! A person! Diversity achieved!” He also argued that this censorship is exactly what CEOs want. Apparently, the “private sector” is clamoring for graduates who are specifically trained to have the intellectual flexibility of a dry mesquite branch.
The university bragged that “less than three percent” of courses had to be gutted to satisfy the new fun-police regulations. That’s a bit like a chef saying they only took the seasoning out of 3% of your steak—it still leaves the whole thing tasting like Lubbock tap water and disappointment. But don’t worry, the administration says they are still “supporting free expression,” which is easy to say when you’re the one holding the scissors.
If the goal was to make a Texas Tech degree as “rigorous and relevant” as a 1950s etiquette manual, congratulations, Red Raiders—you’ve officially graduated to the dark ages.
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