The Texas Tech University System has decided it’s time to give “academic freedom” a makeover — specifically, by stapling it to a 12-step approval flowchart, routing it through a small army of administrators, and warning faculty they could be disciplined if they don’t play along. Tech’s new chancellor, Brandon Creighton, has imposed sweeping restrictions on how professors may discuss race, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The System insists this is about “clarity” and “consistency.” Faculty reading the memo apparently think it’s about censorship, political pressure, and maybe an early retirement.
The new rules ban professors from “promoting” concepts like systemic racism, unconscious bias, or the idea that meritocracy or work ethic might be shaped by oppression — but don’t worry, instructors are still free to “analyze or critique” these topics, assuming they can squeeze analysis into the few moments they’re not filling out paperwork to justify why their class dares to mention modern society. The memo spells out what counts as “promotion,” defining it as presenting certain ideas as correct or forcing students to affirm them. (‘Correct’ here means ‘not politically inconvenient.’)
The Tribune adds the bureaucratic garnish KCBD forgot to mention: every piece of material that touches on these restricted topics must now be submitted for approval, beginning with the department chair and climbing all the way to the Board of Regents. Whether content stays in a class depends on whether it is required for licensure or client care. If not, professors must beg permission from above — a process administrators vaguely claim will be “quick,” even though they have not actually figured out how to run it yet. And just to add some spice, the memo warns that noncompliance may result in disciplinary action. Because nothing motivates pedagogical excellence like the threat of HR.
The Texas Tribune also documents something KCBD and the Toreador didn’t: actual fallout. A longtime Tech professor, set to teach her final class before retiring, says she’s scrapping it entirely and drafting her resignation letter. She calls the memo “cunning” — seemingly reasonable at first glance, until you realize the practical result is letting political appointees decide what counts as acceptable history, sociology, or scientific reality. Another faculty leader says the process violates the First Amendment and harms marginalized students.
And then there’s the context: these restrictions follow months of panic across Texas campuses after a viral video involving a Texas A&M professor. Angelo State (also in the Tech System) quietly banned discussion of transgender identities. Tech issued directives forcing professors to remove gender-related terms from syllabi. Administrators posted contradictory guidance online, then hastily took it down. None of these state or federal rules actually required university instruction to be censored — early drafts of SB 37 included curriculum restrictions, but lawmakers removed them. Tech simply chose the most expansive, politically aligned interpretation possible.
So now, Tech joins a statewide parade of universities tripping over themselves to prove their loyalty to the new ideological center of gravity — but the Tribune points out that Tech has actually gone further than A&M, implementing a formal review process that ends with the Regents themselves, essentially putting academic judgment in the hands of political appointees. Other schools are telling faculty to scrub syllabi of “ideological language.” Tech is telling them to run a permission slip for anything that might offend a legislator with a Facebook account.
Meanwhile, the official press-release cheerleading from KCBD would have you believe this is all about “guardrails that protect academic excellence.” Which is an interesting way to describe a system that requires lawyers, administrators, and Regents to sign off before a professor can use a slide that mentions racism.
At this rate, the only truly “safe” course left at Tech might be Intro to Flowchart Navigation — assuming the Board of Regents approves the syllabus.
https://www.kcbd.com/2025/12/01/texas-tech-releases-course-content-oversight-review-standards/