Faculty, advocacy groups fear Texas A&M firing threatens academic freedom

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On Sept. 8, a viral video showing a student confronting a Texas A&M University professor over gender identity content in a children’s literature course sparked backlash that escalated to the highest tiers of state government.

State Rep. Brian Harrison, a Midlothian Republican and Texas A&M alum, called it “transgender and DEI indoctrination.”

Gov. Greg Abbott demanded her termination a day later.

Within hours of those calls, the dean and English department’s head were demoted and Melissa McCoul, the professor in question, fired. A&M's President Mark A. Welsh III, who backtracked on his initial defense of the professor, is also facing calls to resign.

“It’s one of the most chilling stories I’ve seen in recent years,” said Jonathan Friedman, the Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America.

McCoul didn’t violate any laws by discussing gender identity because Texas has yet to pass any such restrictions in higher education. Instead, for faculty members and civil rights groups, the latest controversy signals the rapid unraveling of academic freedom at one of the largest campuses in Texas and the country.

It also came just over two years after Texas A&M reiterated its commitment for the principle, including a vow by Welsh to defend faculty’s right to present what they reasonably view as necessary and effective information in the classroom.

Then, a day following McCoul’s termination, Texas State University fired a professor after he was accused of inciting violence while speaking at a socialism conference as captured in a video circulated on X.

The American Association of University Professors has called for the reinstatement of both professors, saying their firings “set a dangerous new precedent for partisan interference in Texas higher education.” Texas State’s spokesperson Sandy Pantlik said Thursday that the university has nothing additional to share beyond President Kelly Damphousse’s original statement. Texas A&M declined to respond to several questions from The Texas Tribune due to McCoul’s pending appeal.

But some like Neal Hutchens, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s College of Education, were also not entirely surprised by what unfolded over the past week.

Higher education in Texas has shifted rapidly in recent years, as it is seeing more chancellors with political experience instead of backgrounds in academia and facing crackdowns on what lawmakers view as left-wing ideology. These measures have particularly been bolstered by Senate Bill 17 from 2023, which bans diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs, as well as this year’s Senate Bill 37, which gives political appointees more oversight power while diminishes faculty’s influence.

Hutchens said situations like the Texas A&M case — which has garnered the most attention from top state Republicans — are likely to happen again, if officials don’t change course. They could even have a ripple effect on other states.

“Texas is a prominent state,” Hutchens said. “Around the country, for people who work in public colleges and universities and in red states, we’re watching to think about what may happen at our own institutions.”

Fired professor alleges constitutional violations

In his announcement, Welsh said McCoul’s firing was about academic responsibility and not academic freedom. Her backers disagree.

Amanda Reichek, McCoul’s attorney, said the notice of termination alleges that the professor had failed to change her course content after being told on “numerous occasions" to do so to “align with the catalog description and the course description that was originally submitted and approved.” Reichek disputed the university's reason for the termination in a statement to the Tribune, saying McCoul has taught the course “for many years, successfully and without challenge.”

“Instead, Dr. McCoul was fired in derogation of her constitutional rights and the academic freedom that was once the hallmark of higher education in Texas,” Reichek said.

In the United States, academic freedom — which is distinct from freedom of speech — has been identified by the country’s highest court as a “special concern” of the First Amendment, even as Hutchens said there are still some legal ambiguities. Along with tenure, academic freedom is meant to protect the independence of faculty’s scholarship.

Without academic freedom, he and other experts said faculty members would not be able to freely engage in scholarly research and academic debates, impeding the discovery of new ideas. Such self-censorship would also happen in the classrooms, making it harder for faculty members to effectively teach and challenge students intellectually.

“Academic freedom is not about telling students what they have to think or that they have to think a certain way,” Hutchens said. “It is about protecting the freedom to explore, to discuss, to engage in scholarly discourse and research.”

In addition, McCoul’s supporters said she didn’t break any laws by teaching about gender.

In the viral video, the student suggested to McCoul that it was illegal to teach about gender due to President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only male and female. But while executive orders can give agencies directives, they cannot create new federal laws, experts and civil rights groups said.

Meanwhile, in the governor’s post on X calling for the professor to be fired, Abbott said she had acted “in contrary to Texas law.” But it’s unclear which law he was referring to, since there is currently no law in the state that bans the teaching of LGBTQ issues in higher education.

McCoul has since appealed her termination and is exploring further legal action, Reichek said.

Abbott’s office didn’t respond to emailed requests seeking clarification about his post and asking for comment about the academic freedom concern.

Harrison, the Republican lawmaker, however called McCoul’s claim of constitutional violations “laughably absurd.”

“If Dr. McCoul has been teaching this extreme DEI and transgender indoctrination at Texas A&M for ‘many years’ then this scandal just got much worse, the problems more systemic, and the number of A&M officials who must be fired is increasing,” he said in a statement.

Academic freedom under scrutiny in recent years

Amid the fallout, some Texas A&M faculty members and rights groups are also concerned about the case’s broader implication for academic freedom.

“We are in uncharted water at this point,” said Leonard Bright, a full professor in the Bush School of Government and Public Service. He added that there was a mix of feelings among his colleagues, including anger and disappointment. “This is contributing to the confusion in the university and in our classrooms.”

Some LGBTQ students have also been too scared to come to class, according to a full professor in the English department.

McCoul’s case isn’t the first time in recent years that concerns about academic freedom have thrust the university into the spotlight.

In 2023, Texas A&M recruited veteran journalist Kathleen McElroy with great fanfare to reboot its journalism school. But the effort failed that summer after the university backtracked due to backlash about the Black journalist’s tenure at The New York Times and her research on race and journalism. Welsh’s predecessor, M. Katherine Banks, resigned as a result.

Around the same time, the university also temporarily suspended professor Joy Alonzo, an opioid expert, after she was accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in a lecture about the opioid crisis.

So when Welsh came in as the interim leader, he quickly addressed the issue.

“Concerns around this topic cut right to the heart of what a university does,” he said in an August 2023 statement. “At Texas A&M, we embrace academic freedom.”

Now, the university’s stated support for the principle is once again under scrutiny.

“Where is that commitment actually shown? How is it protected?” Hutchens said. “If you operate where you only protect academic freedom as long as your senior leaders are happy, that’s not academic freedom. You have to be able to safeguard things that maybe don't make everybody completely happy.”

Texas’ changing higher education landscape

The controversy at Texas A&M also illustrates how political influence has overshadowed the state’s higher education, experts and faculty members said.

“You can’t separate what’s happening here from the political environment,” Friedman said.

Over the past few years, Texas Republicans have passed a slate of laws reshaping higher education such as SB 17 from 2023, which cracks down on DEI programs, and this year’s SB 37 that weakens faculty senates. Their backers said these measures are necessary to tackle what they see as universities’ liberal bias. The state Legislature also on Friday established committees to monitor the implementation of SB 37, on top of issuing reports on bias and freedom of speech on campuses, following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event he hosted at a Utah university.

Bright, a Texas A&M professor, particularly lamented the loss of a strong faculty senate, an elected governing body made up of professors that focuses on matters related to the academic mission such as faculty hiring and academic policies.

“We need an alternative body that is maybe not within the university, but still has the support of faculty that is strong enough to demand our administrators to answer and explain these kinds of decisions,” said Bright, who is also the exiting vice president representing East Texas for AAUP’s Texas chapter. “Because at this point, that is largely lacking.”

At the same time, there has been a succession of university systems in the state naming politicians as their leaders this year.

Texas A&M University System Chancellor Glenn Hegar was selected for the role in March, after serving for years in the state Legislature before being elected comptroller in 2014. In response to the current controversy, Hegar has extended the audit of course offerings from the flagship campus to the entire university system.

And even before last week, many professors in Texas have already been thinking about leaving the state due to its political climate, according to a recent survey by the AAUP. Some said they have already self-censored.

Now, with the heightened concern around academic freedom, Hutchens said he expects that a certain level of self-censorship by professors is likely to continue.

Others, however, said they needed to double down on the academic mission.

“We’re going to teach the truth,” Bright said. “We don’t know what the consequences of that may be in terms of our own professional careers. But we do know that if we were to censor the truth … that’s going to damage our society. That’s going to damage our students. That’s going to lower trust in the things that we do.”

Disclosure: New York Times, Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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