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The Texas Tech University system on Friday announced a thorough review of all educational materials and practices to ensure full compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only male and female sexes. The compliance came in a form of a letter circulated Friday from its chancellor that directed faculty and staff adhere to “state and federal law” on the recognition of only two “human sexes.” The memo from Chancellor Tedd I. Mitchell stated: The Texas Tech University System and each of our universities are required to comply with both state and federal law, executive orders, and directives issued by the President of the United States and the Governor of Texas. As a public university system, our adherence to these requirements is fundamental to our responsibilities as stewards of public trust. Current state and federal law recognize only two human sexes: male and female, as outlined in House Bill 229, Governor’s Letter, and Executive Order. Therefore, while recognizing the First Amendment rights of employees in their personal capacity, faculty must comply with these laws in the instruction of students, within the course and scope of their employment. The Texas Tech System, based in Lubbock, has five schools and serves around 64,000 students. The president of each of the system’s schools must review and adjust course materials, curricula, syllabi, and other instructional documents, according to the letter. Elsewhere in the education system Trump’s executive order has run into administrative and legal challenges. Other universities and community colleges have been exploring similar directives, the New York Times reported. But other than Texas Tech, none have put their guidance into writing. In Mississippi, the legislature passed a law banning the promotion of “transgender ideology,” but a federal judge put its implementation on hold. Also, on Friday, 16 Democrat-led states along with the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in Oregon to block the Trump administration from demanding the states remove all references to gender ideology from sex education — or face the loss of federal grant funding. Faculty and advocates are not happy about the Texas Tech memo. “I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” one professor in the Texas Tech system told the Times. He asked not to be identified out of fear of reprisal. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.” Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told the Dallas Morning News the guidance was “censorship” and that teaching about gender theories was protected by the First Amendment. “At Texas Tech universities, you can debate and discuss these issues anywhere other than a university classroom,” he said. “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.” Brian Evans, the president of the Texas conference of the American Association of University Professors, said the directive would impair dialogue with students. “On a banned topic, the instructor cannot lead a discussion,” he told the Times. “They’d either have to be silent, or leave the room, or redirect the conversation to another topic. This is crazy.” There’s some question as to the reach of the chancellor’s directive and the laws cited in it. According to the Times report: Republicans in the Texas Legislature have pushed for greater limits on the instruction at state-funded universities. But the State Legislature has so far stopped short of trying to outlaw instruction that includes discussion of transgender people or other gender topics. An effort to constrain classroom discussions of race, gender and sexuality in universities failed during the last legislative session. Also, the Dallas Morning News reported, “There is no state law that explicitly bans teaching or discussion of race, gender identity, and sexual orientation in Texas’ public universities.” “There’s a lot of questions that are simply not answered, that the president and provost intend to answer about what faculty are expected to do,” Andrew Martin, a longtime professor of art at Texas Tech told the Times. “As it stands right now, we are not being told to change our teaching.” Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more
