Texas Republicans criticize the program as ‘liberal indoctrination’
Texas A&M University is discontinuing its LGBTQ+ minor due to low enrollment, following criticism of the program from Republican lawmakers over what they called “liberal indoctrination.”
The Battalion, the school’s student newspaper, reported last week that the university is cutting 14 minors and 38 certificates following an internal review that deemed them “low-producing” programs.
The university slashed programs that awarded “fewer than five degrees per academic year and fewer than 25 degrees in five years.”
The description of the LGBTQ+ minor on the school’s website states that it “prepares students to examine the ways in which gender and sexuality are socially constructed and offers a critical understanding [of] how sexuality and sexual orientation shape gender roles, identities, and social statuses in societies.”
The minor “also examines homophobia and transphobia’s relationship to racism, colonialism, sexism, ableism, classism and other forms of power,” the description states.
“After months of calling for A&M to end this absurd program, I was pleased to learn…they plan to end it. Proud to have helped deliver this victory for Texas taxpayers, who should never be forced to fund liberal indoctrination,” Texas Representative Brian Harrison wrote in a post on X.
“I look forward to further discussions with A&M and will continue fighting to keep taxpayers from funding leftist propaganda that does nothing to strengthen our economy or the workforce of tomorrow,” he told the Daily Caller.
Harrison (pictured) called for the school to discontinue the minor in March to “protect [his] constituents’ tax dollars, as well as the integrity of Texas A&M,” the Battalion reported.
“I asked them to discontinue this minor or provide to me in writing a justification for this minor to be continued. The most charitable way to characterize the response is as a ‘non-response,'” Harrison told the Daily Caller.
Texas Representative Chip Roy also called for the school to be “held accountable” for pushing “radical woke policies” earlier this year.
In contrast, Texas A&M Sociology Professor Mary Campbell said that removing the minor would negatively impact students opportunities and academic freedom.
“The minor is a legitimate area of study that you should be able to study at A&M,” Campbell said.
“If we want to be a high-quality university, that’s how we do it: by providing those opportunities to students,” she said.
“I think we should work very hard to protect academic freedom, the freedom to study any legitimate area of study, which this minor absolutely is,” the professor said.
The school also discontinued the Asian Studies minor, along with certificates in “Diversity and Social Justice,” “Popular Culture,” and “Performing Social Activism,” the student newspaper reported.
However, “courses associated with the deactivated programs will be unaffected,” according to the Battalion.
The full list of deactivated minors and certificates will not be public until Oct. 14 when it “appears before the Faculty Senate.”
MORE: U. Arizona accused of soliciting minors for LGBTQ+ program
IMAGE: Brian Harrison/Youtube
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