Texas conservatives defend decision for DEI audit of UT system’s gender studies courses

A recently announced audit of the University of Texas System’s gender studies course has academic freedom advocates sounding the alarm and conservatives defending a broader agenda for accountability and reform under a recently passed anti-DEI law.

“It has been a priority for lawmakers in Texas to return our universities to their role as institutions of free speech, merit-based achievement and open inquiry and end the culture of ideological indoctrination that has proliferated on many campuses, dividing students by race and gender and stifling debate and free expression,” Texas Public Policy Foundation spokesperson Sherry Sylvester told The College Fix in an interview.

Senate Bill 37, signed into law last year, gave the Board of Regents oversight powers to review and approve the curricula and degree programs within the system, which enrolls some 260,000 students at academic and health institutions across the state.

Sylvester said SB 37 has “strong support from the majority of Texans in both political parties. The only place they are controversial is in the faculty lounge.” She argued its opponents are just upset that the law empowers regents at universities over faculty. 

“SB 37 ends the hegemony of faculty groups who have insisted that academics — often with little or no experience outside the ivory tower — should determine the course of study for Texas students.” 

As the system conducts its review, Sylvester said “the question that must be asked of each course offered in the catalog is: ‘Will it lead to a degree of value for the student who takes it?’”

Sylvester said that during the debate over Senate Bill 37, “a cursory review of the course catalog at the University of Texas at Austin revealed over 400 courses with the word ‘gender’ in the title.”

“By comparison,” she added, fewer than “20 courses had the words Constitution or Lincoln in the title. Fewer than a dozen students actually major [in] ‘gender studies’ so it needs to be determined why so many courses in so many areas of study included a ‘gender’ focus.”

According to a conservative watchdog Substack based in Texas, one of the courses currently offered at UT-Austin includes “Contemporary Feminist and Queer East Asian Literature,” part of the core curriculum at the school. Students may choose the class, which the blog claims examines “critical and queer theories with neo-Marxist roots,” to fulfill their first-year signature course requirement.

“Twenty years ago, core courses focused on classics, not this niche DEI content, risking early ideological shaping,” according to the Woke Cult University Substack.

A UT-Austin media representative did not respond to The College Fix’s requests for comment asking about the audit at the state’s flagship campus or the survey. 

A statement given to the Austin American-Statesman said: “The U.T. System has been reviewing courses on gender identity taught at all U.T. institutions to ensure compliance and alignment with applicable law and state and federal guidance, and to make sure any courses that are taught on U.T. campuses are aligned with the direction and priorities of the Board of Regents. This review will be discussed at the November Board of Regents’ meeting.”

The audit announcement comes shortly after the Texas Tech System Chancellor announced a mandate that in-class instruction must note there are only two sexes, stating that diversity will ensure compliance with state and federal law, executive orders, and directives issued by President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Other universities, including the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University, have also ordered curriculum audits to comply with state law, according to reporting from Open Campus. 

The wave of audits also come after recent revelations surrounding classroom conduct in Texas universities.

The backlash started in September when Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison, a Republican, shared a video in which a Texas A&M professor teaches gender studies material in a children’s literature class. 

Immediately after the video’s release, Texas A&M President Mark Welsh fired the professor and announced an audit of all university curricula. One week later, Welsh resigned too.

The Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors has taken a strong stance against the new state law.

On its website, the association states SB 37 “greatly harms the quality of Texas public community colleges, universities and health institutions,” imposing “political control over the faculty at each institution.” The group urges faculty to “avoid overcompliance to reduce harm to student growth and learning,” encouraging them to “retain their academic freedom to teach course topics with their own approach and add topics to a course.”

Texas AAUP did not respond to The Fix’s requests for comment.

Free speech advocacy groups have also raised concerns over the developments in Texas.

“The message from Texas is alarming: Professors teach at the mercy of those in power, not under the protection of academic freedom or the First Amendment,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression recently stated.

Meanwhile, in a newly announced “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” extended to UT-Austin, the Trump administration would require universities “recognize only two genders” if accepted. UT System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife has said the system “enthusiastically” supports the proposal. 

“Higher education has been at a crossroads in recent years, and we have worked very closely with Governor Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and Speaker Burrows to implement sweeping changes for the benefit of our students and to strengthen our institutions to best serve the people of Texas,” Eltife told the Austin American Statesmen. “Today we welcome the new opportunity presented to us and we look forward to working with the Trump Administration on it.”

MORE: Judge to consider if Texas law unconstitutionally limits students’ free speech after dark