BUZZ
‘The TTU System will no longer offer academic credentials in these fields’
Texas Tech University System is officially phasing out all academic programs centered on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to a memo sent Friday by the chancellor.
The memo details the “phase-out and closure guidance” plan for “all academic programs ‘centered on’ Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI), including undergraduate majors, minors, certificates, and graduate degrees.”
“The TTU System will no longer offer academic credentials in these fields, but all currently enrolled students will be able to complete their degrees,” states the memo from system Chancellor Brandon Creighton to university presidents.
The six-page also spells out sweeping guidance regarding curriculum, issuing a “strict prohibition on SOGI content in all core and lower-level undergraduate courses, requiring alternate materials if primary texts center on or include these topics.”
“Conversely, upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses are restricted but feature clear exemptions for strictly defined academic purposes.”
The directive comes five months after Creighton released a memo to “ensure that classroom instruction fully complies with state and federal law, Board of Regents policy, and Chancellor directives.”
Last year, Texas passed Senate Bill 37, which requires curriculum reviews to ensure courses “prepare students for civic and professional life.”
“Provosts across Texas Tech’s five institutions must submit to Creighton by June 15 the degree programs, majors, minors and certificates they plan to eliminate based on the new memo. Afterward, the system plans to freeze admissions into those offerings, though currently enrolled students will be able to finish their programs,” Higher Ed Dive reported.
A news release from the American Association of University Professors denounced the development.
The group stated it “completely disregards the Constitutional Rights of students and faculty, embeds viewpoint discrimination in the curriculum at all levels, and represents an abject failure in delivering a legitimate curriculum that graduates desperately need to be prepared for today’s workforce and social and cultural environments.”
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