BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- The University of Houston canceled a required social work course on social injustice and oppression, citing curriculum changes but providing no specific reasons for the decision.
- Students enrolled in a class that had already started will still be allowed to complete it, but the cancellation has prompted criticism from faculty and the American Association of University Professors, who view it as censorship influenced by political pressure.
- The cancellation aligns with recent legislative changes in Texas, including Senate Bill 37, which limits faculty governance and increases scrutiny of university curricula.
The University of Houston canceled a course this month on social injustice and oppression that was required for students in the Graduate College of Social Work.
“As part of upcoming changes to the curriculum and degree plan, this course will not be offered at this time,” university officials wrote in a message to students, according to Inside Higher Ed.
“We understand that this adjustment may raise questions, and we want to assure you that it will not affect any student’s ability to successfully progress through the MSW program or meet graduation requirements on time,” they wrote.
The school did not explain why it was cutting the “Confronting Oppression and Injustice” course.
At least one section of the course had already begun when officials announced its cancellation, but students currently enrolled will be able to complete it, according to the email.
The description of the canceled course on the school’s website states that students “will examine a set of intersectional social justice issues, centering race, that impact our daily lives in differential ways and inform the prejudices we hold, and that exist, within larger structures of power.”
Social work professor Alan Dettlaff, who was set to teach the course later this fall, commented on the decision in a post on social media.
“Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum,” Dettlaff wrote on Bluesky.
“This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now,” he wrote.
The school’s American Association of University Professors chapter also condemned the decision to scrap the course, accusing administrators of censorship.
“The cancellation of a required class at the Graduate College of Social Work reflects intense political pressure on Texas universities to censor content that some find objectionable,” the group told Inside Higher Ed.
The AAUP also stated that higher education in the U.S. is the best in the world because subject area experts, not politicians, make decisions about what students learn.
“When elected officials pressure universities to remove or alter courses, they achieve indirectly what the First Amendment prohibits them from doing directly: censoring ideas and viewpoints they dislike. Texas students will be the worse for it,” the group stated.
The controversy comes amid a broader shift in Texas higher education policy. A new state law, Senate Bill 37, has eliminated “shared governance” in higher education, reducing faculty senates to advisory roles and requiring public university boards to regularly review undergraduate curricula, Texas Scorecard reported.
Lawmakers passed the measure following reports of ideological bias on campuses, including a recent Texas A&M incident in which an instructor expelled a student for objecting to pro-transgender content in a children’s literature class.
In response, Texas universities began audits of their classes and curricula this month.
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