Overview
- The American Association of University Professors and four faculty members filed a federal suit this week asking a judge to enjoin the Texas A&M University System’s rule and to reinstate courses canceled under that rule.
- The plaintiffs named are Texas A&M professors Leonard Bright, Vanita Reddy and Landon Sadler and Tarleton State professor Aaron George and they are represented by the ACLU of Texas, the national ACLU and the Houston firm Yetter Coleman.
- The complaint argues the regents banned the 'advocacy' of defined 'race ideology' and 'gender ideology' but never defined 'advocacy,' which the board left to university presidents to interpret and enforce.
- The filing documents wide curricular effects from the systemwide review, saying administrators reviewed more than 5,400 courses, canceled six classes, ended a flagship women’s and gender studies program and ordered removal of specific materials such as the film Moonlight and Plato’s Symposium.
- The case follows a similar AAUP challenge at Texas Tech and could shape whether regential rules that limit classroom content survive First Amendment and vagueness challenges and how much power politically appointed boards have over public university curricula.