Texas A&M faculty, students rally against policy they deem censorship

Hundreds of students, faculty and alumni rallied at Texas A&M University on Thursday, many holding signs saying “Aggies for Academic Freedom” in response to what they characterize as the university’s censorship of course material.

In the fall, Texas A&M fired a lecturer for class material that included gender identity in children’s literature. Before the spring semester began, the A&M University System implemented a policy requiring campus presidents to sign off on courses that could be seen as advocating “race and gender ideology” – or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.

» RELATED: From Plato to sociology: How Texas A&M’s new curriculum policy is impacting the start of the semester

The rally consisted of students and alumni alongside members of the TAMU American Association of University Professors and other faculty, staff and student groups. They’ve formed a coalition and are laying out demands to A&M including the removal of “censorship” on teaching topics and that the university reinstate all “improperly canceled” courses. They’re also requesting the fired literature lecturer, Melissa McCoul, be reinstated.

» RELATED: Texas A&M removes administrators, orders course review following viral video

Texas Standard reached out to Texas A&M to invite them onto the program. A spokesperson let us know the university is releasing the findings of its course review today (Friday, Jan. 30). The university also provided a statement which can be found in its entirety at the bottom of this story.

Leonard Bright is president of the Texas A&M University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Listen to Texas Standard’s interview with Bright in the audio player at the top of this story or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Are you concerned you’re putting your job at risk by participating rallies and doing interviews like this?

Leonard Bright: Well, you know, it shouldn’t be being placed at risk. Part of my job is to discuss matters of public concern. That is literally written in our policies and in my contract.

But of course, I cannot be silly of the fact that there are those that would love to potentially use this as an opportunity to try to get me fired or dismissed. But those are not really my concerns.

I believe that in the importance of speaking up, being truthful and try to fight for this most important thing called academic freedom, but also a deep quality education. So I think that’s more important to me.

I don’t certainly want to lose my job, but at the same time, I want to be truthful, thoughtful, and do my job with the highest level of integrity.

One of your graduate-level courses was canceled this spring. The Houston Chronicle reports the dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service repeatedly asked you for more information about the content in question that you didn’t reply.

How do you respond to those reports?

Yeah, so what actually happened is that they were asking me to be dishonest.

They asked their questions. I answered them as thoroughly as I can. I mean, they wanted to know the extent to which I’m discussing issues of race, gender, and sexuality in a graduate-level course, for students who are going into public service.

And my answer was repeatedly “every day, in every reading.” I mean, this topic of race, gender and sexuality is sort of central to the issue of ethics, which is how we treat people, and people are their identity.

So I was super clear in terms of what it is. And so their argument was just – did not meet the evidence of what the truth was.

What’s your sense – are faculty at A&M divided over the policies right now, or is it just that some professors aren’t comfortable speaking out?

I don’t think that there is any – much – division.

Of course, in any democracy or group of people, we’re not always going to agree 100 percent on sort of anything. And that certainly is the case for faculty.

However, there are a great number of faculty that are equally more concerned than what I am, they’re just deathly afraid to speak out. They’re getting threats, they’re getting calls. They understand that the powers that be in this state want these discussions ended.

And quite frankly, you know, they don’t want to be a target. So we understand that and we’re doing our best to protect the faculty. And those of us who are in a position to be able to speak out, we’re doing that.

But most importantly, on behalf of the thousands of students that this is going to and is changing in terms of their education.

I was going to ask, do you think students are currently getting a world-class education at Texas A&M?

Not under this policy, no.

You cannot get a world-class – I mean, that is almost an oxymoron when you say part. I mean the characteristics of the world, which is diversity, and especially in terms of race, gender and sexuality, that those topics are being censored, that ceases from being world class.

And that will ultimately lower the value of these degrees.

A statement from Texas A&M University

Professors, staff and administrators at Texas A&M University share one priority: our students.

As we examine thousands of courses to make sure they comply with the new policy of the Board of Regents, we realize there will be challenges. But we will make adjustments and do everything possible to ensure the Spring 2026 semester runs as smoothly as possible.

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