Texas Tech Faculty Sue Over Race, Gender Rules

Faculty in the Texas Tech University System are accusing university leaders of violating their First Amendment rights and of racial discrimination.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the Texas American Association of University Professors–American Federation of Teachers argued that system policies outlining new curricular reviews and course content guidelines amount to “an extraordinary system of censorship in higher education.”

“Professors in the Texas Tech University System are prohibited from teaching the most basic scholarship, while at the same time not fully comprehending the contours of prohibitions that place them under threat of losing their employment and livelihood,” the lawsuit states.

The system has passed comprehensive restrictions on how faculty can teach about gender, sexuality and race, which affected at least 277 courses at Texas Tech University, a Faculty Senate survey found. The system also ended gender and sexuality programs. The policies further prohibit students from creating “degree-culminating” research or theses on sexual orientation and gender identity. The AAUP said last month that it was investigating violations of academic freedom across Texas, including in the Texas Tech system. 

Faculty asserted in the lawsuit that because of the restrictions, “professors cannot teach Plato’s Republic, the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Between the World and Me, the fact that gay and bisexual men were persecuted in Nazi Germany, or the existence of health disparities in rural communities in Lubbock and border communities in El Paso.”

The plaintiffs want a federal judge to declare the system policies unconstitutional and to block the universities from enforcing them.

The Texas Tech University System defended the policies as “lawful, constitutionally sound, and fully compliant with state and federal law.”

“Our commitment to academic integrity and the First Amendment rights of our students and faculty will not be distracted by lawsuits as we continue our mission to deliver rigorous academic programs, relevant coursework, and groundbreaking research,” a system spokesperson said in a statement.