About a month after adopting a policy requiring approval for courses that address race, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, Texas A&M University System regents on Thursday approved changes that faculty worry might effectively ban those topics in introductory-level courses.

Regents approved the revisions during a special meeting on Thursday without reading the updated language aloud or discussing its substance in open session. System officials provided a copy of the new language hours after regents had approved it. 

According to the revised text, “no system academic course will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity,” with a narrow exception for certain non-core curriculum or graduate courses. Those exempted course materials must first be reviewed, show that they serve a “necessary educational purpose” and be approved in writing by the campus president.

Faculty members shared with the Tribune emails that two department heads sent before and after the vote with the policy’s revised language, but the text in their emails described the courses that could be exempted as “specific upper-division or graduate courses in some disciplines.” That language was removed from the revised policy regents ultimately approved.

Chris Bryan, the system’s vice chancellor for marketing and communications, did not say what prompted the change, how “necessary educational purpose” will be defined or who will make that determination. In a statement, he said, “These updates simply make clear which academic courses the policy applies to and outline the process for reviewing and approving those courses.”

“This is not a change in direction or a more restrictive policy; it is a straightforward clarification to ensure consistency, transparency, and alignment across the System,” he said.

Several faculty members said the revised policy left them unsure of how administrators would interpret and enforce the new language, particularly in introductory or required courses, with the spring semester set to begin on Jan. 12.

Martin Peterson, a philosophy professor who chairs Texas A&M’s Academic Freedom Council but said he was commenting on the new policy as a private citizen, called the changes approved Thursday “outright censorship.” 

Peterson said he believes the revised policy will bar him from teaching parts of his PHIL 111: Contemporary Moral Issues course, though he has not received formal guidance from administrators. He said the course has typically covered moral questions related to race, gender and sexual orientation, including whether affirmative action is ethical, the moral justification for Texas’ bathroom bill and differing views on sexual relations and gender identity.

“My students are adults and need to learn to structure their arguments for or against,” he said.

Another faculty member, who asked not to be named out of concern that speaking publicly could affect their job, said the revised policy raises questions about how it could affect degree requirements for all undergraduates. 

Undergrads have to choose a class from a list to fulfill a cultural discourse requirement. The list includes courses like Introduction to Race and Ethnicity, Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology and Contemporary Moral Issues. The catalog says those classes are intended to help students “hold respectful discussions and discourse on difficult topics,” “understand self, including personal bias and prejudices,” and examine power, privilege and conflict from multiple viewpoints. 

The professor said those courses necessarily involve discussions of race and gender, and that the new restrictions could affect most of the classes on the list.  

The Texas A&M University System adopted the first version of the policy in November, after a student’s secret recording of a professor discussing gender identity in a children’s literature class sparked conservative backlash and scrutiny of course content across the system.

The earlier policy required campus presidents to sign off on any course that could be seen as advocating “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” It was approved alongside new rules barring faculty from teaching material inconsistent with approved syllabi. 

System leaders at the time framed the changes as an effort to ensure transparency and consistency in instruction. Faculty worried that university administrators would interpret what teachings amount to advocacy too broadly and bar those topics across disciplines, including history, medicine, public health and law.

In a frequently asked questions document circulated after the earlier version of the policy was approved, Texas A&M University-San Antonio and Tarleton State University faculty were told that “advocating” means requiring students to hold certain beliefs and/or ridiculing certain beliefs. They said examples of this would be leading, encouraging or requiring students to feel personal shame over the treatment of slaves in America or to hold certain beliefs on same-sex relationships, gender identity, religion or politics.

The FAQ also emphasized that faculty are expected to teach “historically significant, empirically established and discipline-grounded topics,” even when they may be “emotionally difficult or sensitive for some students.” The document says faculty were not barred from teaching covering slavery and racism or the Holocaust in U.S. history courses or same-sex relationships in classes on human sexuality.

Other university systems have also launched course audits in recent months, saying the reviews are necessary to comply with new state laws or presidential directives, though no state or federal law explicitly bars professors from teaching about race, gender or sexual orientation. 

This month, Texas Tech University System restricted faculty from promoting or advocating certain race- or sex-based beliefs and required instructors who include content related to those topics in their courses to submit that material for review, allowing the material to remain only if it is required for professional licensure, certification or patient and client care, or if it is approved by administrators and, in some cases, the board of regents.

At Texas State, administrators have urged professors to drop words such as “challenging,” “dismantling” and “decolonizing” from their course descriptions and to rename courses with titles like “Combating Racism in Healthcare” to something university officials consider more neutral like “Race and Public Health in America.”

Nicholas Gutteridge contributed to this story.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University System, Texas Tech University and Texas Tech University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.