Texas Tech

Texas Tech is operating under a censorship regime that restricts what faculty may teach and what students may learn. What began in December 2025 as a system of prior review has evolved into a categorical and permanent ban on politically disfavored speech. On April 9, 2026, the Texas Tech University System issued new course content “guidelines” that impose a strict prohibition on content related to sexual orientation and gender identity in core and lower-level undergraduate courses, with narrow exemptions in defined circumstances for upper-division and graduate courses. 

The April 9 directive also extends beyond classroom content to the structure of academic life. It orders the System’s component institutions to identify and phase out academic programs “centered on” sexual orientation or gender identity and, critically, it prohibits future graduate theses, dissertations, and other degree-culminating research or projects from centering on these topics for students who enroll after the directive. In plain terms, this is prior restraint: discipline-relevant teaching and research are barred in advance—not because they fail to meet academic standards, but because they address politically targeted subjects.

For key dates, see the timeline below.

This page also contains information about the structure of the Texas Tech University System and Texas Tech University, key documents, advocacy, examples of expressive activity on campus, reporting from Texas Tech's student newspaper, and ways to take action.

Learn more about the governance structure behind these policies: view our page on how the university works (hierarchy, shared governance, and political appointments). 

• Chancellor's Memo (Dec. 1, 2025)

• Provost Implementation Memo (Dec. 19, 2025) 

• Texas Tech University System Board of Regents Agenda (Feb. 26, 2026).

• Texas Tech University System Board of Regents Executive Session Report (Feb. 26, 2026). 

• Chancellor's Memo (Apr. 9, 2026)

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This policy harms students first. When course content is censored, students lose access to discipline-relevant knowledge and the opportunity to engage complex questions through evidence-based instruction. The result is a degraded curriculum, chilled classroom discussion, and an education that avoids reality rather than preparing students to analyze and confront it.

It also undermines the mission of a public university in a democratic society. Academic freedom protects the conditions under which teaching and research can proceed free from political control, and the First Amendment tradition depends on robust speech. A censorship regime that compels faculty to conform to politicized claims (including about gender and sexuality) and that threatens discipline for noncompliance replaces scholarly judgment with fear-driven self-censorship and weakens one of the institutions most essential to democratic life.

We call on Texas Tech University System and Texas Tech University leadership to take the following steps promptly and publicly:

1. Affirm academic freedom. State clearly and unambiguously that faculty and students retain full academic freedom to research, teach, discuss, and program on gender and sexuality consistent with professional standards.

2. End viewpoint-based censorship and discrimination. Rescind any guidance and/or policies that restrict protected academic activity or invite viewpoint-based discrimination.

3. Commit to transparency. Publish the relevant policies, decision rationales, and compliance claims being used to justify restrictions on teaching and speech.

4. Guarantee due process. Establish clear due process protections for faculty, staff, and students facing complaints related to content on gender and sexuality.

5. Respect shared governance and disciplinary standards. Consult faculty governance bodies and disciplinary experts before issuing directives that affect curriculum, research, and academic programming, and ensure that policy implementation does not place programs at risk relative to accreditation and professional expectations.

6. Protect student learning. Ensure that students can ask questions and evaluate evidence without fear, and that whole domains of legitimate inquiry are not stigmatized or suppressed.

•  Letter from the Association of Creative Writers and Writing Programs condemning censorship at Texas Tech, May 12, 2026. 

• American Historical Society Opposes Restrictions on Teaching and Learning at Texas Tech University, Apr. 24, 2026. Twenty-two additional signatories include: Alliance for Higher Education, American Academy of Religion, American Philosophical Association, American Society for Theatre Research, American Studies Association, Black Brown Dialogues on Policy, Coordinating Council of Women in History, National Council on Public History, Organization of American Historians, PEN America, Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, World History Association. 

• Letter from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies to Texas Tech condemning censorship and affirming academic freedom, Apr. 20, 2026. 

• Texas Tech Censors Sex and Gender Courses, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Apr. 17, 2026. 

• Letter of Concern Over BOR & Chancellor's Memo of April 9, 2026, Texas Tech chapter of the AAUP, Apr. 12, 2026. 

• Texas Tech Directive Harms Education, Violates Rights, Texas AAUP, Apr. 10, 2026. 

• Letter from the Modern Language Association (MLA) to Texas Tech condemning restrictions on course content, shared governance, and academic freedom, Apr. 1, 2026. 

• Advocacy Update condemning censorship at Texas Tech and in higher education, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Mar. 4, 2026. 

• He Refused to Censor His Syllabus—So Texas Tech Cancelled His Class, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Feb. 27, 2026. 

• Texas Tech University School of Law: School Investigates Student for “Overexuberance” Behind Charlie Kirk Comments, FIRE, Feb. 17, 2026. 

• Academic Freedom Bows To Political Ideology At Texas Public Campuses, PEN America, Feb. 10, 2026. 

• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center: Administration Cancels Speaking Event Featuring Retired Third-Trimester Abortion Provider, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Jan. 30, 2026.

• Texas Tech University: University System Issues Memo Cracking Down on Disfavored Concepts in Classroom, FIRE, Dec. 12, 2025. 

• AAUP-Texas Tech Pushes Back Against Campus Censorship, Texas AAUP, Oct. 8, 2025. 

Protest at May 7, 2026 Board of Regents Meeting / Rest in Peace Action

• Tech Critics Decry Policy as Academic "Straitjacket," May 11, 2026.

• Protestors Stage Mock Funeral outside Texas Tech System Regents Meeting, May 7, 2026. 

• Tech Professors Discuss Curriculum Policy’s Effect on Education, May 5, 2026.

• Faculty Host Tabling over Censorship, Course Change Concerns, Apr. 22, 2026.

• Tech System Completes Course Review, Issues New Guidance, Apr. 11, 2026. 

• Course Cancellations Concern Students, Feb. 26, 2026.

• SGA passes Resolution 61.149, Encouraging Conversation with Administration over Course Policy, Feb. 26, 2026. 

• Tech Students, Faculty Protest Course Oversight, Curriculum Changes, Feb. 26, 2026. 

• Tech System Issues New Course Content Standards, Dec. 1, 2025. 

• Tech System Restricts Academic Mentions of Transgender, Nonbinary Identities in Classroom, Sept. 26, 2025. 

Students are encouraged to visit the Penguin Collective, which includes resources for students and ways to speak up and be heard, and the student group Raiders Against Censorship. We also welcome you to visit our page on How the University Works to learn about the structure of Texas Tech and the Texas Tech University System. 

We encourage you to express your concerns directly to Texas Tech University and the TTU System. Please feel free to use our letter templates. Contact information can be found on the same page.

If you’re not affiliated with Texas Tech, you can still help defend academic freedom at a public university by:

• Sharing this site and the Penguin Collective. 

• Contacting campus leadership. You can use this template if you wish. 

• Contacting your elected representatives to oppose viewpoint-based censorship in public higher education. You can use this template if you wish.

• Supporting campus organizations working on academic freedom. 

• Attending or hosting a public forum.