Texas Tech

Texas Tech University System faculty are currently facing a censorship regime that restricts teaching about gender and sexuality and that threatens academic freedom and student learning.

On December 1, 2025, Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton issued a memorandum requiring all TTU faculty to comply with a vague course content review process. This process was linked to the following assertion:

“State law and federal policy dictate only two sexes, male and female, are recognized. Faculty are expected to comply with these standards when instructing students in their professional capacity, which includes submitting course content related to gender identity through the course content review process overseen by the Board of Regents.”

The memorandum warns that noncompliance may result in disciplinary action and characterizes the directive as the “first step” in the Board of Regents’ ongoing implementation of curriculum oversight under Senate Bill 37 and related provisions.

Shortly after the memo was issued, Texas Tech introduced a censorship portal (Course Content Oversight and Review). All approximately 9,000 courses offered during the spring had to be submitted to the portal, and faculty were required to report any and all course materials referencing more than two sexes, content related to gender identity, and content related to human sexual identity—far exceeding the scope of the memo and the laws on which it was based. If faculty indicate that any of these topics may be present in lesson plans or assigned texts, an escalating review process is triggered—requiring faculty to justify each instance of the flagged content through multiple administrative layers, with final review by the Board of Regents. An affirmative answer also triggers the directive to remove such materials until the review is completed.

The plain effect is classroom censorship of all ideas related to gender and sexuality for at least the first six weeks of the spring semester. This is not a narrow compliance exercise. It functions as prior restraint: a directive to silence lawful, discipline-relevant teaching in advance, under the threat of discipline and termination.

Many faculty at Texas Tech requested written clarification of the policy’s scope and received none. In the absence of clarification, faculty have been placed in the position of navigating vague and expansive restrictions that contradict widely accepted disciplinary knowledge and undermine the university’s core mission of teaching and research.

Texas Tech has indicated that this same portal and process will be used at least through the summer and fall semesters of 2026.

The Board of Regents met on February 26, 2026. The publicly posted agenda (176 pages) made no mention of the course review process, and no public statements were made about the process after the meeting. On March 11, faculty began receiving contradictory emails from the Provost's office informing them that their courses were either approved, still under review, or both. Approvals were granted by the Provost's office, in consultation with the President's office, in contradiction to the official and published review process, which culminates in decisions being made by the Board of Regents. The Provost's office also indicated that approved course content is still subject to additional review by the Board of Regents.

On April 10, 2026, the chancellor's office issued a memo permanently censoring all material related to sexual orientation and gender identity for lower-division courses, censoring most material related to sexual orientation and gender identity for upper-division and graduate-level courses, restricting what graduate students can research, and shuttering programs that center on sexual orientation and gender identity. On the same day, the Texas Tech president's office issued data about the results of the course content review process.

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

How the University Works

Key Documents

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)

Why it Matters

This policy harms students first. When course content is subject to prior review and removal pending approval, students lose access to discipline-relevant knowledge and the opportunity to engage complex questions through evidence-based instruction. The result is a narrower 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.

Demands

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

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.
End viewpoint-based censorship and discrimination. Rescind any guidance and/or policies that restrict protected academic activity or invite viewpoint-based discrimination.
Commit to transparency. Publish the relevant policies, decision rationales, and compliance claims being used to justify restrictions on teaching and speech.
Guarantee due process. Establish clear due process protections for faculty, staff, and students facing complaints related to content on gender and sexuality.
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.
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.

Take Action

Students

We encourage students to visit the Penguin Collective, which includes resources for students and ways to speak up and be heard. 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.

Visit the Penguin Collective

TTU/TTUS Faculty & Staff

TTU Faculty & Staff Page

Faculty at Other Institutions

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 Campus Leadership

The Public

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.