“Woke” Professors - a law that gives more control over what’s taught at public universities

https://www.tpr.org/education/2026-04-08/political-oversight-reaches-texas-college-classrooms-with-texas-tech-and-a-m-at-the-forefront …Last year the Texas Legislature passed a law that gives more control over what’s taught at public universities to their boards of regents. In Texas, regents are appointed by the governor. And Republican Governor Greg Abbott has been pushing the idea that “woke” professors have been indoctrinating students for years. “College professors have increasingly pushed woke agendas. They have too much influence over who is hired to educate our kids. We need legislation that prohibits professors from having any say over employment decisions,” Abbott said in his 2025 state of the state address. “We must also expand the ban on DEI in our public universities. We must purge it from every corner of our schools and return the focus to merit. Texas public universities cite the new law as the reason for their course reviews and content restrictions. Former Republican State Senator Brandon Creighton wrote the law. A few months later, he was appointed chancellor of the Texas Tech system. Republican state leaders say the law was needed to stop what they perceive as indoctrination. But Peterson, the A&M philosophy professor, said public universities are instead using it to indoctrinate students with conservative ideas. “They should be free to make up their own mind, but in order to be free to do so, they must be exposed to different ideas,” Peterson said. “We can't just expose them to conservative ideology approved by the Board of Regents or the governor of Texas.” Marcela Hernández, a junior at UT San Antonio, looks towards the building on campus where they take Mexican American Studies courses. Hernández is majoring in Mexican American Studies. They're worried that consolidating the Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies department into another department will lead to its elimination. UT San Antonio student Marcela Salome Hernández also said there’s no need to tell professors to stop indoctrinating students, because that’s not been their experience. “That makes me laugh so much,” Hernández said. “I was a proud Mexican American before I even knew what (Mexican American Studies) was. I was a proud queer person, proud trans person, before I even knew what those words were. And no, I did not learn it in the university level. I did not learn it in school.” Professors and students told TPR they’re worried restricting what’s taught in their colleges will diminish the quality of students’ degrees and make it harder for universities to recruit and retain faculty. In addition to restricting course content, multiple professors in Texas have been fired over the past few months, sparking free speech concerns. Several universities, including Texas A&M and the University of North Texas, have announced cuts to women’s and gender studies programs. Both UT Austin and UT San Antonio are consolidating their ethnic and gender studies departments into other departments. Both UNT and UT officials say their cuts and mergers are about budget and enrollment concerns, but faculty and students believe they are actually part of the larger political effort to influence what students learn in the state’s public universities. Michelle Waida with KTTZ contributed to this report.