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The Texas A&M University Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously ordered its flagship university to disband an LGBTQ+ studies minor, months after conservative lawmakers and websites accused the program of promoting “liberal indoctrination” on campus.

The LGBTQ Studies minor is one of 14 minors and 38 certificate programs that administrators said have “low output,” according to a new process they developed to identify and eliminate programs with low enrollment. But teachers claim the trial used inaccurate information and flawed data. It also prevented teachers from providing input into curriculum decisions, they said.

“This has never happened before,” said Angie Hill Price, professor and speaker of the A&M Faculty Senate. “We have no precedent for a board deciding (to end academic programs) at the wishes of teachers and the president that they deemed underperforming.”

Dozens of teachers attended the board meeting Thursday to oppose the regents’ decision.

The board’s vote to eliminate those programs comes as the Texas Senate’s higher education subcommittee meets Monday to review the role of faculty senates at Texas public universities. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick directed the Senate to examine these groups, which are elected governing bodies made up of faculty from colleges within a university who represent their peers and work with university leadership on academic matters. Patrick also asked lawmakers before next year’s legislative session to make recommendations to establish guidelines for the role of faculty senates on campuses.

According to the regents’ resolution to end the programs, their decision ignored a request by Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III to halt the review process and gather more information from other faculty senates in the A&M system. The Board of Regents felt there was sufficient faculty evaluation and directed the school to move forward.

Welsh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Board members and university administrators argue that these minors and certificates should be eliminated because they do not meet new enrollment thresholds recently established by the university.

At Thursday’s meeting, board member Robert Albritton denied allegations that the decision to drop the LGBTQ Studies minor was politically motivated. He said the board has a fiduciary responsibility to eliminate programs with low enrollment.

But professors say the reasoning doesn’t understand how these departments manage enrollment in these minor and certificate programs.

“Either they had no information and were making a decision on incomplete information, or they had a different agenda and the information didn’t matter,” Price said.

Praise and criticism

Texas A&M’s Women’s and Gender Studies Department introduced the LGBTQ Studies minor in fall 2022. The university celebrated the new program in a Press release June 2023.

Professor Theresa Morris, who helped develop the minor, said it will provide students with cultural competencies that will help them in the workplace and help LGBTQ+ Aggies better understand their own identities.

“The symbolism of having this minor means something — especially to students who have these identities,” Morris said in the news release. “It’s like a formal acknowledgment by the university that this is important and can mean a lot to people who feel like their experience has been marginalized by society.”

Two weeks later, the conservative website Texas Scorecard published an article about several public universities in Texas that offered a minor in LGBTQ+ studies, including Texas A&M.

Texas Scorecard has written often about the A&M system’s flagship university. Last year, the university watered down a job offer for a black journalist, Kathleen McElroy, after Texas Scorecard called her a “promoter of diversity, equity and inclusion.” Negotiations to hire her eventually fell through and the university paid him a million dollar settlement.

According to a Texas A&M spokesperson, the university began receiving inquiries from inside and outside the university about the LGBTQ Studies minor the semester after it launched, prompting the school to review its programs. Administrators identified 70 majors and minors that had zero or few graduates or enrollees.

In August 2023, Provost Alan Sams began working with university deans to create a way to evaluate a program’s performance. It was modeled after the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Council standards for majors, an A&M spokesman said. The state classifies a bachelor’s degree program as “low producing” if it awards fewer than five degrees in one year and fewer than 25 degrees in five years. The state agency that oversees public higher education does not have a process for evaluating minors.

Using this system, A&M identified 52 minors and certificates to remove.

In January, Rep. state. Brian HarrisonR-Midlothian, began tweeting about the LGBTQ studies minor offered at his alma mater. “Texas A&M offers a MINOR in this? What. The. Damn,” he wrote. He promised to find out if the university is using state resources to fund the program.

In February, he told the conservative news website The Daily Caller that he had a “long conversation” with Sams in which he asked her to terminate the minor.

The university confirmed that the provost spoke with Harrison about the LGBTQ Studies minor as they set up processes to determine which programs to eliminate.

Harrison posted on social media in September that A&M System Chancellor John Sharp alerted him that the school was ending the minor.

“Proud to have helped secure this victory for Texas taxpayers who should never be forced to fund it,” Harrison wrote on social media site X.

The Board of Regents also voted Thursday to direct other university presidents in the A&M system to review their minors and certificates to identify low-producing programs that could be eliminated. They also ordered Sharp to revise system policies regarding low-producing degree programs to include minors and certificate programs. Once added, the board would have to approve the amended policy at its February 2025 meeting.

the state senator. Brandon CreightonR-Conroe, who chairs the Texas Senate’s higher education subcommittee, praised the board’s vote Thursday on social media.

“Proud to see the reforms we passed in the Texas Senate have a real impact at Texas A&M,” he wrote. More bold reforms for higher education are coming in the 89th session.”

Disclosure: Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M University System have financially supported The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial backers play no role in Tribune journalism. Find a complete their list here.

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