Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Programs on the Chopping Block at Texas Tech

The Texas Tech University System has completed its course content review related to sexual orientation, gender identity and DEI issues placing courses that focus on these topics on the chopping block.

Chancelor Brandon Creighton outlined the phase out process for programs in an April 9 memo that stated in part the following:

To govern this comprehensive phase-out and ensure statutory compliance for all remaining academic offerings, this document establishes strict course content guidelines. To uphold institutional objectivity, this framework requires the legal recognition of only two human sexes and strictly prohibits the endorsement of a gender spectrum or fluid gender identities as empirical biological science.

To operationalize these standards across all component universities, this document introduces thresholds for SOGI content and establishes the Alternate Materials Rule. The core components of this guidance include:

• System-Wide Program Phase-Out: A formal program review, followed by an admissions freeze, to initiate the closure of all academic credentials centered on SOGI.
• Core Prohibition and Advanced Course Exceptions: A strict prohibition on SOGI content in all core and lower-level undergraduate courses, requiring alternate materials if primary texts center on or include these topics. Conversely, upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses are restricted but feature clear exemptions for strictly defined academic purposes.

Students who are currently enrolled in these programs will be allowed to complete their degrees but no new students will be admitted once the ban takes effect.

These courses expanded rapidly in the last 20-30 years, but with the Trump administration’s war on DEI they have quickly fallen out of favor in conservative states and at colleges and universities that have come under fire from the president himself.