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

The LGBTQ Studies minor is one of 14 minors and 38 certificate programs that administrators say are “low-yielding,” according to a new process they developed to identify and eliminate programs with low enrollment. But faculty argue that the process uses misinformation and inaccurate data. They said it also prevents faculty from providing information on curricular decisions.

“This has never happened before,” said Angie Hill Price, professor and spokeswoman for the A&M Faculty Senate. “There is no precedent for a board to make decisions (to terminate academic programs) based on the wishes of underperforming faculty members and the rector.”

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

The board’s vote to eliminate those programs comes as the Texas Senate subcommittee on higher education meets Monday to review the role of faculty senates at Texas public universities. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick He instructed the Senate to examine these groups, which are elected governing bodies composed of professors who represent colleagues from across a university’s colleges and work with university leadership on academic matters. Patrick also asked lawmakers to submit proposals ahead of next year’s legislative session to create guidelines for what the role of faculty senates should be on campuses.

According to the regents’ decision to terminate the programs, their decision ignored Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III’s request to halt the review process and gather more input from other faculty senates in the A&M system. The trustees believed there was sufficient faculty review 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 that the university recently established.

At a meeting Thursday, Board Member Robert Albritton rejected accusations that the decision to eliminate the LGBTQ Studies minor was politically motivated. He said the board has a fiduciary responsibility to eliminate programs with low enrollment.

But faculty members say justification for how these departments manage enrollment in these minors and certificate programs is lacking.

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

Praise and criticism

The Texas A&M Department of Women’s and Gender Studies launched the LGBTQ Studies minor in fall 2022. The university celebrated the new program with an event. June 2023 press release.

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

“The symbolism of having this underage student is particularly meaningful to students with these identities,” Morris said in the press release. “This is like a formal recognition by the university that this is important, and that can mean a lot to people who feel like their experiences are trivialized by society.”

Two weeks later, the conservative website Texas Scorecard published an article about multiple Texas public universities offering minors in LGBTQ+ studies, including Texas A&M.

Texas Scorecard has frequently written about the A&M system’s flagship university. university last year Watered down job offer to black journalist Kathleen McElroy, After Texas Scorecard named her a “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advocate.” Negotiations to hire him ultimately failed, and the university paid him a $1 million 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 opened, which led the school to review its programs. Administrators identified 70 certificate and minor students with zero or few graduates or enrollees.

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

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

State Representative in January. brian harrisonR-Midlothian began tweeting about her alma mater’s LGBTQ Studies minor. “Is Texas A&M proposing WRONG on this?? What. The. Hell,” he wrote. He promised to find out whether the university was using state resources to fund the program.

He told conservative news site The Daily Caller in February that he had a “long discussion” with Sams and asked him to release the minor.

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

In September, Harrison shared on social media that A&M System Chancellor John Sharp warned him that the school would expel underage students.

“I am proud to help deliver this victory for Texas taxpayers who should never have to fund it,” Harrison wrote on social media site X.

Trustees also voted Thursday to direct other university presidents in the A&M system to review their underage students and credentials to identify low-yield programs that could be eliminated. They also directed Sharp to revise system policies regarding low-yield degree programs to include minors and certificate programs. Once added, the board will need to approve the changed policy at its February 2025 meeting.

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

“I am proud to see that the reforms we passed in the Texas Senate are making a real impact at Texas A&M,” he wrote. “Bolder reforms for higher education will come in the 89th session.”

Disclosure: Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M University System are financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters have no role in the Tribune’s journalism. find full here is the list of them.

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