The Texas Tech University System is shutting down all its academic programs “centered on” sexual orientation and gender identity.

In an April 9 memo, Chancellor Brandon Creighton, a former Republican state lawmaker, gave provosts at the system’s five universities until June 15 to conduct reviews “to identify specific degree programs, official tracks, majors, minors, and certificates that meet the ‘centered on’ threshold” and to submit their lists of programs to the Office of the Chancellor, the Texas Tribune reports.

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The memo defines “centered on” as “when sexual orientation or gender identity serves as the primary subject, main theoretical framework, central narrative, or driving pedagogical purpose” of course content, readings, assignments, or lectures.

It also explicitly prohibits university instructors from teaching that gender identity is fluid and from endorsing “the existence of more than two genders, or decouple gender from biological sex as a factual or scientific baseline.” Instructors are still allowed to teach the biological reality of “chromosomal variations, Differences of Sex Development (DSDs), and intersex biological conditions,” but are not permitted to “use these biological conditions to advocate for or validate sociological frameworks of fluid gender identities.”

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Women’s and gender studies undergraduate minors and graduate certificate programs at three of the university system’s schools are the most likely to be affected by the new policy, according to the Tribune. The memo does include exceptions for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in which subjects are inseparable from sexual orientation or gender identity — like the AIDS epidemic — and temporary exceptions for currently enrolled students’ graduate theses and dissertations. Current faculty can also continue to research and publish “topics of their choosing,” the memo says.

However, it also instructs schools to freeze admissions and halt current students from declaring majors until targeted programs are phased out, and notes that “future faculty hiring guidance will prioritize recruitment in alignment with this memorandum,” the Tribune reports.

Texas Tech associate professor of psychological science Paul Ingram told the outlet that he has already heard from students who say they now regret enrolling at the school. One graduate student, he said, has already dropped out, and university faculty are openly discussing looking for new jobs.

Antonio Ingram, a senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told the Tribune that the memo raises serious constitutional concerns around viewpoint discrimination. The memo, he said, appears to target perspectives involving gender identity and sexual orientation for political reasons.

“I think in many ways, this is a doubling down on a political project that is not meant to help students. It is really meant to uphold a political worldview that, you know, Chancellor Creighton couldn’t enact legislatively and is now doing through his role as chancellor,” Ingram said.

The new guidance comes after Creighton instituted a systemwide review to identify courses that cover race, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation last December.

Creighton was named chancellor of the Texas Tech University System in November, after serving in the Texas House of Representatives from 2007 to 2014 and in the state Senate from 2014 to 2025. During his time in the state Senate, he introduced a number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including four that stripped LGBTQ+ people in the state of local anti-discrimination protections. In 2023, he authored a bill that banned diversity, equity, and inclusion activities in the state’s colleges and universities. Last year, he sponsored a bill, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, that bans clubs “based on sexual orientation or gender identity” in Texas schools.

Speaking at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s summit in Austin last week, Creighton claimed that “academic drift” has resulted in “quite a bit of garbage” in American university curriculum, according to the Tribune. He also said that Texas Tech would use “an AI algorithm” to review courses.

Creighton claims the changes to Texas Tech’s offerings will better prepare students for high-paying jobs. But Jen Shelton, an associate professor of English at Texas Tech, told the Tribune that new policy undermines higher education’s role in teaching students to understand the world and would “impoverish” graduates “as human beings.”

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