The Texas American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers (Texas AAUP-AFT) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have filed a lawsuit against Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton for imposing new restrictions on how faculty can discuss race and gender in the classroom, according to a report from the Texas Tribune.
In December, Creighton sent a memo stating that faculty who do not comply with new limits on race, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation topics in classroom discussions would be subject to disciplinary action. In April, Creighton released another memo that ordered the discontinuation of academic programs centered on sexual orientation and gender identity. According to Texas AAUP-AFT and AAUP, Creighton’s restrictions “violate the First Amendment right of Plaintiffs’ members to speak free of viewpoint discrimination, and the Fourteenth Amendment rights of Plaintiffs’ members to be free from impermissibly vague policies and intentional racial discrimination.”
The lawsuit includes several examples of how these new restrictions have been applied over the past several months. Among other incidents, the suit alleges that law school faculty were prevented from discussing factual information on race in a first-year constitutional law course, one professor was barred from using the word “systemic,” and faculty at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso were told to censor curriculum terminology about underserved racial minorities. The suit also claims professors have not been provided clear guidelines on exactly what is and what is not prohibited.
Furthermore, the lawsuit specifically calls out that Creighton’s restrictions “are clear in their intent to ban materials by Black authors and about Black people, including their experiences with racial inequality and the need to remedy those racial inequities.” According to the plaintiffs, “there has been no enforcement to date about coursework materials focused on White communities.”
Texas AAUP-AFT and AAUP are represented by Lambda Legal, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
Speaking to the lawsuit, Antonio L. Ingram II, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, stated, “Public universities should be places where faculty can teach, research, and engage students without fear that political ideology will determine which ideas are permitted in the classroom. The vague Creighton Memoranda undermine the First Amendment rights of faculty and fall hardest on Black faculty and others whose scholarship, lived experiences, and expertise are too often singled out for scrutiny and exclusion. The First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause work together to safeguard both freedom of expression and equal treatment under the law. Every faculty member, including Black and LGBTQ+ faculty, deserves the freedom to teach truthfully without fear of being targeted because of their identity or the perspectives they bring to the classroom. We will fight to make Texas Tech inclusive for all Texans.”
The Texas Tech University System encompasses five institutions: Texas Tech University, Angelo State University, Midwestern State University, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.
