The Sept. 25 memo from Chancellor Tedd Mitchell recognizes the First Amendment rights of employees in their personal capacity but points out they must comply with these state and federal legal requirements in the instruction of students, within the course and scope of their employment.
It points to H.B. 229, a January directive from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and an executive order by President Donald Trump as requiring the policy's adoption.
"As a public university system, our adherence to these requirements is fundamental to our responsibilities as stewards of public trust," the memo reads.
Zachary Marschall of Campus Reform thinks it is reasonable to forbid professors to teach that there are more than two genders.
"Academic freedom does not extend to making things up," he asserts. "There are only two genders, and there's a difference between what is and what people think they are or what they feel to be. I think it's that distinction that the Left has erased and made fluid for their own benefit."
Marschall commends Texas' state government and public university systems for cracking down on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and he sees this initiative as another part of the state's effort to depoliticize classrooms and ensure they are teaching biological reality rather than leftist ideology.
The five universities in the Texas Tech system are Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Angelo State University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, and Midwestern State University.
Critics of the new policy argue that it infringes upon academic freedom and is an attack on transgender-identifying people.
