Editor’s note: The following is an open letter to the Texas A&M community written by educators and supporters of the Women’s and Gender Studies program.
Although The Battalion is publishing the letter, it does not reflect the official opinion of the publication. The full text of the letter is below:
We write this letter as private citizens and educators exercising our First Amendment right to express our opinion on a matter of public concern.
On Jan. 30, Texas A&M learned that Interim President Tommy Williams ordered the closing of the Women’s and Gender Studies curricular programs. This announcement was surprising because the elimination of WGST came outside of the ordinary program review process.
For 38 years, the WGST program has served thousands of students — undergraduate majors and minors, graduate certificate students and many others who take WGST courses as electives to enhance their degree programs in nearly every academic field at the university. WGST graduates are entrepreneurs, doctors, nurses, therapists, lawyers, social workers, business owners and educators. They work in academic, nonprofit and private industries to address pressing social issues such as human rights abuses, sexual violence, maternal mortality, maternal-child health and wellness, LGBTQ rights, reproductive healthcare and global gender disparities in health, wealth, food and housing. Eliminating WGST curricular programs does not magically eliminate these social problems; it only makes Aggies less equipped to address them.
The WGST curriculum — one deeply responsive to and engaged with historical and contemporary issues of social and moral significance — has been determined, by Williams, to be at odds with A&M University System Policy 08.01. This policy was recently re-written to censor instruction related to gender identity, sexual orientation and so-called “race ideology” and “gender ideology.” It is a policy without academic justification or grounding, and it overrides definitions established in dictionaries, scholarship and broadly recognized reference works. We collectively condemn the revised System policy because it violates academic freedom and relies on distorted definitions to do so.
TAMU has already received negative attention from national and international media. Even prominent Aggie donors such as Jon Hagler, Class of ‘58, spoke against the dissolution of WGST and the implementation of 08.01 urging Aggies to “decisively defeat the excessive politicization of this wonderful university.” Hagler also points out that System leadership, in their attempts to score points with powerful politicians, dismiss students’ capability of independent thought and severely undermine A&M’s democratic foundations by allowing an extraordinary level of external control over university curricula and processes. This kind of control also ignores the curricular expertise of faculty across the university. WGST faculty have received numerous scholarly, teaching and service awards, and they lead with integrity in their fields, in their colleges and in their departments.
As much as we mourn the elimination of WGST curricular programs at A&M, we are even more alarmed by the systematic dismantling of the foundational principles of higher education. These principles require that faculty across the globe ask difficult questions, inspire novel responses and facilitate productive dialogue and debate across personal, political and professional differences. It is becoming increasingly clear that whole disciplines have fallen outside a narrowly defined field of acceptability to even exist at Texas A&M and elsewhere. We hope that this radical, anti-democratic push to erase complex and diverse ideas will soon end.
Cynthia Bouton Dan Humphrey Kristan Poirot
Susan Egenolf Koyel Khan Vanita Reddy
Marian Eide Chaitanya Lakkimsetti Sally Robinson
Margaret Ezell Laura Mandell Landon Sadler
Sarah Gatson Rachel Moran Aurore Spiers
Rebecca Hankins Theresa Morris Jyotsna Vaid
Melanie Hawthorne Mary Ann O’Farrell Joan Wolf
Sonia Hernández
Adam Kolasinski • Feb 22, 2026 at 9:12 am
The foundational class in the WGST major has as its first learning outcome to explain “how feminist methodologies and epistemologies challenge the natural science model of knowledge production.”
It assigns a whole slew of readings that argue the the modern practice of science is anti-woman. One of these readings argues the scientific practice of being dispassionate when evaluating evidence disadvantages women because they are too emotional. I’m not kidding.
This isn’t a scholarly discipline. It’s anti-science ideology masquerading as scholarship and learning. Good riddance.
no mansplaining allowed • Feb 26, 2026 at 4:24 pm
Spoken like a true white, entitled, middle-aged man. What a surprise.
Wallstone • Feb 20, 2026 at 8:06 am
Only leftists could expect that training programs for their ideological bourgeoisie would receive state funding to operate. The average American and especially Texan is tired of the ivory tower perverted brainrot that has done nothing but harm society at large. Good riddance to the gender and gay studies department.
MICHAEL Alvard • Feb 19, 2026 at 1:35 pm
Good letter. The education of Aggies is being compromised in ways that will have serious repercussions in the future when they look for graduate schools or employment. This unprecedented political intervention in the academy will only harm the Aggie brand.