\n<\/p>\n
The censored Plato texts include passages from his Socratic dialogue Symposium <\/em>that discuss patriarchy, masculinity, gender identity and the human condition.<\/p>\n Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | Nice_Media_PRO\/iStock\/Getty Images | rawpixel<\/p>\n At least 200 courses in the Texas A&M University College of Arts and Sciences have been flagged or canceled by university leaders for gender- or race-related content as the university undertakes its review of all course syllabi, faculty members told Inside Higher Ed<\/em>. <\/p>\n This is just the beginning of the system board\u2013mandated course-review process. Faculty were required to submit core-curriculum syllabi for review in December, and some faculty members have yet to receive feedback on their spring courses, scheduled to begin Monday. <\/p>\n So far, queer filmmakers, feminist writers and even ancient Western philosophers are on the chopping block. One faculty member\u2014philosophy professor Martin Peterson, who is supposed to teach Contemporary Moral Problems this spring\u2014was asked by university leadership to remove several passages by Plato from his syllabus.<\/p>\n In an email from department chair Kristi Sweet, Peterson was given two options: either remove \u201cmodules on race and gender ideology, and the Plato readings that may include these,\u201d or be reassigned to teach a different philosophy course. <\/p>\n \u201cYour decision to bar a philosophy professor from teaching Plato is unprecedented\u00a0\u2026 You are making Texas A&M famous\u2014but not for the right reasons,\u201d Peterson said in his response to Sweet, which he shared with Inside Higher Ed<\/em>. The Plato texts include passages from his Socratic dialogue Symposium<\/em> <\/em>that discuss patriarchy, masculinity, gender identity and the human condition. In one excerpt, the \u201cMyth of the Androgyne,\u201d the Greek playwright Aristophanes says, \u201cFirst, you should learn the nature of humanity\u00a0\u2026 for in the first place there were three kinds of human being and not two as nowadays, male and female. No, there was also a third kind, a combination of both genders.\u201d<\/p>\n Peterson ultimately chose to revise his syllabus and replace the censored material with lectures on free speech and academic freedom. \u201cI\u2019m thinking of using this as a case study and [to] assign some of the texts written by journalists covering the story to discuss,\u201d Peterson told Inside Higher Ed<\/em> via text. \u201cI want [students] to know what is being censored.\u201d <\/p>\n Another censored class is Introduction to Race and Ethnicity. Students enrolled in the sociology course this spring were told via email Tuesday that the class was canceled because there was no way to bring it into compliance with the system policy. One professor, who wished to remain anonymous, was asked in the fall to remove content related to feminism and queer cinema from their History of Film class. The professor refused, and the dean resubmitted the syllabus as a noncore \u201cspecial topics\u201d class, which enrolled students were notified of Wednesday. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m seeing the enrollment drops as we speak,\u201d the professor said. <\/p>\n The enrollment declines could have the same result as the course review. <\/p>\n \u201cThe expectation is that a lot of those classes will ultimately be canceled, not because of content but because of underenrollment,\u201d said another professor in the College of Arts and Sciences who wished to remain anonymous. <\/p>\n English faculty members received an email Tuesday from senior executive associate dean of the college Cynthia Werner telling them that literature with major plot lines that concern gay, lesbian or transgender identities should not be taught in core-curriculum classes. <\/p>\n In a follow-up email Wednesday, Werner said, \u201cIf a course includes eight books and only one has a main character who has an LGBTQ identity and the plot lines are not overly focused on sexual orientation (i.e. that is THE main plot line), I personally think it would be OK to keep the book in the course.\u201d She also clarified that faculty may assign textbooks with chapters that cover transgender identity, so long as they do not talk about the material or include it on assignments or exam questions. <\/p>\n In November, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents decided that courses that \u201cadvocate race or gender ideology, sexual orientation, or gender identity\u201d would be subject to presidential approval and launched a systemwide, artificial intelligence\u2013driven course-review process across all five campuses. Faculty members are still confused about who exactly is reviewing their syllabi. <\/p>\n \u201cThe university is doing different things in different departments and colleges. They\u2019re interpreting these policies differently,\u201d said Leonard Bright, a professor of government and public service at Texas A&M and president of the university\u2019s American Association of University Professors chapter. \u201cI\u2019ve heard some say they were told that there are some committees [carrying out the review]. I\u2019ve heard some say that it\u2019s just the provost and his close affiliates. We really don\u2019t have a real clear answer as to how these decisions are being made.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also unclear whether Texas A&M is violating a rule from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that requires institutions to seek its approval before revising its core curriculum and \u201cdeleting courses.\u201d A spokesperson for the university did not respond to Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u2019s questions about the review Wednesday, including a question about how many total courses have been canceled so far. <\/p>\n The Texas A&M AAUP condemned the university\u2019s decision to censor Plato in a statement Wednesday. <\/p>\n \u201cAt a public university, this action raises serious legal concerns, including viewpoint discrimination and violations of constitutionally protected academic freedom,\u201d the AAUP chapter wrote. \u201cBeyond the legal implications, the moral stakes are profound. Silencing 2,500-year-old ideas from one of the world\u2019s most influential thinkers betrays the mission of higher education and denies students the opportunity to engage critically with the foundations of Western thought. A research university that censors Plato abandons its obligation to truth, inquiry, and the public trust\u2014and should not be regarded as a serious institution of higher learning. We are deeply saddened to witness the decline of one of Texas\u2019s great universities.\u201d <\/p>\n The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression also slammed the move. <\/p>\n \u201cTexas A&M now believes Plato doesn\u2019t belong in an introductory philosophy course,\u201d Lindsie Rank, director of campus rights advocacy at FIRE, said in a statement. \u201cThis is what happens when the board of regents gives university bureaucrats veto power over academic content. The board didn\u2019t just invite censorship, they unleashed it with immediate and predictable consequences. You don\u2019t protect students by banning 2,400-year-old philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The censored Plato texts include passages from his Socratic dialogue Symposium that discuss patriarchy, masculinity, gender identity and the human condition. Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | Nice_Media_PRO\/iStock\/Getty Images | rawpixel At least 200 courses in the Texas A&M University College of Arts and Sciences have been flagged or canceled by university leaders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[7089,21854,21853,1085,1010],"class_list":{"0":"post-40745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-carries","9":"tag-censored","10":"tag-plato","11":"tag-review","12":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}