UT Austin Removes Women’s and Gender Studies Courses From Core Curriculum
- The provost’s office rejected all women’s and gender studies courses from counting toward the core curriculum at the University of Texas, according to an internal email reviewed by...
- Under graduation requirements, all undergraduate students must select courses from an approved menu to fulfill core requirements before earning a degree.
- The curriculum cuts align with UT's transition to a redesigned core curriculum slated for launch in fall 2028, pending final approval.
The provost’s office rejected all women’s and gender studies courses from counting toward the core curriculum at the University of Texas, according to an internal email reviewed by the Austin American-Statesman. Department chair Danielle Clealand informed faculty that the provost’s office rejected every course from that field, alongside dozens of other classes focusing on race, as part of a broader academic overhaul.
Provost Rejections Target Race and Gender Studies
Under graduation requirements, all undergraduate students must select courses from an approved menu to fulfill core requirements before earning a degree. The provost’s office eliminated courses including Mexican American Women from 1940 — present, Women and the Holocaust, Intro to African American Women’s History, LGBTQ Literature and Culture, and Native American Women’s History from that menu. The Social and Cultural Analysis Department asked the provost to review 49 courses for core inclusion, but only 16 were approved. Jo Hsu, a professor specializing in gender studies and rhetoric, noted that Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies was the sole field within the newly consolidated department to have every single course rejected. Lisa Moore, former chair of the women and gender studies department, condemned the decision as viewpoint discrimination. It just seems like a very intentional starvation of our work. We’re being set up to fail. While the affected classes will remain in the course catalog as electives, faculty warn that their removal from the core and the elimination of related majors will cause enrollment to drop. Moore noted this vulnerability is heightened after University of Texas regents changed policies to allow low-enrollment programs and professors to be cut.
Transition to a New Core Framework
The curriculum cuts align with UT’s transition to a redesigned core curriculum slated for launch in fall 2028, pending final approval. The upcoming model narrows qualifying courses while requiring students to take classes in Western civilizations, humanities, and artificial intelligence. Faculty members were given a strict deadline earlier in August to defend their courses using review forms tied to Senate Bill 37. That state law mandates that all core courses remain broad, beneficial to society, relevant to professional or civic life, and balanced beginning in 2027. Maria Cotera, a professor of Mexican American and Latina Studies, said faculty had less than two weeks to defend their courses and build new syllabi without receiving reasons for the eventual rejections or major eliminations. (We’re) essentially digging our own graves before we’re pushed into them. University spokesperson Mike Rosen did not respond to requests for comment regarding the curriculum decisions. President Jim Davis previously told regents that preparing for the new core requires a two-year university-wide effort to meet state certification deadlines by January 2027.
