Some Texas community colleges remove course materials amid broader push to limit gender identity discussions

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Some Texas community colleges have ordered thorough course reviews and put restrictions on what faculty can teach, with at least two schools pointing to state laws they believe apply to high schoolers in their fast-growing dual credit programs.

The course reviews are part of a political firestorm rippling through higher education institutions across the state. University systems began ordering their own reviews after a viral video of a gender identity discussion in a Texas A&M children’s literature class led last month to a professor’s firing and the university president’s resignation. Angelo State University quietly banned its professors from mentioning transgender and nonbinary identities, with the school citing a need to align with a federal executive order, a gubernatorial letter and a state law that recognizes only two sexes.

The Texas Tribune spoke with several faculty at three community colleges — Alvin Community College, Blinn College and San Jacinto College — who said their schools' orders have led them to pull content from their courses. The professors asked not to be named out of fear of losing their jobs.

At Alvin, located south of Houston, school officials told instructors not to discuss gender identity or homosexuality in their dual credit courses, and not to use transgender or nonbinary students’ preferred pronouns or names, according to interviews with faculty members and documents reviewed by the Tribune.

Instructors said Alvin officials told them they need to help local high schools comply with two state laws approved earlier this year: Senate Bill 412, which tightens a ban on “obscene” material for minors, and Senate Bill 12, which bans Texas K-12 schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity.

“At Alvin, they're telling us, we have to do this so that we can make our ISD partners happy,” an instructor said.

Multiple faculty members also told the Tribune they first heard of the restrictions at a mandatory dual credit workshop Pearland ISD hosted in early August. Alvin officials reiterated the restrictions at a faculty meeting weeks later, instructors said.

Pearland ISD officials denied that they had raised concerns that Alvin’s dual credit courses would run afoul of SB 412 and SB 12. Larry Berger, the district’s superintendent, said that the school district and Alvin communicate regularly and “collaborate” to comply with new laws, but that colleges make independent decisions about curriculum review, faculty guidance and instructional content.

Alvin spokesperson John Tompkins did not confirm or deny the guidance, but said faculty and administrators are following legal counsel so that their “course content both on campus and in dual enrollment classes meets the requirements under the new laws and directives.” Tompkins did not cite any specific laws or directives.

About 100 miles away, Blinn College in central Texas has ordered faculty to review their courses to ensure their dual credit material complies with SB 412. Professors told the Tribune that school officials have not given them guidance on how to interpret the law, what is considered “obscene material” or whether they expect them to limit discussions of gender identity.

That lack of guidance has left faculty confused and fearful of what they can and can’t say.

“They're making us go through the motions of, ‘well, you need to go through all of your classes and make sure that you are in compliance.’ Well, compliance with what?” a Blinn College instructor said. “I just saw myself as the person that's going to get their head on a chopping block.”

With the number of high school students enrolling in college-level classes ballooning in recent years, faculty members at Alvin and Blinn told the Tribune it is difficult to identify which of their classes have minors. That means faculty have had to conduct course reviews for nearly all their courses, they said.

At San Jacinto College near Houston, deans held small, private meetings to inform departments that course content could not refer to gender beyond the male and female binary, faculty told the Tribune.

Instructors said San Jacinto officials cited the same laws and policies as Texas Tech University System’s recent guidance restricting instruction — President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only male and female genders as assigned at birth and House Bill 229, a state law that requires a strict binary definition of gender for the collection of vital statistics, but doesn’t mention academic discussions.

Amanda Fenwick, a San Jacinto College spokesperson, said the school has asked faculty members to review their course content to ensure it aligns with state-required student growth goals outlined in the Texas Academic Course Guide Manual and the Workforce Education Course Manual. Fenwick said the school will keep some course content related to gender identity if it aligns with those student growth goals. She did not provide details about the materials the school asked instructors to pause or the laws or directives that prompted the review.

Unlike four-year universities, community colleges do not have a gender studies major or department. But faculty said the new restrictions are already limiting them from teaching their curriculum to its full extent.

An Alvin social sciences instructor said they had to skip an entire introductory chapter in a textbook and forgo sharing PowerPoint presentations to avoid running afoul of the new rules. Faculty at Alvin have also been debating whether to put an age requirement on one of the school’s courses. A San Jacinto instructor said they will have to edit out mentions of gender identity in lecture slides that mention family structures.

“It was like cutting off a limb,” the San Jacinto instructor said of course adjustments they had to make. “Because for some professors, they have assignments, they have projects they've invested their time in making and creating.”

The Tribune asked Alvin, Blinn and San Jacinto officials to share any guidance they have provided faculty about the course reviews. None of them did. Faculty at the three schools said officials have not issued formal, written policies about the restrictions, adding that they often have been communicated verbally in closed-door meetings.

Alvin and Blinn have pointed to the high school students taking classes in their campuses as the driving force behind their course reviews, which reflects how central dual credit courses have become to the community college business model in Texas, said Trey Miller, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Dallas who has studied dual credit programs.

In 2023, Texas legislators changed how community colleges were financed to incentivize them to help high school students take college classes. Participating in dual credit was seen as a way to strengthen college-going and completion rates: Research shows dual credit students are more likely to enroll in college and finish their degree on time than their classmates. The colleges now receive state dollars when high school students earn at least 15 college credit hours on their campuses through dual credit courses.

More high school students have been getting a jump start on college since then, further upping the financial stakes of community colleges’ relationships with their local school districts.

“A big K-12 school district can [make up] a large number of the students attending a community college these days. They can't lose those students,” Miller said. “They will adapt so that they can keep district partners happy, so they don't lose them to another community college, especially in metro areas.”

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: San Jacinto College, Texas Tech University System and University of Texas - Dallas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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