Texas A&M University has dismissed Melissa McCoul, a Texas A&M University professor with the College of Arts and Sciences. This decision followed repeated pressure from state officials and public university administrators to remove her over her course material on gender. Mark Welsh III, the university president, announced the plan on Tuesday. In a faculty and student address that accompanied the announcement, Koepke framed the bad news.
Welsh had just shot a supportive video for McCoul days earlier, calmly declaring that firing McCoul was “not gonna happen.” This is the part that really made students and faculty raise their eyebrows. The undated video did not include the full version of McCoul or the student who asked the question about her pedagogical approach. Welsh shared that he only learned about the problems with McCoul’s course over the summer. He went above and beyond to make sure that the course lived up to its catalog descriptions.
Welsh’s recent bout of trolling is consistent with the record Welsh—who has maintained a troubling, conventional understanding of gender—has laid out in this regard. One such unidentified student claimed that after coming out against the decision, the president announced there are only two genders. He further pledged to freeze merit funding programs that spread harmful gender ideology. This declaration has deeply intensified the current national debate regarding academic freedom and political influence in our schools and universities.
The ensuing uproar resulted in the dismissal of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the head of the department. This seemingly small department change indicates a much bigger administrative house-cleaning in response to ongoing and sustained pressure from Republican lawmakers. That bipartisan effort Brian Harrison, a Republican state lawmaker, went above and beyond to raise the volume on calls for McCoul’s firing. She posted videos of her lesson plans and called on Texas’ Governor Greg Abbott to intervene.
To defend the decision, Governor Abbott went to social media platform X to applaud McCoul’s removal. The professor has since been dismissed, he posted, intensifying the political forces at play around this incident. Additionally, Harrison was very energetic in posting materials from McCoul’s class. His actions raised uncomfortable questions around whether what she was teaching her students was even appropriate.
In the wake of this entire debacle, students have begun talking about the impact of this incident on both academic integrity and freedom of speech. As one student passionately voiced her concerns, “I don’t think it’s okay to be teaching this illegal thing out here. Another expressed their frustration at Welsh’s order itself, calling out the pressure put on by outside entities.
Welsh, himself a former faculty member, stressed his direct relationship with academic leadership. He underscored the need to make sure that actual course materials match what’s in the catalog. Along with our Faculty Vice Chancellor, he iterated to our academic administration that course content should match what is in the catalog. This holds true for each and every one of our course sections.
This incident has sparked considerable debate within and outside Texas A&M University about the intersection of education, politics, and personal beliefs. The university strives to stay ahead of these challenges, but needs to hear the concerns of both the students and the faculty.