As Texas targets DEI and curriculum, even women’s universities like TWU feel the pressure

Texas Woman’s University, founded in 1901 by the state to advance women’s education, is now feeling pressured to downplay its women and gender studies program.

The push from Texas lawmakers and the threats of federal funding cuts over special programs aimed at women, Black history, Hispanic heritage and gay studies have caused fear and anxiety for those in higher education, educators said.

TWU hasn’t been immune to the effects as a public university but has stayed under the radar as new laws against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been enacted since 2023. Although it was opened to advance women’s education and is the largest women-focused university system in the U.S., TWU has been open to men since 1972. The campus in Denton has a total enrollment of over 12,000 students. TWU also has campuses in Dallas and Houston.

Numerous professors in North Texas who head gender, multicultural and LGBT+ programs declined to be interviewed for this story, citing fear of calling attention to their studies.

“I’ve been slow to reply, partly because of the exact political landscape,” said one TWU professor. “I’ve been advised to be cautious about even being visible, since that could bring unwanted attention to our program.”

This chilling effect is happening nationwide in higher education, as administrators and educators refused to speak out of fear for political retaliation.

“[The silence] is just reflective of the incredible fear and vulnerability that many faculty members face. Some people are more vulnerable than others,” said Lauren Gutterman, an American studies professor at the University of Texas at Austin and an executive committee member of the school’s American Association of University Professors chapter.

While Texas schools have not yet faced federal sanctions on gender and multicultural studies, state legislators have proposed several bills that would restructure institutions and how they teach.

The Trump administration continues to threaten Harvard University with funding freezes after the school refused to limit activism on campus. Other universities, such as Columbia and Princeton, face similar financial cuts.

Gutterman said many believe the Trump administration has not targeted Texas schools because of a tacit understanding that the state’s conservative leadership is already doing it.

State leaders “will exert their control over universities and colleges and censor teaching around issues they don’t support, especially around race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality,” Gutterman said.

Last session, Texas lawmakers banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs at publicly funded colleges and universities, resulting in at least 100 jobs being cut across the state.

TWU closed its Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Outreach and opened the Center for First-Generation Students in its stead. The school also conducted a universitywide legal and compliance review.

“We may have to tweak some practices and stop some altogether, but embracing people with diverse perspectives and lived experiences will endure,” TWU Chancellor and President Carine Feyton said in a statement in August 2023. “That is core to our identity.”

This year, legislation aims to prevent DEI in curriculum and research.

The AAUP’s Texas Conference and the Texas American Federation of Teachers named 16 bills of “concern” filed in the Texas Legislature. The group said these bills could infringe on the freedom to learn, teach and research.

At the top of the group’s list is Senate Bill 37, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, and backed by Sen. Brent Hagenbuch, R-Denton. If passed, the bill would create a “governing board” to ensure curriculum at universities doesn’t endorse certain ideologies. It would also provide a review of administrative hires, curtail the independence of faculty senates and “investigate matters of academic discourse at institutions of higher ed and refer findings to the Attorney General.”

“For too long, unelected faculty senates have operated behind closed doors, steering curriculum decisions, influencing institutional policy, issuing political statements to divest from Israel, and even organizing votes of ‘no confidence’ that undermine public trust,” Creighton said in a statement about the bill.

Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, former program director and founder of the multicultural women’s and gender studies undergraduate major program at TWU, said these legislative trends are part of a historical cycle.

“I’m from the South, and education has always been a political issue when it should not have been,” Phillips-Cunningham said. “Women and African Americans have always been at the forefront of making the public argument that education is a right.”

Phillips-Cunningham is now at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she teaches in the labor studies and employment relations department.

For her, the field of women and gender studies sparked a love for learning. She said stereotypes can lead to assumptions of the curriculum. She hoped to combat that in her proposal for the program. Originally, the program had several concentrations to support students focused on issues from leadership in nonprofit organizations to gender inequality in health care.

“I wanted students to have options,” Phillips-Cunningham said. “With guidance, you could craft a degree that really spoke to your interests and that challenged you most.”

However, the program at TWU and others are in danger this legislative session. Schools around the state have begun to eliminate programs or degree requirements relating to underrepresented groups, such as the LGBTQ+ minor at Texas A&M University and the cultural diversity and global cultures flag courses at the University of Texas.

Matt Flores, assistant vice president of communications at TWU, said the university “does not comment on any proposed or pending legislation.”

“The university will continue to follow the laws outlined in any new legislation that may be passed this session,” he said.

Sandra Jordan, chief of staff and vice president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, said much of the backlash against DEI stems from a misunderstanding of the term.

“It’s not a term used to suggest divisions among the population, but meeting students where they are in order to help them be successful,” Jordan said.

For example, many offices supporting nontraditional students — such as veterans, those over 25 and students with children — were created under DEI initiatives. Texas universities found these provided additional support and resulted in higher student retention and graduation rates.

The lawmakers’ thrust against DEI is aimed at reversing what they see as a trend in liberal ideals over the last few decades. Jordan said this fixation on preventing hyperliberal ideas at Southern colleges is unnecessary, as they tend to self-regulate their curriculum and programs.

“I have yet to meet a liberal university in the Southeast,” Jordan said. “They approach the curriculum in quite a balanced manner, I believe.”

The tensions between government and higher education have led to nationwide debate over how and if public university curriculum should be regulated.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools believes the standards should be established by academics, with peer review. The association represents over 800 institutions across the Southeast, which agree on standards and alert the group when another college may be in violation.

Jordan said state lawmakers seem willing to wrest control not only from experts in the field but also from boards of regents and boards of governors who are charged with directing the institutions.

Those boards “seem to be left out of this conversation,” Jordan said.

A member of the TWU Board of Regents declined to comment.

Nationwide, major education institutions face challenges to their curriculum and research as government or public officials directly condemn their practices.

Gutterman, of the association of university professors, said she has heard university leaders pledge support for humanities and social sciences studies.

“But I haven’t heard them voice explicit support for LGBTQ+ studies or Black studies, for example,” she said. “It’s hard to know how much of that silence is in response to outside political pressures, and to what extent it reflects the priorities of our leaders.”

Over 150 administrators of major universities signed a statement released April 22 condemning the “government overreach and political interference” restricting higher education.

“We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight,” the statement said. “However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live and work on our campuses.”

This statement came in response to the Trump administration withholding federal funds from institutions in noncompliance with DEI reform.

No signatories represented Texas.