The University of Texas at Austin joins Texas A&M and Texas Tech in restructuring the controversial curricula.
By Catholics for Catholics
Goodbye, wokeness. Well, at least in part in the University of Texas at Austin.
The university is doing-away with various race- and gender-focused majors, marking the latest and most major step in the university’s ongoing renovation of its liberal arts curriculum, according to a story by the Daily Wire.
No more will UT-Austin offer majors in Women’s, Sexualities and Gender Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican American or Latino Studies. The learning center is also eliminating the Race, Indigeneity and Migration major, according to faculty emails obtained by the Daily Texan.
Nevertheless, those students who are already enrolled in the mentioned majors will be permitted to conclude their degrees, according to UT-Austin spokesman Mike Rosen. UT-Austin is instead asking faculty in the just formed Department of Social and Cultural Analysis to develop a new major that would combine some of the department’s academic pursuits.
The decision is a significant reversal. Earlier this year, UT-Austin consolidated several departments focusing on race, ethnicity, and gender into larger academic units.
The interim chair of the Social and Cultural Analysis Department, Danielle Clealand, told faculty this week that the provost’s office had refused the department’s proposal to keep the existing majors.
“The provost’s office rejected our proposal to keep our majors,” Clealand wrote.
Faculty members have characterized the move as politically motivated and accused the university of suppressing particular areas of study. Julie Minich, a professor of Mexican American and Latino Studies, called the elimination “censorship” and “viewpoint discrimination.” American Studies professor Lauren Gutterman said the changes amounted to an administrative attack on the programs.
Save and Share This Catholic Patriotic Minute!
