At least 200 courses at the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University have been flagged or canceled by university leadership due to content related to gender or race, as the university conducts a system-wide review of all curricula, faculty members told Inside Higher Ed. The news has since been picked up by numerous U.S. media outlets.

This is only the beginning of the course review process ordered by the system’s board of regents. In December, instructors were required to submit syllabi for courses in the core curriculum for review, and some have yet to receive feedback on their courses, which are scheduled to begin on Monday.
So far, those targeted include queer filmmakers, feminist writers, and even ancient Western philosophers. One faculty member, philosophy professor Martin Peterson, who was scheduled to teach Contemporary Moral Problems this spring, was instructed by university leadership to remove several passages by Plato.

The department chair gave Peterson two options: either remove “sections on race and gender and Plato readings that may contain such content,” or be reassigned to teach another philosophy course.
“Your decision to prohibit a philosophy professor from teaching Plato is unprecedented … You are making Texas A&M famous—but not for the right reasons,” Peterson wrote in a response to Sweet, which he shared with Inside Higher Ed. Plato’s texts include passages from his Socratic dialogue The Symposium, which discusses patriarchy, masculinity, gender identity, and the human condition.

In one passage, “The Myth of the Androgyne,” the Greek playwright Aristophanes says: “First you must understand the nature of humankind … for originally there were three kinds of human beings, not two as there are now, male and female. No, there was also a third kind, a combination of both sexes.”
“In The Symposium, Plato describes homosexuality as entirely natural and suggests that there are more than two genders,” Peterson wrote in an op-ed for the outlet MS NOW, citing Aristophanes’ theory of three human genders: “Originally there were three human genders, not as now only two, that is, male and female, but there was also a third.”

Peterson ultimately decided to replace the censored material with lectures on freedom of speech and academic freedom. “I am considering using this as a case study and assigning some texts by journalists covering the story for discussion,” he said.

Additionally, another professor—who, unlike Peterson, wished to remain anonymous—was instructed in the fall to remove content related to feminism and queer cinema from his History of Film course. The professor refused.

The Texas A&M chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) condemned the university’s decision to censor Plato.

“At a public university, this action raises serious legal questions, including viewpoint discrimination and violations of constitutionally protected academic freedom,” the AAUP chapter wrote. “Beyond the legal implications, the moral stakes are profound. Silencing 2,500-year-old ideas from one of the world’s most influential thinkers betrays the mission of higher education and deprives students of the opportunity to critically engage with the foundations of Western thought. A research university that censors Plato abdicates its commitment to truth, inquiry, and the public trust—and would not be considered a serious institution of higher learning. We are deeply saddened to witness the decline of one of Texas’s great universities.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) also strongly condemned the move.
“Texas A&M now believes Plato does not belong in an introductory philosophy course,” said Lindsie Rank, FIRE’s director of campus rights advocacy, in a statement. “This is what happens when a board of regents grants university bureaucrats veto power over academic content. The board did not merely invite censorship; it unleashed it, with immediate and predictable consequences. You do not protect students by banning 2,400-year-old philosophy.”

Meanwhile, due to artificial intelligence–based software used to audit syllabi, at least 200 courses across various disciplines—from sociology and film to literature—have been flagged as problematic, canceled, or forced to undergo changes.

Published on Jutarnji.hr, January 13, 2026.