Texas A&M University eliminates women’s and gender studies program amid controversy

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M University announced Friday it is eliminating its women's and gender studies degree program, citing "limited student interest" and university policy changes. Current students enrolled in the program will be permitted to complete their degrees.

The decision follows a comprehensive review of 5,400 syllabi for the spring 2026 semester. The audit was launched after a viral video showed a student allegedly being removed from a classroom for questioning transgender-related content. In the footage, the student asked if teaching gender ideology was legal, citing executive orders from President Donald Trump.

The incident prompted the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents to mandate an audit of all courses. According to university reports, the program currently has 25 majors and 31 minors.

This move follows a broader reduction in academic offerings. In November 2024, the university eliminated 52 "low-performing" minors and certificate programs, including an LGBT studies minor.

Texas A&M University’s decision to shutter its Women’s and Gender Studies program—officially attributed to budgetary constraints and dwindling enrollment—marks a significant escalation in the ideological struggle currently reshaping American higher education. While the university cites fiscal pragmatism, the move is emblematic of a broader "culture war" sweeping through public institutions in conservative strongholds like Texas and Florida.

The administrative justification masks a distinctly political timeline. The program’s dissolution follows a high-profile controversy involving transgender-related curricula and a subsequent mandate from the Board of Regents for a comprehensive academic audit. This suggests the closure is less an administrative necessity and more a component of a systematic effort to realign higher education with conservative priorities, targeting disciplines perceived as bastions of progressive activism.

The intersection of national policy and local governance is increasingly visible in these academic disputes. The invocation of Trump-era executive orders within the context of classroom debate underscores how federal political mandates are being leveraged to challenge institutional autonomy.

For critics, the closure represents a targeted assault on academic freedom and a deliberate erasure of diverse intellectual perspectives. Conversely, proponents view the move as a necessary exercise in fiscal accountability, arguing that public universities must be purged of ideological "mission creep" to restore public trust in the state’s educational mandate.

While this incident has no direct impact on the day-to-day operations of the nail salon industry, phở restaurants, or immigration matters such as F2B or EB-5 visa processing, it serves as a stark reflection of the deep political polarization currently gripping the country. In the coffee shops of Little Saigon and across digital community forums, these "culture wars" regarding education, gender identity, and social policy are subjects of intense debate. This discourse reveals a complex ideological landscape across generations, spanning the entire spectrum from traditional conservatism to modern progressivism within the Vietnamese-American community.