Dr. Leonard Bright

📢 Our open letter reminds public higher ed leaders + administrators that their actions must follow the law, not political rhetoric. The First Amendment protects the teaching of controversial topics. Executive orders and legislation to the contrary cannot override this constitutional protection.

Partisan Fury Got Him a Presidency. And Then It Took Him Down. Mark A. Welsh’s tenure at Texas A&M was defined by a political environment that ultimately proved impossible to navigate.

www.chronicle.com/article/part...

The moral of the story, as Dr. Bright of TAMU AAUP points out: Stick to your principles!

I attended the demonstration for Academic Freedom organized by Texas A&M’s students. Well over 100 students, faculty, staff, and administrators took part. Our message was clear: “Defend academic freedom with every breath” Whoop! 🙌

How a secret recording of a gender identity lecture upended Texas A&M Officials have struggled to detail the exact reasons for the A&M professor’s termination, citing a technical issue with her course description. Faculty say the move was politically motivated.

www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/t...

More detailed, extremely troubling account of the debacle at Texas A&M

The fallout at Texas A&M painfully underscores the fact that many citizens do not understand the role of higher education. This lack of understanding has made them susceptible to misinformation, especially in a political environment that is actively working to keep it that way.

Texas A&M professor fired over discussion of gender identity Melissa McCoul's firing comes after disciplinary action against administrators.

Melissa McCoul's firing comes after disciplinary action against administrators.

Texas Professor Fired After Accusations of Teaching ‘Gender Ideology’

“When university presidents have little choice but to dismiss faculty members’ expertise and enforce ideological edicts, the space for free speech and open inquiry on our campuses is undeniably being suffocated.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...

This is a video of President Welsh responding in 2023 to a reporter's question about academic freedom. He promised to defend it with "every breath."

What happened between then and now? It shows how how quickly things can change if we (faculty) fail to continually defend our most important values.

Good idea!

Texas A&M professor fired after viral video disputes termination An attorney for Melissa McCoul, seen in a video clashing with a student over gender-identity content in her class, said the professor is weighing her legal options.

The professor fired by Texas A&M University on Tuesday for allegedly not changing her course content to match its description, is disputing her cause for termination and exploring legal options, according to a statement her attorney.

🗣️📢PRESS RELEASE: “Texas A&M University Caves to Political Pressure, Violating Faculty Rights to Academic Freedom and Due Process.” 🧵

1/5

Faculty members also are citizens of the nation, state, and community; therefore, when speaking, writing, or acting outside their academic appointment, they must be free from institutional censorship or discipline...

Within the bounds of professional behavior, faculty members also have full freedom to express disagreement with other members of the university community. Although a faculty member observes the regulations of the institution, they maintain the right to criticize and seek revision.

may threaten the faculty member’s professional career or the material benefits accruing from it. Each faculty member is entitled to full freedom in the classroom in discussing the subject being taught.

and to voice and publish individual conclusions concerning the significance of evidence that they consider relevant. Each faculty member must be free from the corrosive fear threat that others inside or outside the university community because their views may differ,

Academic Freedom: Institutions of higher education exist for the common good. The common good depends upon an uninhibited search for truth and its open expression.
Hence, it is essential that faculty members be free to pursue scholarly inquiry and creative scholarship without undue restriction,

Here is Texas A&M's official statement on Academic Freedom as written in its own policies (12.01.99.M1 section 2.1). This shows just how inconsistent Hagar's and Welsh's actions were to the the very policies they promised to uphold.

The situation at Texas A&M this week is a clear indication of the importance that higher education institutions be ran by expert educators. Politicians inside and out Texas A&M appear to be running the show.

Let’s be honest—SB 37 doesn’t solve real problems; it creates them. It strips professors and experts of protection from political pressure, putting truth in the classroom at risk. Texans deserve an education system grounded in knowledge, not political fear.

Texas Legislature’s SB 37 will turn Faculty Senates into Franken-Senates. A Frankenstein zombieish type committee without legitimacy, spirit, or the independent faculty voice. We must resist such disrespect.

Federal Court Says First Amendment Bars Government From Deporting Students and Faculty on Basis of Political Viewpoint, Says Challenge to Trump Policy Can Go Forward

Just Now: a federal judge ruled that our case (AAUP v. Rubio) seeking to block the Trump admin from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, & deportations of noncitizen students & faculty members who participate in pro-Palestinian protests can go forward.

@knightcolumbia.org

Kyle Zagon’s quote: “To imply that our people, our very name, that means to wrestle with God, need to be protected from dissenting views, is infantilizing and opportunistic.”

Wow, what a powerful statement!

Texas Senate approves bill that could reshape how history and race are taught in state universities An overhauled version of Senate Bill 37 would also allow anyone to file complaints that could lead schools to lose funds.

I have a suspicion that SB 37 was never about improving higher ed, but to inflict retribution and punishment for a petty dispute between Texas LT Gov and a group a university faculty at one university.

www.texastribune.org/2025/04/10/t...

At the TX Senate Education K-16 committee hearing the other day, one of the Senators made this comment about Jack Welch’s take on “shared leadership” in an attempt to diminish the importance of “shared governance” in faculty senates.  

Jack Welch never said nor wrote this!

Here is my public testimony against SB 37, a bill that seeks to threaten faculty, silence our voices, and punish us for having the courage to speak truth to power.

Visiting the Texas Legislature and grading papers, as I wait to give public testimony against SB 37. I consider the bill to be an example of authoritarianism in higher education.