At the end of April, officials with the Lubbock-based Texas Tech University System announced they were caving in to political pressure from the GOP and implementing sweeping restrictions on LGBTQ+ academic programs, research and classroom discussions.
This week, though, The Texas Tribune is reporting that at the same time Tech officials were implementing the ban, they were warning faculty members not to tell anybody, lest these restrictions prompt students not to attend Texas Tech.
On April 17, before the restrictions were made public, Mark Sheridan, Texas Tech’s vice provost for graduate and postdoctoral affairs and dean of the Graduate School sent out an email to faculty members directing them to only tell certain prospective and newly-admitted graduate students about the restrictions “if their stated interests might conflict with the restrictions,” The Texas Tribune reports.
Tech spokesperson Allison Hirth, when asked why all prospective graduate students aren’t being told about the new rules, claimed that “’program-specific advising is the most effective way’ to let students know what they can and can’t study. She also claimed, “This guidance is part of that broader effort to support transparency and student success.”
Surprisingly, Texas Tribune notes, “Graduate students and higher education experts say that approach could leave students learning too late that Texas Tech will not allow the work they want to pursue.”
Hmm. Imagine that — not telling prospective students ahead of time that they might not be able to pursue their chosen field of study could be a bad thing.
— Tammye Nash