The University of Texas at Austin is moving to eliminate woke majors including women’s and gender studies, and the race, indigeneity and migration major. The university has stopped enrolling new students in those programs and is also weighing a restructuring of majors within its Department of European and Eurasian Studies.
Danielle Pilar Clealand, interim chair of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, told faculty in an email that “the Provost’s office rejected our proposal to keep our majors.” University spokesperson Mike Rosen confirmed the enrollment freeze, saying, “Students currently enrolled in those majors will be able to complete their degree.”
Most Americans would probably consider those majors worthless and only qualify people to get a job at Subway making sandwiches or tossing salads.
Faculty Push Back Against Major Eliminations
Faculty members say they were given only two weeks in August to draft a proposal for replacement programs. Julie Minich, a professor who teaches Mexican American and Latina/o studies, said faculty proposed a new social and cultural analysis major and asked to preserve most of the programs now being cut. According to UT Austin ethnic studies program cuts, Minich argues the move amounts to censorship.
“Eliminating a major in this way is censorship. It is reducing what students are able to study,” Minich said. “As these classes become less available to students, one, it curtails student freedom to learn, but two, it curtails students’ career prospects.”
Lauren Gutterman, an associate professor who teaches American studies, said the fallout is already creating uncertainty about which courses can even be offered in upcoming semesters. “Even what courses we will be able to offer next semester is unclear at this point,” she said. “What the next academic year, the 2027-28 academic year, will look like is just incredibly unclear and chaotic.”
Communication Breakdown and Broader Texas Trend
Faculty also say they have received little explanation from senior administrators. Gutterman, who has been at UT since 2015, called the silence from leadership unprecedented in her time at the university. “There’s been no direct communication from the provost with faculty in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, no clear explanation about why these degree plans are being shut down,” she said. “There’s no evidence that this is response to student demands. So the justification is just entirely lacking.”
At the European and Eurasian Studies department, Paola Bonifazio, who teaches Italian cinema and gender studies, said faculty have not been formally told their majors are being restructured. “We have been telling our students that these programs are still going, until they are not,” she said. “The students currently in the programs want to keep these programs open, but there’s very little room for their voices to be heard.”
UT Austin is not acting in isolation. Texas A&M eliminated its women’s and gender studies degree earlier this year, citing low enrollment and high costs. The Texas Tech University System has also expanded restrictions on research and ordered campuses to remove programs focused on sexual orientation and gender identity. Some UT faculty have said these changes reflect an ideological shift driven by the state’s Republican leadership.
What Happens Next for Students and Programs
The Department of Social and Cultural Analysis currently houses six majors, nine minors and certificates, and four graduate programs. Clealand’s email noted that the provost’s office agreed to retain urban studies and American studies as majors, but pushed to consolidate all other programs. Interim dean Daniel Brinks has suggested creating a broader ethnic studies or social and cultural analysis major with subject-area concentrations.
In May, the UT Board of Regents approved a policy allowing university presidents to more easily cut academic programs and eliminate positions tied to those programs. Gutterman said she fears the major cuts are a step toward removing faculty whose views do not align with university leadership. UT has not responded to questions about how many students are currently enrolled in the affected programs or detailed its reasoning for eliminating them.
