Texas Tech Regents Had New Core Curricula on Today's Agenda for Final Action
The Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee had core course inventories for Texas Tech, Angelo State and Midwestern State on today's agenda for final action under Education Code Section 51.315. This account is based on the posted materials, not on a vote.
New core curricula for Texas Tech University, Angelo State University and Midwestern State University were on today's agenda of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents for final action, according to the system's posted Nov. 11 agenda book.
The item was listed on the Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee agenda, which was scheduled for 9:55 a.m. in Lubbock. The agenda book says all members of the board serve on that committee, and that "action taken by this committee is final and does not require a report to the Full Board." The open meeting was posted with the secretary of state for 8:30 a.m. at the System Administration Building, 1508 Knoxville Avenue, according to the official posting notice and the system's meeting materials page.
This account is based on those posted materials, not on a vote. Dock Line has not reported the committee's action.
What the recommendation asks the board to do
The recommendation, revised Nov. 5 and presented by Regent Shelley Sweatt, would have the board accept and approve the general education curriculum proposed by the three universities and "thereby certify compliance with Texas Education Code Section 51.315, effective January 1, 2027." The chairman would be authorized to submit that certification to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and to the standing House and Senate higher-education committees by Jan. 1, 2027.
The inventory of courses attached to the item would be "effective for courses beginning fall 2027." Each core is 42 lower-division semester credit hours, divided into the foundational component areas set out in the agenda — communications, mathematics, life and physical sciences, language, philosophy and culture, creative arts, American history, government/political, and social and behavioral sciences — plus 6 hours of component-area options.
The agenda cites Section 51.315 as requiring the board to review the core at least every five years and to ensure the courses (1) "are foundational and fundamental to a sound postsecondary education," (2) "are necessary to prepare students for civic and professional life," (3) "equip students for participation in the workforce and in the betterment of society," and (4) "ensure a breadth of knowledge in compliance with applicable accreditation standards." It also says the board "has considered the potential costs the curriculum may impose on students."
The item does not list courses being removed, does not say whether any course left off the new inventory would still be taught, and does not say whether Chancellor Brandon Creighton's earlier directives shaped the lists.
What a newspaper comparison added — and what it did not
The Texas Tribune reported this morning that, after comparing the Texas Tech proposal with the university's 2025-26 list of approved core courses, more than 20 classes would be removed from the approved core, including a literature class focused on social justice and the environment and a women's and gender studies class exploring race, class and gender across the world. Dock Line did not independently complete that course-by-course comparison. The proposed Texas Tech list attached to the agenda does include "WS 2300 Introduction to Women's Studies" among Language, Philosophy and Culture options. The Tribune noted that the current list uses a different course title, "Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies," and said it is unclear whether the university renamed the class, changed its content or replaced it.
The Tribune also reported that the 2025 law, which Creighton authored as a Republican state senator, does not require universities to remove classes on particular subjects, and that other systems have already taken classes off their core lists, including 78 at Texas A&M's College Station campus and 97 at the University of Houston's flagship. Those figures are the Tribune's.
Andrew Martin, outgoing president of Texas Tech's AAUP chapter, told the Tribune that faculty members traditionally decided which classes met general-education requirements, with regents giving final approval, and that he had not heard whether the faculty committee took part in the latest review. "I believe that to be an egregious overreach and a clear violation of institutional norms," he said of greater regent involvement, according to the Tribune.
A core list is not a quiet ban
State law now requires this review. A course that no longer counts toward the 42-hour core is not, by that fact alone, abolished, and the packet does not claim that it is. Students still have to take a set of foundational classes. The question before the regents is which classes belong in that set.
That is a legitimate question. A core curriculum should form the mind for work, citizenship and truth, not wander into every campus fashion. It should also be described honestly. If the board is dropping courses, it ought to say which ones and why, in public, against the four tests in the statute, rather than leaving newspapers to infer the cuts from a side-by-side list.
We wrote last week about the larger fight over Texas public universities after the election in Democrats Inherit Texas Universities Remade by Republicans. Regents, Not Repeal Bills, Will Decide What Changes. The item on today's agenda was one of those decisions, put before the committee for final action.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 says, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Regents should apply that standard to the inventory in front of them, and then own the vote.
