UT Austin Drops Ethnic, Race, and Gender Majors AmidAdministrative Cuts
The University of Texas at Austin is eliminating majors focused on Africans and the African diaspora, Mexican Americans/Latinos, and women and gender, replacing them with a new cross‑disciplinary department and requiring professors to propose a new major by semester’s end. Students already enrolled can finish their degrees, but the provost’s office reportedly rejected the department’s plan to keep the majors. The move, done without public notice, follows a state law giving campus presidents broad discretion to cut programs and fits a broader pattern of political pressure on race/gender studies in Texas higher education. Professors cannot appeal the decision, and critics say the cuts send a message about the value of these programs while consolidations continue at other Texas universities.