Texas A&M Termination for Professor Teaching Trans Children’s Book
How closely do students read the course catalogs before they register for classes each semester? One teacher at Texas A&M was fired earlier this month for teaching a course that “was inconsistent with the published course description,” according to the university’s president, Mark A. Welsh III. Melissa McCoul, Professor of English, taught a children’s literature course over the summer. During the course, students are required to read several books for the course, some of which include LGBTQ+ themes and characters. While discussing Jude Saves the World, a middle grade reader featuring a nonbinary main character, one of the students in the course recorded an interaction with the professor where she asks McCoul, “I just have a question, because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching.” McCoul asked the student to leave the room after a moment of back-and-forth discussion, and a few days later the course was cancelled.
McCoul was set to start teaching again in the fall, but when the video taken by the student was circulated again by Texas Rep. Brian Harrison, Welsh fired McCoul and demoted both the Dean of the college and the English Department Chair. The official reason for the termination doesn’t have to do with the content of the course, exactly. Instead, Welsh and the university claim that the course content did not match the course description. The university justified the termination by claiming McCoul allowed students to sign up for her class without letting them know what would be taught. However, GOP politicians are celebrating the termination as a win against DEI efforts while Democrats have been speaking out against the violation of academic freedom.
The crux of the incident lies with the official reasoning for the termination: the course description. Course descriptions, as a genre, are purposefully vague so that professors of different specialties can teach under the same catalogue number. For example, English professors at Centenary have taught courses about Astropoetics, Love Lyric, and American Comics all under ENGL301: Literature and Culture II. At Texas A&M, the entire catalogue description for the course taught by McCoul is: “Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Representative writers, genres, texts and movements. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification.” Under this very short description, what can be taught? What cannot? Under the precedent set by Texas A&M, professors can expect high scrutiny directed at their course offerings. Whether or not the course description is the real reason for termination, or an excuse from the Texas A&M board to yield to right-wing pressure, the decision marks a turning point for educator freedoms, both in Texas and across the country.
While politicians debate over what is allowed to be taught (despite claims from GOP politicians, there is no Texas or federal law banning LGBTQ+ topics from university instruction), McCoul is appealing her termination. Facing increased scrutiny from both sides, President Welsh has since resigned from his position.