From Inside Higher Ed: As promised in a memo from the chancellor earlier this month, some Texas Tech University system faculty members were asked this week to report whether any course they teach “advocates for or promotes” specific race, gender or sexual identities. It is the latest step in a sweeping curricular review focused on limiting discussion of transgender identity, racism and sexuality across the five-campus public system. By 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 22, faculty members at Angelo State University must fill out a survey for each class they teach. In addition to the course title and reference number, the survey asks the following questions: “Does this course include any content that advocates for or promotes race- or sex-based prejudice, as defined in the Chancellor’s memorandum? Does this course include any content that recognizes or discusses more than two sexes (male and female), or addresses gender identity beyond what is recognized under state and federal law? Does this course include any content related to sexual orientation?”
If a faculty member answers yes to any of those questions, they are then prompted to answer, “What is the course material required for? Check all that apply,” and select from the options “professional licensure/certification,” “accreditation,” “patient/client care” and “other.” Faculty must also provide a justification statement to support their response and are asked to “be as specific as possible.” Once faculty submit their responses, they will be compiled into spreadsheets by college, which department chairs and deans will review. They then must report the outcomes to the president and provost, Angelo State University provost Don Topliff said in an email to all faculty. “Faculty will be notified of outcomes after approval,” he wrote. It is unclear exactly what curricular changes the outcomes will prompt.
Faculty at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center received a similar email this week, a faculty member told Inside Higher Ed. But instead of filling out a survey, they are being asked to enter the same information directly into a spreadsheet...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/curriculum/2025/12/11/texas-tech-gathers-info-race-gender-course-content.
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From the Chronicle of Higher Education: When this fall’s new doctoral and master’s students were filling out their applications, there was little cause for concern about the near-term future of graduate education. That’s changed. President Trump’s return to the White House in January brought a cascade of new policy changes, including widespread termination of the grants that fund many doctoral students’ work and proposed caps on how much their institutions could be reimbursed for research. Visa-policy changes and an uncertain political climate made international students leery about continuing their education in the United States.
Those changes have triggered a destabilization of graduate-school enrollment for both master’s and doctoral programs. Cash-strapped colleges are cutting down on the size of Ph.D. classes, which cost them money, and finding that new master’s students, which broadly make them money, are harder to come by.
Available data doesn’t yet capture the extent of the damage. This fall, graduate-program enrollment stayed steady, rising by just 0.1 percent, according to preliminary numbers from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. In fact, doctoral programs saw a 1.1-percent enrollment bump. But underlying that statistic is the fact that dozens of doctoral programs decided in the spring to enroll fewer students than usual, or to pause admissions entirely, for fear they might not be able to fund their usual cohorts.
Meanwhile, master’s programs, which according to the Clearinghouse data accounted for nearly two-thirds of total graduate enrollment, experienced a 0.6-percent enrollment decline, with many programs reporting precipitous declines in their international-student populations.
The fall-2026 enrollment picture, though, is likely to paint a fuller picture. Doctoral programs will reckon with the impact of two consecutive years of reduced or canceled cohorts, while the elimination of the Grad PLUS student-loan program — slated for July 1 — will force some students to reconsider how they might fund their education.
The relative stability of the fall-2025 numbers, therefore, could engender a false sense of security. With the Trump administration wrapping up its first year in office, “fall 2026 will be a real barometer to the direction that we’re going,” says Chevelle Newsome, president of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)...
Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/has-the-graduate-school-collapse-begun.
