Texas A&M Fires Professor, Dean, and Department Head Over Gender-Identity Viral Video; Will Fully Audit All Its Courses

Colleges & Universities Texas A&M University
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Facing growing political pressure, Texas A&M University President Mark A. Welsh III announced Tuesday evening that a professor teaching a children’s literature course at the center of a viral recording was fired and that the university would conduct a full audit of its courses.

A university spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed the professor was senior lecturer Melissa McCoul.

On Monday, Welsh announced that College of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Zoran and department head Emily Johansen, who oversee the course**,** were also going to be removed, saying they approved plans to teach the material that was inconsistent with the published course description. It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Zoran or Johansen will remain employed at the university in other roles.

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If anyone has looked at TikTok, one of the student complainants can barely string together a coherent sentence and has exhibited a total lack of understanding of how US government works. This is our future, God help us all.

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Not sure what video you watched but the young lady was clearly familiar with the law as she recorded her arrogant professor breaking it. She had a polite professional dialogue with the teacher. Other students noted the professors inappropriate “sharing” of irrelevant personal opinion numerous times previously. We knew this would be dealt with swiftly and it was.

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"The Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors said that it is deeply concerned by the situation.

“Academic freedom, which Texas A&M endorses, refers to instructors’ right to teach in their area of expertise free from government interference,” the group said in a Tuesday post on X."

This is the kind of stuff that makes students and parents start thinking long and hard about the locations of the schools on their college list.

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It’s absolutely infuriating. And, since this isn’t the politics forum, I will just leave it at that.

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This is horrifying. It will happen everywhere that doesn’t have state support for higher ed. Lunatics, asylum, etc.

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Education is no longer educating. That’s sad.