Dr Martin Peterson, a tenured professor holding the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Jr. Chair in the Department of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, has submitted his formal resignation in protest of the university’s recently enacted curriculum restrictions.
In a message addressed to faculty and Interim Dean North, Peterson announced that his final day at the university will be July 31 after which he will join Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas as the Scurlock Chair in AI Ethics.
Serving as the Chair of the Academic Freedom Council, Peterson leveled criticisms against campus administration and leadership. “I strongly oppose the Board of Regents’ new censorship policy. No other serious research university maintains a policy on ‘prohibited instruction,'” he said.
He said that an appointed board should not dictate course materials and warned that because faculty no longer control the curriculum, Texas A&M is quickly transforming into an “institution of dead dogmas.”
The resignation serves as the latest escalation in a campus conflict that erupted after the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved a policy requiring campus presidents to sign off on any courses deemed to be advocating for “race and gender ideology.”
The situation stems from a dispute in which university officials instructed Peterson to either remove selections from Plato’s ancient philosophical text Symposium from his Philosophy 111 “Contemporary Moral Issues” syllabus or face reassignment to a different class, under the system’s new restrictions regarding discussions of gender identity.
While Peterson and advocacy groups like PEN America characterized the mandate as state-organized censorship that undermines expert instruction, the university’s actions have drawn mixed reactions from the campus community.
According to media reports, critics and fellow faculty members have disputed Peterson’s characterization of the text removal. During a campus discussion, Texas A&M finance professor Adam Kolasinski asserted that it was absurd to claim Plato’s writing on Aristophanes’ myth supported modern gender concepts, clarifying that the university never prohibited the teaching of Plato itself — pointing out that over 150 classes across the system continue to teach the Greek philosopher — but rather sought to prevent a distortion of historical texts to fit modern political ideologies.
The policy changes have created a widening rift over academic freedom in Texas higher education, accelerating Peterson’s departure to a private institution where he notes faculty maintain fewer ties to state political mandates.