A Texas A&M University professor who found himself in the headlines earlier this year when the school demanded he remove works from Greek philosopher Plato from his courses is again having a viral moment.
This time for firing off a scathing resignation letter over the incident.
In his letter, philosophy professor Martin Peterson rebuked Texas A&M’s increasingly harsh crackdown on academic freedom as part of a policy by its Board of Regents banning race and gender ideology from classrooms. In no uncertain terms, Peterson argued the policy threatens the school’s integrity and prestige.
“No other serious research university maintains a policy on ‘prohibited instruction,’” Peterson wrote. “As Chair of the Academic Freedom Council, I regard this as an outright violation of one of the most basic principles of academic freedom. Faculty — not a politically appointed board — should control the curriculum.
“Because faculty no longer control the curriculum, Texas A&M is quickly becoming an institution of dead dogmas.”
The resignation letter, tweeted out by Peterson’s colleague, Leonard Bright — a professor in A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service — has garnered nearly 500 likes and 30,000 views as of press time.
Peterson said his last day at Texas A&M will be July 31, after which he will then take on a new role at the private Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
In January, Texas A&M’s Philosophy Department ordered Peterson to remove readings from Plato from his courses because they included “race ideology and gender ideology.” The censorship sparked concerns from academic freedom watchdogs about the direction of public colleges and universities in Texas.
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