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Students at both the University of Texas and University of North Texas held mock funerals in May 2026 outside of meetings of the board of regents for their respective universities, where they mourned the loss of open discussion and academic freedom and integrity due to years of a right-wing legislative and institutional onslaught.

Cameron Samuels, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as co-founder and executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, helped organize the funeral for UT. They said the event was motivated to protest recent changes at UT, such as restructuring of academic programs, and to spark a conversation about the decline of the “academic spirit” of the university.

The mock funerals included students, faculty, and other attendees dressed in funeral attire. The event at UT-Austin included a funeral procession, complete with a horse-drawn hearse, from the university to the UT System Board of Regents office in downtown Austin. When the procession reached the office, organizers gave speeches criticizing UT for a decline in academic freedom and not taking input from students and faculty before making major changes to degree programs and staffing.

Texas public colleges and universities have been cracking down on LGBTQ courses; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies; and academic freedom after multiple bills passed in the 2023 and 2025 Texas legislative sessions imposed sweeping restrictions on those topics and Republican politicians at both the state and federal level pressed higher ed to comply.

Passed in 2023, Senate Bill 17 (SB 17) banned diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Texas higher education. SB 17 meant that all higher education institutions had to abolish any program related to DEI, such as support groups for LGBTQ, Black, Latino, or other marginalized students and faculty. This led to universities laying off or transferring employees and changing requirements for funding some student organizations. According to KUT, The University of Texas at Austin laid off 60 staffers and closed multiple programs to comply with the law in 2024. Other universities, such as the University of North Texas, went even further, eliminating or changing over 90 programs, activities, and even class syllabi, despite SB 17 explicitly exempting “academic course instruction,” The North Texas Daily reported.

Trump’s Attempts to Control Higher Education Follow a Familiar Fascist Playbook

In 2025, Texas passed Senate Bill 37 (SB 37), which limited faculty governance, gave boards or regents more say in what curriculum is permitted, required regular curricular reviews, and created a Higher Education Ombudsman to investigate complaints against colleges and universities and ensure compliance with SB 17, SB 37, and other state higher education laws. Pressure from politicians such as President Donald Trump, Gov. Greg Abbott, Congressman Chip Roy and Texas State Representative Brian Harrison has compelled universities and university systems to go beyond compliance with the new laws — a phenomenon known as “anticipatory obedience.”

In the 2025-26 academic year, LGBTQ studies and race and ethnic studies came under renewed attacks even before institutions began complying with the new requirements under SB 37. In September, state Representative Harrison, an A&M alumnus, posted to X, sharing a video of Texas A&M University professor Melissa McCoul asking a student to leave her class after a student accused her of violating Trump’s executive order that recognizes only two biological sexes. Along with the video, Harrison posted a letter he sent to Abbott calling for McCoul’s firing, along with a letter to the Trump administration calling for a formal investigation into A&M.

In the 2025-26 academic year, LGBTQ studies and race and ethnic studies came under renewed attacks even before institutions began complying with........

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