Texas A&M System declines to reinstate fired lecturer despite faculty panel’s findings. A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”
Source: southpawFA
9 Comments
>[McCoul was fired in September](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/texas-a-m-welsh-firing-professor-gender-mccoul/) after a student over the summer secretly recorded a classroom exchange in which the student disagreed with McCoul about whether it was legal to teach that there are more than two genders. The student then met with — and also secretly recorded — then-university president Mark Welsh III, who initially refused to fire McCoul. State Rep. [Brian Harrison](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/14/brian-harrison-texas-a-m-gender-social-media-higher-education/), R-Midlothian, posted the videos on X weeks after they were made.
>Although there is no law prohibiting instruction that acknowledges more than two genders, Welsh did eventually fire her after the videos drew conservative backlash, saying her teaching was not consistent with the course description. [Welsh later resigned](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/10/texas-a-m-mark-welsh-regents-abbott-fired/).
>After McCoul’s firing, the university system began reviewing courses across its 12 universities, including through the use of [an artificial intelligence tool](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/texas-universities-ai-course-audits/). On Dec. 18, the Board of Regents [passed](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/18/texas-am-race-gender-courses-new-rules/) a policy prohibiting courses from “advocating race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” except in certain non-core or graduate courses that are reviewed, shown to serve a “necessary educational purpose” and approved in writing by a campus president.
>Two faculty panels have found McCoul’s termination [was not justified](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/22/texas-am-professor-fired-faculty-panel-ruling/) and that her academic freedom was violated, concluding the university fired her over what she taught and failed to follow required dismissal procedures.
Once again, America showing it doesn’t give a shit about teachers. The admin through its cowardice has shown they will instantly genuflect to the Christian nationalist hate brigade rather than tell them off. Such cowards.
Christian nationalists find a simple mention of trans people as demonic and wicked, but they’ll do jack shit over kids being killed in mass shootings. Christian nationalism is a blight to the world.
Haha remember when this was about keeping it away from “children,” now they’re cuddling adult college students.
Oklahoma…..Texas…..Florida……
Not doing any favors for people graduating with degrees from these places….
Great. The Fascist fucking thugs win again.
Last week I called in to the Association of Former Students. I verified that all of my contact information was correct and requested that they delete it or at least never contact me again because of how much I disagree with the school’s morals.
The woman who I spoke with was very helpful and provided me with resources for other ways to get the university to stop contacting me.
I encourage any others who attended this university and wish they hadn’t to do the same.
And big props to the nice lady who answered the phone who was *clearly* delighted to help me give the middle finger to her employer.
Even in a university, conservatives will fight to the death anything which makes them think.
“conservative backlash”
Terrorism.
It was terrorism.
They gave in to terrorists
I’d sue the school and the student. This was a targeted attack.
It’s notable that the Texas A&M System upheld this dismissal even After a faculty appeals panel unanimously found the firing unjustified, saying the termination still had “good cause” without explaining the reasoning. That disconnect between internal review and administrative action highlights ongoing debates over academic freedom, shared governance, and how political pressure can influence university discipline Decisions.