By Matthew McDaniel, Jon Mark Hogg, and Will McDaniel
- Changes in policy were handed down via Texas Tech System Vice Chancellor Eric Bentley on Sept. 19
- Questions about ABET accreditation raised by faculty
- Numerous meetings and emails were needed to clarify policy
- Some alumni and students protest decision, one informs on instructors
The Concho Observer received an official response to our Public Information Act request from Texas Tech and Angelo State University about policy changes implemented this year regarding issues related to treatment of LGBTQ+ students and the handling of course materials for anything other than heteronormative human behavior.
The request, originally filed six months ago, was immediately referred to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, as the university sought to shield most of the decision-making process from public view.
Our request returned a tranche of mostly redacted documents, from which we were able to discern some basic facts about the timeline of events and the people involved, along with a few unredacted communications from students and alumni.
Here is what we were able to learn.
Email From TTU Vice President Triggers Policy Implementation
On Sept. 16, 2025, an email by Texas Tech University System Vice Chancellor and General Counsel Eric Bentley regarding course content and classroom discussion of LGBTQ+ matters, was sent to the university which was distributed to President Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, along with the other leaders throughout the Tech System, including ASU Provost Don Topliff.
That same day, communications sent an email at 4:24 p.m. to university leadership with a link to the recent website scrub completed by the Angelo State web team, indicating readiness to make changes to faculty web pages.
The following day, Sept. 17, Texas Tech’s Eric Bentley sent further legal guidance regarding course content and classroom discussion to university presidents and leadership at 8:25 a.m. After which, President Hawkins sent an email to faculty stating: “Here’s an additional piece of information…[a]pologize for spamming you on some of the documentation, but I thought it best for you to have this in your hip pocket in case the questions start flying in the next few days. Particularly this Friday during and after meeting with the Deans and Department Chairs.”
The original communication of Sept. 16 was completely redacted, and seems to be the origin of the policy which the Concho Observer would receive reports about on the afternoon of Sept. 19, when we published our original report.
At that time, the reported policy was outlined as follows:
- There is to be no discussion of transgender topics or any topics that suggest there are more than two genders as determined by one’s biological sex at birth.
- Information in syllibi about transgender topics must be removed.
- Instructors must refer to students by their given names and not their preferred names.
- Safe-space stickers, LGBTQ flags, etc. are not allowed and must be removed.
- All employees are to remove pronouns from email signatures.
- The university will not back up or defend faculty who teach these topics or discuss them in class.
Further Reading: Angelo State to Put New Transgender Policy In Place
After contacting the university about the policy, The Concho Observer received an email from ASU Director of Communications and Marketing Brittney Miller stating: “Angelo State University is a public institute of higher education and is therefore subject to both state and federal law, executive orders and directives from the President of the United States, and executive orders and directives from the Governor of Texas. As such, Angelo State fully complies with the letter of the law.”
This story followed on the heels of news from Texas A&M University in College Station where a professor was dismissed after a student recorded them discussing transgender topics during classes, which drew widespread attention nationally.
The Concho Observer story was picked up by most media outlets in Texas and several national news organizations, drawing unwanted attention to the regional university in San Angelo, along with a raft of Texas Public Information Act requests.
ABET Inquired About Policy
The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is a non-governmental accreditation board that specializes in post-secondary education for engineering, science, and technology programs. By Sept. 29, professors at the Hirschfeld School of Engineering at Angelo State had received an inquiry from Dr. Jon Colton, ABET Team Chair, concerning certain criteria for accreditation.
Colton’s questions concerning ABET Criterion 6 and 8 were redacted, along with the definition of the criterion from ABET, and Kitch’s reply. While we cannot say what the questions were regarding, as the relevant highlighted portions of concern were redacted as well, but we can publish the complete criterion found on ABET’s website.
According to ABET, these criterion read as follows:
Criterion 6. Faculty
“Each faculty member teaching in the program must have competency and currency within the program’s discipline consistent with the contributions to the program expected from the faculty member. The competency of faculty members must be demonstrated by such factors as education, professional credentials and certifications, professional experience, ongoing professional development, contributions to the discipline, teaching effectiveness, and communication skills. Collectively, the faculty must have the breadth and depth to cover all curricular areas of the program.
The faculty serving in the program must be of sufficient number to maintain continuity, stability, oversight, student interaction, and advising. The faculty must have sufficient responsibility and authority to improve the program through definition and revision of program educational objectives and student outcomes as well as through the implementation of a program of study that fosters the attainment of student outcomes.“
Criterion 8. Institutional Support
“Institutional support, resources, and leadership must be sufficient to: a) ensure the quality and continuity of the program; b) attract, retain, and provide for the continued professional development of a qualified faculty; c) acquire, maintain, and operate infrastructures, facilities and equipment appropriate for the program; and d) create and foster a respectful environment among the program’s students, faculty, staff, and administrators such that the student outcomes can be attained. Resources include institutional services and policies, financial support, and administrative and technical staff.“
ABET accreditation is up for renewal every six years, and in the one of the last communications released in the collection chronologically, on Sept. 29, David Bixler, Dean of College of Graduate Studies and Research says that they are “likely get questions from the ABET team about this topic as well as DEI in
general. We should have no trouble answering them, but Bill wanted us to be aware, so
we aren’t caught off guard.”
A Lengthy Process
On Nov. 25, 2025, the Concho Observer received a reply from Michelle N. Miller, Associate General Counsel for the TTU System, stating that “The requested information is not currently available in a form suitable for public release,” and quoting a sum of $3,949.02 to process the requested documents with a minimum of 50 percent due to initiate any action. It was at this time that Miller stated that the university system was currently requesting a ruling from the Attorney General’s office, requesting that they be permitted to redact information that qualified as attorney/client privilege.
Furthermore, when the scope of our inquiry was narrowed and the Concho Observer finally received the documents requested, a number of the documents had nothing to do with our inquiry at all, and were also placed well outside both chronological and alphabetical order, which made complete analysis quite time intensive.
Among the documents provided there were also numerous letters from alumni expressing disappointment and dissatisfaction regarding the policy, and one letter of support addressed to Sergio Ruiz, Dean and Professor Music, informing the administration about the statements of one of his instructors.
Further Reading: Tech, ASU Want Public Info Shielded from Press
Legal Analysis
The Texas Public Information Act is the state version of the Federal Freedom of Information Act. Under the act all information held by a public entity, such as Angelo State University is considered public and must be disclosed unless there is an exception to disclosure for certain types of confidential information.
In this case ASU sought to keep information in the emails that it considered attorney-client privileged information from disclosure. It also wanted to not release information that it considered to be internal policy discussions. The Attorney General ruled that it could redact this information that it wanted to keep secret. These redacted documents were then produced.
Some of the redactions are questionable. Not every conversation or email that includes an attorney constitutes attorney-client privileged communication.
Likewise, many of the redactions for policy discussions do not appear to be good faith discussions on the formation of policy, but emails informing about implementation that was already created at the highest levels of administration in the Texas Tech System.
This not surprising as the current TTU Chancellor Brandon Creighton was the creator of the state’s anti-DEI law that are the justification for the new policies, and Senate Bill 37 which laid out much of the framework now governing curriculum at Texas State Universities.
The Concho Observer has retained legal counsel to evaluate the redactions and determine whether it should pursue legal action against ASU to obtain the unredacted information.
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2 Comments
Thank you for doing this. I hope you will pursue legal action to get unreacted files, they’re clearly trying to cover their rears over a policy that will likely be proven illegal.
Great work. Would like to hear more and look forward to your follow-up after the latest system memo.