HIGHER ED
Texas A&M University is giving ol’ Plato the boot according to an update from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
FIRE Director of Media Relations Karl de Vries, in a news release on Wednesday, writes: “a professor who is teaching “Contemporary Moral Issues” is being instructed to drop readings related to race and gender — including ones by Plato — from his course, or face reassignment.
“This follows new guidance from the system’s board of regents that strips faculty of the ability to determine curriculum around issues of “race or gender ideology” and “sexual orientation,” placing that power entirely into the hands of the institution’s leadership. That’s a fundamental assault on academic freedom, and the First Amendment prohibits public universities from deciding which viewpoints can be taught in a classroom and which must be banished.
“Texas A&M now believes Plato doesn’t belong in an introductory philosophy course. The philosophy department is demanding that professor Martin Peterson remove Platonic readings because they “may” touch on race or gender ideology.
“He’s been given until the end of the day to comply or be reassigned. This is what happens when the board of regents gives university bureaucrats veto power over academic content. The board didn’t just invite censorship, they unleashed it with immediate and predictable consequences. You don’t protect students by banning 2,400-year-old philosophy.”
