Texas Tech cautions broadcasting research restrictions to prospective students
By Jessica Priest, The Texas Tribune
May 6, 2026
Texas Tech leaders told faculty not to widely share the chancellor’s memo restricting graduate work related to sexual orientation or gender identity, a move some experts say could cost prospective graduate students time and money.
Instead, an April 17 email from Mark Sheridan, Texas Tech’s vice provost for graduate and postdoctoral affairs and dean of the Graduate School, directed them to notify certain prospective and newly admitted graduate students if their stated interests might conflict with the restrictions.
Graduate students and higher education experts say that approach could leave students learning too late that Texas Tech will not allow the work they want to pursue.
Asked why university officials aren’t notifying all prospective graduate students about the restrictions, Allison Hirth, a Texas Tech spokesperson, said “program-specific advising is the most effective way” to provide students with relevant and accurate information about their intended field of study.
“This guidance is part of that broader effort to support transparency and student success,” said Hirth, the university’s associate vice president of marketing and communications.
On April 9, Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton issued a memo that prohibited future graduate student theses, dissertations and other degree-culminating research or projects from centering on sexual orientation or gender identity. Current students can continue that work temporarily, according to his memo.
Sheridan, who did not respond to a request for comment, then sent an email to department chairs and other academic leaders, instructing them not to post or distribute Creighton’s memo. Instead, he wrote communication with prospective and newly admitted graduate students “must be targeted,” according to a copy of the email shared with The Texas Tribune
Sheridan instructed them to ask those students about their research or creative interests using specific messaging.
The form letters detail how work centered on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited at Texas Tech.
Students are urged to discuss their proposed interests “as soon as possible” with their designated faculty contact.
Students committed to such studies are told that they “may want to explore programs elsewhere that can better support your interests and goals,” according to the messaging.
Hirth said the university’s intent is to ensure students are well-informed and can make decisions that align with their educational and professional goals.
“Academic advising conversations are individualized and routinely address program requirements, available faculty mentorship and any constraints that may affect a student’s proposed course of study,” Hirth said in a statement.
Destiny Dunn is graduating this semester with a master’s degree from Texas Tech’s School of Theatre and Dance. She chose the university because its program combined theatre performance with teaching.
Had the restrictions been in place when she was seeking a program, Dunn said, she would not have enrolled.
When Dunn applied in 2023, she did not know what her final project would be. She knew only that students had an option to research, write and perform a one-person play. Those often draw from students’ lives and experiences, she said.
That’s why Texas Tech should make clear in offer letters and across department websites what prospective graduate students can and cannot research before they enroll, said Stacy Hartman, a program officer for higher education initiatives at the American Council of Learned Societies.
Hartman said she is concerned that only some students are being told about the restrictions when those limits could affect anyone doing research in the humanities and social sciences. It is not reasonable to expect prospective students to know before enrolling whether their eventual work will touch on sexual orientation or gender identity, she said.
“Good research is a process of asking a series of questions, and sometimes that series of questions takes you to a place that you don’t expect,” Hartman said.
Graduate students cannot switch schools as easily as undergraduates, she said. Their progress is often tied to a specific adviser, department, funding package and thesis or dissertation topic.
Students who learn too late that their research is barred could have few good options, she said.
They may have to apply to a program at another school and risk losing credits, especially if they are already two or three years into a degree. Or they may have to stay and pick a different topic. A dissertation must sustain years of work and may become the foundation for a scholar’s first book, so changing topics could delay graduation.
“It’s not like just picking a different topic for a term paper,” Hartman said.
Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, said in a statement that limits on graduate research and classroom discussion are “very unusual.” It would be unfair for any graduate program to admit students “under false pretenses,” she added.
Creighton’s memo went beyond graduate research.
It directed the system’s universities to identify academic programs centered on sexual orientation and gender identity by June 15, then freeze admissions to those programs and phase them out.
Texas Tech officials are committed to supporting strong academics and scholarship in various disciplines, wrote Hirth in her statement, but as a public institution, “the university is also required to comply with state law and related guidance that affect certain areas of instruction and research.”
Before he became the chancellor, Creighton was a Republican state senator who authored Texas’ 2023 ban on diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs in higher education. That law carved out academic course instruction, scholarly research and creative work from its restrictions. Texas Tech officials have cited broader state and federal guidance related to gender identity as part of the legal landscape they must navigate.
Texas Tech has a women’s and gender studies undergraduate minor and graduate certificate and a conference related to those studies each spring. This year’s conference went on as scheduled April 23, although the program was more sparse and Provost Ron Hendrick’s remarks, recorded by faculty members who attended and shared with the Tribune, were more somber.
In the recording, Hendrick thanked attendees and praised the conference for bringing “people together across disciplines and across perspectives” in ways that “reflected the very best of Texas Tech University.”
“We need to acknowledge, though, that this year is different,” Hendrick said. “The work as we’ve known it won’t be the same.”
Student organizers are using Creighton’s memo to draw people to Thursday’s regents meeting in Lubbock. Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and Raiders Against Censorship plan to stage a mock funeral for academic freedom, which is the ability of scholars to teach and research freely.
Dunn’s one-person play focused on water disparities in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. But two of the eight students in her cohort changed the subjects of their plays amid uncertainty over Texas Tech’s evolving restrictions, she said.
Although Dunn did not have to change her own project, she said she had nightmares about being recorded and reported by students while teaching a theater appreciation class this semester.
Conservative activist groups have published undercover recordings of college and university employees across the state discussing how they have responded to Texas’ DEI ban.
Dunn said it was difficult to discuss theater history without touching on gender and censorship and drawing parallels to what is happening at Texas Tech and nationally.
Asked whether she would have chosen Texas Tech if the restrictions had been in place and clearly communicated when she applied, Dunn said no.
“In no way would I have done that because it’s been psychologically damaging,” she said.
Josh Lile is finishing his first year in a doctoral program in Texas Tech’s College of Education. The restrictions may not directly affect him since he is already enrolled, but they have made him question whether to continue.
Lile chose Texas Tech because he could pursue his PhD online while raising his children and teaching high school math in San Antonio. He said he has already paid between $6,000 and $7,000 out of pocket and would lose that money if he left.
When he applied, Lile knew he wanted to study teacher development, but he did not have a fully formed dissertation topic.
“When you come in, you don’t have a dissertation ready to go or anything,” Lile said. “You don’t have the idea fully fleshed out.”
If Texas Tech’s goal is transparency, prospective students should be told about the restrictions before they commit, Lile said.
“Why wouldn’t you?” he said. “If you’re this proud of this, then own it.”
_The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage._
Disclosure: Texas Tech University and Texas Tech University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.