Texas A&M moved this week to close its women’s and gender studies programs and ordered changes to hundreds of courses that address race and gender, citing new curricular rules. Administrators canceled six classes and asked faculty to remove contextual material, actions that faculty and academic‑freedom experts say amount to a sweeping curricular rewrite. The university’s decisions follow state policy shifts and political pressure targeting identity‑conscious programming; leaders warn the changes could harm A&M’s research and teaching reputation and complicate accreditation and hiring. Faculty and free‑speech advocates frame the move as a national signal: other public institutions may face similar program eliminations or heavy curricular edits under heightened state and federal scrutiny.