University of Houston: University Institutes Faculty Self-Review of Curriculum

During the 2025 to 2026 academic year, amid a number of sweeping reviews of course materials at public institutions in Texas, the University of Houston instituted a faculty review of courses to assess compliance with state law and professional standards. UH ordered the new evaluations as public university systems in Texas came under increasing pressure to remove classroom materials pertaining to race and gender,  and UH itself drafted a document that would have required faculty to ensure that “multiple perspectives are considered” in their instruction. FIRE wrote the university on February 24, 2026, articulating the First Amendment’s strong protections for faculty academic freedom and identifying the draft document’s potential to infringe on that right by unduly restricting professors’ academic freedom to determine how to approach classroom materials and class topics.