University of Houston may cut 40% of core classes to comply with Texas law

The University of Houston may cut nearly 40 percent of the courses in its core curriculum in response to a law passed by the Texas Legislature last session. Those cuts include classes on topics Republican lawmakers have derided as "woke" and "biased" such as "Introduction to Women's Studies," "Introduction to LGBT Studies," and "Intro to Global Climate Change."

In 2025, Texas Republicans passed Senate Bill 37 to take on what they perceived as "left-wing indoctrination" in college curricula at universities around the state. The law requires that classes in a university's core curriculum be "foundational" and "necessary" to prepare students for the workforce. The bill spurred course reviews at every single public Texas university, and many have cut classes and programs on race and LGBT topics as a result.

That review has been ongoing at the University of Houston, according to a document first reported by the Houston Chronicle. The document is the product of the school's Core Curriculum Working Group, which met several times to determine how to align the core curriculum with state law. These meetings produced two lists: courses they recommend stay in the core and classes that should be cut. 

Classes removed from the core curriculum can still be taught, but because many will no longer be offered to the general student body, faculty said undergraduates will have fewer options for classes that count towards their degrees. Including humanities and social sciences classes in the core often brings in students who may otherwise not take them, said Richard Armstrong, an associate professor of classical studies at UH. In his view, that's a positive.

"They really do light up and realize that they have interests and aptitudes beyond their vocational interests that actually do synergize with the skills that they're trying to develop," Armstrong told Chron. 

UH professors have already been on alert after hundreds were asked this spring to sign a memo affirming that they would not "indoctrinate" students. The university began an official course evaluation under SB 37 shortly after. Aside from a feedback form provost Diane Chase sent to faculty, Armstrong, who has taught at UH for 30 years, said that many professors feel that the core curriculum review process hasn't been transparent and was sprung on the faculty. 

"Suddenly, over the summer they're basically DOGE-ing the core curriculum in a way that doesn't really make much sense," Armstrong said. "We do have the option to appeal, which we have, but it's not clear who's getting the appeal, who will decide it." 

"A curriculum that really speaks to Houstonians"

Many Texas schools, such as Texas A&M and the Texas Tech system, have cut classes on race and gender and instituted strict new policies around teaching about transgender and other LGBTQ+ topics in particular. UH's course review doesn't go that far. Ethnic studies courses like "Intro to African American Studies," "Introduction to Asia American Studies" and "Introduction to Latino Cultural Studies" would all stay core class options. History and government classes on the histories of Black and Latino Americans, as well as some women's history courses, would remain. Classes like "Introduction to LGBT Studies," "Introduction to Women's Studies" and "Black Liberation Theology" would be removed from the core. Armstrong said doing so would be disappointing coming from a university in a city as diverse as Houston. 

"Good friends of mine teach those women's studies, gender studies, LGBTQ courses, they innovated a curriculum that really speaks to Houstonians," Armstrong said. "Removing it from the core just means it will have to stand on its own." 

Removing classes from the core curriculum, besides limiting student options, can reduce enrollment in classes and whole departments that could later lead to conversations about deep cuts. But Armstrong underscored that students may lose critical, interesting ways of engaging with the world. 

Armstrong used the example of one such classics course that would be axed from the core, "From Homer to Hollywood." Students read The Odyssey (which Armstrong pointed out is now a major film) and The Iliad and study film adaptations of classics. Through the course, students learn about film economics, textual analysis, and oral traditions in an engaging way.

"We work really hard to provide these things because we know students need to be engaged," Armstrong said. "We don't want to make generic core classes, because no one wants to teach that, especially if you have a large enrollment in the class. You don't wanna go and look at 100 people who are bored out of their minds." 

And in Armstrong's view, the course reviews, because of state and federal mandates, felt short-sighted, and may look even more so as political winds inevitably shift.

"When the political climate changes, we're gonna have to fix it all," he said. "So let's just be real for a moment and say, 'What is it that we are afraid of that requires us to do this so severely?'" 

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