Texas Christian University will close two of its academic departments focused on race and gender studies at the conclusion of the 2025–26 academic year.
According to an official TCU announcement, the Department of Women & Gender Studies and the Department of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies will cease operations in June 2026. A university spokesperson told TCU 360 that the decision stemmed from enrollment data rather than political motivations.
The university reported that only nine undergraduates were majoring in Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies and just two students were pursuing majors in Women & Gender Studies during the fall 2025 semester.
Once the departments are dissolved, their faculty, courses, and enrolled majors and minors will transition to the oversight of TCU’s English department. University officials noted that students will still have opportunities to major or minor in these subjects through other academic units.
The Women & Gender Studies curriculum introduces students to concepts such as “social construction of gender, sex, and sexuality, intersectionality, [and] privilege and oppression” and includes instruction on how to “create and execute activist projects focused on social justice.”
According to its departmental mission, Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies seeks to “decolonize higher education” and prepare students to work toward “ending various systems of oppression in every facet of our shared society.”
The restructuring marks another shift in TCU’s handling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives following the September departure of the school’s senior advisor to the chancellor and chief inclusion officer.
TCU announced that Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, who joined the university in March 2022, was “no longer with TCU and two important university functions have been realigned to departments where they have incredible support.”
In April, TCU formally disbanded its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, removing related materials from university websites. TCU's Burnett School of Medicine and the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences later took down their DEI pages as well.
The changes came after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott implemented a statewide ban on DEI agencies in all state agencies — a move that mirrored Trump’s own executive order on DEI.
TCU recently pushed back against claims that it canceled a speaking event hosted by Turning Point USA featuring Chloe Cole, a young woman who previously identified as male before “de-transitioning” to her biological sex.
The dispute drew criticism from high-profile Republicans, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, though the university denied was politically motivated.
