How a secret recording upended Texas A&M

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COLLEGE STATION — It was the third week of Texas A&M’s summer semester and students in the ENGL 360: Literature for Children class were reading “Jude Saves the World,” a novel that features a 12-year-old protagonist who navigates coming out as nonbinary.

On the projector screen, Professor Melissa McCoul shared a graphic of a purple “gender unicorn,” often used to teach the differences between gender identity, expression and sexuality.

As the discussion began, one student angled a phone in her lap, pressed record on a video and then raised her hand.

“I just have a question, because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching,” said the student, who went on to accuse the professor of violating President Donald Trump’s executive order, which recognizes only two biological sexes.

McCoul told the student she disagreed with her assessment, and after a short back-and-forth, captured on video, McCoul asked the student to leave.

A few days later, the class was canceled. McCoul was never officially reprimanded for the incident — there is after all, no state or federal law that prohibits instruction on race, gender or sexual orientation in Texas universities, nor is there a university policy. And by fall, McCoul had started teaching again.

But earlier this month, the recording of the confrontation — and a second one between the student and Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III, who first defended McCoul — was shared on social media by a GOP state representative, igniting a firestorm. Republicans quickly seized on the exchange to question the teaching of gender identity at a public university and demanded firings. Within days, Welsh terminated McCoul and demoted College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean Mark Zoran and the head of the English department, Emily Johansen — decisions that intensified scrutiny and ultimately culminated in his own resignation on Thursday afternoon.

Those administrative sanctions have raised questions about academic freedom and political influence on campus. GOP officials have heralded the moves as a win against diversity, equity and inclusion programming in public universities, while the university itself has carefully offered some distance between McCoul’s summer course material and her dismissal.

In a public statement, Welsh said McCoul was fired because, after the summer, she continued to “teach content that was inconsistent with the published course description for another course this fall,” an apparent nod to his concern that McCoul’s emphasis on LGBTQ+ viewpoints was not properly advertised in course materials.

“A student should know what they’re getting into,” Robert L. Albritton, Texas A&M Board of Regents chair, told reporters Thursday. “That’s the real issue here. You can’t bring a student into a class on one pretense and have another pretense talk, OK. That’s the rub in all of this.”

McCoul has denied the allegations against her and is appealing her termination.

The exact reason for her firing has created confusion among the ranks. Two university officials say it stemmed from a technical dispute over her fall course number, which Welsh saw as a breach of an agreement they had previously made to make the class offering an upper-level elective. Faculty and higher education advocates, however, say the real issue was political pressure over her inclusion of LGBTQ+ themes.

The Texas Tribune spoke with more than a dozen students, faculty and university officials familiar with the events that led to McCoul’s firing. Many of the university employees asked not to be named because they were instructed not to speak to the media. Three out of four students who were in the classroom during the confrontation asked not to be named because of fear of retribution.

Academic freedom experts like Neal Hutchens, a professor in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, said the rationale for McCoul’s dismissal looked more like a pretext to act on concerns about the LGBTQ+ content, describing it as an “HR extreme.”

“It got powerful lawmakers upset and the president was under pressure and so [they] took action against the instructor and also took action against the department head and dean,” Hutchens said. “I think it shows the new reality that is emerging in Texas about how certain topics or ideas are just off the table in the classroom, or professors can be sanctioned.”

Class curriculum

McCoul’s children’s literature syllabus came with a warning.

“Some of the material in this class might be controversial, and it is likely differing opinions will emerge. You are certainly not required to agree with me (or your peers), or to adhere to any particular viewpoints,” it reads, adding that McCoul insisted on respectful dialogue.

McCoul has taught the class at least 12 times since 2018. It’s a topic she’s refined over the course of her academic career. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame in 2017, specializing in children’s literature with a graduate minor in gender studies. Her resume highlights mentoring LGBTQ+ students and presenting research on diversity in children’s and young adult literature at national conferences.

In the catalog, McCoul’s course was described as a class about “Representative writers, genres, texts and movements” — a description Welsh apparently found “inconsistent” with the actual class content.

Four students who were enrolled in the course and separately described their experiences to the Tribune said they did not pay much attention to the course catalog description when signing up for the class, but were not expecting the emphasis on marginalized communities in the readings.

According to the syllabus, students were required to read nine books, a mix of required texts and ones they could choose from a list. That meant at minimum three books featuring LGBTQ+ themes: “Princess Princess Ever After,” a fairy tale romance between two princesses; “Jude Saves the World,” about a nonbinary middle schooler; and either “The King of the Dragonflies,” about a boy with feelings for another boy, or “Hurricane Child,” about a girl’s crush on her classmate. A fourth was possible if students selected “Mirror to Mirror,” which follows twin sisters, one of whom is queer.

“I taught it this summer the way I always have while at A&M, focusing on contemporary literature for mostly middle grade readers,” McCoul said in an email. “I don’t teach the same materials as my colleagues precisely because they already do that. We don’t need multiple versions of a class that cover the exact same material.”

A few days into the summer session, McCoul described herself as a lesbian during a class discussion, four students said. They were discussing a paper that reflects how scholars and teachers are sometimes criticized for having a “gay agenda” when they present diverse identities in literature.

Soon after, a social media user named Son_of_Aragorn posted images of McCoul’s course materials on X, writing that she was “getting kids to read the worst filth.” The user later posted that his daughter was enrolled in the course and has kept them “in the loop of everything this WOKE professor has been saying for weeks.”

The user posted about McCoul and the course four times on July 9, one of which was reposted by Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, a veteran of the first Trump administration who has more than 80,000 followers on X.

The posts increased in number over the next few days, and the account encouraged worried individuals to contact the university.

“It was kind of an ambush”

The student who confronted McCoul about gender identity had never publicly complained in the class before that day, the other students said. She sometimes criticized the focus on gender identity outside of lectures, but she still engaged with the readings and answered questions like anyone else.

That changed on July 29.

“According to our president, there’s only two genders,” the student told McCoul in the clash captured on the video, adding later that she had already scheduled a meeting with Welsh to discuss her concerns.

The student said she wasn’t going to participate in the lecture because she didn’t want to “promote something that is against our president’s laws, as well as against my religious beliefs.” McCoul called the concerns a misconception.

“My gender isn’t illegal,” someone can be heard saying in the video clip of the confrontation.

The student who confronted McCoul declined a request for an interview and did not respond to a list of questions. The Tribune is not naming the student, who is concerned for her safety.

After class ended a small group of students stayed back to offer their support for McCoul, including two students who were nonbinary.

“Obviously, it was kind of an ambush,” said Lisette Oliva, one of the students in the class.

She said the student’s confrontation with the professor felt performative.

“I totally understand her feeling uncomfortable, but I definitely think she could’ve done that on her own time or like emailed the professor,” Oliva said. “Like, she said she already had a meeting scheduled with the president.”

Savannah Landers, another student in the class, shared her experience in a Sept. 13 TikTok video, saying she supported the student who confronted McCoul.

“If you haven’t seen the video, I encourage you to go watch it, because the girl in the video is just respectfully asking, like, how does this apply to children’s literature?,” Landers said, adding her own complaints about the curriculum. “Melissa McCoul was wrong for teaching this kind of thing in a children’s literature classroom. Children deserve to maintain their innocence as long as they can, and whenever we’re shoving this kind of stuff in their face that’s ripping away their innocence.”

Landers said she reached out to the student who confronted McCoul, who told her to contact Welsh. She sent the president an email that night, sharing that the content McCoul was teaching was not what Landers had signed up for. Landers said Welsh called her the next morning and agreed with her, saying that students should “know what they’re signing up for in a class that they’re paying for.”

One day after her confrontation with McCoul, the student who took the video met with Welsh. During the meeting, the president pushed back on the student’s arguments that the course material was illegal and inappropriate. In an audio recording also posted by Harrison on X, Welsh can be heard defending the inclusion of LGBTQ+ content in certain classes, such as professional-track courses for people who want to become psychologists or clinical counselors.

“Those people don’t get to pick who their clients are, what citizens they serve, and they want to understand the issues affecting the people that they’re going to treat,” Welsh said in the meeting. “So there is a professional reason to teach some of these courses.”

Classes continued for the next two days. The student who confronted McCoul didn’t attend, students said.

Then on Aug. 1, Johansen, the department head, sent an email to the students: “In light of the circumstances that have impacted your class this semester and the emotions that they have generated,” the class was ending. Students would finish the course with the grade they had as of that date.

The compromise

By the end of the summer, the situation seemed to be resolved. The video of the confrontation had not yet been published, and McCoul was scheduled to teach again in the fall.

University officials and faculty told the Tribune that after the summer scuffle, a compromise had been reached that wouldn’t affect the content McCoul teaches, but how students would access it.

In the summer, McCoul’s class was 300 level and part of the core curriculum, which means it was a course that counted toward a student’s degree requirements. A university official told the Tribune that the president and the provost directed the dean and the department head to change McCoul’s class to a 400-level special topics class — an elective — which would make it clearer to students what to expect when registering. The class would be labeled ENGL 489, the official said.

But McCoul disputes that she was ordered to change the class to a specific number. Right before the fall semester started, she was told she would not be teaching an ENGL 361 course as expected, she said. But she and her department head agreed to list it as ENGL 394, which is also outside of the core curriculum and qualifies as a specialty topic class.

A few days before the fall semester started on Aug. 21, Welsh and Provost Alan Sams met with a small group of faculty to explain why McCoul’s summer course had ended early and to outline the compromise for the fall, according to an email obtained by the Tribune that was sent by Catherine Eckel, who chairs the senior faculty advisory committee, which advises the president. She said Welsh told the group that McCoul’s summer syllabus was “almost entirely” LGBTQ-themed and expanded into “social and psychological aspects of transgender identity” without being listed as such. He also said that after the student’s complaint circulated, state officials had contacted him about the course.

On Sept. 8, Harrison, the state representative, posted on X short clips of the student’s clashes with McCoul and Welsh from the summer, saying he had received them from a student.

“CAUGHT ON TAPE,” Harrison wrote, starting a 23-part social media thread. “TEXAS A&M STUDENT KICKED OUT OF CLASS AFTER OBJECTING TO TRANSGENDER INDOCTRINATION… and A&M President defends ‘LGBTQ Studies.’”

He called for the federal government to investigate and for Welsh to be fired. His initial post has so far garnered nearly five million views.

After that attention, the president reviewed McCoul’s fall schedule, and realized the dean and department chair had not followed his directive to place her in the 400-level course.

Welsh viewed this as a breach of trust, a university official said, and removed both administrators from their leadership roles. The next day, he fired McCoul.

Other faculty say there is little difference between how the class was ultimately listed, and the 400-level designation that Welsh’s office specifically said it demanded.

In an interview with the Tribune, Eckel said Welsh held another meeting with a small group of faculty afterward to explain his decision.

“Things were tense. The whole thing had exploded. It was like his worst fears had come true about what might happen in the wake of this incident in the summer,” Eckel said.

She said he was worried for the university and worried for McCoul.

“What he said was we need to be able to teach this material at a university and it’s important to teach it at a setting where it’s appropriate to do so,” Eckel said.

Her termination notice cites repeated failure to perform duties, violating rules related to faculty responsibilities and unprofessional conduct that affected her job.

A university official said McCoul was fired because she ignored repeated instructions to change the content, though McCoul denies she was ever given such an order.

The official rejected the notion that the LGBTQ+ themes themselves were the problem, but said the course placed too much emphasis on “one particular dynamic.” To support that point, the official shared with the Tribune a syllabus another professor submitted when the children’s literature class was recertified to be part of the core curriculum in May. That version centered on classic children’s literature such as “The Cat in the Hat,” “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Esperanza Rising.” Only one book addressed discrimination, and none dealt explicitly with gender identity or sexuality.

The official said that sample syllabus was a “guide post” for the curriculum, and McCoul’s class strayed too far.

Kevin McClure, a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington who specializes in higher education leadership issues, said he had “never heard of a professor being disciplined or losing their job because of the discrepancy between what they were teaching and the course description,” noting that universities typically issue warnings or nonrenewals rather than a mid-semester termination.

Neither Johansen nor Zoran responded to multiple requests for comment. McCoul has appealed her firing under university rules, which guarantee an evidentiary hearing before a committee of her peers. McCoul has requested the hearing, which has yet to be scheduled, be open to the public. Afterward, the president will decide whether to reinstate her or uphold the dismissal.

What is Texas’ law?

Despite firing McCoul, Republican officials — including Harrison — continued to air their frustrations at Welsh for defending the teacher to begin with.

On Thursday, the system and chancellor announced Welsh’s resignation.

Albritton, the board of regents chair, denied political pressure played a role in the university’s handling of the situation. He expressed frustration about an “individual” who had been publicly calling for Welsh to be removed.

“We have one individual who, who I would call a moron, who is an absolute classified megalomaniac, who is insatiable with his desire to feed his ego,” Albritton told reporters Thursday. “And do people like that solve problems? They don’t give you solutions other than: fire this, do this, do that…And I will say one wonderful thing about the Board is that we don’t listen to that.”

Albritton also said he believed McCoul’s lecture violated the law, but he didn’t specify how.

Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have also framed McCoul’s case as if simply talking about gender in a college classroom violates the law.

Abbott tweeted that McCoul “acted contrary to Texas law.” It is unclear what law he was referring to. His office did not respond to requests seeking comment.

But Harrison, a Texas A&M alumnus who has crusaded to eliminate LGBTQ+ curriculum and advocacy at public universities, has acknowledged in interviews that Texas doesn’t have a law limiting instruction about gender themes.

“The governor and lieutenant governor and speaker have been telling everybody for two years now that we passed bans on DEI and transgender indoctrination in public universities,” Harrison said during an interview on a conservative radio program. “The only little problem with that? It’s a complete lie. … The state of Texas — despite what the governor said in his tweet yesterday, that this is a violation of law, there is no state law that we passed.”

Earlier this year, Harrison filed a bill to prohibit universities from offering certificates, degrees or courses in LGBTQ+ studies or diversity equity and inclusion. The measure failed to advance.

Currently, no state or federal law bans college faculty from teaching about race, gender or sexuality, though lawmakers have edged closer in recent years. And the executive order the student cited in McCoul’s classroom is not a law at all — it directs federal agencies to block funding that “promotes gender ideology,” but does not govern classroom instruction.

Senate Bill 17, which lawmakers passed in 2023, banned DEI offices and programs, but explicitly exempted academic instruction, scholarly research and creative work. This year, lawmakers extended the ban to K-12 public schools and approved Senate Bill 37, which shifted authority from college faculty to governor-appointed regents over curricula, hiring and discipline. Early drafts sought to bar curricula from endorsing ideologies or suggesting any race, sex, ethnicity or religion was superior, but that language was stripped in the final negotiations.

McClure and Hutchens said McCoul’s case could have lasting consequences. McClure pointed to a growing trend of students recording professors and posting clips online to try to get them fired, saying it will be “incredibly hard for us to build a learning environment built on trust if as faculty and staff, we’re constantly worried about whether or not we’re being recorded by someone.”

Hutchens said Texas is moving closer to a K-12 style model of higher education, where lawmakers assert control over what can be taught, a shift that may push professors to self-censor.

“They don’t want to be recorded and get in trouble, especially when it seems so hazy and vague over exactly what this professor did that was a fireable offense,” Hutchens said.

The American Association of University Professors’ Texas A&M chapter put it more bluntly to Welsh in a letter this week: McCoul’s dismissal “appears to have been implemented in direct response to pressure from Texas political leaders and the governor,” the group wrote, warning it “sends a chilling message to the entire academic community in Texas.”

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