Texas Tech Regents Cut 21 Courses From the Core for Fall 2027, Including Classes on Race, Gender and the Holocaust
Regents removed 21 courses from Texas Tech's core list on Wednesday, leaving 151 - a Senate Bill 37 review that drops core credit for a social-justice literature class, a race-class-and-gender course and a Holocaust in literature and film class, while keeping the 42-hour core requirement itself intact.
Texas Tech University students will have fewer classes on social justice, race and culture to choose from to meet graduation requirements after the system's regents approved a revised core curriculum on Wednesday. Regent Shelley Sweatt said 21 courses came off Texas Tech's list of approved core courses, leaving 151 options, The Texas Tribune reported. A Tribune comparison with the university's 2025-26 list found the removals included a literature class focused on social justice and the environment, a women's and gender studies course exploring race, class and gender, and a class on the Holocaust in literature and film.
The course-level detail, reported by Lubbock Lights from Jessica Priest's reporting for News From The States, names four of the removals: The Holocaust in Literature and Film (GERM 2312) and Literature, Social Justice, and the Environment (ENGL 2310), both in Language, Philosophy, and Culture, and Intersectionalities: Race, Class, and Gender in a Global World (WGS 2305) and Belonging and Intercultural Communication in the Workplace (HRDV 2303), both in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Students on the fall 2027 core list will have to choose other courses for those requirements - the core itself still totals 42 credit hours. The same action covered Angelo State University and Midwestern State University, with certification listed for January 1, 2027 and implementation in fall 2027.
Sweatt drew the distinction the regents are resting on: "Removing a course from the core is not the same as removing it from the catalog. Many of these courses will still be offered as electives or part of a major or minor," she said during the board meeting, as the Tribune reported. Faculty committees and leaders at the system's three general academic universities began the review in May, evaluating whether courses met standards for a broad education and preparation for work and civic life, or were no longer regularly taught; the chancellor's office then reviewed each university's proposed list course by course before the regents voted. One loose end is already visible: the approved list includes a class titled "Introduction to Women's Studies," while this school year's offering was "Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies" - and it is unclear, the Tribune reported, whether the university renamed the class, changed its content or replaced it.
The legal engine under the vote is Senate Bill 37, passed in 2025, which requires public university governing boards in Texas to review their core curricula at least every five years - the same law now working its way through every public system in the state, including the ones Houston students attend. For Tech students planning degrees, the practical advice in Wednesday's reporting is narrow and useful: check your catalog year and degree audit in DegreeWorks, and ask an adviser how the change applies to courses already completed or planned.
