Tenured A&M professor resigns

Martin Peterson, a tenured philosophy professor at Texas A&M University, said Thursday he is resigning and will move to Southern Methodist University this summer. (fox26houston.com) Peterson told colleagues Texas A&M is becoming “an institution of dead dogmas,” and Fox 26 reported he will take the Scurlock Chair in Artificial Intelligence Ethics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. (fox26houston.com) His exit follows a January fight over PHIL 111, an introductory philosophy course, after Texas A&M told him to remove selections from Plato’s *Symposium* or be reassigned. Student newspaper *The Battalion* reported the university gave that directive on January 9, 2026. (fox26houston.com) (thebatt.com) The dispute grew out of Texas A&M System policy changes approved on November 13, 2025. The system said courses that teach “race or gender ideology” or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity need advance approval, and faculty must stick to approved syllabi. (tamus.edu) (policies.tamus.edu) By early January, Houston Public Media reported about 200 Texas A&M courses could be affected by the new restrictions, with professors ordered to revise syllabi before the spring semester. The same outlet reported on April 9 that Texas A&M and Texas Tech had become focal points in a wider push by Republican lawmakers and university leaders to police classroom content. (houstonpublicmedia.org 1) (houstonpublicmedia.org 2) Peterson said he could have accepted a rule against professors advocating ideology, but not a policy that blocks discussion of texts and ideas. After the Plato passage was removed, Fox 26 reported, he replaced it with news coverage of the dispute and lectures on free speech and academic freedom. (fox26houston.com) (thebatt.com) Texas A&M has defended the underlying policy shift as stronger academic oversight. In a November statement, the Texas A&M University System said the revisions clarify that courses may not teach restricted ideology without presidential approval and that faculty are expected to follow approved syllabi. (tamus.edu) The resignation lands after other upheaval at Texas A&M. Since September 2025, the university fired English lecturer Melissa McCoul after a classroom dispute over gender identity, and she sued in February 2026, while President Mark Welsh III stepped down in September after the broader controversy. (texastribune.org 1) (texastribune.org 2) Peterson’s departure turns a campus policy fight into a faculty loss for Texas A&M and a high-profile hire for Southern Methodist University. His last message to colleagues, as quoted by Fox 26, was that he no longer wanted to help build a university where only “unchallenged and unexamined” ideas can be taught. (fox26houston.com)