Texas A&M University fired a professor Tuesday over course instruction related to gender identity after a Republican state lawmaker shared a video that appears to show a student at the university telling the professor that such instruction was “illegal” due to one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders. The head of the university’s English department and a dean were also removed from their posts due to the incident.
In the now-viral video, shared by state Rep. Brian Harrison on social media Monday morning, a professor can be heard mentioning “gender and sexuality,” and then a student can be heard interrupting and telling the professor, “I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching.” The student then mentioned Trump’s executive order that declares the U.S. only recognizes two unchangeable sexes and prohibits federal funds from being used to “promote gender ideology.”
The professor, identified in multiple local reports as Melissa McCoul, then disagreed with the student, saying, “What we are doing is not illegal.” She recommended the student speak to the department head or the head of undergraduates and then asked her to leave the class.
In response to a request for comment regarding the termination and the video, which is undated but appears to be from a summer course, McCoul referred NBC News to her lawyer, Amanda Reichek. In an emailed statement, Reichek, an attorney with Tillotson Johnson and Patton in Dallas, confirmed McCoul was terminated Tuesday and that it was her voice in the viral video.
Reichek said McCoul’s notice of termination alleged that she was repeatedly instructed to change the course content “to align with the catalog description and the course description that was originally submitted and approved” and that McCoul failed to do so.
“However, Professor McCoul’s course content was entirely consistent with the catalog and course description, and she was never instructed to change her course content in any way, shape, or form,” Reicheck said. “In fact, Dr. McCoul taught this course and others like it for many years, successfully and without challenge. Instead, Dr. McCoul was fired in derogation of her constitutional rights and the academic freedom that was once the hallmark of higher education in Texas. She has appealed her termination and is exploring further legal action.”
State Rep. Harrison also shared a post on social media showing emails from July that he said were between the student and the English department head, Emily Johansen, about the student no longer attending the summer class. Johansen did not respond to a request for comment.
Harrison’s posts also included undated audio recordings reportedly between the student and Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III in which the student told Welsh the professor should be fired and Welsh responded, “Well, that’s not happening.”
The university did not confirm the veracity of the video, audio recordings and emails Harrison posted and did not respond to the statement from McCoul’s lawyer.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, wrote on X on Monday that the division would look into the “deeply concerning” incident.
That evening, Welsh said he directed the provost to remove Mark Zoran, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Johansen from their administrative positions because they approved content for the course “that was not consistent with the course’s published description.”
“Our students use the published information in the course catalog to make important decisions about the courses they take in pursuit of their degrees,” Welsh said in the statement. “If we allow different course content to be taught from what is advertised, we let our students down. When it comes to our academic offerings, we must keep our word to our students and to the state of Texas.”
The university did not respond to a question about whether Zoran and Johansen were terminated completely or if they would continue to be employed at the university outside of their previous administrative positions.
Then, on Tuesday, Welsh said in a statement that the professor was terminated. He said that he could not provide the details of the termination, but that this summer, “a children’s literature course contained content that did not align with any reasonable expectation of standard curriculum for the course.”
After the issue was raised over the summer, he said college and department leadership worked with students to offer alternative opportunities to complete the course and made changes to the course content for future semesters. He said he told academic leadership that course content must match the catalog descriptions for every course section.
“However, I learned late yesterday that despite that directive, the college continued to teach content that was inconsistent with the published course description for another course this fall,” he said. “As a result, I took the above administrative actions, and deans and department heads will conduct an audit of course offerings to ensure they align with the course descriptions.”
He added that the issue “isn’t about academic freedom; it’s about academic responsibility. Our degree programs and courses go through extensive approval processes, and we must ensure that what we ultimately deliver to students is consistent with what was approved.”
The viral video is the latest incident in a series of controversies over Texas A&M’s LGBTQ programs and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Last year, the university closed the campus’ LGBTQ+ Pride Center due to a bill that required state universities to end all DEI programs, and it suspended all transition-related medical care for transgender students on campus, citing a growing student population and strain on its student health center.
Earlier this year, a judge blocked the university from enforcing a ban on drag shows in campus venues, writing that the ban likely violates the First Amendment. The Texas A&M Board of Regents passed the resolution in April, arguing at the time that drag shows could violate Trump’s executive order prohibiting federal funds from being used to promote “gender ideology.”
Most recently, an undergraduate student, who asked that his name not be published due to fear of facing retaliation from the university, said that he found hundreds of LGBTQ books last week at the university’s off-campus Surplus Property Office, a warehouse for the disposal and sale of university property. He said he went there to find a computer monitor and he started sifting through a few boxes of books out of curiosity. The largest box, he said, was filled with books by and about LGBTQ people, including “The Meaning of Matthew,” Judy Shepard’s 2009 memoir about her son, who was targeted for being gay and brutally killed in Wyoming in 1998; “The Velvet Rage,” by psychologist Alan Downs; and “The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television,” by Maria San Filippo.
He said he felt that the university was “quietly” disposing of the books in a place that few students go.
“It just felt really slimy on the university’s part,” he said. “The whole point of a university is to be a space of exchange of ideas and thoughts, whether you agree with them or not.”
A spokesperson for the university did not respond to a request for comment, including questions about where the books came from, when they were moved and why. A manager at the Surplus Property Office, who declined to share his name, said the student’s photos — which were described to him over the phone — were from his warehouse. He said the “box full of books” is “from around A&M campus” but is “not for recirculation,” and he refuted the student’s claim that the books were all LGBTQ titles.
CORRECTION (Sept. 12, 2025, 12:10 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the status of a social media post from Harrison purporting to show emails between an unnamed student and the head of Texas A&M’s English department. The post is still viewable on X, and has not been removed.
