The University of Texas at Austin is eliminating four undergraduate majors, African and African diaspora studies, Mexican American and Latino studies, women's and gender studies, and race, indigeneity and migration, university officials and faculty confirmed this month.
The four majors were housed in the university's newly consolidated Department of Social and Cultural Analysis. Danielle Pilar Clealand, the department's interim chair, told faculty in an email Tuesday that the provost's office had rejected a department proposal to preserve the majors, KUT News reported. University spokesperson Mike Rosen confirmed that UT Austin is no longer enrolling new students in the African and African diaspora studies, Mexican American and Latina/o studies, and women's and gender studies majors, though students currently enrolled will be permitted to finish their degrees.
The Texas Tribune reported, citing emails from Clealand to faculty, that the decision to remove the now-defunct majors from the admissions application "was done without public knowledge, and it appears our dean did not know about this either." The university's own website still listed the degree programs even after the application changes took effect, the Tribune reported.
Karma Chávez, former chair of the Mexican American and Latina/o Studies department and head of the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors, told the Texas Tribune that the decision "sends a message to students that such programs hold no worth as independent degrees." Hundreds of students are currently pursuing majors, minors or graduate degrees in the affected fields, according to Tribune records.
The cuts also drew criticism from Dr. Gregory Vincent, who served as UT Austin's vice president for diversity and community engagement and W.K. Kellogg Professor for twelve years. In a LinkedIn post, Vincent noted that African and African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American and Latina/o Studies had "successfully completed a rigorous academic process to become Ph.D.-granting departments," built through "scholarly excellence, faculty leadership, institutional investment, and a demanding system of academic review." He called the elimination of the majors "heartbreaking," writing: "A great university does not enhance its reputation by narrowing the range of knowledge its students may pursue. It diminishes itself." Vincent asked, "Is The University of Texas still a university of the first class?"
A broader industry pattern
UT Austin's cuts are part of a wider realignment across American higher education. Capital B News reported that more than a dozen U.S. public and private colleges and universities — among them the University of Iowa and the University of Kansas — have closed, merged or scaled back Black and African American studies programs in recent years, a trend that predates but has accelerated since President Trump's January 2025 executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on campuses. The University of Florida's African American studies program, for example, has shrunk from 95 declared majors in 2018 to 22 in spring 2026, Capital B News reported.
The U.S. Department of Education has framed the trend as a policy success, stating in a press release that hundreds of colleges and universities have eliminated DEI offices, diversity statements in hiring, and affinity-based programming, and that dozens of institutions have restructured or eliminated staff positions tied to those efforts. Shaun Harper, a University of Southern California professor who studies racial equity, told ABC News that institutions are "cowardly defunding and eliminating" academic programs under political pressure rather than defending them.
The changes carry workforce implications beyond individual campuses. A KFF analysis found that Hispanic, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people remain underrepresented in fields such as medicine relative to their share of the U.S. population, with the widest gap among Hispanic workers — a disparity researchers have linked to pipeline programs and coursework of the kind now being scaled back at public universities. Faculty members at UT Austin, including Julie Minich, have argued the elimination of ethnic and gender studies could limit training for students entering careers that require working with Texas's diverse population, one of the largest and fastest growing in the country.
The cuts also raise questions for accreditors and state higher-education systems monitoring compliance with new federal and state directives. At least 18 states, including Texas, have passed laws restricting DEI offices, trainings or programming at public universities, and federal officials have said funding priority will go to institutions that align with the administration's guidance on race- and gender-related coursework. A dynamic that higher-education finance officers say is now factoring into curricular decisions well beyond Texas.
