The Dean of the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education will leave the position at the end of the current academic year.
Dean Charles Martinez announced the transition in an open letter posted to the college’s website.
“Although I have expressed my commitment to continue serving as your dean as we work to mature and sustain the success we have achieved over these past seven years, it is important to acknowledge this time of significant change in higher education,” Martinez wrote.
“With new leadership in place at UT, our president and provost are working to build the team they need to advance their vision and priorities within this changing landscape,” he continued. “As such, I will be concluding my service as dean at the end of this academic year.”
No announcement was made regarding a replacement.
Martinez has held the position since 2019. During this time, the College of Education has promoted far-left content.
During the Fall 2025 semester, the college offered four sections of “Designing a Classroom Community with Equity and Justice.” According to the syllabus of the Wednesday afternoon section, a course outcome is to inform a potential teacher’s “vision for a transformative, equitable, justice-oriented learning community.”
The college of education currently runs a graduate program in Cultural Studies that “explore[s] the fundamental importance of racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation diversity in education.” This program uses terminology such as “critical theory and pedagogy,” “contexts of activism in education,” and “Indigenous knowledge systems” to describe its content.
Earlier this year, controversy erupted when a report from DeepAudit, a nonpartisan research organization, uncovered that critical race theory was mandatory at the UT-Austin College of Education. The report used artificial intelligence and machine learning to examine 450 course syllabi for a series of woke terminologies such as “equity, diversity, social justice, critical pedagogy, critical consciousness, [and] identitarian political activism.”
Another example of far-left content during Martinez’s tenure is a 2023 symposium, Educate Out Loud, described as “[d]edicated to exploring issues and topics related to the LGBTQIA+ community.” The conference included a session on “[a]dvancing EQUITY and Eliminating Disparities in Education and Health.”
At UT-Austin, academic deans supervise the day-to-day operations of individual colleges. They report to Provost William Inboden. Inboden reports to President Jim Davis.
UT-Austin recently told Texas Scorecard that the university was “currently conducting an audit to assess the classes we teach and our overall curriculum.” While the statement did not specifically discuss the College of Education, it did mention that “other areas of study” would “be reviewed as part of this audit.”
UT-Austin is a component of the University of Texas System. It is overseen by a Board of Regents that is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate. Kevin Eltife is the current board chairman.
UT-Austin did not respond to inquiries about the selection of a replacement and whether the College of Education is included in the audit.
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