UT Urges Business Professors to Give Content Warning to Potentially Offended Students

A syllabus template from the University of Texas includes a land acknowledgment and a “content warning” section for potentially offensive content in the course, as the university aims to create an atmosphere of “sensitivity.”

In a typo-filled section of the template, the McCombs School of Business suggests every professor include an apology to Native Americans in their syllabus, acknowledging that they are “meeting on the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island, the ancestral name for what is now North America.”

Richard Lowery, a finance professor at UT, highlighted the template on Twitter, saying,  “Behold our new syllabus template at the McCombs School of Business. #txlege is this what you want to be paying for?”

The template also tells professors to “list your pronouns under your name and the name of your TA(s),” “acknowledge students may share with you the pronouns they use and/or a name that is different than what appears on the official roster,” and include “an inclusivity/diversity statement.”

“And pronouns!! Don’t forget your pronouns in your syllabus at McCombs,” said Lowery.

Lowery outwardly speaks out against universities on his Twitter account, saying, “If you like the work I am doing, please support it by NOT GIVING MONEY TO UNIVERSITIES.”

Concerned Texans may contact the University of Texas Board of Regents at (512) 499-4402 or via e-mail at bor@utsystem.edu.

Jake Peterson

Jake Peterson is a journalism fellow for Texas Scorecard. During high school he competed in speech and debate and now works to teach the unbiased truth, and expose corruption.