LUBBOCK — Nearly a year into his tenure as Texas Tech chancellor, Brandon Creighton was still making the case that he was the right man for the job.
To convince the crowd at a recent Lubbock Chamber of Commerce luncheon that his loyalties now lay with scarlet red and black, not the burnt orange of his alma mater, the former Republican state senator touted his political connections and the growing influence they bring to Texas Tech.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful politician with a hand on the state’s purse strings, is donning Red Raider gear at the Capitol. The university is establishing a high-profile partnership with chipmaking giant Nvidia. Other colleges, Creighton boasted, are following Texas Tech’s lead in scrutinizing what professors teach and whether their lessons prepare students for high-paying jobs.
Creighton said his own struggle to pay for college made him empathize with students facing similar financial pressures.
“I wanted to make some kind of difference in their lives, paying it forward,” Creighton told The Texas Tribune.
As chair of the Senate Education Committee, Creighton spearheaded laws aimed at curbing what GOP leaders saw as liberal influence on campuses and making college degrees worth their cost — an overhaul his supporters say is unmatched by other states.
The laws he championed have been far-reaching, and leaders in other states are paying attention.
Diversity, equity and inclusion offices that provided mentoring and support to students of color, women, and LGBTQ+ students closed. University administrators gained more authority to fire professors with tenure, which is meant to protect their freedom to teach and research controversial subjects. Governor-appointed regents took greater control over university leadership and required courses.
Now, from inside one of the university systems he once regulated, Creighton is going further than the laws he wrote require, positioning Texas Tech as a model for other universities. One of Creighton’s first acts as chancellor was to require faculty across Texas Tech’s five universities to seek approval before teaching lessons involving gender identity, sexual orientation, or certain ideas about race and sex.
John Colyandro, a longtime conservative policy advisor who worked for Gov. Greg Abbott, said universities had become too ideologically one-sided and pointed to employers dropping degree requirements for some jobs as evidence that they were losing value.
“Chancellor Creighton waded into that with a really focused purpose of resetting and reviving higher ed so the public could say, ‘Yes, that investment is worth it,’” he said.
Critics say his policies come at a cost, including universities overcorrecting to comply.
Ramar Communications President and CEO Brad Moran speaks with Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton at a Lubbock Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Sept. 8, 2026. Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune
Leaders of the Texas conference of the American Association of University Professors say professors face fresh limits on what they can teach, driving talented faculty out of the state.
“I want to think the best of people, but I am really concerned that the impact he’s had on higher ed will be a long-lasting one that we won’t be able to get out of for a while,” AAUP Texas President Teresa Klein said.
Several Tech professors announced departures since Creighton’s restrictions, saying they couldn’t give students a complete education. More than half of the university’s faculty who responded to a survey said they were looking for jobs elsewhere.
Faculty groups are suing Creighton and the regents, alleging unconstitutional censorship that’s forced professors to remove foundational texts such as Plato’s Republic, omit historical facts about the Holocaust, and cut lessons on treating transgender patients and differences in health outcomes among racial and ethnic groups.
James Snoddy, a Texas Tech student who helped organize a spring protest outside a Tech board of regents meeting, sees the fight over academic freedom as bigger than his university.
“I like to say we’re patient zero when it comes to academic infringement and that if we don’t stop it here, it will spread further and further,” he said.
Freshman pre-law student James Snoddy speaks at a rally protesting censorship at Texas Tech University in Lubbock on Thursday, May 7, 2026. Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribune
Other universities were making sweeping changes, too.
Texas A&M regents restricted what professors could teach about race, gender, and sexuality. University of Texas regents required their schools to ensure students could graduate without studying what they called “unnecessary controversial subjects.” And at the University of Houston, some deans asked professors to certify that they “teach, not indoctrinate.”
With about five minutes left at the recent chamber luncheon, the moderator turned to Texas Tech’s controversial course review, describing it as Creighton enforcing a law he wrote. But Senate Bill 37 only requires periodic reviews of all courses undergraduates must take. It does not prohibit teaching any particular topic.
Creighton emphasized to the luncheon’s attendees that only “a very small percentage” of classes in the system were changed through the process, though he acknowledged courses may have been altered before they reached the regents. Then he returned to the case he had spent the day making about Texas Tech’s influence.
Creighton named four of Texas’ six other public university systems that he said had followed Tech’s lead in reviewing what professors teach.
“We’re not going to wait on others to do it for us,” he said. “We’re going to lead. Some of it will be uncomfortable.”
Creighton’s higher ed rise
