As former Vice President Mike Pence headlined Texas A&M’s civil discourse symposium Monday, some students and faculty said the event’s message rang hollow after months of fights over what can be taught and learned in class.
Inside Rudder Auditorium, the same man interrupted Pence twice, shouting profanity first after Pence voiced support for recent U.S. military action against Iran and again when Pence invoked conservative activist Charlie Kirk while condemning political violence. After the second interruption, officers removed and arrested the man, who the university said was not a student.
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Pence said he was able to forge warm relationships in Congress with people he thought “were wrong about everything” because they still shared common ground in caring deeply about their faith, families and their country.
“I think the key for us going forward is to stop talking at each other and start listening to each other,” he said, arguing that government should reflect “the decency and the generosity and the respectfulness of the American people.”
The event — meant to teach students how to disagree agreeably — was the latest in a five-campus Texas A&M System series that leaders framed as helpful preparation for engaging despite differences in polarized times. But critics saw a contradiction in teaching students about effective dialogue after restricting information that can be taught and canceling classes based on their content.
Pence, once among Trump’s closest political allies, became a target of Trump and his supporters when he refused to block the certification of the 2020 election. Monday marked at least his third visit to Texas A&M since 2019, and one of several college appearances he has made ahead of the June 2 release of his new book, “What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience.”
At Texas A&M, he blamed some of the country’s growing political division on social media, saying it reinforces people’s existing views and gives foreign actors another way to deepen distrust. He also praised U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, for working across the aisle on efforts to force the sale or ban of TikTok’s Chinese parent company.
Pence’s afternoon session and the morning discussion with McCaul and Cuellar were both moderated by leaders in student government. But across both sessions, speakers spoke in general terms about civility, political courage and listening across differences without directly addressing the campus controversies hanging over the event.
Those controversies grew out of Texas A&M’s response to lecturer Melissa McCoul’s classroom discussion on gender identity last fall, which led first to heightened scrutiny of course content and later new limits on what professors could teach. System leaders ordered a review of all courses, and regents barred most courses from teaching race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity unless a campus president approved an exception in writing.
The death of Kirk, who had visited Texas A&M months earlier, widened the debate beyond the classroom. After reports that some students at other universities had mocked or celebrated his death, lawmakers created a committee to review civil discourse and freedom of speech on college campuses.
McCaul, whose district includes College Station, and Cuellar spoke about moments when they took heat from their own parties. McCaul pointed to his vote to certify the 2020 election, while Cuellar cited his 2005 support for the Central America Free Trade Agreement.
Only afterward, in response to a question from The Texas Tribune, did the lawmakers address the fight over what can be taught in classrooms.
“I’m one of those big believers that you’ve got to have public expression, that freedom, and we’ve got to be very, very careful not to cross those lines,” Cuellar said.
McCaul also said he would not want to see free speech chilled at universities and that students should have a voice, but he also said universities must follow the law. He did not name a specific law.
No state or federal law currently bans college faculty from teaching about race, gender or sexuality, and the executive order McCaul appeared to reference governs federal funding, not classroom instruction.
The university said about 2,000 people registered to hear Pence speak.
Outside, roughly 30 to 40 students and faculty stood in light rain with “Aggies for Academic Freedom” signs, protesting what they saw as a gap between the symposium’s message and the university’s recent actions. One sign, decorated with googly eyes, read, “Our eyes see through TAMUS lies.” Another asked, “Are we a force for good … yet?” a pointed riff on the university’s “A Force for Good” branding. Protesters also chanted, “Aggies gig ‘em, we don’t gag them.”
Mitchel Cepale, a sophomore political science major who said he attended the morning session before joining the protest, said civil discourse was a worthy goal, but argued the event itself felt like a “facade of civil discourse” built around preplanned questions and broad concepts.
Student protester Leah Tolan said she wanted to represent students and faculty who were too scared to speak publicly.
“We’re showing the Board of Regents that we’re not backing off,” said Tolan, a sophomore sociology major who said she did not attend the symposium because she had class.
Another student protester, Yousef Mahdy, pointed to the university’s ongoing investigation into his own speech as part of what he and other protesters see as a broader crackdown on views those in power do not like.
Earlier this month, Mahdy, who is a junior studying petroleum engineering, filmed himself approaching two students on campus at a Students Supporting Israel table. He called them “genocide supporters” and “stinky Zionists,” and told them to “get the hell out of our country.”
The video was posted to X by the StopAntisemitism account, which tagged Chancellor Glenn Hegar and asked why the conduct was allowed. Hegar replied that same day, “Harassing others with hateful and demeaning language is unacceptable. … We are reviewing the facts, and we will act if our policies have been violated.”
In an interview with the Tribune, Yousef said he was not antisemitic and that criticizing Zionism is not the same as attacking Jewish people. On Monday, he told protesters, “How do they expect me to have civil discourse when my discourse is being silenced?”
Martin Peterson, the philosophy professor who told the Tribune in January that he had been ordered to remove material from Plato and other sources related to race and gender, said the system’s rules now keep professors from teaching what they believe students need to learn, weakening the value of a Texas A&M education.
Peterson, who is leaving Texas A&M for Southern Methodist University, framed his departure as a handoff to others still on campus, urging them to keep pushing back.
“I really hope someone else will take up the fight,” he said. “I love you. I will miss you.”
In a statement to the Tribune before Monday’s event, Hegar said the symposiums were meant to expose students to “substantive discussion in an appropriate setting” and to reinforce that “disagreement does not have to devolve into hostility.” He said it was “entirely fair for critics to voice objections” but called it hypocritical to dismiss civil discourse while “rejecting engagement out of hand.”
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.