A Texas Tech Health El Paso faculty member self-censored part of a course about El Paso’s underserved population – and campus leaders have told them not to use the word “disparity” in class, according to a recent lawsuit.The American Association of University Professors and its Texas chapter initiated legal action July 8 against Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton and the system’s nine Board of Regents to address what the plaintiffs believe are restrictions to what can be taught about sex, race, gender identity and sexual orientation.On Friday, the plaintiffs asked the U.S. district court for the Western District of Texas El Paso Division for an immediate injunction to stop the system’s policies that control if or how faculty may teach those topics because those rules harm faculty throughout the system. At issue are directives in memoranda that Creighton issued and the board approved in December 2025 and April 2026 that ordered administrators at the system’s five institutions to review course material for those prohibited subjects. He issued these edicts so courses would be more focused on workforce preparation, according to his December directive.“This curriculum review under Senate Bill 37 will, in part, ensure each university is offering degrees of value,” he wrote in his first memorandum.