Daily Update April 14, 2026: No Place for Women's and Gender Studies

Texas Tech’s chancellor has ordered Women’s and Gender Studies programs to be phased out, arguing colleges should deliver rigorous degrees that actually have value in the real world. As DEI falls out of favor in corporate America and companies quietly ditch woke hiring fads in favor of merit, places like UNCW still cling to a 19‑credit WGS minor that prepares students for nowhere.

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Turns out a minor in Women's and Gender Studies really is worthless. This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Chancellor Brandon Crichton of Texas Tech University System released a memo on Friday directing all campuses to start phasing out Women's and Gender Studies, or WGS. In a statement, Crichton said he and the system's regents are, quote, focused on ensuring our academic programs are rigorous, relevant, and produce degrees of value, end quote. While WGS very rarely is awarded as a major at most universities, it is often tacked on as a minor to round out other degrees, such as marketing, human resources, or law. People with these pedigrees would often find themselves in advocacy groups, specialized law firms, government, or right back in the university systems trying to recruit the next generation. Since the main focus of WGS is an almost fanatic defense of diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI, for a while graduates with this background were also in somewhat of a demand in the private sector as corporate culture caved to the liberal left. But all that has changed. According to Sarah Akita, who writes for OnGig, and who, according to her bio, really believes in the power of equity at work, DEI efforts have faced unprecedented challenges in 2025. The ramifications from a branding perspective are yet to be fully understood, but consumers and talent are understandably questioning whether organizations ever believed in the policies in the first place. In other words, Chancellor Crichton is correct. There is less and less market for those who are focused on gender and race over merit in company policy. While some companies, like Apple and Costco, are doubling down on diversity initiatives, most others, like Amazon, are dropping or severely limiting them. According to Jennifer Say, who founded XXXY Athletics, executive teams are happy to abandon these programs. They're a distraction from the business. It's not complicated, she said, for businesses to simply focus on finding the best employees to deliver the best results. Meanwhile, UNCW's College of Humanities continues to offer, for 19 credits, an interdisciplinary minor in women's and gender studies. Looks like we need another memo. For the Wilmington Standard, I'm Reuel Sample. Thanks for listening.