AMNA NAWAZ: Newly elected Democrats in Texas will head to Austin with the kind of power they haven't had in decades.

One of the many questions facing Governor-Elect Gina Hinojosa is whether Democrats will try reversing big changes made at public universities in recent years by state Republicans.

Those laws, which match some of President Trump's demands and also predate them, have put restrictions on what can be taught and more.

Texas is not alone.

More than half of all college students are enrolled in a state with at least one law limiting what can be taught or how campuses can operate.

Stephanie Sy reports on the impact in Texas for our series Rethinking College.

STEPHANIE SY: So, what originally brought you to Texas A&M.

MARTIN PETERSON, Former Texas A&M University Professor: A very good job.

STEPHANIE SY: When philosophy professor Martin Peterson arrived at Texas A&M in 2014, he says he approached his job the way he always had.

MARTIN PETERSON: I have been teaching applied ethics for decades, and I was entirely free to design my own syllabus.

After a couple of years, I started to teach another class, contemporary moral issues, and that's the class that eventually led to some trouble.

STEPHANIE SY: The trouble began as Peterson prepared to teach that class in the spring semester.

According to the course syllabus, contemporary moral issues challenges students to understand articulate, and evaluate arguments from multiple points of view.

And among the assigned readings, an over-2,000-year-old text from the Greek philosopher Plato.

MARTIN PETERSON: Plato is one of the most important philosophers of all time.

He, in a sense, invented Western philosophy.

STEPHANIE SY: The reading from Plato's influential dialogue "Symposium" explores the nature of love and includes a speech by ancient playwright Aristophanes.

MARTIN PETERSON: Aristophanes discusses same-sex relationships and also suggests that at some point in the past there might have been more than two genders, the myth of a split human.

Whether this was Plato's own view is as always for Plato a little bit unclear, right?

STEPHANIE SY: But, in January, the text triggered an e-mail from his department head.

MARTIN PETERSON: She together with the dean had concluded that it was a violation of Policy 801, which prohibits instruction on topics related to race and gender ideology.

STEPHANIE SY: If you can't teach Plato... MARTIN PETERSON: What can you teach as a philosophy professor?

STEPHANIE SY: In a written statement to the "PBS News Hour," the university emphasized that Plato remains part of its curriculum -- quote -- "The works of this great philosopher, including 'The Symposium' in its entirety, are still taught in dozens of courses across our campus."

The new policy at Texas A&M came amid a broader state push to increase oversight of public universities.

Here in Texas, concern among lawmakers about what they call political indoctrination on college campuses drove the passage of Senate Bill 37 last year.

The law takes away authority from faculty and professors over what students learn and hands it to regents appointed by the governor.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left, and we will do that.

STEPHANIE SY: According to PEN America, Texas is among 22 states that has enacted laws or policies that align with President Trump's push to force ideological and institutional changes at American universities.

STATE REP.

BRIAN HARRISON (R-TX): Every dollar the government spends in our universities has to come from somewhere.

It comes from the taxpayers.

So, listen, if you want to study LGBTQ studies, gender studies, knock yourself out.

I actually don't really care, at least from my perspective, as a government official, but do it with own money.

STEPHANIE SY: Brian Harrison, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, helped drive changes at Texas A&M, his alma mater, and other universities.

He used social media to rally support.

STATE REP.

BRIAN HARRISON: I realized I think most Texans aren't aware this is happening.

And it turns out I was right.

I went public.

I went to X. I released undercover footage of transgender indoctrination happening.

STEPHANIE SY: In the video from last year, a Texas A&M student records herself challenging her professor's lesson on a nonbinary character in a children's book and objects to her use of a cartoon diagram that trans advocates use to explain gender and sexuality.

STUDENT: I'm not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching, because, according to our president, there's only two genders.

Professor Melissa McCoul responds... MELISSA MCCOUL, Former Texas A&M University Professor: Yes, you are under a misconception.

STEPHANIE SY: ... and eventually says: MELISSA MCCOUL: And it's time for you to leave.

STATE REP.

BRIAN HARRISON: You can actually see not only left-wing extreme transgenderism being taught and forced upon students at my alma mater, but you actually see one very brave young woman who had the courage to stand up in the middle of class to object to this happening.

STEPHANIE SY: It went viral, amassing over five million views.

Other students later spoke out about McCoul, who had taught the children's literature course since 2018.

WOMAN: She came out to us in class and told us that she identifies as a queer autistic woman.

STEPHANIE SY: The fallout led to McCoul's firing, the demotion of two administrators, and the university president's decision to step down.

STATE REP.

BRIAN HARRISON: In the aftermath of that, pretty much every other president at every other public university in Texas was like, you know what, I don't really want Harrison posting about me.

Maybe I need to clean up my university a little bit.

STEPHANIE SY: Over the past year, the University of Texas at Austin eliminated four undergraduate majors focused on race, ethnicity, and gender.

Faculty at Texas Tech said restrictions on teaching about race, sex, and gender prompted changes to nearly 300 courses.

And at the University of Houston, over 45 percent of classes have been cut from the core curriculum requirements, including courses on climate change, gender studies, and LGBT studies.

VALENTINA RIVAS LABARCA, Student, University of Houston: Public universities in Texas aren't trying to create students that are ready for the real world with concrete thought and are prepared to have revolutionary ideas.

They are creating students that can be parts of career pipelines.

STEPHANIE SY: Political science major Valentina Rivas Labarca says she left U.T.

San Antonio because the school consolidated the race, ethnicity, and gender studies programs.

But now she's facing curriculum cuts along the same theme at the University of Houston.

VALENTINA RIVAS LABARCA: If we really don't want to indoctrinate students politically, shouldn't we students get to choose what we want to learn then and be allowed all the options and make our own decisions instead?

STEPHANIE SY: Have you noticed professors being more cautious about what they say in your classes?

VALENTINA RIVAS LABARCA: Oh, yes, for sure.

Actually, I had talked with my intro to political theory professor, and they were personally telling me how they felt they couldn't teach about Karl Marx.

I mean, we can't learn about the Communist Manifesto, and our professor explicitly told us that they will give us access to it to read it on ourselves, but it won't be taught in class because they don't want to get in trouble.

DANIEL MORALES, University of Houston: It feels in every classroom like you're constantly thinking about like, what would a legislator think about what I'm saying right now?

STEPHANIE SY: Daniel Morales is a law professor and faculty union president at the University of Houston.

DANIEL MORALES: In my classroom, I'm constantly saying things like, this is one view.

You can think what you want.

Like, we do.

We put these little disclaimers, to a point that's, frankly, kind of absurd, but people are self-censoring.

I think people are sort of hypercognizant of what they're putting in their syllabi, because everybody feels like they're one sort of complaint away from losing their job.

STEPHANIE SY: But, to Harrison, the fear isn't a side effect of his public pressure campaign.

It's the whole point.

STATE REP.

BRIAN HARRISON: If you got a taxpayer-funded salary and you're using your taxpayer-funded position to indoctrinate students, you shouldn't just be nervous.

You should be fired.

STEPHANIE SY: Do you really think that Texans want legislators and regions to be deciding what is taught at public universities?

You don't necessarily, as a region or as a lawmaker, have specific experience in these fields of knowledge.

STATE REP.

BRIAN HARRISON: Public universities can only do things that are funded by the taxpayers.

Therefore, I want the taxpayers to be the ones in ultimate control with what is done with their money.

And how do the taxpayers do that?

Through their elected representatives.

Back at Texas A&M, philosophy professor Peterson resigned and has since taken a new position at a private university in Texas.

MARTIN PETERSON: I like Texas A&M.

It's a very nice university.

But at the end of the day, it's pointless to have experts in the classroom if you don't trust them to figure out how to teach your classes.

STEPHANIE SY: And that's a principle he believes Plato himself would have embraced.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy in College Station, Texas.