Texas Tech Students Hold Mock Funeral for Academic Freedom

More than 100 students and supporters gathered at Texas Tech University on Thursday to stage a mock funeral for academic freedom, protesting what organizers describe as growing political attacks on higher education in Texas.

The demonstration, organized by Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) and Raiders Against Censorship, coincided with a Texas Tech University System Board of Regents meeting. Participants dressed in funeral attire, held a memorial wake, delivered eulogies, and marched across campus behind a horse-drawn carriage carrying an urn alongside books, syllabi, and other symbols of academic life.

Organizers described the event as a response to what they called the “death by a thousand cuts” facing academic freedom in Texas.

“This is not symbolic exaggeration but a serious response to a year of decisions that threaten the integrity of our universities,” said James Snoddy, founder of Raiders Against Censorship and a member of SEAT. “Organizing this funeral demonstrated to professors, staff, and administrators at Texas Tech University that students care about the decisions they make. We stand up for our academic freedom and support the people of our school no matter who is in charge.”

The protest centered on concerns about higher education policies and campus decisions that students say have restricted free expression, weakened academic independence, and created a less welcoming environment for marginalized students, particularly transgender students. Many have pointed to leadership decisions by Chancellor Brandon Creighton as part of this decline, describing a shift toward constraint rather than curiosity.

“We mourn a campus that my friends and loved ones felt safe on,” said Tara Findley, a junior at Texas Tech and member of SEAT. “We mourn the assurance that our future mental and medical health professionals will be familiar with our needs. We mourn a student body who will never get to see the art and culture that my community has brought about.”

Findley also criticized what she described as the erosion of expertise and open inquiry within higher education.

“We mourn when we knew for sure our classes were based on and written by the best available knowledge and entrusted to experts and scientists,” she said. “We mourn when freedom of speech on campus meant freedom for all.”

In materials distributed during the protest, organizers framed academic freedom as something that had not disappeared suddenly, but had instead been gradually weakened through “policy by policy, decision by decision.”

The groups also criticized state leadership and university governance, arguing that recent political pressures have shifted universities away from fostering open inquiry and intellectual exploration.

Texas has become a focal point in national debates surrounding higher education, diversity initiatives, LGBTQ inclusion, and academic governance. Student activists and faculty groups across the state have increasingly raised concerns over legislation and administrative actions they say limit speech, restrict curriculum, and target marginalized communities.

SEAT is encouraging students and supporters to become more involved in education policy and elections through its voter-engagement campaign. The organization also announced plans to mobilize students to testify at the upcoming University of Texas System Board of Regents meeting on May 20.

SEAT describes itself as a student-led movement focused on increasing youth participation in policymaking and ensuring students have a voice in education-related decisions.

“The university and its spirit of academic freedom is survived by those who still insist on asking difficult questions,” organizers wrote in the funeral program, “and by those who believe universities should remain places where such questions are not only allowed, but exalted.”

SEAT is a student-led movement focused on increasing youth participation in policymaking and higher-education issues.