Daily Update - April 14, 2026

No Place for Women's and Gender Studies

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Texas Tech University’s system chancellor Brandon Creighton has told every campus to start phasing out Women’s and Gender Studies, insisting academic programs must be rigorous, relevant, and produce degrees of value. For years, WGS was tacked on as a minor to degrees in marketing, HR, law, and more, feeding graduates into advocacy outfits, niche law firms, government bureaucracy, and academia itself while pushing hardline DEI ideology.

But the ground has shifted. DEI programs are being rolled back across the private sector as companies realize that obsessing over race and gender instead of performance is bad for business, even as a few giants like Apple and Costco double down. While executives quietly walk away from these distractions and refocus on hiring the best people to deliver results, UNCW still offers a 19‑credit WGS minor, underscoring just how out of touch the academic left has become.

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 Creighton 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, Creighton said he and the system’s regents are “focused on ensuring our academic programs are rigorous, relevant, and produce degrees of value.”

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 Akida – 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 Crieghton 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 Sey – who founded XX-XY 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.

Reuel Sample is the Editor-in-Chief of The Wilmington Standard. A graduate of Grove City College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he has served as both a Presbyterian Pastor and a Navy Chaplain. He is the product of a classical liberal arts education combined with real world experience in politics and business and conservative Christian worldview firmly rooted in the Reformed tradition. He is the host of several podcasts including the NHC GOP Podcast, the Pastor's Voice, and co-hosts the Nikki and Reuel Podcast Experience. An avid sailor, he has sailed around the world as a youth and to the Azores as a teen as well as extensive trips up and down the east coast of the United States. He is honored to be married to his wife Pam and makes his home in Wilmington, NC.