Texas A&M University faculty senators demanded more transparency and accountability from the school during a virtual senate meeting with the university's interim president this week after a pair of controversies that have drawn criticism from educators and free speech advocates.
Monday's meeting was the first public meeting in which Interim President Mark A. Welsh III addressed faculty concerns over the botched hiring of University of Texas journalism professor Kathleen McElroy and the temporary administrative leave of professor Joy Alonzo after her alleged criticism of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
“If I can get things stabilized a little bit here, we can get communication flowing," said Welsh, who was appointed to the interim position on July 30. "And we can all kind of start bringing ourselves back together to be the university we know we can be and celebrating the great things that you guys are doing each and every day, as opposed to worrying about the next headline.”
Welsh previously spoke with the senate’s executive committee in a private meeting Aug. 7. Faculty senate speaker Tracy Hammond wrote in an email after that meeting committee members had an “honest and open exchange” with the interim president, but didn’t specify exactly what was discussed behind closed doors.
The meetings came after the university system released an internal review report on Aug. 3, which provided official documents, emails and text messages bringing to light what exactly led to the recent controversies.
The review found the university mishandled McElroy’s hiring due to repeated contract alterations, which were first reported by The Texas Tribune. Former university president M. Katherine Banks and interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences José Bermúdez both resigned as a result in July.
According to the investigation, those contract changes came after concerns from conservative groups and regents over McElroy's association with the New York Times and her support for diversity. McElroy, who is Black, later rejected the high-profile position to revamp the university's journalism department.
Along with the report, the university system also announced it would pay McElroy $1 million in a legal claims settlement.
Report documentation also showed Alonzo was put on leave while the university investigated claims she criticized Patrick’s response to the opioid crisis in Texas during a lecture at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She returned to her position after the university could not substantiate the claims.
The day before that report was released, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham — who kicked off the investigation into Alonzo — took to Twitter to accuse the professor of saying Patrick believed a group of Texas kids who died due to fentanyl use “deserved to die,” which Alonzo has denied.
That same day, Patrick defended the university’s investigation in a Houston Chronicle op-ed.
In Monday’s public meeting, Welsh characterized the fallout from those controversies as a lack of communication between administrators and faculty, and said he and other staff members would spend time to assess structural problems that may have led to that communication breakdown.
But materials science professor Raymundo Arroyave said the recent incidents had eroded his trust in university administration after 17 years at A&M, and he wanted a better explanation.
“I welcome the fact that you're listening to all of us,” Arroyave said. “That's important, that’s the first step. But I hear a lot of tactics. I don't hear a lot of deep dive strategic thinking of where we should go, given the fact that we are not living up to our potential.”
Engineering professor Jose Alvarado said it was troublesome to see McElroy’s hiring be influenced by outside forces and asked whether that could happen again.
“We hire program directors all the time,” Alvarado said. “We hire department heads, even deans. But for some reason, this one just went through the roof without any logical explanation. Why?”
Welsh acknowledged that building trust could take time, and said similar mistakes wouldn't be repeated in his time as president.
“I'll just tell you that if a regent calls me and says, 'hey, I really am worried about this,' I'll say thank you for the call,” he said. “But I'm not going to call the department head and tell them who to hire.”
The senate’s executive committee said it would look into the two issues with an investigative subcommittee comprised of three professors. Hammond, the faculty senate speaker, wrote in a July statement the committee would be compiling its own factually-supported explanation of the events that have taken place and recommendations to “avoid similar actual or apparent challenges to academic freedom” in the future.
She told senators Monday she’s confident in Welsh’s leadership and encouraged teamwork between A&M faculty and administration.
“Shared governance is far from perfect at Texas A&M, but I promise that I will work hard to make that a reality with all of you,” Hammond said. “To move us to the A&M that all of us remember and treasure. And I have heard General Welsh make that same commitment.”
Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on Twitter @tosibamowo.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
