With an internal review report released Thursday by the Texas A&M Office of General Counsel, new records highlight how an unusual level of intervention from the TAMU board of regents, other conservative voices, and fears over Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), played a key role in the botched hiring of UT Professor Kathleen McElroy.
The Texas A&M Office of General Counsel included various records such as emails, text messages, and other materials highlighting the unusual involvement of the board of regents, and outside voices, solidifying reports that McElroy’s offer was botched due to DEI Concerns.
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We’ve broken down a timeline of the situation, based on what the records show:
May 11, 2023
McElroy accepted a verbally offered position to lead the journalism program offered by Hart Blanton, head of the Department of Communication. As a TAMU Alumni, she was elated to revive the program ever since A&M dropped the program as a major in 2004.
However, quickly after, concerns grew over her background.
On that same day, José Luis Bermúdez, Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, asked Blanton to pause the hiring announcement until the legislative session was over. Advising in a text message, “Bottom line is the NYT connection is poor optics during this particular legislative session.”
In that same message chain, Blanton compared the potential PR Outcry from hiding the deal from McElroy to what happened to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, when the University of North Carolina’s board of trustees denied her a tenured position a few years ago because of her Pulitzer Prize-winning work covering race in America.
Eerily foreshadowing the events to come.
Documents show that at this time, A&M officials hid these issues from McElroy, who was told hiring was delayed due to paperwork, not because of concerns over PR during the legislative session.
June 13, 2023
In a grand hiring ceremony with fanfare usually reserved for athletes or celebrities, McElroy publicly announced she would work with TAMU. The University would celebrate the alumni’s return by providing her a faculty position with “tenure upon arrival,” contingent on approval by the TAMU System and its Board of Regents, as well as an appointment as Director of Journalism in an administrative role.
However, the celebrations were quickly cut short.
June 15, 2023
The Texas Scorecard published an article titled “Aggies Hire NY Times’ Diversity’ Advocate To Head Journalism Program.”
Former Texas A&M President Katherine Banks stated immediately after the article’s release, she received calls from 6-7 members of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents asking questions and raising concerns about McElroy’s hiring.
June 16, 2023
Jay Graham, a member of the TAMU Office of The Board of Regents, voiced his disapproval over text to other board members.
“I thought the purpose of us starting a journalism department was to get a high-quality Aggie journalist with conservative values in the market.” Jay Graham texted to others in a group chat, “This won’t happen with someone like this leading the department.”
Graham went further, describing the reasoning behind his disapproval
June 19, 2023
Kathy Banks only three days after the public signing of Kathleen McElroy, when asked if there was any support from the top of the university in a text message conversation, she replied:
“Absolutely nothing. Nothing, nothing. She is going to have a very rough road here.”
On the same day, Board of Regents member Mike Hernandez sent an email to Katherine Banks stating, “There’s no way I can believe that she can not be influenced by all the time she spent in New York and Austin when building this new department, and that is the exact opposite of what we had in mind for someone in this position…granting tenure to somebody with this background is a difficult sell for many on the [board of regents]”
June 27, 2023
New appointment letters were drafted for McElroy. One letter provided for a multi-year appointment as a Professor of Practice, and the other for a multi-year appointment as Director of the Journalism program in an administrative position.
July 6, 2023
After an executive board meeting, Banks instructed Bermudez to call McElroy and advise her that she was coming into a difficult environment and instructed him to change the faculty appointment from a 3-year appointment to a 1-year one. Contrary to her claims that she did not know about job offer changes that led to the professor’s botched hiring.
July 7, 2023
Bermudez called McElroy.
According to reporting from the Texas Tribune, this is what McElroy claims Bermudez said on the call:
“According to McElroy, Bermúdez told her that her hiring had “stirred up a hornet’s nest,” that there were people against her and that, “even if he hired me, these people could make him fire me … that the president and the chancellor, no one can stop that from happening,” she said.”
Ultimately, he advised her to stay in her tenured role at UT-Austin.
July 9, 2023
Bermudez sent further revised appointment letters to McElroy and copied Blanton on
his email to McElroy.
The new appointment letters were a far cry from the original offer.
One letter provided for appointment to the faculty as a Professor of Practice now for only a 1-year appointment, and the other provided for only a 3-year administrative appointment as Director of the Journalism program.
July 11, 2023
The Tribune released an article highlighting McElroy’s hiring process, and immediately after a barrage of letters sent directly to Texas A&M officials protested the administration’s handling of her hiring.
“I am writing to you today regarding Kathleen McElroy. For the first time since I slid it on my finger eight years ago, I took off my Aggie Ring on Tuesday. I married my wonderful husband wearing that ring. I’ve traveled the world with that ring, held my friend’s firstborn babies wearing that ring, proudly displayed it whenever I met other Aggies out in the workforce. But for the first time in eight years, I took it off on Tuesday. Because I was ashamed to be an Aggie. I was ashamed to be associated with any of you.”
-Lindsey Gawlik Carnett, Environment Reporter at the San Antonio Report
“I write to express my profound disappointment…My father thankfully passed away before Texas A&M made the poor decision to discontinue its journalism program.”
-Chris Bowers
The Aftermath:
Since these events, Texas A&M has agreed to pay $1 million to Dr. Kathleen McElroy as part of a settlement agreement over the tumultuous hiring process.
Additionally, Interim President Welsh has directed the Office for Faculty Affairs to create a task force to provide recommendations on appropriate protections for faculty in matters of faculty hiring and academic freedom.
According to records, in interviews during the internal investigation conducted after key details of the failed hiring process were discovered, TAMU leaders such as Interim President Mark Welsh, Ballabina, and Anand acknowledged that significant mistakes were made in this hiring process, primarily due to a failure in following established policies and procedures that govern faculty hiring.