The Faculty Senate at Texas A&M University at College Station is demanding answers from university leaders after a series of bombshell revelations that have raised concerns about possible outside influence in faculty affairs.
The latest controversy involves Joy Alonzo, a clinical assistant professor in the pharmacy-practice department who was suspended earlier this year after a student with “ties” to Texas A&M leadership reported her, according to an investigation published on Tuesday by The Texas Tribune. The student’s complaint reportedly alleged that Alonzo had criticized Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, in a guest lecture in March at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston.
In a letter on Tuesday, Tracy A. Hammond, speaker of the Faculty Senate, wrote that Alonzo’s case is not just “the appearance, but actual evidence, of interference by outside political forces” that aim to “erode” academic freedom. Hammond’s letter, sent on behalf of the Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee, was addressed to the Texas A&M system’s chancellor, John Sharp, and to Mark A. Welsh III, acting president of the College Station flagship.
“This is not only having a chilling effect on our faculty but is further damaging the national reputation of our university,” wrote Hammond, a professor of computer science and engineering. “And it will make it even more difficult to recruit and retain the best and brightest talent.”
Hammond invited Sharp to the Faculty Senate’s next meeting, in mid-August, but noted that the group was “more than willing” to convene an earlier special meeting at his request. Laylan Copelin, a spokesperson for the system, told The Chronicle that Sharp had already met with some faculty members, adding that the logistics of a meeting with the Faculty Senate were still being discussed.
Hammond told The Chronicle that Sharp had moved quickly to speak with faculty members after the Tribune’s story broke, including a meeting on Wednesday with the Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee. Hammond said his action “bodes very well” for the system’s administration, and she looks forward to collaborating with it through shared governance. Leaders of the Student Senate will also be included in future conversations, Hammond said.
An ‘Investigation Re Firing Her’
The Alonzo revelations emerged just days after M. Katherine Banks, president of the Texas A&M flagship, resigned amid the fallout from the botched hiring of Kathleen O. McElroy, a prominent Black journalist and director of the University of Texas at Austin’s journalism program.
McElroy was initially offered a faculty position with tenure to run Texas A&M’s journalism program. But the offer was watered down and ultimately fell apart following conservatives’ criticism of her involvement in diversity, equity, and inclusion work. In addition to President Banks, José Luis Bermúdez resigned as interim dean of Texas A&M’s College of Arts and Sciences.
According to the Tribune, the student’s complaint about Alonzo was circulated by the Texas land commissioner, Dawn Buckingham, a Republican, and brought to the attention of several top state officials, including Kevin P. Eltife, chair of the University of Texas system’s board; Jenny Jones, the Texas A&M system’s vice chancellor for governmental relations; and Lieutenant Governor Patrick. Hours after her lecture, Alonzo was placed on paid administrative leave by Chancellor Sharp, who told Patrick’s chief of staff that Alonzo had been put on leave “pending investigation re firing her,” according to text messages obtained by the Tribune.
The Galveston administration was also alerted to the student’s complaint and sent an email to the class of first-year medical students who had attended the guest lecture that condemned Alonzo’s comments, saying they did not represent the university’s “opinion or position.” After issuing a formal censure, the university vowed to take steps to “ensure such behavior does not occur in the future.”
Texas A&M permitted Alonzo to keep her job after the investigation did not find any wrongdoing. Neither Texas A&M nor the University of Texas Medical Branch has clarified what Alonzo said that was deemed offensive, the Tribune reported.
Copelin, the spokesperson for the Texas A&M system, said in a written statement to The Chronicle that it “would have been irresponsible for us not to have looked into” the Medical Branch’s censure of Alonzo.
“You can’t ignore an allegation from another university,” Copelin said. (According to the timeline Copelin provided to the Tribune, the Medical Branch sent out its email “censuring” Alonzo 15 minutes after a Texas A&M official confirmed that an official investigation of Alonzo was underway.)
Copelin added that it is “not unusual” for the university to contact state officials who have “concerns about anything occurring at the Texas A&M system,” referring to Sharp’s communication with Patrick’s chief of staff. Speaking on behalf of Alonzo — whose university email address now goes straight to the Texas A&M system’s media-relations office — Copelin said her remarks had been “mischaracterized and taken out of context” in Galveston. Alonzo had “no issue with how the university handled the situation,” Copelin said.
Murky Circumstances
The details about the outside actors involved in Alonzo’s suspension have parallels to the murky circumstances surrounding the attempted hiring of McElroy, the professor of journalism. While it remains unclear how many official complaints were made against McElroy, the Rudder Association — an alumni and community group whose mission is to “preserve, defend, and perpetuate the core values and unique culture of Texas A&M” — told The Chronicle that the organization had emailed the university to detail concerns about McElroy’s “expressed ideology and her lack of an expressed plan to address the current mistrust of the profession.”
The Tribune reported that Bermúdez, the interim dean who resigned amid the fallout, had warned McElroy he could not protect her job a day after the Texas A&M system’s Board of Regents discussed McElroy’s hiring with Banks, then A&M’s president.
Before she resigned, Banks told the Faculty Senate in a special meeting that she had not participated in McElroy’s contract negotiations and that the initial offer with tenure was still valid, contradicting previous statements by McElroy. Banks’s claims were further refuted in a statement from Hart Blanton, the head of Texas A&M’s department of communications and journalism, who said the president had “injected herself into the process atypically and early on” in McElroy’s case. He also wrote that his signature had been used without his knowledge on an offer letter that altered McElroy’s original contract.
Amid the backlash over McElroy’s failed hiring — days before the revelations about Alonzo’s suspension and the hasty communications about it among system and state officials — Sharp told the Faculty Senate that “outside influence is never welcome, nor invited.”
Copelin said the A&M system had already begun an investigation into McElroy’s hiring process, noting that it is “determined to get to the bottom of what happened” and “do better in the future.”
