Texas A&M University’s president has resigned in the wake of the controversy over the botched hiring of Kathleen O. McElroy, a prominent Black journalist, whose contract was watered down following conservative criticism of her work on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
M. Katherine Banks, president of A&M’s flagship campus, in College Station, announced her immediate resignation in a letter on Thursday evening to the system’s chancellor, John Sharp, that was made public on Friday morning. In a special meeting of the Faculty Senate on Wednesday, Banks denied that McElroy’s contract had ever been changed. Banks’s assertion contradicted McElroy’s statements — first reported by The Texas Tribune — that her full-tenure contract without an end date had been diluted to an offer for a one-year professorship with a separate three-year administrative contract that stressed she could be let go at any time.
Banks told the Faculty Senate that McElroy “could have accepted that [original] offer at any time,” noting that the university had planned a workshop in August on the future of the journalism program in anticipation of her arrival. While Banks said she was not a part of the contract negotiations, she claimed McElroy’s initial offer was still valid.
However, Hart Blanton, the head of Texas A&M’s department of communications and journalism, released a written statement on Friday evening countering Banks’s claim that she had not been a part of the hiring process. Banks told the Faculty Senate that she had not been involved in conversations about McElroy’s offer because such hiring negotiations are done at the dean level or the department level. But Blanton wrote that Banks had “injected herself into the process atypically and early on” in McElroy’s case.
Blanton also said his signature had been copied from an earlier draft of an offer letter to a new version that was sent to McElroy without his knowledge. That draft, he said, reduced the contract’s conditions to a one-year term.
Texas A&M cannot have its leaders misleading the faculty, public, or policymakers about how we conduct business.
He concluded his statement by demanding an independent investigation into the hiring episode. “Texas A&M cannot have its leaders misleading the faculty, public, or policymakers about how we conduct business,” he wrote.
The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Blanton’s statement, but Laylan Copelin, vice chancellor for marketing and communications for the Texas A&M system, told the Tribune on Friday that the system had begun an investigation into McElroy’s hiring process. Copelin said the investigators would review documents and interview Banks, Blanton, and others, adding that the system is “determined to get to the bottom of what happened and why, learn from the mistakes, and do better in the future.”
Efforts to reach Banks for comment on Blanton’s statement were unsuccessful.
Members of the Faculty Senate questioned Banks’s statements at the meeting, expressing concerns about outside influence in the hiring process and the ripple effects on future recruitment. The Senate ultimately passed a resolution aimed at curbing outside influence in faculty hiring and promotions.
“The faculty and the world has lost trust in Texas A&M University, and that is a huge problem,” Tracy Hammond, president of the Faculty Senate and a professor of computer science and engineering, said at the meeting. “I want us to be able to get past this point and return to a point of trusted excellence in the academic community, meaning teaching, research, and service to the public good.”
Unwelcome Influence
On Thursday, Sharp, the chancellor, wrote in a letter to members of the Faculty Senate that he shared their concerns about outside influence on faculty hiring. “Outside influence is never welcome, nor invited,” he wrote, adding that he supported the faculty’s role in shared governance and valued their counsel.
Banks alluded to the implications for Texas A&M in her resignation letter. “The recent challenges regarding Dr. McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately,” Banks wrote. “The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here.”
On Friday, Hammond told The Chronicle that she had been “very surprised” to learn of Banks’s resignation. On behalf of the Faculty Senate, Hammond thanked Banks for her years of service and said the Senate is ready to work with the newly named interim president, Mark A. Welsh III, dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service and a retired Air Force general.
Texas A&M recruited McElroy, a former New York Times editor and director of the University of Texas at Austin’s journalism program, to run its recently revived journalism program. But negotiations reportedly broke down after conservatives raised concerns about McElroy’s DEI-related work, including her advocacy for newsroom diversity and her past statements about objectivity in journalism.
In a written statement to The Chronicle, McElroy’s lawyer, Benjamin J. Hall III, said he hopes to meet with the university’s counsel to discuss non-litigation options to resolve the issues between his client and the university.
“Our response will pivot off the university’s position,” Hall said. “Of course, litigation would hopefully be a last necessary option.”
Hall told The Chronicle on Friday that he was “reserving comment given current efforts relating to Dr. McElroy’s case.”
Banks’s resignation followed that of the interim dean of Texas A&M’s College of Arts and Sciences, José Luis Bermúdez, who told McElroy that the institution might not be able to shield her from “DEI hysteria,” the Tribune reported. The Chronicle learned last week that McElroy would remain as a tenured professor at UT-Austin this fall.
Megan Zahneis contributed to this report.
