An internal investigation at Texas A&M University revealed the extent of the involvement of high-level state and university officials in two faculty-employment scandals that have generated national attention, one of which will result in a $1-million settlement.
The first controversy, which produced the newly announced settlement, involved Kathleen O. McElroy, a former New York Times editor whose contract to lead Texas A&M’s journalism department unraveled following a wave of conservative criticism and resulted in the resignation of two university officials who were involved in her hiring.
The investigation, the results of which were published on the Texas A&M University system’s website and include summaries by the Office of General Counsel and hundreds of pages of supporting documentation, refutes claims made by M. Katherine Banks, the now-former president of Texas A&M at College Station. Banks said she was not part of the negotiations with McElroy and did not know changes had been made to the proposed terms of her employment before they came to light in The Texas Tribune. But documents released in the investigation indicate that Banks became involved early on in McElroy’s hiring and attempted to minimize and cover up the damage from the fallout.
While McElroy was initially offered a faculty position with tenure to run Texas A&M’s journalism program, negotiations broke down after conservatives’ criticism of her involvement in diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
Banks and José Luis Bermúdez, then the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, adjusted McElroy’s offer in response to the criticism. At first, according to the documents, McElroy agreed to a three-year appointment as a professor of practice without tenure.
About two hours later, Banks wondered if a one-year deal was possible instead, the investigation showed. “I would prefer it be just the tradition of once a year, if we haven’t offered anything else,” she wrote, but then relented once Bermúdez said he’d already offered McElroy a three-year arrangement per the president’s earlier message. McElroy balked at the one-year offer and later pulled out of the negotiations. She will remain at the University of Texas at Austin as a tenured professor of journalism.
‘A Very Rough Road’
University officials worked together to delay the announcement of McElroy’s hiring until the end of the legislative session to avoid political confrontation.
“Bottom line is the NYT connection is poor optics during this particular legislative session,” Bermúdez wrote in a text message to Hart Blanton, head of the department of communication and journalism, explaining Banks’ rationale for delaying the appointment.
At various points, the specter of politics lurked over the negotiations.
“She is going in eyes wide open and knows Texas well,” Bermúdez wrote in a text to the president, describing McElroy, on June 19. “She is impressive and very determined.”
Later that day, he asked Banks what he could tell McElroy about the support from university leadership.
“Absolutely nothing. Nothing, nothing,” Banks wrote. “She is going to have a very rough road here.”
The investigation also confirmed the involvement of several members from the system-level Board of Regents. It included screenshots of a group chat in which one of the regents, Jay Graham, wrote that McElroy’s hiring would derail the “purpose” outlined for the journalism program: “to get high-quality Aggie journalists with conservative values into the market.” Graham said it would be contrary to the broader goal that Banks had allegedly endorsed of combining “arts and sciences together” to “control the liberal nature that those professors brought to campus.”
“This won’t happen with someone like this leading the department,” Graham wrote.
After an article critical of McElroy’s hiring and written by a Texas A&M journalism student was published in the Texas Scorecard, a conservative news outlet, Banks received six to seven phone calls from concerned regents. They questioned how McElroy’s “advocacy for DEI could be reconciled” with the university’s obligations to comply with SB 17 — a new Texas law that went into effect July 1 and bans DEI offices and programming in the state.
The regents’ concerns echoed those outlined in emails sent to state officials that were released in the investigation. Some writers applauded the scuttling of McElroy’s contract.
“If Texas A&M chooses to lead in the field of journalism then certainly there are candidates that better represent our goals and objectives to create a journalism curriculum that teaches true unbiased journalism with a focus on investigative research and giving the facts with multiple perspectives,” one person wrote in an email to the regents. Conservative critics had previously voiced issues with McElroy’s statements on objectivity in journalism.
Others expressed disappointment in how McElroy’s case had transpired, with several calling it “embarrassing.”
“An exemplary professional was wronged by our great university,” an alumnus wrote. “This was truly an unforced error.”
The Fallout
After McElroy withdrew from negotiations, Banks and Bermúdez expressed relief.
“I assume all texts were deleted,” Banks texted the then-interim dean.
As the controversy surrounding McElroy’s botched hiring became public, Banks resigned as president, and Bermúdez left his administrative position, though he remains on the faculty as a professor of philosophy.
The investigation concluded that “significant mistakes” made in McElroy’s hiring process could be attributed to failures to follow established procedures and policies, and it proposed that the vice chancellor of faculty affairs sign all new offer letters to provide an immediate oversight mechanism. The interim president, Mark A. Welsh III, authorized the Office of Faculty Affairs to develop a task force to create recommendations for protecting faculty members in hiring and their academic freedom.
Texas A&M’s flagship and the system acknowledged in a joint statement that mistakes were made, claiming the institution has “learned from its mistakes and will strive to ensure similar mistakes are not repeated in the future.” John Sharp, the system’s chancellor, apologized to McElroy in a separate statement. Sharp said the investigation uncovered “some bad decision-making to which almost no one was privy at the time.”
McElroy also issued a statement saying she hoped the resolution of her case will “reinforce A&M’s allegiance to excellence in higher education and its commitment to academic freedom and journalism.”
Academic Freedom
The system’s general counsel also released the results of its investigation into the suspension earlier this year of Joy Alonzo, a clinical assistant professor in the department of pharmacy practice at the College Station campus. During a guest lecture that Alonzo delivered in March at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, she was alleged by the daughter of the Texas land commissioner, Dawn Buckingham, to have made disparaging comments about Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican. Buckingham’s daughter attended the lecture.
The purported comments were brought to the attention of several top state officials, UT-Medical Branch issued an official censure, and Alonzo was placed on paid administrative leave for over 20 days. According to a text message in documents obtained by the Texas Tribune, Sharp, the chancellor, told Patrick’s chief of staff that the professor had been put on leave “pending investigation re firing her.”
Sharp said in a statement that the system’s newly released materials corrected the “false narrative” that he ordered an investigation into Alonzo. The university put Alonzo on leave “with no initiation or interference” from him. He went on to defend his conduct in the case, saying he had not failed to be a “champion of academic freedom because I took one brief, non-threatening phone call from the lieutenant governor.”
“It is time to come together, put our house back in order, and vow to never let this happen again,” Sharp wrote in his statement. “We all must rededicate ourselves to the Aggie values that define us and bind us.”
Alonzo was allowed to keep her position after the investigation did not find that she made “unprofessional or inappropriate” comments about Patrick, and that “the principles of academic freedom” were applicable in this situation.
It remains under dispute what Alonzo said that was offensive. The investigation did not specify, but Alonzo was issued a memo titled, “Expected awareness when speaking publicly on behalf of the institution” that provided guidance on how she should conduct public presentations.
Patrick wrote an opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday in which he stood by his actions in Alonzo’s case, stating he would “do this on behalf of any student or parent who called our office with a similar complaint.” A few hours later, Buckingham alleged that Alonzo, who is an expert on opioids, had told students that Patrick believed that young people who die of overdoses “deserve” it. In a statement issued through the university, Alonzo denied the accusations, saying she has given the same presentation about 1,000 times across the state over the years, according to The Texas Tribune.
The Faculty Senate has launched its own investigation into McElroy’s and Alonzo’s cases, including the senate’s Executive Committee and a fact-finding subcommittee.
