After a tumultuous summer in College Station, what’s next for Galveston?    

Texas A&M University garnered national attention this past summer. Events and controversies that unfolded in College Station have left A&M campus communities shaken, even disheartened. With the retirement of President Katherine Banks, the commencement of Mark A. Welsh III as Interim President, and a standstill on the Path Forward’s organizational review, students, staff, and faculty of A&M campuses have been left with many questions and doubts.

Welsh, Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service and retired U.S. Air Force general, has assumed the role of Interim President over A&M, following former President Banks’ resignation after the failed hiring of professor, journalist, and Aggie graduate Dr. Kathleen McElroy, who was to be tasked with reviving College Station’s journalism program.

Originally hiring McElroy into a possibly tenured professor position, the university later offered a 5-year contract of professorship, and ultimately a one-year contracted professorship position. Banks denied that administration was aware of these alterations to the job offer, and accepted responsibility for the flawed hiring, writing in her resignation letter to Chancellor John Sharp,“The recent challenges regarding Dr. McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately. The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here.”

University faculty, staff, and students alike have been left profoundly shocked and confused. Administration has received widespread backlash from faculty members, the Aggie community, and various news and social media over the failed hiring in addition to accusations of having been swayed by external political influences and recent state legislation involving Senate Bill 17, suggesting McElroy was a victim of “anti-woke hysteria” and bias against diversity.

Dr. Adam Haney contended at the faculty senate meeting held July 19, when Banks had insisted none were made aware of changes in Dr. McElroy’s offer: “How can we say for certain that there’s no undue or outside influence if nobody’s willing to take responsibility?” Dr. McElroy herself has publicly commented she believes she was treated unfairly because of her race and gender.

It has been revealed in a posted meeting agenda and TAMU’s Internal Review and memo of the affair that Banks and university officials including Senior Vice President Susan Ballabina, Vice President NK Anand, former Interim Dean Jose Bermudez, and Department Head Hart Blanton acted contrarily to A&M’s hiring policies through their treatment of the hiring process. They had been implicated through multiple exchanged messages uncovered in the Office of General Counsel’s investigation to have delayed Dr. McElroy’s recruitment because of the SB-17 legislative session and concerns over Dr. McElroy’s background.

It was reported that the changes made to the job offer may have been initiated by Banks or Bermudez in response to a “potential problem with McElroy obtaining tenure at TAMU.”

Not only have the people of the Aggie community been impacted by these events, but so has the ongoing process of the university’s Path Forward organizational review. This process was initiated last year as a plan for recommendations and improvements to College Station and Galveston campus operations that would be compiled into a report, the result of which was the MGT Reports. Feedback was to be gathered from faculty, staff, and task force teams, such as the Academic Programs Task Force and the Marketing and Communications Task Force on the Galveston Campus to form a complete evaluation of the campuses.

Interim President Welsh arranged an All Faculty and Staff virtual meeting from College Station on Aug. 15 to speak on matters surrounding Banks’ resignation and McElroy’s failed hire, as well as on the status of the university’s organizational review, his goals as Interim President, and his answers to faculty and staff questions.

In the Aug. 15 meeting, Welsh emphasized the importance of addressing and correcting the issues of instability, which controversies and struggles from the summer revealed, in order to learn from such unfortunate experiences and return to the focus of being the best possible version of A&M.

During the meeting, Interim President Welsh stated the clear need to re-establish trust in the university and between faculty and campus communities, as well as the goal of mending problems of communication among the university, so every Aggie can have the opportunity of being equally well informed of campus decisions, functions, and changes.

Welsh stressed the importance of adhering to the Aggie Core Value of respect while moving forward, of putting into practice the treatment of others as one wishes to be treated and enforcing equal treatment.

“I believe diversity is a strength,” he said, “I believe inclusion of all people, all ideas, voices is imperative for success in a large organization. And I believe equity is just the way we ought to live our lives.”

As a necessary step to resolving instabilities within the university, Welsh related efforts for the gradual continuance of the organizational review. He announced the creation of a “quick look team,” led by Joe Pettibon, who visited TAMUG on Aug. 29 to begin his team evaluation of the campus. The quick look team is charged with conducting reevaluation of the College Station and Galveston and their feedback to construct an analysis of the review.

Describing the Path Forward as an “ambitious” program in itself with the intent of reorganizing and improving every campus service and function in the best possible way, Welsh noted the crucial step of strengthening communication through the chaos such oncoming changes can cause, declaring, “We have got to...figure out which of these projects are on track and encourage them to continue, which ones need adjusting, and which ones maybe need to stop before we make it any worse.” Welsh’s underscored that his ultimate goal as Interim President is to be able to pass on the university as a successfully functioning, operating, and communicating organization to the next permanent president. (President Welsh’s All Faculty and Staff meeting can be viewed at https://president.tamu.edu/events-engagements/welsh-virtual-meeting.html.)

On Aug. 17, Vice President Colonel Fossum announced in an email to campus that task force feedback concluded, “more time is needed to develop comprehensive recommendations and a timely evaluation of initiatives.” The need for more time to reconstruct this evaluation puts all active efforts and changes related to TAMUG’s Organizational Review on pause, and pushes back the deadline for a thorough analysis of the report, with the exception of one.

Colonel Fossum explained in the same message, “the diversity of feedback during our organizational review clearly exposed the need to develop a team to address our campus culture. Grace Townsend with the Faculty Senate and Amanda Conley, incoming Staff Council President, have graciously agreed to co-chair the Campus Culture Task Force.” Feedback from this task force is expected Nov. 1, 2023.

Dr. Debbie Thomas, Executive Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer, confirmed in an interview with the Nautilus the extension of organizational report deadlines from Aug. 1 to September. Dr. Thomas explained that some changes and recommendations from the report had already begun affecting both campuses, such as the centralization of campus services like Technology Services and Human Resources, and that more changes and impact can be expected in the future.

She acknowledged the shared realization between faculty, as Interim President Welsh stepped into office, of the urgent need to “slow down ... to pause a second and take a step back so we can be more intentional and think through the potential impact of some of these proposed changes before they are implemented.”

“Everything is effectively on pause until our task forces can provide Colonel Fossum and President Welsh our recommendations,” said Dr. Thomas.

Confident that the university is in good hands as Interim President Welsh takes the lead, the main message Dr. Thomas wished to convey to the students of TAMUG this semester is to be hopeful. She affirmed that faculty are prioritizing doing what is best for student success.