7.22.23
“Texas A&M President Resigns, UT Professor Cries Race”
By Donna Garner
[COMMENTS FROM DONNA GARNER: First, let’s get the “cast of characters” in The Eagle 7.22.23 article straight. M. Katherine Banks was the A&M President and just resigned. Hart Blanton is head of A&M’s Dept. of Communications and Journalism. Each appears to blame one another.
Kathleen McElroy had been director of UT School of Journalism for six years and had worked at the New York Times for 20 years. McElroy Is also all-in on White Supremacy and Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) as her quotes indicate. (Please read my 7.13.23 article posted at the bottom of the page.)
Here is a direct quote from McElroy in the UT Daily Texan: “…numbers are important. Tracking our faculty demographics keeps us focused on goals that counter UT’s history as first excluding, then vacillating between being downright hostile and less than welcoming to students who do not identify as cisgender straight White men.” (6.15.23 – Texas Scorecard: https://texasscorecard.com/state/aggies-hire-ny-times-diversity-advocate-to-head-journalism-program/ )
Because of newly passed SB 17, DEI is now illegal in Texas which means that the very indoctrination that McElroy is promoting (DEI) is now banned.
Of course, many of the facts about McElroy’s background are not mentioned in The Eagle’s article today. As always, the liberal media conveniently leaves out many of the facts.
Instead the reporter obviously tries to make McElroy’s race the big factor which is not the issue at all. Some 40.9% of students at A&M are racial/ethnic minorities, and the faculty at A&M is very international with countless races and ethnicities from around the world.
Please notice as is typical across the country, McElroy ran to the liberal press; and the liberal press was only too willing to become her public mouthpiece. Case in point: 7.21.23 – “Race was a factor in Black professor’s failed hiring, Texas A&M department head says” – Texas Tribune
The good news is that a large percentage of the public has lost confidence in the liberal press, and mainstream newspapers are shrinking in subscriptions almost daily.
Thankfully large numbers of Aggie alums, Texas Scorecard, the Rudder Association, and other patriotic groups will not allow themselves to be intimidated by race baiters and the liberal press.
What is at stake here is whether A&M wants to fall in line with the other “WOKE/LGBTQ/CRT” universities around the country, or whether it wants to remain a place where FACTS, BIOLOGICAL TRUTH, AND RESEARCH matter.
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7.22.23 – The Eagle
“Banks Resigns Amid McElroy Fallout; Dept. Head Says A&M President Misled Faculty”
By Alex Miller
Excerpts from this article:
Texas A&M University President M. Katherine Banks, who tendered her resignation late Thursday, misled faculty on circumstances around the failed hiring of Kathleen McElroy, according to Hart Blanton, head of A&M’s Department of Communication and Journalism.
A statement from Blanton, which was released to The Eagle on Friday afternoon through his legal representative, David Schleicher, also said an earlier draft of a job offer letter for McElroy was altered and sent to her without his advance knowledge. Blanton said it also retained his electronic signature and reduced the appointment from an earlier-discussed multiyear term to one year.
Blanton said Banks’ misleading comments came during a Faculty Senate meeting on Wednesday, which was held to provide clarity on the attempted hiring of McElroy to become A&M’s new director of journalism in saying “the decisionmaking that led to the crisis was at the department level.” (e.g., done by Blanton and/or College of Arts and Sciences interim dean)
Ultimately, it was under the College of Arts and Sciences that the botched hiring of McElroy fell beneath, a situation that also led to the resignation of the college’s interim dean, José Bermúdez.
On multiple occasions in Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Banks said McElroy’s initial offer for an administrative, tenured role as director of journalism was still in place and the offer was never changed.
However, two official offer letters from A&M to McElroy were shared with The Eagle by McElroy last week. The first was for an administrative, tenured role, which she signed.
A&M officials later sent McElroy a revised offer and lowered it to a one-year deal, which A&M officials later said also included a three-year administrative offer.
McElroy told The Eagle that university leaders came back to her with a verbal multiyear deal to become a professor of practice, but the offer was never placed into writing.
Blanton said he shared related materials with university legal staff on Thursday and was “pleased” to see Banks resigned.
Blanton’s statement said he requests a full and independent investigation of the events so they will not be repeated. He also objected to race having been a consideration in the treatment of McElroy, a Black woman.
“The unusual level of scrutiny being given to the hiring of Dr. McElroy was acknowledged by one administrator to have been based, at least in part, on race,” Blanton said in his statement. “Regardless of the source of any such pressure, I understand it to be illegal for any employer — much less a public university — to subject a job candidate to stricter scrutiny due to her race or color.”
[Blanton injected race into the argument which supposedly came from “one administrator” – remember that Blanton evidently approved of McElroy’s DEI/LGBTQ/CRT stance and wanted her to come to A&M.]
A&M Chancellor John Sharp announced Friday morning that Banks had resigned immediately from a position she had held since June 2021. In her resignation letter sent late Thursday night, released by A&M, Banks said, “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.”
A&M spokesman Laylan Copelin said in a statement the A&M System's Office of General Counsel is in the early stages of an investigation, including a review of all events, communications and related documentation as well as interviews with Banks, Blanton and other key A&M officials.
"We are determined to get to the bottom of what happened and why, learn from the mistakes and do better in the future," Copelin said in the statement.
Mark A. Welsh III, dean of A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, will serve as A&M’s acting president until a national search can find a successor.
A&M’s announcement of Banks’ resignation said she “denied knowing about the changes in the job offer but took responsibility for a flawed hiring process after a wave of national publicity suggesting McElroy, who has done research on diversity and inclusion, was a victim of ‘anti-woke’ hysteria and outside interference in the faculty hiring process.”
McElroy, A&M Class of 1981, told The Eagle last week that soon after her hiring was announced on June 13 she thought A&M’s leadership was forced to listen behind the scenes to outside influences with “great concerns” on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Benjamin L. Hall, a Houston-based attorney who is now representing McElroy, told The Eagle on Friday that McElroy’s representatives were trying to continue negotiations with A&M officials.
…After Banks’ comments, which were stated on a public stream, faculty members said they felt they were lied to. On Thursday afternoon, Sharp sent a letter, which was obtained by The Eagle, to the Faculty Senate and said he agreed with their concerns about outside influence on faculty hiring and promotion. Sharp also noted he supports the faculty’s role in shared governance and valued their counsel on these matters. He also stated the only academic hires he is involved in are the president and vice chancellors of agriculture and engineering…
Blanton’s statement said he initiated McElroy’s recruitment last year due to her “excellence” as a journalist, researcher and educator.
“The failed effort to hire Dr. McElroy is a great loss to A&M and surely caused her great unnecessary suffering,” Blanton said.
In February 2022, Banks fell into hot water after she directed The Battalion, A&M’s student newspaper, to immediately cease its regular print edition and become a digital-only news outlet. After meeting with Battalion staff, Banks revised her decision and said The Battalion could print as scheduled through the spring semester. The Battalion has continued to print on a weekly basis during spring and fall semesters…
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MORE INFORMATION
7.13.23 -- “Good News: Texas A&M Shuts Out DEI Professor” -- By Donna Garner -- https://donnagarner.org/7-13-23-good-news-texas-am-shuts-out-dei-professor-by-donna-garner/