Failed hiring of journalism director exposes rift at Texas A&M
At a meeting with student leaders in February 2022, the president of Texas A&M University outlined an ambitious plan to overcome the school’s biggest challenges and turn it into a world-class institution.
“We have problems we’ve never faced before,” the president, M. Katherine Banks, told the student senate. “We have opportunities that we have never had before. This is a unique time in our history to position ourselves to become one of the top universities in the country.”
Less than a year and a half later, Dr. Banks has resigned and the university is in crisis following the revelation that the university made mixed offers in a failed attempt to hire Kathleen McElroy, a journalism professor, following a backlash over the black professor’s views on race and diversity. Now some Aggies question the direction of the university – one of the largest in the world, with nearly 75,000 students – and wonder how Texas A&M can recover from an episode that threatens to damage its reputation.
The fallout has rocked students and professors at the major public university in College Station and has sent a wave of excitement through the proud alumni network. Rooted in its original traditions as a military school, the university is known for being more rural and conservative than other major colleges, such as its state rival, the University of Texas at Austin.
Erica Davis Rouse, the new president of Texas A&M’s Black Former Student Network, said she was heartbroken when she heard about Dr. McElroy’s account of receiving a string of watered-down offers from college, which she turned down after conservative Aggies criticized her for her views on “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or DEI
“She would have made a difference,” Ms. Davis Rouse, who graduated in 1995 with a degree in journalism, said of Dr. McElroy, who is also an alumna. “That was taken away from the students because of DEI hysteria and overcorrection.”
Zoe May, the new editor of the Texas A&M student newspaper, The battalion, said she burst into tears of joy after she and the staff of the newspaper Dr. McElroy after announcing her hiring. Ms May, who is biracial, said she was concerned about the university’s lack of transparency about the offers she made to Dr. McElroy did and was disappointed that she misses out on a journalistic leader who is a black woman.
“A lot of people think that representation is only important when you’re young and growing up, on TV and in movies, but I think it’s extremely important on college campuses as well,” Ms May said.
But some other alumni were troubled by the initial selection of Dr. McElroy, a former New York Times editor and former journalist turned professor at the University of Texas, to lead her alma mater’s revitalized journalism program. Some conservative alumni and students had criticized her for her research on race in the media and recent writings describing the benefits of having a diverse faculty or newsroom.
Valerie Muñoz, a journalism student at Texas A&M, last month wrote an article for Texas Scorecard, a conservative news website, under the headline “Aggies Hire NY Times ‘Diversity’ Advocate To Head Journalism Program.” Ms Muñoz highlighted a 2021 interview of dr. McElroy by WBUR in Boston, saying that journalism seen as objective often favored a white, male perspective and that journalism “wasn’t about getting two sides of a story or three sides of a story if one side is illegitimate.”
Preston Phillips, the president of the university’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter, a conservative student group, said critics were wrong when they said opposition to her nomination was due to her race. He and other conservatives on campus, he said, were concerned about what her writings on diversity and race indicated about her political leanings.
“There is a concern among many conservative students and educators that Dr. McElroy’s specific beliefs and her associations with The New York Times are too big a step,” said Mr. Phillips, who will graduate next spring with an engineering degree.
Dr. McElroy has said that advocating for diversity has been a small part of her journalism career, which has also included interests in sports media and dining.
On Friday, Texas A&M communications chief Hart Blanton said a university administrator admitted that the hiring process was “more tightly controlled” because Dr. McElroy is black. Dr. Blanton accused Dr. Banks also of deceiving the faculty at a meeting this week when she claimed she had little involvement in the pursuit of Dr. McElroy.
Opposition to diversity initiatives has become a hot-button issue in Texas and other states in recent months, with universities often serving as battlegrounds. Republican governors in several states, including Texas, recently signed into law banning DEI efforts at public universities and limiting mandatory diversity training.
At Texas A&M, where black students make up 2 percent of the student body—a much smaller share than in College Station or the state as a whole—there is debate over whether or not to invest in diversity initiatives.
a Report 2021 commissioned by the Texas A&M University System, after surveying students, alumni, and faculty, it found that “large segments” of the community had “disagreements about the culture of the university” and DEI efforts. Some people, the report said, questioned whether money should be spent on efforts to diversify the community rather than “education-focused efforts for the entire population.”
The report, prepared by a consulting firm, identified several “threats” to the university, including the lack of faculty diversity. The report added that Texas A&M “has traditionally been conservative and slow to change on diversity issues.”
Jack Begg contributed research.