Texas A&M acknowledges mistakes in faculty recruitment; approves $1 Million settlement with professor

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) -On Thursday, the Texas A&M University System acknowledged and apologized for errors made during the hiring process of a professor recruited to head the university’s new journalism program.

In a joint statement, Kathleen McElroy and Texas A&M announced a $1 million settlement had been reached concerning the matter.

Dr. José Luis Bermúdez’s decision to step aside comes a week Dr. Kathleen McElroy, who was hired to revive the journalism program, announced she was no longer taking the job.

This comes after weeks of controversy stemming from the unsuccessful hiring of McElroy, an experienced journalist with over 40 years of expertise. This hiring setback resulted in the journalism program lacking a director, prompting the Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences to step down, and leading to the immediate retirement of the university’s president, Katherine Banks.

Earlier this week, The Texas A&M Board of Regents met to name Gen. Mark Welsh III who had assumed the role of acting president following Banks departure as the university’s interim president.

During Sunday’s meeting, the board of regents called for a swift investigation into the matter and authorized officials to negotiate a potential settlement of claims.

On Thursday the Texas A&M Office of General Counsel released a comprehensive report containing hundreds of pages of emails and text messages, providing insight into the behind-the-scenes happenings during McElroy’s recruitment and failed hiring.

Texas A&M Board of Regents (Donnie Tuggle/Bryan-College Station)

Several university officials were investigated during this process. The Office of General Counsel, OGC, stated in its memo that they collected numerous documents, emails and text messages. Additionally, interviews were conducted with various TAMU officials, including Chancellor Sharp, former President Kathy Banks, Senior Vice President Susan Ballabina, Vice President NK Anand, former Interim Dean Jose Bermudez and Department Head Hart Blanton.

The report outlined nearly 40 key findings that pointed to the university’s failure to adhere to established policies and procedures governing faculty hiring. The counsel’s findings also noted that concerns related to race, politics and other issues were also expressed during the hiring process from both inside and outside the university.

According to the report from the OCG In early May 2023, Ballabina received word that McElroy was to be hired to lead the journalism program with a potential public announcement. Later that month the budget and plan for the program were approved, and McElroy was verbally offered and accepted the position to lead the new journalism program. The report went on to say Bermudez and Blanton discussed delaying the public announcement until after the legislative session ended, due to concerns about McElroy’s previous writings on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).

The report went on to say McElroy was not informed of the reason for the delay, and it was presented as an administrative requirement. After the legislative session, Banks decided to move forward with the hire and got approval from Chairman Mahomes.

The official public announcement of McElroy’s appointment took place on June 13. It was during this time the university held a signing ceremony in the Academic Plaza and invited media to cover the celebration, in a break from the university’s normal hiring practices.

In June an article by Texas Scorecard generated both positive and negative responses about McElroy’s hire. The report states several members of the Board of Regents raised concerns about McElroy’s advocacy for DEI and how it aligned with TAMU’s obligations under Senate Bill 17. In response to the board of regent inquiries, there were discussions about potentially shifting McElroy’s appointment to a non-tenure track Professor of Practice position.

The report also revealed that the former A&M President Kathy Banks was aware of multiple changes to McElroy’s contract, despite previous claims of being unaware of the diluted contract offers. Last month, prior to her retirement, Banks met with the Texas A&M Faculty Senate for more than two hours during which she addressed the controversy and stated that neither she nor her office nor the Board of Regents revised the original contract that was offered to McElroy.

“I will say it has been a difficult week for Texas A&M. I’m saddened by the negative attention that we’ve received. It’s been detrimental to our shared goals and vision,” Banks said. “It’s embarrassing. I take responsibility for it as I should, as the president of the university,” Banks added.

“What I can tell us is that if there was a statement that the initial offer, accepted offer, is revoked that is not true, it was never revoked. It was never pulled back and there was never an agreement revising that offer,” said Banks.

Texas A&M University President Kathy Banks at the Zachry Engineering Education Complex in College Station on March 30, 2021.

Additionally, the reports say text messages between system officials revealed that she did know about the multiple contract offers and also hinted at an attempt to conceal the situation, with one message stating, “I assume all texts were deleted.” Banks instructed Bermudez to advise McElroy of a difficult environment and to change the faculty appointment from a three-year term to a one-year term.

The report also cites an article by the Texas Tribune on July 11 that reported McElroy’s statements suggesting race or gender may have been factors in the treatment she received during the hiring process. Following reports from the Texas Tribune KBTX confirmed with McElroy on July 11 that she wouldn’t be joining her alma mater after the conditions of her contract kept changing and A&M System officials expressed issues with her work on race and diversity and her time at the New York Times.

“From what I understand my main problem is being a Black woman who’d been at the New York Times,” McElroy told KBTX. “Which I’d like to go on the record and say I never hid.”

Banks resigned on July 21. In Thursday’s report from the OCG, they stated that the review did not find any evidence of race or gender as factors in TAMU’s decisions, other than two comments made by Bermudez about McElroy’s race.

On Wednesday, in his inaugural press conference as the university’s Interim President, Welsh addressed concerns surrounding Texas A&M’s turbulent summer and pledged to prioritize the enhancement of university communication.

“Number one, communicate, listen, get feedback and make sure I understand what people think the problems and issues are or were and where it’s working really well, ‘cause it is working really well in lots of areas. Second thing is to adjust the communications game plan to fix those communications shortfalls where we find them,” said Welsh.

Mark A. Welsh III, Interim President of Texas A&M University.

“Whenever we screw up we need to say we did it. And here’s what we can do to do better. If you try to hide it, it becomes a bigger story than it was before. Right now there’s something that happened that wasn’t right. Let’s all figure out what it was, let’s move on,” Welsh added.

McElroy will continue as a tenured professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Texas A&M University Chancellor John Sharp (Source: Official Photo)

System Chancellor Sharp released a statement Thursday regarding the investigation into the attempted hiring of McElroy.

The full reports released by the Texas A&M Office of General Council can be found below.

OGC Report on McElroy Matter 8-3-23 by KBTX on Scribd

McElroy Documents TAMU 1 by KBTX on Scribd

McElroy Documents TAMUS 1 by KBTX on Scribd