Texas A&M President takes questions from media, discusses university future
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Texas A&M President Gen. Mark Welsh took questions from the media on Wednesday, just one day after the Board of Regents approved him for the spot.
As he makes the transition from Interim to President, Welsh told the group he is prepared to hit the ground running and hopes others are ready to go.
“It didn’t really change my mindset, I think one thing it does do however, is probably give a little more comfort to the faculty and staff that there will be some stability in the things we’re talking about and the direction we’re trying to go and so hopefully they’ll jump on board, help me figure out what those vectors ought to be and we can walk that path together,” Welsh said.
The university currently hosts 77,000 students, making it one of the largest universities in the country. But, current projections show that number is only growing and Welsh said that growth needs to happen in steps. This starts with preparing for 80,000 students and then taking a step back.
“Can we get bigger? Can we continue to grow to better meet the needs of the state of Texas which is why we exist? It’s not that we don’t want to grow but we need to make sure we understand the impact of the growth we’ve already experienced, correct anything we see as a problem after that study and then take a look at how much can we grow and how fast can we grow in a balanced way going forward,” said Welsh.
