Texas A&M Faculty Senate supports Qatar Campus Faculty with resolution

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The Texas A&M; Faculty Senate showed support for its colleagues at the university system’s Qatar Campus by passing a resolution.

On Monday in College Station, and Tuesday in Qatar, the faculty senate voted 64 to 0 on a resolution submitted by a faculty senate member from Qatar, stating that they stand by their Qatar colleagues, according to faculty senate speaker Tracy Hammond.

The resolution reads as follows:

Whereas,

Texas A&M University at Qatar conducts research which is in the public interest and non-classified,Texas A&M University at Qatar complies with all export controls and regulations,Texas A&M University upholds academic freedom and protects faculty from false and misleading accusations,Other organizations have suggested that faculty at Texas A&M University at Qatar conduct research related to national security and nuclear issues,These suggestions are false and misleading,

Be it resolved that,

The Faculty Senate stands by these colleagues;These faculty are in good standing in Texas A&M University, in their disciplines, and in the scholarly community of the United States of America.

Texas A&M;’s board of regents voted back in February to close down the Qatar campus by 2028, something that is planned to be a multi-year process. The decision to end the contract with Qatar came after several outlets referenced a letter from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) to U.S. Officials about “alarming research findings exposing Qatar’s unreported and unregulated funding to Texas A&M; University.”

“These were complete fabrications. However, these made-up news stories have already caused catastrophic changes for TAMUQ faculty,” Hammond said. “It has caused some funding to stop, collaborations to stop, and most importantly very hard to get a job with those accusations. This in combination with their recently reduced titles, will make it even harder for them to receive a comparable job.”

Hammond said that while faculty at the Qatar campus might be in a different part of the world, they’re all TAMU faculty and it is important for the faculty senate to show them the same support as any other faculty member.

“They are our colleagues. We felt it was important for the TAMUQ faculty to know that we are behind them because they are feeling alone, ostracized and unsupported,” said Hammond. “I and my fellow senators wanted to send a message of support to our colleagues across the pond, and thus the resolution.”

To vote on the resolution 61 people had to be at the meeting, and 33 positive votes were needed to pass the resolution, Hammond said.

“There were 70 plus people at the meeting but some were staff or administration who are not allowed to vote. There may have been some who abstained or were away from their computer. Additionally, we were using a brand new way of voting which is quite hard for those on phones. We had several less contentious votes, they all had fewer than 64 votes,” Hammond said.

Since the regents announced the shutdown of the campus, Hammond said she along with two TAMUQ senators: Brittany Bounds and Mohammed Al-Hashmi, the dean of TAMUQ: Cesar Malave, and either the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs: NK Anand or the Associate Vice President of Faculty Affairs have held town hall session in the morning.

“It is very important to state that both the TAMU administration and the Qatar Foundation have been very supportive of the faculty and trying to find the best solution for all of the faculty. And they have been working day and night to try to work together to support the faculty,” Hammond said.