Texas A&M’s Interim President meets with faculty senate to address lingering concerns

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) -On Monday Texas A&M University’s Interim President engaged with and listened to concerns from the complete Faculty Senate for the first time since taking office. During this meeting, he tackled matters including the Board of Regents’ influence over hiring decisions, the trajectory of university programs, and the distrust some hold toward high-level university officials.

In a letter sent to the senate last month, Speaker of the Faculty Senate Tracy Hammond said there were concerns about how a professor’s suspension was handled. There were also concerns about errors made during the hiring process of a professor recruited to head the university’s new journalism program.

For nearly 90 minutes, Interim President Mark Welsh responded to concerns about what faculty members consider a culture of fear and retaliation surrounding freedom of speech and academic freedoms.

Adam C. Kolasinski, a finance professor and member of the faculty senate was one of many who expressed concerns surrounding the trust of high-level A&M officials.

“A lot of the mistrust that exists right now in the faculty is because there are a lot of people that sit in the VP’s office or in these high-level administrative appointments that were part of the culture of deceit,” said Kolasinski.

Welsh acknowledged the senate’s concerns and said that he’s committed to rebuilding trust among the facility, students, and staff.

“There’s nothing I can do about whether you trust the administration or not other than just keep grinding and prove to you that you can trust me. It takes time. I understand that. I’m not expecting everybody to jump up and down and be excited about everything I say and nod their head and believe me. My job is to prove this to you,’ said Welsh.

In response to whether individuals in these elevated positions should continue to be scrutinized or removed, Welsh stated that he stands behind the reports from the Office of General Council and says those that were involved in the failed hiring of McElroy did the right thing by taking accountability for their actions and stepping down from their positions.

“I don’t think cutting the head off everything is the right approach when you step into a job especially when things are unstable because of the turmoil right now,” said Welsh.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. José Luis Bermúdez stepped down from his position in July.

Welsh also addressed concerns surrounding the Board of Regents’ role in the hiring decision of Kathleen McElroy and other outside influences during the suspension of Dr. Joy Alonzo.

“If a regent calls me and says hey I really am worried about this I’ll say thank you for the call, but I’m not going to call the department head and tell them who to hire,” said Welsh.

“Somebody can call and offer an opinion on something but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it,” Welsh added.

The full faculty senate meeting can be viewed below.