Gov. Greg Abbott threatens Texas A&M president’s job over claim that university broke DEI ban

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Gov. Greg Abbott threatened Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III’s job over claims the university broke the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The threat came after conservative activist Christopher Rufo shared a university email inviting some staffers and PhD students to attend a conference that limited participation to people who are Black, Hispanic or Native American.

On Monday, someone asked Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton on social media whether they were going to tolerate the behavior.

“Hell, no,” Abbott replied hours later on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s against Texas law and violates the U.S. Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”

The A&M email said the university system’s general counsel had confirmed that the conference complied with the state’s DEI ban.

Senate Bill 17, which took effect last year, prohibits public universities not only from having DEI offices, but from compelling any person to provide a DEI statement or undergo DEI training and giving preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.

On Tuesday, Welsh released a statement that the university “will continue to honor both the letter and intent of the law.”

“Texas A&M does not support any organization, conference, process or activity that excludes people based on race, creed, gender, age or any other discriminating factor,” the statement said.

Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. He is known for calling out public universities on social media for “indoctrinating” students with DEI programs and policies. The email he shared on Monday was sent by Michael C. Withers, associate dean for research and scholarship professor at Mays Business School, who invited A&M faculty and PhD students to participate in an annual conference put together by The PhD Project, an organization that seeks to increase diversity in classrooms and corporations.

Withers wrote that the university typically sends three people to the conference, scheduled this year for March 20-21 in Chicago, and that lawyers for the university had found participating was permissible under SB 17’s recruitment exemptions. According to the law, the ban does not apply to instruction, research, the activity of a student organization, guest speakers or performers, data collection and student recruitment.

The PhD Project previously listed on its website at least eight other Texas public universities that have participated in the conference — Texas Tech University, University of Houston, University of North Texas, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley and University of Texas at San Antonio — but most were removed sometime Tuesday afternoon. The UT System said it did not receive a directive from the governor to withdraw from the conference, but recommended its institutions to do so. UNT and Texas Tech also said Tuesday they would no longer participate.

Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a call and email asking why he thought A&M had violated the state’s DEI ban and the Constitution and whether he’d be instructing the other universities not to attend.

Welsh became president of the flagship university in December 2023 after his predecessor, Kathy Banks, resigned from the position amid a hiring scandal. The university had watered down a job offer to Kathleen McElroy, a black journalism professor, after its board of regents raised concerns she had a liberal bias.

Welsh, the former dean of the university’s Bush School of Government, told journalists in November that he’s been trying to rebuild the trust that was lost over the incident with faculty.

In an email to the Mays Business School on Monday evening, Welsh said administrators had followed the proper process for reviewing and approving attendance at such events, but wrote “I don’t believe we fully considered the spirit of our state law in making the initial decision to participate.”

“This particular conference’s limitations on the acceptable race of attendees is not in line with the intent of SB 17, and, as a result, we will not be sending anyone to participate in this conference,” he wrote.

He continued, “Texas A&M faculty and staff attend hundreds, if not thousands, of conferences and other events during the course of each academic year. We need to be sure that attendance at those events is aligned with the very clear guidance we’ve been given by our governing bodies.”

University presidents nationwide have been dealing in the past few years with increased political pressures on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, a projected decline in college-bound students and budget deficits. In a recent survey of university presidents across the country, more than half said they plan to step down in the next five years. Last week, University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell announced he will step down to lead Southern Methodist University, a smaller private university in Dallas.

Since the state’s DEI ban was passed, Texas public universities have been criticized by state officials for not doing enough to comply with the law and by faculty and students who say school officials are over-enforcing it. Failure to comply could mean less state funding for public universities.

The Texas A&M University System had nine DEI offices and sought to comply with the DEI ban even before it officially became law. Nineteen employees at these offices were reassigned while eight left the system, Chancellor John Sharp testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education last year.

During that hearing, state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, noted that Welsh had said “he did not support Senate Bill 17 and he felt like it was the wrong direction.”

“How are we with President Welsh based on his comments that are widely published?” Creighton asked Sharp.

Sharp said he missed those comments, but “all our presidents, we meet with them on a regular basis to talk about this and every single one of them are following the directions I give them.”

Lawmakers are expected to take another look at the ban — and possibly consider expanding it — during this year’s legislative session, which started Tuesday.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

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