When Texas A&M College president Mark Welsh resigned amid an educational freedom controversy final week, he grew to become the establishment’s second chief to step down as a result of scandal in two years.
In contrast to his predecessor, Kathy Banks, who retired in 2023 after she was caught mendacity a couple of hiring scandal, Welsh remained in style on campus; college despatched the Board of Regents letters of assist final week following an argument that prompted him to fireplace an teacher, and college students rallied on his behalf. However he appeared to lose the assist of the deep-red Texas Legislature: A number of Republican lawmakers known as for his dismissal after a dialogue over gender id between a pupil and a professor in a youngsters’s literature class was captured on video and shortly went viral.
Within the quick video, which has racked up greater than 5 million views, a pupil questions whether or not an teacher is legally allowed to show that there’s multiple gender, which she suggests is “in opposition to our president’s legal guidelines.” Welsh initially defended the professor however shortly folded below appreciable strain from lawmakers, firing her and eradicating two directors from their duties as a result of they “authorised plans to proceed educating course content material that was not constant” with the course’s description, he mentioned in a Sept. 9 assertion.
Amid the fallout, the American Affiliation of College Professors and free speech teams accused Texas A&M of stifling tutorial freedom and bending to conservative political strain. (Welsh countered that the case wasn’t about tutorial freedom however “tutorial duty.”)
However the incident additionally raises questions on what comes subsequent for Texas A&M after legislators accused Welsh—a retired four-star basic and former chief of workers of the U.S. Air Power—of spreading “leftist [diversity, equity and inclusion] and transgender indoctrination.”
A Combined Response
Welsh largely skirted the controversy in an announcement launched Friday, his final day on the job.
“Once I was first appointed as President of Texas A&M College, I informed then Chancellor John Sharp and our Board of Regents that I’d serve in addition to I probably may till it was time for another person to take over,” he wrote. “Over the previous few days, it’s develop into clear that now’s that point.”
He added that serving as president for 2 years had been “an unimaginable privilege” and a “exceptional reward” and praised Texas A&M college, workers and college students in his parting assertion. On campus Friday, a whole bunch of supporters greeted Welsh outdoors an administrative constructing, in line with social media and native protection. The Texas A&M Pupil Authorities Affiliation inspired college students and others to assemble to “categorical gratitude” for Welsh’s service.
Whereas Welsh’s parting remarks have been restrained, state legislators and college members have been extra passionate—and outraged—as each teams look forward to the approaching presidential search.
Leonard Shiny, interim president of the Texas A&M AAUP chapter, informed Inside Larger Ed that many college members had blended emotions about Welsh. On the one hand, many professors considered him as a steady chief who had served the college nicely since his time as dean of the Bush Faculty of Authorities and Public Service, which he led from 2016 till he was appointed interim president in July 2023, earlier than being given the everlasting job later that 12 months.
However, Welsh’s dismissal of English teacher Melissa McCoul, the professor caught up within the gender ideology flap, raised questions on whether or not he would defend tutorial freedom. As Shiny sees it, when Welsh’s job was threatened, he failed to face up for educational freedom.
Shiny added that he was considerably stunned by Welsh’s resignation, arguing that “as horrible” because the president’s latest actions have been, he thought that they had appeased the conservative critics and that “the board didn’t wish to create additional upheaval” given latest turnover on the prime.
However in the end, solely Welsh’s resignation would fulfill his fiercest critics.
Brian Harrison, a Republican lawmaker and Texas A&M graduate, famous in posts on X following Welsh’s resignation that he had been calling for the board to fireplace the president for 9 months.
“Proud and honored to be the voice for thousands and thousands of Texans who’re fed up with being taxed out of their houses so their authorities can weaponize their cash in opposition to them, their values, and their youngsters by funding DEI and transgender indoctrination,” Harrison wrote on X on Friday.
An LGBTQ+ Crackdown?
Like all establishments within the state, Texas A&M has backed away from DEI as instructed by state regulation. However Welsh’s elimination of McCoul for discussing gender id in school is a part of a broader retreat by Texas A&M from LGBTQ+ subjects. That effort dates again to no less than 2021, in line with one nameless supply who beforehand informed Inside Larger Ed they have been discouraged from selling LGBTQ+ supplies within the college library’s assortment when Banks was president.
Final 12 months Texas A&M reduce its LGBTQ research minor, alongside different low-enrollment applications, after Harrison led a cost in opposition to this system, calling it “liberal indoctrination.”
Each the flagship and the Texas A&M system have additionally taken intention at drag exhibits.
Texas A&M defunded an annual pupil drag present with out clarification in 2022. West Texas A&M College president Walter Wendler canceled a pupil drag present in 2023, claiming it was demeaning to girls. Earlier this 12 months, the Texas A&M College system Board of Regents handed a decision banning drag exhibits throughout all 11 campuses, solely to get hit with a First Modification lawsuit; a choose dominated in opposition to the system in March on free speech grounds.
(Neither Texas A&M College or system officers responded to a request for remark.)
Texas Hiring Tendencies
With Welsh out of workplace, Texas A&M will quickly start a seek for its subsequent president. Chancellor Glenn Hegar introduced Friday that an interim president shall be named shortly, and within the meantime, James Hallmark, vice chancellor for educational affairs, will function performing president.
Hegar, who has solely been on the job since July, is a former Republican politician, one in all a number of employed to guide a Texas system or college in latest months in what’s shaping as much as be a pattern.
Elsewhere within the state, the Texas Tech College system named Republican lawmaker Brandon Creighton as the only real finalist for the chancellor place. Throughout his time within the Legislature, Creighton championed payments to crack down on DEI, prohibit free speech at public establishments by banning expressive actions at night time and undercut the ability of college senates.
The College of Texas at Austin additionally opted for a politico, hiring as president Jim Davis, former Texas deputy legal professional basic, who had labored in UT Austin’s authorized division since 2018. Davis was promoted to the highest job after a stint as interim president, a job he had held since February. Equally, the UT system tapped former GOP lawmaker John Zerwas as its subsequent chancellor.
Current hiring tendencies in Texas are starting to reflect Florida, which has employed a number of former Republican lawmakers and different political figures with connections to Governor Ron DeSantis.
As Texas A&M prepares to launch its search, college are calling for an open course of.
“The search ought to be clear. It shouldn’t be primarily behind closed doorways,” Shiny mentioned. “The school should be concerned. That is academia—that is about educating, analysis and repair.”
