Timeline: The events around the failed hiring of Kathleen McElroy at Texas A&M
Prior to the completed internal review, specific information on the events that led to the failed hiring of McElroy was fragmented.
Texas A&M and Dr. Kathleen McElroy agreed to settle a lawsuit for $1 million following an internal investigation by a committee created by the university's Faculty Senate on July 31.
Prior to the investigation, the specific details of the events surrounding the failed hiring of McElroy were both limited and fragmented.
Here's a breakdown of what was provided by the investigation from early May 2023 to July 21:
McElroy's appointment to lead the new Texas A&M journalism program
In early May 2023, following Senior Vice President Susan Ballabina was notified that McElroy would be hired to lead the journalism program, and expressed in a weekly meeting with former president M. Katherine Banks that there would be both an abundance of positive feedback but concerns as well because of McElroy's previous works related to the topics of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
After the budget and plan for the new journalism program was approved on May 11, Department Head Hart Blanton was made aware of the news by former Interim Dean Jose Bermudez, and informed that he could give a verbal offer to McElroy in regards to the position. She accepted the verbal offer the same day, and later officially announced as the new lead for the journalism program on June 13 following approval from the Board Chairman Bill Mahomes.
At the June 13 announcement, McElroy signed an agreement for a Director of Journalism faculty position with "tenure upon arrival." According to the investigation's findings, the agreement that McElroy signed on that day was that presented to her with a tenured position.
Positive publicity followed the announcement through email, social media, and other areas of communication.
Outside interference and pushback
Just two days after, the Texas Scorecard, a right-leaning outlet, published an article about McElroy titled "Aggies Hire NY Times 'Diversity' Advocate to Head Journalism Program", which led to former President M. Katherine Banks saying she received calls from "6-7 members of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents asking questions and raising concerns about McElroy's hiring."
According to the investigation's findings, the Texas Scorecard article "generated numerous calls and emails to the President's Office at TAMU, including from the Rudder Association and other former students, raising questions about why a DEI proponent would be hired to serve as director of the new journalism program."
Eventually, Banks informed Bermudez that there were concerns about McElroy's hiring from members of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents in relation to the university's DEI obligations under Senate Bill 17, which led the two to discuss an alteration to the details of her hiring on June 16.
Changes in agreement terms
It was "unclear" whether Banks or Bermudez first suggested the alteration to McElroy's hiring terms when it came to changing her contract to a non-tenure track Professor of Practice position. In text messages between the two on June 19, discussions of moving forward with changing McElroy's appointment to the university took place, with Banks indicating approval of the change during the conversation.
Another time that same day, Bermudez informed McElroy that her being accepted as a professor with tenure "was not automatic, and political issues over DEI could preclude tenure" according to the investigation. Bermudez also said that he told McElroy "her nontraditional academic background could prove problematic because the College of Arts and Sciences did not have established tenure review procedures for such candidates."
The process to affirm McElroy was ultimately delayed "due to administrative requirements". McElroy later re-applied once the job postings had been put back up, and two appointment letters were prepared for her, but were not delivered because her hire was added to a July 6 board meeting.
Ultimately, the board "took no action on the McElroy appointment and did not direct Banks to modify the terms of the offer". After the meeting, Banks called Bermudez and told him to inform McElroy that "she was coming into a difficult environment". She also told Bermudez to change the terms of McElroy's appointment from a three-year appointment to a one-year appointment.
McElroy was also advised by Bermudez to look and see if she could retain tenure at the University of Texas "in the event that things did not work out at TAMU". McElroy was displeased with the news and called Blanton to inform him on July 8 that she would be "cutting off contact" with Texas A&M.
Two days later, after the two appointment letters had been sent--one of a three-year administrative appointment as Director of the Journalism program and one to the faculty as a one-year appointment as a Professor of Practice--McElroy got in contact with Bermudez, once again informing him of her dissatisfaction with the offers.
Bermudez let McElroy know that he was "willing to confer with TAMU administration to see if (the contract) could be changed to a (three)-year appointment". McElroy responded that she "needed to process what had transpired."
According to the report, the administrative appointment letter contained language with "at will" status, while the other faculty appointment letter didn't contain said terms.
Fallout
On July 11, the Texas Tribune posted an article about the situation, detailing how the agreement to bring her in had fallen apart.
In the report, Bermudez explained that what he said was "based on his subjective belief that certain outside parties critical of the McElroy hiring could have been motivated in part by race". However, it was also noted that he did not "observe any actions or comments by TAMU officials indicating that race was a factor in TAMU's decisions in this hiring process."
On July 20, Kathy Banks met with the Faculty Senate, and denied knowing about the changes to the terms of McElroy's appointment prior to what was published in the July 11 Texas Tribune article.
The day after, on July 21, The Texas Tribune also published another article with statements from Blanton that revealed that Banks had interfered with the recruitment process. However, the report stated that apart from Banks' involvement, they didn't find any evidence that gender or race were factors in the internal hiring process.
Banks officially resigned from her position that same day.
In interviews with Texas A&M leaders following the events, Interim President Mark Welsh, Ballabina, and Vice President NK Anand acknowledged that "significant mistakes were made" in the hiring process in part due to "a failure to follow established policies and procedures that govern faculty hiring."
The Office of the General Council has advised that going forward, "all faculty offer letters will require the signature of the Vice President of Faculty Affairs to ensure compliance with policies and procedures and to provide an effective oversight mechanism."
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