A Texas A&M department head involved in the failed efforts to recruit a Black journalism professor said Friday that then-President M. Katherine Banks interfered in the hiring process and that race was a factor in university officials’ decision to water down the job offer.
“The unusual level of scrutiny being given to the hiring of Dr. [Kathleen] McElroy was acknowledged by one administrator to have been based, at least in part, on race. Regardless of the source of any such pressure, I understand it to be illegal for any employer—much less a public university—to subject a job candidate to stricter scrutiny due to her race or color,” said Hart Blanton, head of the department of communications and journalism, in a statement released by his attorney.
McElroy, a 1981 Texas A&M graduate and the former director of the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism, turned down an offer to reboot A&M’s journalism program earlier this month after a fraught negotiation process first reported by The Texas Tribune. What originally was a tenure-track offer was reduced to a five-year position, then to a one-year position from which she could be fired at any time. McElroy ultimately walked away from the negotiations amid conservative backlash, saying the final offer “makes it clear they don’t want me there.”
[Texas A&M President Katherine Banks resigns amid fallout from failed hiring of journalism professor]
The collapse of the hire sparked outrage and concerns about academic freedom from faculty. Blanton said that Banks — who resigned from her position earlier Friday in response to the fallout — misled members of the Faculty Senate during a meeting Wednesday by telling them the decision to change McElroy’s job offer was made solely within Blanton’s department and without her involvement. Banks repeatedly told professors that she did not approve any changes to McElroy’s offer letter.
“To the contrary, President Banks injected herself into the process atypically and early on,” Blanton said.
He also said he was “shocked” to see his signature was used in the revised versions of McElroy’s job offer without his consent. He said he shared materials related to the incident with the university’s legal staff on Thursday, the night before Banks’ resignation was made public.
Blanton broke his silence on the issue in a one-page letter released through his lawyer, David Schleicher, Friday afternoon. It did not go into specifics, such as how Banks became involved in the process or who acknowledged that race was a factor in the debacle. A&M officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Blanton also applauded Banks’ departure.
“Texas A&M cannot have its leaders misleading the faculty, public, or policymakers about how we conduct business,” he said.
The fallout from the fiasco, which has garnered national attention, has extended beyond the president’s office.
José Luis Bermúdez, the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, stepped down from his role after reportedly telling McElroy he could not protect her from university leaders facing pressure to fire her over “DEI hysteria.” Shannon Van Zandt, an executive associate dean in A&M’s School of Architecture, also stepped down saying she could no longer confidently tell job candidates from different backgrounds that they’d get a fair shot. The university’s faculty senate called for a fact-finding investigation into the efforts to recruit McElroy after expressing distrust toward university officials’ explanation of the events and questioning the role of outside influences.
In the weeks after Texas A&M celebrated hiring McElroy, vocal groups from outside the university system expressed issues with her previous employment at The New York Times and her support for diversity in newsrooms. McElroy has said she was told that not everyone was pleased by her joining the faculty.
McElroy has studied news media and race, with a focus on how to improve diversity and inclusion within newsrooms, and spent her career covering other areas like sports and obituaries. Her master's thesis focused on the obituaries of civil rights leaders.
The botched hiring comes as universities are facing scrutiny and resistance over their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Some conservatives have recently labeled programs and schools of thought that center the perspectives of people of color as “woke” ideologies that make white students feel guilty for the country’s history of racism.
Legislation to purge state universities’ DEI programs was signed into law last month and goes into effect in January. The A&M System recently began a systemwide audit of all DEI offices in response to the new law.
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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/21/banks-tamu-journalism-hire/.
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"Race was a factor in Black professor’s failed hiring, Texas A&M department head says" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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