The president of Texas A&M University, Katherine Banks, resigned after the celebrated hiring of a Black journalist at one of the biggest universities in the country fell apart due to pushback over her diversity and inclusion work.
Banks departs after serving two years as president of the College Station’s 70,000 student-campus. In her resignation letter, Banks said that she decided to retire immediately because “The recent challenges regarding Dr. McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately,” adding, “The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here.
This all occurred following weeks of unrest after the school welcomed with “great fanfare to revive the school’s journalism department” Black professor Kathleen McElroy, who is a former editor of The New York Times and head of the journalism school at the University of Texas at Austin. Of note, McElroy herself is an alumnus and graduated from Texas A&M in 1981.
Initially, McElroy’s hiring was celebrated immensely with an announcement and public signing ceremony, which included balloons and décor. However, in subsequent weeks, conservative groups outside of the university system began vocally expressing their issues with McElroy’s previous role at The New York Times and her work in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space.
McElroy “said she was told that not everyone was pleased by her joining the faculty.” McElroy also said José Luis Bermúdez, then interim dean of Texas A&M’s College of Arts and Sciences, told her about “‘noise in the [university] system…you’re a Black woman who worked at The New York Times.’ He told her that in some conservative circles, The New York Times is akin to Pravda, the newspaper of the Communist Party in Russia that began in the early 1900s.”
McElroy was offered the position in June, with the possibility of tenure to reboot the school’s flailing journalism program. “But when groups from outside the university began protesting McElroy’s past with the New York Times, the offer changed to a five-year position, then to a one-year professor of practice appointment in which she could be fired at any time.”
Although it came with a renewal option, McElroy did refuse Texas A&M’s less-than-ideal offer, stating, “This offer letter…really makes it clear that they don’t want me there…But in no shape, form, or fashion would I give up a tenured position at UT for a one-year contract that emphasizes that you can be let go at any point.”
In a statement, vice chancellor of marketing and communication for Texas A&M, Laylan Copelin, said, “We are determined to get to the bottom of what happened and why, learn from the mistakes and do better in the future.”