The university acknowledged mistakes were made after they reduced an offer with tenure for Kathleen McElroy, a veteran journalist and academic, after conservative backlash.
I read the OGC report and my interpretation is that it was heavily implied that her race was a factor in why non-university sources were bitching and moaning about her hiring to members of the board of regents, who were uncharacteristically involved in asking the president about this hiring.
Like just because no one on the record says "don't hire a black woman" doesn't mean they aren't all dog whistling to each other about her race.
In the OGC report, at one point the BoR or president expressed concern about "the optics" of hiring someone who's done research in a DEI topic/worked on at least one committee to increase representation in newsrooms during the last state legislative session, under which a law was signed by piss baby Abbott to make it illegal to consider diversity in the hiring process. The OGC report is clear that the president intervened to delay McElroy's hire date until after the end of that legislative session at the very least.
I'm glad A&M settled, but I think she should have sued for more. It's funny that she made more money off this than if she had worked there 5 years in the original offer...
The university had signed an offer letter in a public ceremony saying it would hire her as director in a tenured position to revive its journalism program. Soon afterward it reneged on the offer amid right-wing backlash over her work for The New York Times and interest in diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Texas A&M System acknowledged in its review that system and university administrators made mistakes in the hiring process, as certain procedures were not followed. Race and gender were not involved in any of the decisions made, the university said.
“The (Office of General Counsel) did not identify any other evidence that race was a factor in the internal hiring process. In addition, there was no evidence of gender as a factor in the hiring process,” the internal report said.
Some of the documents released with the report show what McElroy was up against.
"A win for Aggies! The leftwing "journalism" professor/DEI advocate that A&M tried to recruit won't be taking the job. After she was exposed by @Texas Scorecard for her racist beliefs, she decided staying at UT was a better fit," says a photo of a tweet under the name Michael Quinn Sullivan, the publisher of Texas Scorecard, a far-right website. The site published stories about her hiring that focused on her diversity work. The tweet that was part of a text from a board member included a photo of a Texas Tribune story about the hiring mess.
They scream and shout about "cancel culture" while pulling shit like this. Add it to the pile of right-wing hypocrisy.
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