COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M Board of Regents has called a Special Meeting on Sunday to discuss two topics, according to a release from the Texas A&M University System.
The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the Board of Regents Meeting Room in the Memorial Student Center.
The topics that will be discussed include:
- The appointment of an interim president at the university
- The "authorization to negotiate a potential settlement of claims of Kathleen McElroy, Ph.D."
Over the past few weeks, the university has been the subject of much criticism and controversy, which has led faculty to become concerned about Texas A&M's future after the botched hiring of Kathleen McElroy, resignation of former president M. Katherine Banks, and recently the suspension and investigation of Dr. Joy Alonzo after she gave a routine lecture at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and was reported for criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
In regards to the controversy involving Dr. Alonzo, Tracy Hammond, Speaker of the Faculty Senate, wrote a letter to acting president Gen. Mark Welsh on Friday seeking clarification on how the events that transpired seemed to take place without what the faculty is perceiving as proper following of protocol in regards to administrative leave.
The letter from Hammond to Welsh can be found below:
Dear President Welsh,
First, I would like to thank you and the Chancellor for how responsive you have been throughout the last week.
I mentioned to each of you that I am very concerned with making sure that, going forward, the policies concerning administrative leave are appropriate and followed. We are also concerned with how any such policies were applied in the situation involving Professor Joy Alonzo.
We have been told that the standard TAMU approach for administrative leave as provided by the office of the VP for Faculty Affairs at the time of Professor Alonzo's administrative leave was as follows:
- Faculty members may be placed on leave with pay at the recommendation of the department head by the faculty member's dean, with concurrence of the senior associate vice president for faculty affairs, pending an investigation.
- Notification must be given to the faculty member in writing by the dean of the college/school and must include the reasons for placing the faculty member on administrative leave with pay and the terms of the leave.
- The administrative leave with pay should be with appropriate provisions for useful duties, including appropriate access to materials and facilities.
- A faculty member may appeal the decision to the senior associate vice president for faculty affairs by submitting an appeal in writing.
On behalf of the executive committee, our immediate questions and requests are as follows:
- Was the policy described above documented at the time of Professor Alonzo's administrative leave?
- Was this policy followed in Professor Alonzo's administrative leave case?
- We request a robust policy implementing sufficient safeguards to be formalized in a published TAMU Rule/SAP following feedback from the Faculty Senate.
From the faculty's perspective, Professor Alonzo's administrative leave appears to have been instigated on a hasty reaction that short-circuited reasonable due process under the circumstances. We want to work with you to avoid that kind of outcome in the future.
Thank you again for all your support throughout this process.
Also on KAGS: