COLLEGE STATION, Texas — On Friday morning, Katherine Banks submitted her resignation letter to University System Chancellor John Sharp following weeks of controversy surrounding the failed hiring and reports of external factors influencing the process of making Dr. Kathleen McElroy the new journalism director at Texas A&M.
"President Banks did the right thing in resigning. She has lost basically all respect among the faculty," Texas A&M Journalism Professor Nathan Crick said. "Her incompetence in handling this and allowing outside influence to abort what was to be a feature hire for this university has brought national humiliation."
In that letter, Banks made the following statement:
"The recent challenges regarding Dr. Kathleen McElroy has made it clear to me that I must retire immediately. The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here."
Many at the school were still skeptical and lacked confidence in the administration after hearing from Banks during Wednesday's faculty senate meeting.
Now, the Department Head of Communication and Journalism, Dr. Hart Blanton, is claiming Banks misled faculty, allowed race to be a factor in the failed hiring, and is also saying that his signature was forged on a second written offer that was sent to McElroy.
"I don't think anyone is naïve enough to think that simply the departure of President Banks is going to solve the problems that led to this. The problems are bigger than President Banks. She was merely a symptom of a larger issue," Crick stated. "The university, the state, and the system itself need to come clean about what this process was."
Professor Crick believes the journalism program at Texas A&M needs the freedom to be built how they--the faculty--see fit. Until that happens, faculty and students could continue to distance themselves from the center elements of the controversy, because lost trust is hard to restore.
"We cannot sustain a university where outside influence is hijacking our hires because of ideology, because of money, because of bigotry," Crick said. "This cannot happen at a modern university."
According to a statement from University System Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, Laylan Copelin, the system's office of general counsel is in the early stages of an investigation into all events, communications, and related documentation with former resident Banks, the Department of Communications, and other Texas A&M University officials.
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