In addressing a professor’s grievances over a denied promotion, Texas A&M University’s Grievance Committee recommended incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training and hiring practices in its proposed resolution. This is part of a pattern of faculty-led committees at Texas A&M opposing Texas values in 2025.
The subcommittee reviewing the grievances recommended that the Dean of Faculty conduct mandatory training on diversity, inherent bias, and tolerance for all administrators, department heads, and deans. It further urged the Bush School’s Department of Public Affairs and Administration (DPAA) to prioritize racially diverse hires for the next four to five positions and require mandatory in-person diversity training for all department members, except Dr. Leonard Bright.
The university denied Dr. Bright’s request for promotion to full professor in 2018, when he was a tenured associate professor. He filed two grievances in 2019 with the TAMU University Grievance Committee, alleging “cheating” by the promotion committee that reviewed his request and that the university subjected him to an “adverse” annual review afterward, filled with “inaccurate and damaging content.”
The grievances were against former TAMU President Mark Welsh, who was Dean of the Bush School, and Dr. Lori Taylor, head of the DPAA. The Grievance Review Committee (GRC) was formed to investigate and subsequently published the March 2020 GRC report. Dr. Bright claims to have not received the GRC report until after Texas Scorecard requested it under the Public Information Act.
The “cheating” Dr. Bright referred to was his objection to Dr. William West, former interim head of DPAA, chairing his promotions committee. The GRC reported that both appeared to have a “mutual sense of antipathy,” and a “conflict over administrative responsibilities.” Dr. West had also reportedly “characterized Dr. Bright as a liar.”
According to a June 2025 ruling from the Tenth Appellate District Court, Dr. Bright felt Dr. West’s presence on the committee was “retaliation” for filing a discrimination complaint. However, Chief Justice Matt Johnson wrote, “there is nothing to show that.”
The ruling noted that then-Bush School Dean Mark Welsh mentioned “months of investigations, grievances, and related communications” from Dr. Bright alleging discrimination. For that reason, Welsh said he recused himself from the promotions committee, believing it was the “fairest thing” for Dr. Bright to have someone who was not exposed to that.
Racial discrimination is alleged not only by Dr. Bright but also by the GRC report. For example, on page nine, committee members wrote of a “remarkable lack of racial empathy” in DPAA. But Scott Yenor, a scholar and Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation, disagreed with that framing.
“[T]he committee tries to make it about race, and I see no evidence of that,” he wrote after he reviewed the report. “[Dr. Bright] tries to make it about race, but there’s no evidence of it, and it’s sad that the committee grasps at straws to make it that way.” Yenor added that “at the end of the day, it appears Bright did not make the standard for promotion, in part because he was not well-advised and mentored by the senior faculty of his department.”
Dr. Bright also objected to the committee’s handling of his reference list. Dr. West argued that Bright’s nominees either declined to provide letters or were unacceptable because they were not from peer institutions, blaming the difficulties on Bright’s “failure to achieve a sufficiently high research reputation.” Another witness testified that securing references is “increasingly difficult” and that promotion committees should act early to avoid such issues.
Yenor believes the lack of research was due to Dr. Bright being overburdened by having to work as both an associate professor and an associate dean.
“Having an associate professor in a research university serve as an associate dean is bonkers. Not quite as bonkers as an assistant professor, but bonkers nevertheless. That’s something full professors who have already amassed a large scholarly record should be doing,” he wrote. “It looks like Bright did a lot of service, more than an associate professor should, which negatively impacted his research record, which in turn, kaboshed his promotion case. And the committee is right to criticize the department head for letting this happen.”
Dr. Bright sued Texas A&M on March 18, 2020, eight days before the date stamped on the GRC report. His suit led to a dead end. “The courts agreed with Texas A&M that I could not, you know, take them to court … that they had sovereign immunity,” he said.
In the Tenth District Court’s ruling in June 2025, Chief Justice Johnson wrote that the court found no evidence to support Dr. Bright’s multiple allegations.
Since March 2020, widespread rejection of DEI ideology has emerged after citizens were exposed to its deleterious effects. In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law—Senate Bill 17—prohibiting universities from establishing DEI offices, using DEI criteria in hiring practices, or requiring employees or prospective employees to attend DEI training.
The University Grievance Committee, and the March 2020 report’s authors—Srividhya Ragavan, Tamika Gilreath, Dennis Gorman, and Guy Battle—are still in place at TAMU. As for the GRC’s recommendations, upon reflection, Dr. Bright said that “there’s nothing that I saw that I could perceive that was enacted.”
This is one in a series of events in which TAMU faculty-led committees have been at odds with Texas values. After controversy erupted over course content in a TAMU children’s literature class—which included how to introduce LGBT material to children—President Welsh fired the class instructor and later resigned in September. The Committee on Academic Freedom, Responsibility and Tenure unanimously sided with the professor.
In January 2025, the TAMU Academic Freedom Council objected to Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to tighten research security at universities to protect against hostile nations.
As for Dr. Bright, now a full professor, he told Texas Scorecard in October 2025 that a lot of the issues he was facing “were resolved” after investigations, and he was not addressing any further grievances. He’s the current president of the TAMU chapter of the American Association of University Professors—a trade association for left-wing faculty.
Texas A&M did not respond to a request for comment before publication. Readers may access the full GRC report and Chief Justice Johnson’s opinion.
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Paige Feild, Jake Zimmerman, and Kristen Stanciu contributed to this article.
