Texas A&M’s representative on the board of directors of a new higher education accreditation agency intended to counterbalance left-wing ideological capture has his own history of promoting such endeavors.
Another member of the seven-person board also has a pro-DEI background.
Texas A&M announced in June that it would join a new accreditation organization: the Commission for Public Higher Education. Texas A&M will be joined by public university systems in several southern states.
Accreditation is a process whereby an outside entity evaluates a college or university to determine if it meets certain standards. Typically, these standards relate to programs, faculty, and resources.
Texas A&M’s representative on the board of this new endeavor is Dr. James Hallmark, who currently serves as the vice president of academic affairs for the Texas A&M system.
Hallmark recently served as acting president of Texas A&M’s College Station campus following the departure of former TAMU president Mark Welsh. Welsh left after a controversy erupted over course content in a children’s literature class that included instruction on how to introduce LGBT material to children.
Hallmark has promoted the sort of DEI policies the new accreditation agency is intended to counter.
He defended DEI at Texas A&M during the January 23, 2023, faculty senate meeting.
In response to a question from Professor Andrew Klein about state lawmakers’ work to ban DEI in state higher education, Hallmark stated that that the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) was working to distance its DEI programs from “what the national conversation is,” reframing its DEI offices as having “a whole lot more to do with student success” and “trying to help every student who comes to our campus be successful” rather than “woke stuff.”
He said that removing DEI initiatives could affect Texas A&M’s NCAA status, which he believed would make state lawmakers pause. “They may not care about our academics, but they sure will care about athletics.”
Months later, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the state’s DEI ban into law. To date, Texas A&M has not lost its NCAA status.
It’s been widely reported that Dr. Mark Becker, who chairs the CPHE board, has a history that echoes Hallmark’s.
Dr. Becker was the president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) from 2022 to 2024. When he assumed the APLU presidency in 2022, the head of the search committee praised his “strong commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion through innovation.”
The press release that announced his hiring also touted how “Dr. Becker constantly prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion to maximize the impact, research and success of [Georgia State] university and to ensure it reflected and served the community in which it is located.”
Accreditation has become controversial in recent years, as accreditation agencies are increasingly viewed as a vehicle to impose left-wing programs such as DEI and radical LGBT activism on universities.
Author James Lindsay has described accreditation as a scam and a trap, arguing that it is used to force ideological agendas.
The creation of CPHE followed a series of disputes between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Texas A&M is currently accredited through SACSCOC.
“People can repent of their commitment to DEI. They often do,” Dr. Scott Yenor, a Heritage Foundation scholar, told Texas Scorecard. “But the repentance must be public, and it must burn the boats as far as returning to DEI.”
“Both Dr. Becker and Chancellor Hallmark should be asked searching and probing questions about their commitments,” Yenor continued.
Neither the Texas A&M system nor the College Station campus responded to a request for comment.
Texas A&M at College Station is a component of the Texas A&M University System. It is overseen by a board of regents that is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate. Robert Albritton is the current board chair.
If you are a student, parent, faculty or staff member, or concerned citizen who would like to partner with us to promote transparency in taxpayer-subsidized higher education, please email us at scorecardtips@protonmail.com.
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
