After Texas A&M’s pro-DEI president resigned, the man chosen to temporarily fill the role has previously reframed A&M’s version of DEI as “student success.”
On Friday, Chancellor Glenn Hegar of the Texas A&M University System announced that Dr. James Hallmark, vice chancellor for academic affairs, would be the acting president of Texas A&M’s College Station campus.
Hallmark previously defended DEI at Texas A&M (TAMU) during the January 23, 2023 faculty senate meeting.
Roughly 44 minutes into the meeting, Professor Andrew Klein asked both Hallmark and then-Chancellor John Sharp about state lawmakers’ work on a DEI ban for state higher education.
Hallmark replied 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 could affect Texas A&M’s NCAA status. He believed that 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.
The highlighting of Hallmark’s comments comes after the firestorm surrounding former President Mark Welsh’s handling of a children’s literature course that included instruction on introducing LGBT and gender identity material to children as young as three. Welsh resigned on September 19.
Throughout his career before and during his time at TAMU, Welsh had been a DEI advocate. Such proponents continue to be promoted within TAMUS. Last week, the board of regents approved a DEI advocate as the sole finalist for president of Texas A&M Victoria.
DEI advocates appear to infest the faculty roster as well. After Welsh’s resignation, multiple TAMU faculty members signed a letter supporting him.
In the 2023 recording, Sharp said that the other “hot button” issue was tenure for professors. He stated that he doubted state universities could retain academics recruited from out of state without tenure, and that TAMUS was engaged in conversations with state lawmakers “very privately.”
He was “confident” that tenure wouldn’t be eliminated and that “some middle ground” would be found to retain it.
The Texas A&M University System did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
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