Abbott upset with Houston as legislature opens

AUSTIN – The Houston Chronicle reports that Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to force out Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III over the university’s apparent attempt to send students to a conference the governor said flouted the state’s new diversity, equity and inclusion ban. University emails posted online by a conservative activist, which were not sent by Welsh, ask for staff and PhD students willing to represent the university in a recruiting trip to a conference run by the PhD Project and that limits participation to those who are Black, Hispanic or Native American. The conference is billed as being “designed for historically underrepresented individuals considering business doctoral studies.” “Hell no,” Abbott wrote on X when another user asked if he approved of the invitation. “It’s against Texas law and violates the US Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”

Abbott cannot directly fire Welsh, but the governor appoints the university regents whom Welsh answers to. Abbott in 2023 signed a law banning diversity hiring programs, DEI training and DEI offices in public higher education. The screenshot of the A&M email, however, says the university’s general counsel deemed participating in The PhD Project permissible under recruitment exemptions in the law. From the Texas Tribune: The email shared on Monday was sent by Michael C. Withers, associate dean for research and scholarship professor at Mays Business School, who invited A&M faculty and PhD students to participate in an annual conference put together by The PhD Project, an organization that seeks to increase diversity in classrooms and corporations. Withers wrote that the university typically sends three people to the conference, scheduled this year for March 20-21 in Chicago, and that lawyers for the university had found participating was permissible under SB 17’s recruitment exemptions. According to the law, the ban does not apply to instruction, research, the activity of a student organization, guest speakers or performers, data collection and student recruitment. The PhD Project previously listed on its website at least eight other Texas public universities that have participated in the conference — Texas Tech University, University of Houston, University of North Texas, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley and University of Texas at San Antonio — but most were removed sometime Tuesday afternoon. The UT System said it did not receive a directive from the governor to withdraw from the conference, but recommended its institutions to do so. UNT and Texas Tech also said Tuesday they would no longer participate.