Gov. Greg Abbott threatens Texas A&M president’s job over claim that university broke DEI ban
Abbott's comments came after A&M invited staffers and students to attend a conference that a conservative activist said broke the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

By Jessica Priest Jan. 14, 2025 Updated: 19 hours ago

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Gov. Greg Abbott threatened Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III’s job over claims the university broke the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. ... The threat came after conservative activist Christopher Rufo shared a university email inviting some staffers and PhD students to attend a conference that limited participation to people who are Black, Hispanic or Native American.

On Monday, someone asked Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton on social media whether they were going to tolerate the behavior. ... “Hell, no,” Abbott replied hours later on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s against Texas law and violates the U.S. Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”

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Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. He is known for calling out public universities on social media for “indoctrinating” students with DEI programs and policies. The email he 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.

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