That was fast! Texas A&M scrubs some job postings of DEI

Texas A&M has scrubbed job postings of illegal pseudo-DEI statements less than 24 hours after Blaze News broke the story exposing how the university was defying Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order banning the use of DEI statements.

The Bush School of Government is hiring four tenure-track assistant professors. On Wednesday, the school was asking all candidates to provide a cover letter containing “past or planned contributions to advancing diversity” (available at the Wayback Machine). By Thursday, the job posting dropped the language relating to “advancing diversity” entirely.

None of the other DEI requirements linked in Wednesday’s article appear to have been changed.

It isn’t the first time Texas A&M brass have scrubbed the school's website of embarrassing and illegal activities.

Last spring, A&M scrubbed its search committee manual of objectionable materials after it was exposed in a report by the Claremont Institute. Suddenly, the Berkeley rubric that makes a candidate’s diversity score part of the initial screening process of candidates disappeared. So did the portion of the committee training that described the use of mandatory DEI statements.

Texas A&M administration seems both proud of its DEI commitments and keenly interested in hiding its secretive use of DEI statements and other diversity loyalty oaths. Texas A&M’s interim president, General Mark Welsh, former dean of the Bush School of Government, has pledged support for the university’s DEI efforts.

Welsh’s support for DEI could get him in trouble, though, so he is trying to play it coy. His colleagues in the Bush School have acted as if his overt support for DEI might sink his chances of becoming Texas A&M’s permanent president. Further, according to a source at A&M who was signed up for the call, Welsh was scheduled to attend a Zoom meeting last week with DEI advocates, but he backed out at the last minute. He reportedly sent word that he would meet with the group after he is appointed officially.

Texas A&M’s Board of Regents is scheduled to meet Friday to name Welsh the sole finalist for the A&M presidency. The public will then have several weeks to comment before the board makes a final decision.

The Board of Regents is at a crossroads. Who governs? Will the board follow the legislature’s wishes and foil the university’s DEI plans, or will it bend to an interim president who shows contempt for the legislature’s wishes and the governor’s lawful order?