Texas A&M University President M. Katherine Banks has resigned effective immediately, the university announced on Friday.
Banks’ decision reportedly came in the wake of the attempted hiring of a former New York Times senior editor as the school’s new director of journalism.
University System Chancellor John Sharp announced Banks’ departure two days after Banks told the faculty senate she was embarrassed by the uproar caused by the attempt to hire Kathleen McElroy.
McElroy said she decided to decline the offer when the conditions of her contract allegedly kept changing. The purported changes came after Texas A&M University System officials expressed concerns over her past work coverage on race and diversity issues at NYT.
“I will say it has been a difficult week for Texas A&M. I’m saddened by the negative attention that we’ve received. It’s been detrimental to our shared goals and vision,” then-President Banks said on Wednesday after the news broke that McElroy was not accepting the position, KBTX 3 reported.
“It’s embarrassing. I take responsibility for it as I should, as the president of the university,” Banks added.
Banks claimed at the time that she had not revised the original contract, nor had her office or the Board of Regents.
“What I can tell you is that if there was a statement that the initial offer, the accepted offer, has been revoked, then that is not true. It was never revoked. It was never pulled back and there was never an agreement revising that offer,” Banks said, per KBTX 3.
According to The Eagle, in her resignation letter delivered Thursday night to Sharp, Banks wrote, “The recent challenges regarding Dr. McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately. The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here.”
Banks had been a university president since June 2021. The dean of Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, Mark A. Welsh III, will serve as interim president for the time being. A national search will be conducted to find a successor.