Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, better known as Texas A&M, is a public university with its main campus in College Station, Texas.  ¹ It is the flagship university of the Texas A&M University System. ¹

Texas A&M has the largest student body in the United States, and under federal law is one of six “Senior Military Colleges” where qualified graduates of its Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program automatically receive active-duty officers’ commissions in the U.S. military. ^{2  1}

Governance and Leadership

Texas A&M is one of 12 universities governed by the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M University System. ³ All regents are appointed by the governor of Texas, subject to confirmation by the state Senate.  ³

The interim president of Texas A&M University is Tommy Williams, a former Republican state senator who was previously a vice president in the Texas A&M University System and a fiscal policy advisor to Governor Greg Abbott (R). ⁴

DEI Controversies

In the early-to-mid 2020s, Texas A&M went through a series of leadership changes and other turmoil related to the role of left-of-center diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and principles at the university. ^{5  6  7}

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research senior fellow and right-of-center anti-DEI activist Christopher F. Rufo wrote in 2023 that DEI had “swallowed” Texas A&M. ⁵

DEI controversies were responsible in part for the departure of former university president M. Katherine Banks, who “retired immediately” in July 2023 in the face of backlash to her controversial plan to hire former New York Times editor Kathleen McElroy to lead the university’s journalism programs. ⁸ Faculty, students, and other stakeholders at Texas A&M had expressed concern over McElroy’s reported involvement in DEI initiatives at the New York Times and at the University of Texas at Austin. ⁹ McElroy also faced criticism for her journalistic principles after she reportedly told NPR: “We can’t just give people a set of facts anymore. I think we know that and we have to tell our students that. This is not about getting two sides of a story or three sides of a story, if one side is illegitimate.” ⁷

Banks was succeeded by Mark Welsh, III, a retired four-star U.S. Air Force general who had been the service’s highest-ranking uniformed officer from 2012 to 2016 as the Air Force Chief of Staff. ^{10  11}

Welsh was criticized by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in January 2025 for allowing university funds to be used to send Texas A&M faculty to a “Ph.D Project” conference that reportedly only allowed participation by members of racial or ethnic minorities. ¹² However, the next month Texas A&M successfully completed a  state audit of its compliance with state laws banning DEI in higher education. ¹³

In September 2025, Welsh fired professor Melissa McCoul, who had included expansive gender and sexuality content in a children’s literature course and ejected a student who had debated the course content with her from class. ⁶ Welsh also demoted the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the head of the English department, but faced criticism from anti-DEI activists for what they viewed as an equivocal initial response. ^{14  6}

Later that month, the chancellor and board of regents of the Texas A&M University System announced that Welsh would “step down” from his job, effective at the close of business the next day. ¹⁵

In November 2025, the Texas A&M University System board of regents unanimously approved a policy that, “no system academic course will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” without prior administration approval.”  ¹⁶

A review of roughly 5,400 Texas A&M university courses for the Spring 2026 semester to ensure compliance with university system policy and Texas state law resulted in the cancellation of six classes. ¹⁷ Professors requested 54 waivers to allow discussion of sensitive topics within relevant academic context, and 48 of those waivers were approved.  ¹⁷ At that time, the university also announced its plans to phase out its Women’s and Gender Studies programs, in part due to lack of enrollment, allowing current students to graduate but not accepting any new candidates.  ¹⁷

In January 2026, philosophy professor Martin Peterson publicized university leadership’s prohibition of the use of readings on race and gender from the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his “Contemporary Moral Issues” class.  ¹⁸ While Peterson had used the Plato readings in previous versions of the class, he admitted to having updated his course syllabus to highlight them in a way that challenged the university’s DEI-restriction policies. ¹⁸

1. “Texas A&M University Facts.” Texas A&M University. Accessed March 16, 2026. https://www.tamu.edu/about/facts.html.
2. “10 U.S. Code § 2111A – Support for Senior Military Colleges.” Legal Information Institute. Accessed March 16, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/2111a#f.
3. “Board of Regents.” Office of The Board of Regents. Accessed March 16, 2026. https://www.tamus.edu/regents/.
4. “Office of the President” Texas A&M University. Accessed March 16, 2026. https://president.tamu.edu/index.html.
5. Rufo, Christopher F. “Dei Swallows Texas A&M.” City Journal, July 24, 2023. https://www.city-journal.org/article/dei-swallows-texas-am.
6. Jessica Priest, Nicholas Gutteridge. “How a Secret Recording Upended Texas A&M.” The Texas Tribune, September 19, 2025. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/texas-a-m-welsh-firing-professor-gender-mccoul/.
7. Sylvester, Sherry. “Is the Texas A&M J School Flap ‘Dei Hysteria?’” Texas Public Policy Foundation, July 13, 2023. https://www.texaspolicy.com/is-the-texas-am-j-school-flap-dei-hysteria/.
8. Franklin, Jonathan. “Texas A&M President ‘retires Immediately’ over Fallout from Botched Journalist Hire.” NPR, July 21, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/21/1189283946/texas-am-president-retires-fallout-black-journalist-hiring.
9. McGee, Kate. “Kathleen McElroy Will Stay at UT-Austin, Rejecting A&M Journalism Offer.” The Texas Tribune, July 11, 2023. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/11/texas-a-m-kathleen-mcelroy-journalism/.
10. “Mark A. Welsh III.” U.S. Air Force. Accessed March 16, 2026. https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/104966/mark-a-welsh-iii/.
11. “Former Air Force Chief of Staff Mark A. Welsh III Named 27th President of Texas A&M.” Texas A&M Stories, December 12, 2023. https://stories.tamu.edu/news/2023/12/12/welsh-named-27th-president-of-texas-am/.
12. Priest, Jessica. “Gov. Greg Abbott Threatens Texas A&M President’s Job over Claim That University Broke Dei Ban.” Houston Public Media, January 15, 2025. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2025/01/15/510950/gov-greg-abbott-threatens-texas-am-presidents-job-over-claim-that-university-broke-dei-ban/.
13. Ketterer, Samantha. “As Legislators Continue Dei Crackdown, Texas A&M University Receives Clean Audit.” Houston Chronicle, February 28, 2025. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-a-m-university-receives-clean-dei-audit-20194073.php.
14. Welsh, Mark A. “An Update from President Mark A. Welsh III.” office of the president | Texas A&M University, September 9, 2025. https://president.tamu.edu/messages/an-update-from-president-mark-a-welsh-iii.html.
15. “Mark Welsh Steps down as President of Texas A&M University.” A&M System News, September 18, 2025. https://news.tamus.edu/stories/mark-welsh-steps-down-as-president-of-texas-am-university/.
16. Swope, David. “Regents Unanimously Approve Restrictions on Race, Gender Ideology Discussion in Classroom.” The Battalion, November 14, 2025. https://thebatt.com/news/regents-unanimously-approve-restrictions-on-race-gender-ideology-discussion-in-classroom/.
17. “Texas A&M University Completes Spring 2026 Course Review to Support Academic Integrity.” Texas A&M Stories, January 30, 2026. https://stories.tamu.edu/news/2026/01/30/texas-am-university-completes-spring-2026-course-review-to-support-academic-integrity/.
18. Schwager, Adam. “Texas A&M Flags Parts of Plato Readings as Violations of New Anti-Gender Theory Policy.” KXAN-TV, January 8, 2026. https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/texas-am-flags-parts-of-plato-readings-as-violations-of-new-anti-gender-theory-policy/.