Garry Smith, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, commented on a recent lawsuit filed against Texas A&M University.
A professor from the University of Texas at Austin, Richard Lowery, filed a lawsuit against Texas A&M claiming the university hires faculty and staff while discriminating against white and Asian males. Texas A&M instituted the Accountability, Climate, Equity and Scholarship (ACES) program which attempts to hire professors from “diverse backgrounds” and encourages underrepresented groups to apply. Texas A&M Central Texas also has a council on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
“It doesn’t matter what you call it, diversity, inclusion or equity, discrimination is still illegal.#DontDivideUs,” Smith wrote in a Sept. 23 Twitter post.
The Committee on DEI for the Texas A&M University System released a report that found Texas A&M Universities were falling short on hiring a more diverse faculty from 2015-2019. The report states a “lack of accountability” and offers the ACES Fellows Program described as a “faculty pipeline initiative (that) promotes the research, teaching and scholarship of early career scholars who embrace the belief that diversity is an indispensable component of academic excellence.”
“As an institution, Texas A&M has added a mandatory question to faculty and staff applications regarding ways they will work to value DEI for applicants,” the report also adds. “A question for reference checks now addresses this question as well. These are small steps, but more is needed to help ensure that DEI is valued on the campus, particularly when it comes to hiring faculty and staff.”
Lowery’s lawsuit, filed Sept. 10, accuses Texas A&M University for discriminating against him based on race, according to The College Fix. Lowery claims Texas A&M has created a program that hires scholars of color over white and Asian males. Laylan Copelin, speaking for Texas A&M, told The College Fix, the “suggestion that there is widespread discrimination is false. The specific program (ACES) is brand new and no one has been hired under it.”
According to an article by Louis K. Bonham in Minding the Campus, “overt discrimination” is commonplace in universities and welcomed into university policies. Bonham argues the Supreme Court decisions of Grutter and Fisher II set a precedent that universities receive the benefit of the doubt to recruit students based on racial demographics. However, universities have begun to transfer this power to the hiring process. At Texas A&M, Bonham cites a Department of Finance position that was “reserved” for non-white, non-Asian candidates. Lowery’s lawsuit was filed under the Houston Division in the Southern Division of Texas which if appealed, will move to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, according to Bonham.
The lawsuit argues that Texas A&M’s “proclaimed goal of establishing a faculty whose racial composition attains ‘parity with that of the state of Texas’ seeks to achieve racial balancing, which is flatly illegal under Title VI and the binding precedent of the Supreme Court.” Under Title VI, the lawsuit states universities cannot accept federal funds while hiring based on race. The lawsuit criticizes Texas A&M for using the policy known as "affirmative action" “to hire and promote inferior faculty candidates over individuals with better scholarship, better credentials and better teaching ability.” It claims Texas A&M, and many other universities across the country, of participating in illegal action behind the purpose of DEI.
According to a June 2021 memo sent from Annie McGown, the vice president and associate provost for diversity, and N. K. Anand, vice president for faculty affairs, to all Deans, Texas A&M allocated $2 million in funds for the ACES program. The memo reads, “the presence of faculty of color is also integral to the university’s mission to provide the highest quality of undergraduate and graduate education and develop new understandings through research and creativity.” The max bonus is $100,000 for faculty who meet the qualified standards, that is they must be underrepresented minorities (URMs). Texas A&M defines URMs as “African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians.”
One university in the Texas A&M System, Texas A&M University Central Texas (TAMUCT) has a Council on DEI. The Council on DEI at Texas A&M University Central Texas states its mission on its website: “Promoting an emphasis on the appreciation of diversity and the inclusion of all. Its intent is to engage the university community and the community at large in the purposeful acceptance of the value of each individual.” The Council on DEI offers programs, workshops and events to celebrate diversity and culture. The website says, “diversity is but one outlet for input, however, it is a powerful platform and one that we honor through continued, progressive, conversations and actions.”
According to the Texas A&M University Central Texas Strategic Plan (2018-2022), Goal 5.2 under “IMPERATIVE FIVE: DIVERSITY & INCLUSION” reads, “Recruit and retain a diverse faculty and staff.” It is unclear which methods the university has taken or will take to implement this plan.
