In case you haven't heard, our beloved brothers in College Station are at it again. Just last week, the Texas A&M Faculty Senate gave a 55-9 no confidence vote to Chancellor Mike McKinney, just two weeks after university President Elsa Murano resigned.
The move highlights a running conflict between the university's faculty and administration and seems to have roots that begin in Austin.
Murano's resignation followed a scathing hand-written review of her leadership from McKinney, who suggested A&M combine the chancellor and president positions.
Murano, whose tenure at the position lasted only a year and a half after former President Robert Gates left to become the U.S. secretary of defense, was respected and admired by faculty because of her willingness to incorporate their opinions in university decision making.
Yet the vote against McKinney is the latest drama out of the university that seems to be struggling to find leadership.
But Texas Tech fans should be no strangers to McKinney. It was just eight years ago that Tech beat A&M in football and Tech fans casually threw a torn down goalpost into the stands. Rick Perry's then-chief of staff, McKinney, whose son Seth McKinney was an Aggie center, stormed into the A&M locker room with a bloody face yelling "Welcome to Tech," apparently hit during a post-game melee between students.
However, an investigation into the incident revealed McKinney was actually pushing an A&M student into the metal guardrails surrounding the field when the student hit him in an attempt to escape McKinney's swinging binoculars. Despite the investigation, McKinney called out the Tech administration, claiming the report was a "cover up" and that "the administration had failed."
It seems ironic that today we can discus McKinney's description of administrative failure, for it is he who sits in the administrative seat, without any apparent support from his own staff. While McKinney has shown an amazing ability to start feuds with his fellow Aggies, he doesn't seem to be doing himself any favors.
On June 13, after Murano's resignation, the Austin American-Statesman suggested Perry is influencing the events taking place at A&M, possibly in an attempt to secure his post-gubernatorial plans.
Perry has appointed all nine members of the Texas A&M Board of Regents, has several former staff workers in the administration (including McKinney) and claims the university as his alma-mater. His ties to the university run deep.
Whatever the reasoning behind the events, its obvious A&M couldn't afford to lose Murano. In fact, Murano represented everything good about A&M.
Her mere presence as the first female and Hispanic president in the 132-year history of the university did anything but push the staid nature of the university. And just 12 months into her term, even she recognized the impossibility of the task given to her. In the middle of her typed, 10-page response to McKinney's report, Murano listed six goals not yet accomplished, the last of which regarded the budget deficit of the athletic department.
Apparently, Gates had extended a $16 million line of credit to the athletic department to help fix the situation before he left, however the department hasn't made good on its promise to become self-sufficient and remains in a deficit with only six months left on the loan.
Now if the athletic department can't fix itself in a year with an extra $16 million dollars and an 89,000-seat football stadium, how can Murano possibly survive?
Despite McKinney's recent efforts to help improve faculty and administrative communication, he has further severed the ties between himself and his fellow Aggies.
While here at Tech we continue to push for flagship status, pushing our endowment and research to newer and greater heights, the Aggies continue to humor us. Welcome to A&M.
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