Texas A&M University marked its hiring of Kathleen McElroy with great fanfare — balloons, a banner and a signing ceremony.
Just days later, McElroy’s tenure offer unraveled after the university buckled under backlash from Texas Scorecard, a conservative website, and an unspecified group of individuals close to the university who opposed her previous diversity initiatives. A new state law will limit that and the discussion of race and inclusion on college campuses next year.
The Texas state government stepping in and quashing a new university journalism department that would have been headed by an award-winning investigative journalist is very on-brand, given how many scandals the state produces in a given year.