Walking down the steps of the Administration Building as he looked onto a sea of support, a president descended step by step — Gig ‘em sign held high — as he exited his office one last time. Former Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III smiled at his Aggie family as his wife cried silent tears — all stemming from a leaked video. 

The secretly recorded video depicting a discussion of gender identity in a children’s literature course found its way into the hands of Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison (R-10). 

Harrison posted the confrontation on social media, quickly igniting a firestorm that ultimately ended Welsh’s tenure and resulted in the removal of three faculty members from their positions.

Despite Welsh’s resignation, anyone who attended Welsh’s farewell at the Administration Building last Friday — including students and faculty who sent letters backing Welsh — can attest to the support he had among the Aggie community.

Since his resignation, a wealth of stories have emerged from every corner of campus regarding his presidency. 

Perhaps no story is more poignant than his attendance of the November 2024 edition of Silver Taps on Election Night. Welsh prioritized us over political interests — and in the end, it cost him his job.

We, along with the rest of campus, are left to ask ourselves: What kind of System is the Board of Regents running where the opinions of politicians seemingly matter more than those of students and faculty? 

If Welsh’s broad and popular support across campus wasn’t enough to keep him in power, then what are the Regents looking for in the role? With the university on its fifth president since 2020, it’s a question that needs answering.

We stand behind Welsh’s efforts to shield the university from the maelstrom of state politics. We unequivocally condemn the pressure put on Welsh such that he felt resigning was the best solution to preserve the future of A&M. We also condemn the student who decided to secretly record the lecture and leak it to Harrison — by Harrison’s own admission. 

Harrison is a provocateur who had an explicit goal of forcing Welsh out of office before his resignation; he also publicly claimed credit for forcing Welsh’s resignation. In May, Welsh sent Harrison a letter in which he stated the representative’s claims about A&M’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies were “routinely inaccurate and misleading.” 

As for the Regents — the individuals entrusted with the welfare of 12 universities and over 170,000 students — they insist that they did not fold to outside political pressure. 

“We have one individual who I would call a moron, who is an absolute classified megalomaniac, who is insatiable with his desire to feed his ego,” Chairman of the Board of Regents Robert Albritton said in an interview with The Houston Chronicle and The Texas Tribune after the Regents met last Thursday. “And do people like that solve problems? They don’t give you solutions other than ‘Fire this, do this, do that.’ … And I will say one wonderful thing about the Board is that we don’t listen to that.”

If the Board didn’t listen to politicians, then who did they listen to? People like Harrison seem to be doing most of the celebrating, and the Regents haven’t come out to claim that it was their decision, either.

Harrison was not the only lawmaker who questioned Welsh’s leadership. On Sept. 11, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for Chancellor Glenn Hegar and the Regents to evaluate Welsh’s leadership. Additionally, in January, Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to fire Welsh over a sponsored trip to a recruitment conference focused on underrepresented students.

The governor has no power to fire Welsh, but the Regents — who are handpicked by Abbott — do.

Also calling for Welsh’s ouster was Michael Quinn Sullivan, the publisher of the Texas Scorecard, a right-wing publication that has prompted the Regents to act in the past, as we confirmed with our prior reporting.

If the Regents have made decisions based on what Sullivan and the Scorecard have posted about in the past, what makes this case different? Albritton claims the Board is acting independently. However, that hasn’t always been the case.

“Yeah, Texas Scorecard,” Albritton told The Texas Tribune and The Houston Chronicle. “I mean, not really sure exactly what their motive is on these issues, because A&M is doing everything they can to solve their own problems, not like we need a whole lot of help, you know, solving them.”

A&M has passed a state audit confirming its compliance with Senate Bill 17 which effectively banned DEI initiatives at public universities in Texas. Nonetheless, the bill’s ban on these initiatives does not extend to in-classroom instruction, meaning it’s unclear what law professor Melissa McCoul may have violated. 

When questioned by The Houston Chronicle and The Texas Tribune, Albritton said that McCoul broke a law, but could not specify which.

Albritton went on to say that details of the class were “not my purview, and it’s not my background,” and that “what my background is, is protecting the System.”

Regardless, we demand answers from Albritton and the Regents.

What exactly are you protecting the System from? What do you want in an A&M president that Welsh did not offer?

If you are protecting the students and faculty of the A&M System from outside influence, you’re doing a poor job because they seem to have gotten exactly what they wanted. 

All we can hope for is that our next president can protect us from you.

This editorial was approved by The Battalion’s editorial staff and serves as the official opinion of the publication. 

This story was originally published on The Battalion on September 24, 2025.