From “Gig ’em!” to “Sieg Heil!”
A&M is no longer that little ol’ ag school of yesteryear when just a little hazing of “fish” in the Corps or building gigantic homecoming bonfires were all in a day’s curriculum on campus in College Station. The 12th Man, which helped the football team win all those games, and the lifelong camaraderie that made you an Aggie for life is now being overshadowed as the university is now saying the quiet part out loud – that it’s funded and controlled by a bunch of pot-bellied bigots who believe that only white guys should be in charge and only strict compliance to the party line will keep you enrolled or working for A&M. Overstated? Hardly. A&M is now openly censuring and threatening any academic who strays out of line, speaks a word of criticism of a state official or teaches the “wrong” history in class.
Case in point is that of Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert and A&M professor. A deeply experienced and award winning pharmacist, Alonzo has brought millions of dollars in research grants to the university and is an expert in opioids, teaching the use of Narcan and other treatments to those addicted. This last spring she gave a guest lecture at UTMB about opioids in Galveston, but before she could drive back to College Station, she had been reported for criticizing Dan Patrick. From there the story reads like something out of the 1930s Germany where academics and intellectuals were silenced for saying the wrong things. Within two hours, A&M Chancellor John Sharp was communicating with Patrick and his chief of staff. Alonzo was immediately suspended, pending an investigation. Alonzo was terrified.
Among his communications about the complaint, Sharp sent this email to Patrick’s office: “Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week.” – signed “jsharp.” Within another couple of hours, UTMB leaders sent an email to its students saying that Alonzo’s comments “about Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and his role in the opioid crisis did not represent the opinion of the university.” The email included a formal censure of Alonzo, even though they didn’t even know specifically what the hell she had even said.
Here’s where the story gets worse, if that’s possible. Alonzo was reported by a well-connected mole in the classroom who happened to be a daughter of Texas land commissioner Dawn Buckingham, a long-time Patrick ally, and a freshman med student at UTMB who attended the lecture. Patrick had endorsed Buckingham’s campaign, and she is also close to Sharp and attended his wedding. You know exactly what happened. Daughter called Mom, Mom called Patrick, Patrick called Sharp and the fire was lit. Within hours Alonzo was suspended and threatened with firing by Sharp who was kowtowing to Patrick.
Since the investigation turned up NO ONE who could actually testify as to any wrongdoing, Alonzo ultimately kept her job (I certainly hope she’s looking for another) and is back to work at A&M, but the irreparable damage is done. The infuriating thing about this entire sorry episode is that no one even knows exactly what Alonzo said that was so offensive. Other students couldn’t remember anything except a vague reference to Patrick’s office. The only clue is in Alonzo’s lecture slides that correctly stated that the state legislature, rather than funding opioid treatment programs, legislated stronger criminal charges for those selling the drug. UTMB is just as culpable in this circus as A&M since it fired off the student email and censure of Alonso ON THE SAME DAY the complaint was filed and before any investigation was completed.
Add this story to the one about Kathleen McElroy, the UT professor of journalism who was recently hired to resurrect the A&M journalism program. McElroy is an A&M alum. Previously mentioned pot-bellied redneck alums found out about her hiring (she’s African American and had dared to have a job as an editor who wrote about diversity at the NYTimes) and raised so much hell about her hiring that the university actually reneged on it’s offer of a five-year tenured position, changing it several times, ending up with a one-year untenured position. Since she is already a tenured professor at UT, she wisely rejected the offer. The president of A&M and the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences ended up resigning over the sordid incident (not the hiring, but the reneging).
There is most certainly something rotten in College Station, and I’m not talking about overripe fruit in the cafeteria. A&M has been taken over (again) by hate filled racists and radicals trying to repeal the 20th Century and return the college to the bad old days.
“Sieg Heil!” Fits better now than the quaint “Gig ’em Aggies!”.
That these kind of things continue to escalate in the Fascist State of Texas makes me glad I moved out of what is rapidly becoming a third world banana republic that rivals FloriDUH.
1Two things that stand out in the picture of Patrick!
https://crooksandliars.com/files/imagecache/full_800/primary_image/23/07/24971379890_e9cde132db_k_d.jpg
1. He looks like he’s about 6 months along.
2. He buys his shirts at a “Cross the Border” auto upholstery/men’s clothing shop!
2Tell Alonzo to try U of Dub (University of Washington.) They’d enjoy taking a great educator away from A and M.
3I hope that the med student mole is shunned by the rest of her classmates. I suspect she will not turn out to be the kind of doctor I would want to trust with my health.
4It’s not just Texas A&M; all public universities in Texas are falling under the long shadow of Republican fascism. Abbot looks at what Desantis is getting away with in Florida and burns with envy.
I thought they stopped the bonfires when one collapsed and took some tuition-paying droids with it. Soon they’ll start up again, only with books instead of old pallets.
5A&M has gotten a lot of press recently, none of it good.
6How long before all professors, visiting and otherwise, have to submit their lectures for approval before speaking? And they will, academic jobs being scarce.
7I lived within 45 miles of A&M for 20 years. It was painfully obvious to anyone who’d pay attention that A&M is a cult in university clothing, complete with the baby Brown Shirts in the core. No one should be surprised by what’s going on there now. It’s just come out from under the rocks now that the political atmosphere is supportive of what’s been there all along — a women hating, black hating (A&M football had no highly recruited black players until winning became more important than bigotting), bubba-fied hick school in the middle of old cotton fields.
8Both stories make me glad, all over again, that I left TAMU many years ago for universities trying to seek knowledge and open minds, not hide facts and seal minds closed. I got tenure, first woman in my dept, and asked for a raise. The dept head told me no way (even though we both knew how much I was underpaid) and that I’d have to get a really good offer from somewhere else. Fine, I said, it’s your party – and got a stellar offer and left.
The sad thing is that there are a lot of good folks on the faculty, and a lot of bright, eager students, whose lives could be changed by learning more about the world around them. Such colleagues do make a difference, and I think I did while I was there. Now? I’d be thrown in the same purgatory as Dr. Alonzo, within a few days, for my research and my public health concern.
9The Surly Professor @5, The Aggie Bonfires were always constructed of actual logs cut as part of the event by the students themselves, the trees were located nearby.
At my high school [went to the same school gr1-12] a bonfire was also a tradition.
I was actually working a couple of blocks away from the Polo Field Bonfire site that morning [~2:42AM] in College Station. It was a very memorable event.
I worked a lot of deep nights because of the extremely critical nature of the work and systems involved. We backed out of what we were doing immediately upon learning of the disaster. One wrong step and most of College Station would have been without communications at it’s most critical time. The rest of the morning was incredible with the emergency response nearly crashing the systems. It took weeks to calm down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Aggie_Bonfire_collapse
“At approximately 2:42 a.m.[a] on November 18, 1999, the annual Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M University collapsed during its construction, killing 12 people and injuring 27.[1]”
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Easttxdem and Laurel @8&9, one of my daughters, a super-achieving honor student, eagerly went to TAMU-CS for two years [her dream uni, the other went to TAMU-CC], then she became disillusioned with the environment as you mention, and transferred to another university where she graduated SCL, and went on to a SCL Masters at another uni.
It was quite an experience, moving her into the dorm, Krueger Hall [one of her roommates was one of those obnoxious evangelical types, not a good fit with a devout Catholic], and then an apartment, all the activities, Rudder Hall stuff, etc.
10Interesting times.
I feel for the A&M faculty and student body who have a Chancellor like John Sharp. The silver lining is voters never elected him governor. Unfortunately, we later elected his A&M roommate. Rick Perry.
11Sandridge: at the time, I was figured that the TAMU staff hurriedly checked to see if those students’ tuition was paid up. And then only announcing it a tragedy if it wasn’t, since they’d have little luck collecting from the bereaved parents.
OK, enough of my cynicism. I recall in the late 60s and early 70s driving a truck through College Station, and there was a restaurant (called Granny’s ?). It cost $2 and you sat at a table with everyone else, and passed the dishes around like you were at home. When you finished you had to take your dishes to the washing station, and wipe down your place if you made a mess. Granny herself was at the door with a cigar box to collect the $2. It was the sort of thing you’d never see north of the Mason-Dixon line then, or anywhere in the US now. It was also what made me choose a route through CS when possible.
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