Seven of the nine members of the Texas A&M system board of regents who attended this week’s meeting all approved a three year extension of the chancellor’s contract. After receiving a standing ovation, John Sharp praised the leaders of the system agencies and universities. Five of the seven board members also congratulated and thanked Sharp. The system office reports Sharp’s contract will run through 2023 with no changes to his compensation.
Not attending Wednesday’s meeting were regents Morris Foster and Tony Buzbee.
Click below to hear comments about the chancellor’s contract extension.
Texas A&M’s decision to cancel a white lives matter event on campus for September 11th has the official support of the system’s board of regents. Regent Elaine Mendoza of San Antonio read the resolution that was unanimously approved. That followed a prepared statement by chairman Charles Schwartz of Houston. The sponsor of a similar event last December wanted to stage a daylong event at Rudder Plaza titled “Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M.”
Click HERE to read the prepared remarks from Charles Schwartz and Elaine Mendoza.
Click below to hear the remarks from Charles Schwartz and Elaine Mendoza.
In other business, the regents approved $115 million dollars of new building projects on the flagship campus.
That includes the $42 million dollar music activities center, a $49 million dollar agriculture building on west campus that will be the new home of the department of plant pathology and microbiology, $14 million dollars of new heating and air conditioning systems at Clements and Hobby Hall dormitories, and a nearly $10 million dollar upgrade to the campus thermal power system.
Click HERE to read and download information about the music activities center.
Click HERE to read and download information about the new agriculture building.
Click HERE to read and download information about Clements Hall HVAC.
Click HERE to read and download information about Hobby Hall HVAC.
Click HERE to read and download information about the campus thermal power system.
The board also approved two items from their academic and student affairs committee.
One establishes the “Center for Grand Strategy” at the Bush school of government. President Michael Young says the purpose of the center is to “foster, examine and disseminate innovative, theoretically and empirically based U.S. grand strategic options that would directly promote the security of the United States.” The center is dependent on a five year, $12 million dollar grant from the Charles Koch foundation.
Regents also approved a 17 page document that spells out the operation of what will be called the Gateway Education Center that’s under construction at the new RELLIS campus.
Click HERE to read and download information about the Center for Grand Strategy.
Click HERE to read and download information about the Gateway Education Center.
The regents also approved what the system considers to be one of the most restrictive conflict-of-interest rules in Texas higher education, extending state law to hundreds of senior administrators and their close family members. It extends the contracting prohibition to chief financial officers, vice chancellors, chief auditors, chief compliance officers, provosts, vice presidents, deans, deputy or associate agency directors, and other employees with equivalent job duties. The financial interest standard is if employees or close family members own or control, directly or indirectly, an ownership interest of at least 1 percent in the private vendor, or could reasonably foresee that a contract with a private vender could result in a financial benefit to the employee. Employees covered by the conflict-of-interest rules are required to file a financial disclosure with the System’s Office of General Counsel by the end of January each year. The rule covers the employee’s spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent and grandchild, plus a spouse’s child, parent, sibling, grandparent, and grandchild; a child’s spouse; a parent’s spouse; a grandparent’s spouse; and a grandchild’s spouse. The Board also requires a Regent with a “substantial interest” in a contract pending before the Board to announce the conflict and refrain from voting on the contract. Substantial interest is defined with a 1 percent standard that is very similar to the standard for employees. This Regent conflicts provision incorporates recent legislative changes to state ethics laws.
Click below for comments on the new conflict of interest rules from the system’s deputy general counsel, Brooks Moore.