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# Abbott Threatens to Fire Texas A&M President Over a Conference Invitation for Black, Latino, and Native American Students
- URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/abbott-threatens-to-fire-texas-am-president-over-a-conference-invitation-for-black-latino-and-native-american-students/
- Published: 2025-01-15T18:25:32.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-15T18:25:32.000Z
- Author: Olivia Messer
- Tags: News, Texas A&M, Texas Politics

It’s a new year, but Gov. Greg Abbott’s got the same old hobby: staging dramatic meltdowns over diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Yep, it’s another chapter in a never-ending DEI witch hunt starring Abbott, who’s once again playing tough guy for the right-wing crowd — and this time he’s threatening to fire the president of Texas A&M University (a veritable bastion of liberal wokeness) over a conference that was *expressly* for underrepresented racial groups.

The drama began on Monday when conservative activist [Christopher Rufo posted](https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1878866282399109543?ref=thebarbedwire.com) a university email inviting certain staff and PhD students to a [conference in Chicago](https://phdproject.org/about-us/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) limited to Black, Latino, and Native American participants. Rufo naturally accused A&M of “supporting racial segregation” and [someone tagged](https://x.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1878943635494043747?ref=thebarbedwire.com) Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking if they planned to let this slide.

"Hell, no,” [Abbott huffed](https://x.com/GregAbbott%5FTX/status/1878977524568674730?ref=thebarbedwire.com) on X. “It’s against Texas law and violates the US Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”

The law he’s referring to is [Senate Bill 17](https://compliance.utexas.edu/sb17?ref=thebarbedwire.com), which was enacted last year and bans public universities from having DEI offices, requiring DEI statements or training, and giving any preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.

Anyway, A&M promptly [folded faster than a lawn chair](https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-m-cancels-conference-trip-010007444.html?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and canceled the trip.

A&M President Mark Welsh III said in a [statement](https://x.com/tamu/status/1879016805597139172?s=46&ref=thebarbedwire.com) that the university “will continue to honor both the letter and intent of the law.”

“Texas A&M does not support any organization, conference, process or activity that excludes people based on race, creed, gender, age or any other discriminating factor,” the statement said.

This nonsense came days after University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell announced that he was [leaving UT and heading to Southern Methodist University in Dallas](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/07/texas-ut-austin-smu-jay-hartzell/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). And honestly, given the fact that our governor threatens to fire university presidents over social media, who the hell would *want* to run a public university in Texas in 2025?