Texas A&M reaches $1 million settlement with Black journalism professor

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas A&M University reached a $1 million settlement Thursday with a Black journalism professor after botched attempts to hire her unraveled after pushback over her past work promoting diversity.

The nation’s largest public school campus agreed to pay Kathleen McElroy $1 million, and apologized to her while admitting “mistakes were made during the hiring process.”

Texas A&M had initially welcomed McElroy, a Texas A&M graduate, with great fanfare to revive the school’s journalism department. She is a former New York Times editor and had overseen the journalism school at the more liberal University of Texas at Austin campus.