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Gov. Abbott Threatens To Pull Funding After Seeing Gen. Welsh Speak To Black Student

By Boot Macer , in 2025 Campus Life , at January 29, 2025 Tags: , , ,

Recent changes in policy regarding Diversity Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, have made waves across social media platforms. One notable instance is a thread of tweets made by Gov. Greg Abbott, who threatened to pull university funding in response to a picture of President Mark A. Welsh III speaking to an African American student. 

The images detail Welsh sitting with Texas A&M economics Ph.D. student Andrea Wyatt. The images spread quickly via retweet, inciting reactions from former students and government officials. 

“This disregards the law and goes against the spirit of everything our great state stands for,” Abbott wrote on X. “We must have accountability from President Welsh. Budgetary allocation will be at fault..”

Welsh posted a follow-up statement on A&M’s X account roughly four hours after Abbott’s comments. 

“The university does not support any exclusion on the basis of race,” Welsh said. “Equal opportunity is and will continue to be a priority of our beloved institution. A goal of mine is to cultivate a student-wide culture wherein no white student will feel excluded from opportunities because of the color of their skin. Senate Bill 17 is very clear in this regard and we will make sure it never happens again.”

In the same thread, Welsh outlined ways A&M will take steps to comply with SB17 going forward.

“From now on, we will make sure that if any black students are being spoken to, there is a white student there as well to ensure fairness,” Welsh said. “Maybe an Asian student once or twice, if everyone is cool about it.”

— Boot Macer