Texas A&M Director Suspended Amid Investigation Following Title IX Comments
Weeks after claiming that the Texas A&M System would comply with President Biden’s Title IX revisions, Rick Olshak, Director of Title IX and Student Conduct Compliance, has been suspended with pay while the institution investigates “allegations about his job performance as a system employee.”
Olshak, an A&M System employee hired in 2016, heads the System’s
Title IX, a regulation of a civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination at federally funded public universities, will be updated with more inclusive language, transgender student protections, and trial changes that eliminate the need for a live hearing and cross-examination, according to a Biden administration directive.
In a May 1 story about the modifications, Olshak stated that he agreed with the ideas and that the institution would put them into action. He claimed that some advances, such as transgender athletic participation, were insufficient.
The new plans, however, are yet another casualty of the culture war that is engulfing politics. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the Biden administration to stop the modifications, and Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement condemning them on April 29.
On May 6, the far-right website Texas Scorecard published a report on Olshak’s comments and A&M’s stance, concentrating on Olshak’s quote about transgender students and how A&M’s position differs from state recommendations. In the summer of 2023, a Scorecard piece sparked the disaster that ultimately led to Kathleen McElroy’s unsuccessful selection as director of A&M’s new journalism program.
A day after Scorecard’s May 6 piece, Associate Vice President of Communications Kelly Brown sent The Battalion a memo indicating that, due to the dispute, the A&M System “will not take any action to implement the new federal regulations” until a federal court rules on it.
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Abbott issued a memo on May 8 that reaffirmed his opposition to the modifications.
“As I have already made clear, Texas will not comply with President Joe Biden’s rewrite of Title IX that contradicts the original purpose and spirit of the law to support the advancement of women,” the letter continues. “Last week, I directed the Texas Education Agency to defy President Biden’s unconstitutional Title IX directive. Today, I’m instructing all public colleges and universities in Texas to do the same.”
KTRH-AM used Scorecard’s story to produce an article titled “Woke Texas A&M Plans to Implement Biden’s Controversial Title IX Rewrite.”
“It is truly hard to believe that a once proud, conservative university, has gone completely ‘woke,'” the narrative begins.
Abbott shared the item on his X account on May 13 with the caption, “If they do [implement the changes], if they act contrary to state policy, they are jeopardizing state funding, including money from the PUF fund.” The Permanent University Fund, or PUF, is an endowment that supports public higher education in Texas. The post received more than 500,000 views and 11,000 likes.
That same day, Olshak filed an affidavit supporting Paxton’s complaint, claiming that the revisions would “increase the workload of the [A&M] System Title IX Office and the Title IX Offices of the component universities.”
A&M System Speaking to a Texas Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education on May 14, Chancellor John Sharp stated that after the initial report was released, he sent the memo declaring that the A&M system would not cooperate because “the governor will say otherwise.”
“The problem is that our good friends at Scorecard wouldn’t print that part of it,” Sharp stated. “They just printed the first part of it.”
Then, on May 16, Scorecard published another story about Olshak, this time focused on his support for transgender athletes.
“State lawmakers passed a law against that practice just last year,” the headline reads. “Questions were raised regarding Olshak’s adherence to Texas values.”
The article delves into his background, including when he was employed, his responsibilities, and his political views. Much of the tale focuses on his social media posts, where he promotes Democratic causes and explains his support for DEI and LGBTQ+ rights. Throughout the piece, Scorecard asks why Olshak was hired and whether the System will “choose to keep him.”
The piece claims that Olshak’s ideas and performance contradict A&M’s principles as a “conservative stalwart.” On X, Scorecard paid to publicize the news to people in College Station, claiming that the probe “revealed political leanings out of step with Texas A&M’s image.”
It claims that on May 15, Scorecard contacted A&M about his job. On the morning of May 16, they received a statement from Laylan Copelin, A&M System Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communications.
“Chancellor John Sharp has directed that Rick Olshak be suspended with pay per System policy while allegations about his job performance as a System employee are investigated,” Copelin stated. “Please note that the allegations under investigation do not include his private social media posts, as this activity is protected by the First Amendment.”
Copelin declined to comment in an email dated May 21, noting that “the investigation is ongoing.” Olshak has claimed he will not comment at this time.