This is a developing story and will be updated.
Regents on Monday named Susan Ballabina as the sole finalist for president of Texas A&M University.
Ballabina currently serves as executive vice chancellor for the Texas A&M University System, where she is Chancellor Glenn Hegar’s top deputy and oversees day-to-day operations across the system’s 12 universities and eight state agencies. She previously served as chief of staff to former Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III.
The decision follows months of upheaval at the flagship campus after Welsh resigned amid political backlash over a secretly recorded classroom discussion of gender identity that was posted online.
The search unfolded as regents took a more assertive role in responding to controversy and shaping what can be taught, part of a broader political remaking of Texas higher education under new state laws.
Ballabina is set to lead the state’s largest public university, which enrolled 72,289 students in fall 2025, and enforce new system rules that restrict how race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity can be discussed in class.
State law requires regents to wait 21 days before making the hire official.
Texas A&M has cycled through leaders in recent years.
In 2023, M. Katherine Banks resigned as president after the failed hiring of Kathleen McElroy, an experienced Black journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin whom Texas A&M had recruited to revive its journalism program. McElroy walked away from an offer that university officials had watered down after vocal groups outside the university had criticized her past work for the New York Times and support for diversity.
Welsh followed as president, working to rebuild trust with faculty by reversing some of Banks’ unpopular changes and promising not to micromanage. But that approach later put him at odds with regents who wanted a leader who would respond more quickly to political controversy. His downfall came in September 2025 after he initially told a student he would not fire lecturer Melissa McCoul for discussing gender identity in a children’s literature course. He ultimately did fire McCoul.
Since Welsh’s resignation, Tommy Williams — a former Texas lawmaker, Texas A&M alum and one-time top government relations official for the system — has served as interim president.
There’s also been a broader political remaking of Texas higher education since 2023. Lawmakers have banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices, programs and training; expanded regents’ authority over curriculum; and imposed rules limiting protesting on campus, including bans on encampments and overnight demonstrations. Supporters of these new laws say they keep universities focused on their core mission of providing degrees that lead to profitable careers. Opponents say they undercut universities’ mission to be spaces for open inquiry.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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