Cancel culture is no match for Texas universities

Texas A&M officials announced that they will not remove the controversial statue honoring the former university president and Confederate general Lawrence Sullivan Ross. Students petitioned to have it removed in the name of being “more inclusive,” but according to the Texas Tribune, the debate over the statue has persisted for years.

“To clarify, the Ross statue will remain where it is,” Interim President John Junkins told Campus Reform. It currently resides at Academic Plaza in the center of campus. 

[RELATED: Texas A&M profs face ‘sanctions’ after Campus Reform exposes their disturbing comments]

Junkins became interim president in  January. In June, his predecessor, Michael Young, launched a “Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.” 

According to the commission’s recent report, the 45-person commission was responsible to “provide findings — not recommendations, opinions or conclusions — whose related to diversity, equity and inclusion at Texas A&M through research and discourse across topics of racial intolerance, university policies and practices, and historical representations such as statues.”

According to a university representative, the Commission handed over its research to Junkins, who then made a recommendation to the chancellor and board of regents. One of those approved recommendations was a task force “charged with designing space to recognize historical figures in addition to, not instead of, Lawrence Sullivan Ross.”

[RELATED: Texas A&M students busted in massive cheating scandal blame their school]

“The task force has an opportunity to accurately and fully tell the story of Texas A&M’s history through displays and iconography – how we connect our past with our future, providing biographical information, recognizing additional individuals who made transformative contributions to the university, and even creating space for future recognitions that allow us to do so consistently,” Junkins told Campus Reform.

The task force has until March 26 to provide recommendations “reimagining Academic Plaza and/or identifying additional spaces for future recognition.”

Texas A&M is just the latest Texas school to not surrender to recent protests. 

Campus Reform previously reported that the University of Texas stood by its “Eyes of Texas” song that some students deemed racist. Even when band members refused to play the song, the school said it would play a recording instead.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @JezzamineWolk