And now for the rest of the story…. Burkablog published an op-ed piece on texasmonthly.com about President Murano’s resignation. It’s a “I heard it from a friend who heard it from someone else” type of story, but it has some truth to it.
The original content was from Jon Hagler, class of 1958, Distinguished Alumnus in 1999, published in The Eagle newspaper, “A&M in danger of never achieving its vast potential“, Monday, June 15, 2009 6:05 AM.
Most important crisis at A&M since Earl Rudder.
…this crisis is about whether the faculty, staff, students, former students and the broad and diverse community that make up Texas A&M University will allow a handful of politically motivated persons who do not understand their fiduciary duty either to the institution or to the citizens of the state to take over this wonderful, heavy-duty public university – this sacred public trust.If they are successful, Texas and its citizens can kiss a unique American institution goodbye. It will have no chance of ever achieving its vast potential.
Ironically an Earl Rudder reference was made during Dr. Murano’s 2008 Convocation speech:
In our more recent history, these changes included the admission of women students and making participation in the Corps of Cadets optional instead of mandatory, under the leadership of the great James Earl Rudder in the late 1960s. It is hard to imagine today, but President Rudder’s position was not accepted by everyone. In fact, he was actually “booed” during his speeches. And if you CAN imagine booing the president of Texas A&M during a speech … well, I ask that you keep that to yourself. Still, the fact remains that his leadership and commitment to doing the right thing helped him position our university to becoming one of only two flagships among the public universities in Texas.
So, looking back at what she has said and done, I think Dr. Murano was positioning herself to follow Rudder’s lead rather than the good ol’ boy network. And that don’t fly in Texas.