“Board of Regents, chancellor, president, administration, faculty.”
If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard a deluge of new terms describing Texas A&M’s administration upon arriving on campus for the first time — maybe from this very publication. If you’re also like me, you probably had no idea what was going on.
“Board of Regents implements new policy, new chancellor elected.”
What does any of that even mean, and — more importantly — how does it all work?
Thankfully for you — and for myself before researching this piece — I’ve figured out the basic structure of A&M’s government. Here’s how it works.
Let’s start from the top. You’ve probably heard of the Board of Regents. In fact, it’s probably the most prominent of A&M’s governing entities, especially given its recent controversy with Draggieland. So what does it do, and how are its members chosen?
In basic terms, the Board is the primary body governing the university policy of A&M. It is comprised of nine members, each appointed for six-year terms by the Texas governor at the advice of the senate. These members don’t just oversee policy creation for A&M’s main campus — they also oversee policy across the entire Texas A&M University System.
In general, the Board is responsible for formulating the long-term educational strategy for A&M, including ensuring that the system is governed in a way that — hopefully — improves general educational quality while serving students.
However, all long-term strategies demand direct implementation. To this end, A&M’s chancellor is responsible for carrying out the Board’s wishes on a short-term level and for collaborating with the board and various campus presidents for strategy implementation. Like the board, the chancellor is also responsible for the entire university system, not just A&M’s main campus.
So far, I’ve written only about the administration of the entire System. However, every A&M campus has its own governance system. That’s where you get the lower-level leadership, including the president, provost and heads of various departments. Unlike the Board of Regents, these lower-level leadership positions are effectively established at the whim of the Board; in other words, they are not created by state law.
Ideally, this discretion allows the Board to establish and abolish university positions at will, enabling additional flexibility in governance. Practically, it can mean things get confusing very quickly.
A&M’s individual campus administration starts with the president. The president collaborates with the chancellor to implement Board policies and administer each university on a regular basis as well as help manage lower offices.
The president also has a cabinet, which — much like any governmental cabinet — administers various facets of the administration. This cabinet is comprised of various leaders with their own authority over various areas of university policy.
Most importantly, the president has administration over the Office of the Provost and several “representative bodies,” which are supposed to represent interest groups across campus.
The Office of the Provost is primarily concerned with the academic advancement of the university, and its president — ironically titled the executive vice president — directs and coordinates various administrators who control certain sections of the university. For example, one administrator may control enrollment, while another handles the professional schools. Essentially, many of the systems that most students interact with on a week-to-week basis are administered by this office.
On the other hand, the representative bodies mentioned earlier — again, ideally — provide accountability to the administration of the university. Among them are a few you’re probably already familiar with, such as the Student Senate and Student Government Association, which are two separate bodies.
In addition, there’s also the University Staff Council, which represents A&M’s “staff,” which includes most non-faculty employees. And, of course, there’s the Faculty Senate, which represents faculty employees. These bodies also have their own structures, with some being entirely legislative and others having executive and judicial elements.
Ideally, these bodies provide a means to coordinate members of the class they represent as well as petition the university to act in the interest of that class. They have little real power, but they can serve as a useful way to gather people together for a common goal.
Although I’ve outlined the basic structure of A&M’s high-level government, there’s a lot more we could go into: various departmental structures, specific policies and abilities of certain offices and so on.
But it’s important to realize how the general structure of A&M’s administration is organized when reading important news on the subject. Without understanding A&M’s administration, it would be impossible to hold it accountable or even understand what’s going on.
Hopefully — despite the relatively limited power of the student body — that’s something we can start to do.
Kaleb Blizzard is a philosophy sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.
