A retired former Texas A&M-Victoria employee says the administration has been "running off" staff since the school started its transition from the University of Houston System to the Texas A&M University System. The University previously described that process as one to ensure instructors had a more pronounced presence on campus.
"It is a total cluster f**k and I couldn't be happier to be the hell out of there," the former employee told Chron.
According to University president Christian Hardigree, the changes bring the University into compliance with Texas Senate bill 2615, which restricted remote and telework. The changes require employees to be on campus five days a week, 40 hours per week. Hardigree has noted that 70% of the staff do not live in Victoria, with many commuting two hours from the Houston area to the school to teach. The transition to the Texas A&M University System caused a shift in priorities for the University.
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"[Texas A&M University System] came in with the hammer, and slowly but surely, they tightened the grip," the former employee told Chron. "The University was all about work-life balance before and whatever you needed for your family. And then it's like, nope, everybody's going back. And with the faculty, they really started bringing the hammer down."
The changes aren't just affecting faculty that live two hours away and commute to campus; it's affecting faculty that live in Victoria and have worked at the University for years. The University's flexibility allowed faculty to make adjustments based on child care, but that flexibility is now gone. Long-time administrative staff have left as well, according to the former employee.
"You couldn't get off to pick up your kids and come back and finish work or start early or anything like that anymore. And they really came down on the staff," the former staffer told Chron.
Jim Suydam, Executive Director of Media Relations for the Texas A&M System, reiterated to Chron that the changes put the University in compliance with state law and in position to adopt the standards set by the system.
"Texas A&M-Victoria's transition into The Texas A&M University System has resulted in the university adopting A&M System standards. That is, in fact, what happens when a university joins a new system," Suydam told Chron.
The employee, who retired over the changes after working at the University for 20 years, says the University's big appeal to talented professors and teachers was its flexibility. Especially at the graduate level, where students mainly attend online classes.
"All the programs were built on getting professional people to take classes online," the former employee told Chron. "That's the only way, it's a commuter campus. So to insist that everybody comes to campus, that that's for the babies [freshmen, sophomores]."
According to the former staffer and the University's website, online graduate programs have been a big attraction for the University since before the A&M System takeover in 2025. In 2023, the University was named the top school for online master's degrees in data science by OnlineMastersDegrees.org. The University offers over 55 fully online graduate programs across the College of Business, College of Education and Health Professions, College of Natural and Applied Science, and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
"You can live where you're living because all the graduate programs, they're all online," the former University staffer told Chron. "All those programs are online. So why the hell should the instructors be in there? The students aren't coming."
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In the 2024-2025 school year the total enrollment for the University was 3,586 students (2,627 undergraduate and 959 graduate students) with 1,970 students enrolled in online only exclusive degree programs and 1,279 enrolled in "some" online courses.
