Howdy and welcome to the website alliancefortamu.org. The original purpose of this website was to collect in a convenient location, for the benefit of Former Students of Texas A&M University and others, information relating to the highly publicized proposal known as “The Seven Breakthrough Solutions.”
The Seven Breakthrough Solutions were introduced to the six sets of higher education Regents at a Higher Education Summit held on May 21, 2008. Details of the topics covered at the summit can be found at http://www.texaspolicy.com/pdf/2008-05-21-HigherEdSummit2.pdf. Since the Summit, various efforts were made to implement some of the seven solutions at Texas A&M University. The links on this website provide the story of these public and private efforts.
As a result of the negative attention drawn to the efforts to implement the Solutions at Texas A&M University, the Regents of The Texas A&M University System have disavowed the Solutions. While pleased with this development, we remain concerned that actions equivalent to the Solutions implementation might reappear in the future. The broader issue of inappropriate political interventions in our university remains an ongoing concern.
We continue to believe the Solutions proposal and its seven parts are a tangible example of a series of inappropriate political interventions causing damage to a university that has served, in an exceptional fashion, generations of Texans. Texas A&M University is a precious resource for the citizens of Texas. Its quality and ability to serve the state need to be enhanced, not diminished.
On this site we have collected a large number of recent articles, op-ed’s and editorials that have been published as a consequence of the Solutions proposal. Even though we believe this proposal is the wrong solution, we have tried to include links to information provided by their supporters. In addition, we have provided links to articles that relate to the governance of Texas A&M University. The governance, broadly speaking, concerns the activities of the Board of Regents, the system administration and the university administration. The primary focus of the governance links are to articles which we believe report on activities that are harmful to the long term quality of Texas A&M University. While we feel these articles characterize a serious problem, we welcome links to articles that take a different position.
The articles are somewhat arbitrarily divided into
- Articles relating to the governance of Texas A&M University.
- Articles relating to Texas A&M and The Seven Break Through Solutions
- Articles relating to the University of Texas and The Seven Break Through Solutions
- Op-Eds, Editorials, Blogs, Statement by the Governor and Legislative Actions that relate to Texas A&M University, its governance and higher education in Texas
As more individuals and groups have engaged the debate surrounding the Solutions proposal and other governance issues, we have included on this site faculty resolutions, letters from former students, faculty and others as well as videos and other relevant information.
In response to the perceived harm to our universities, the Texas legislature created the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence, and Transparency. This joint committee is co-chaired by Senator Judith Zaffirini of Laredo and Representative Dan Branch of Dallas. Information about the activities of this legislative committee can be found on this website at
A group that has recently formed out of concern for the future of higher education in Texas is the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education. Information about this coalition can be found at www.texaseducationexcellence.org. Articles about the activities of this coalition are collected on this website at
We call on all members of the Aggie community to familiarize themselves with the Solutions proposal and the surrounding issues. We encourage each of you to make a judgment as to whether or not the current governance practices, as illustrated by the Solutions proposal, will continue the development of Texas A&M University into an even greater public university. Will they cause greater value to be added to the lives of the graduates of Texas A&M University?
Site email address: letters@alliancefortamu.org