Professor Joy Alonzo, an esteemed opioid expert, was suspended and censured by Texas A&M after a student said she criticized lieutenant governor Dan Patrick during a lecture. Patrick has his own scandal to worry about, so you'd think he would be busy.
Just a few hours later, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo's job was suddenly at risk.
The Texas Tribune reports:
Alonzo was right to be afraid. Not only were her supervisors involved, but so was Chancellor John Sharp, a former state comptroller who now holds the highest-ranking position in the Texas A&M University System, which includes 11 public universities and 153,000 students. And Sharp was communicating directly with the lieutenant governor's office about the incident, promising swift action.
Less than two hours after the lecture ended, Patrick's chief of staff had sent Sharp a link to Alonzo's professional bio.
Shortly after, Sharp sent a text directly to the lieutenant governor: "Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week."
The text message was signed "jsharp."
According to the outlet, the investigation was kicked off by a student "who has ties to Texas A&M Leadership."
A few hours after Texas A&M started looking into the complaint, course leaders at UTMB sent an email to students in the class saying Alonzo’s comments “about Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and his role in the opioid crisis” did not represent the opinion of the university.
All this has done is make people curious about Patrick's role in the opioid crisis. If you Google it, the results return to outlets covering this story. That's quite a self-own. Texas A&M allowed Alonzo to keep her job after an internal investigation could not confirm any wrongdoing on her part.
