Could Fayette Co. Judge Be A& M’s Next President?

Fayette County Judge Joe Weber acknowledged last week that his name has been circulated as a possible successor to outgoing Texas A&M President Michael K. Young.

Weber said he was aware of a letter from former Texas Governor Rick Perry to Texas A&M leadership in which Perry calls for Weber to replace Young.

Weber said he has not applied for the job.

“No one from the university has officially contacted me,” he said on Friday.

Weber, who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a three star general in 2008, previously served as Texas A&M’s Vice President of Student Affairs from 2008 to 2014.

Perry and Weber were college classmates at Texas A&M in the early 1970s and have remained friends ever since. The two live next door to each other in Round Top. Another one of their A&M classmates, John Sharp, now serves as Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. The university appointed a committee to seek candidates for a new president. Sharp also hired a private search firm to assist.

Sharp has said he hopes Young’s successor would be in place by June of next year.

Young announced his retirement on Sept. 2 and said he would officially step down May 31, 2021. Texas A&M hired Young as president in 2015. The university purportedly paid him more than $1 million annually.

Young appeared to be on his way out earlier this year. Texas A&M declined to renew his contract when it expired in April. Back in January, the Texas Tribune reported that Young was on the short-list of candidates who applied for the president’s job at the University of Colorado.

Weber told the Record last Friday that he was considered for the A&M presidency in 2014 before the university ultimately picked Young. An article that appeared in the Bryan-College Station Eagle on April 2, 2014 called Weber a “dark horse” candidate for the job.

The Eagle had also interviewed Weber in September 2013, when Weber was still serving as A&M’s Vice President of Student Affairs. In that interview, Weber said, “I’m willing to serve in whatever capacity this university would ask of me, but I have no aspirations, no goals or no objectives for any job other than to come to work and serve the university,”

Weber left A&M in April 2014 to become executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation. He held that post until the end of 2016. He successfully ran for Fayette County Judge in 2018 and took office on Jan. 1, 2019. Present that day for Weber’s swearing-in ceremony were his two old classmates from Texas A&M – Rick Perry and John Sharp.

When the Record spoke with Weber last Friday, he said he was “content” with his job as Fayette County Judge.