Welsh pressed the board to pay out his full contract.

Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

When former Texas A&M University president Mark Welsh stepped down suddenly in September amid a swirling academic freedom controversy, he received an exit package of more than $3.5 million, according to public records obtained by The Texas Tribune .

Welsh, who became president in 2023 after his predecessor, Kathy Banks, stepped down following a controversy of her own, pressed the Texas A&M System Board of Trustees to pay out the remainder of his contract through December 2028, according to recently unearthed records. He earned a $1.1 million base salary with annual retention and housing bonuses of $150,000 each.

Welsh was one of several Texas A&M employees felled by controversy a

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