HOUSTON (AP) — The president of Texas A&M University, roiled by an online video of a confrontation between a student and professor in a class that discussed gender, said Friday that now is the time to leave, but he did not offer a specific reason.

Mark A. Welsh III and the school had faced political pressure and criticism, including from the governor, after the video was posted on social media. Colleges and universities around the country have been weathering controversies over gender identity, sexual preference and diversity, issues derided as part of a “woke” agenda.

“When I was first appointed as President of Texas A&M University, I told then Chancellor John Sharp and our Board of Regents that I would serve as well as I possibly could until it was time for someone else to take over,” Welsh said in a statement issued Friday. “Over the past few days, it’s become clear that now is that time.”

The video was posted last week by Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison and showed a confrontation during a children’s literature course. The professor was later fired after Harrison called the professor’s actions “DEI and LGBTQ indoctrination.”

Welsh’s resignation, announced Thursday by university system leaders, took effect Friday. Texas A&M University said Friday Welsh wouldn’t be granting any interviews.

“Pres. Welsh’s decision to resign comes at a critical moment, and we agree with him that now is the right time for change in leadership,” Robert Albritton, chair of the board of regents, said in a statement.

When Welsh departed the administration building Friday, he was met by hundreds of cheering students, faculty and others as he and his wife Betty left the campus.

On Wednesday, a group of current and former student leaders praised Welsh in a letter to university system leaders.

“We stand united in support of his leadership, committed to working alongside him,” the letter said.

But Welsh had lost the support of many students and faculty over firing the professor, Melissa McCoul, said Leonard Bright, a professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.

“I think we all wish that he would have recognized that capitulating to these political requests was never going to end well for him,” said Bright, interim president of the American Association of University Professors A&M chapter.

The video was taken by a student heard debating with McCoul about gender identity. The student said those discussions in class were illegal because of President Donald Trump’s executive order that recognizes two genders and that the topic was against her religious beliefs.

Welsh has been a general in the U.S. Air Force and a dean of A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.

When Welsh was interim president in August 2023, he issued a statement strongly defending academic freedom at A&M. A&M had faced fallout when it backtracked on hiring a veteran journalist to reboot its journalism school after a conservative website criticized her research on race and diversity. The university was also criticized for suspending another professor after a student accused her of speaking unfavorably about the lieutenant governor during a lecture about the opioid crisis.

“We must foster an academic community that engages in meaningful, respectful dialogue around controversial issues and competing ideas,” Welsh had said.

While A&M is considered to be a very conservative university, Bright said many of his conservative students “want to know the other arguments,” and the university has a responsibility to teach all students “in ways that expands them, that inoculates them against misinformation.” But Welsh was unable to “stay committed” to defending academic freedom, he said.

The Texas A&M University System on Friday provided to The Associated Press a copy of Welsh’s three-paragraph resignation letter. It also did not explain Welsh’s resignation.

A new Texas law forbids K-12 schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity. The law does not apply to institutions of higher education.

Texas A&M is in College Station, about 95 miles (153 kilometers) northwest of Houston. A&M is one of the largest public universities in the country, with more than 70,000 students at its main campus.

Various universities and their presidents around the country, including Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Virginia, have come under increased scrutiny this year from conservative critics and the Trump administration over diversity, equity and inclusion practices and the schools’ responses to campus protests.

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