Monday, April 27, 2015

LETTER FROM A CONCERNED TSC SUPPORTER

Dear Texas Southmot College Board of Trustees,

Word continues to be heard coming out of Texas Southmost College staff  that our community college's accreditation problems are serious.
The word on the campus is that the visit from the Accreditation Committee of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges earlier this month did not go well, similar to the accreditation submissions sent thus far to SACS.
It appears that wishful thinking may be the basis for expecting TSC independent accreditation in 2015. So, one would think an accreditation status report would have been a board meeting agenda item every month since fall 2013 and will be from now on so that the community is not surprised later and there is a trail of accountability.
I understand 2014-2015 was, in fact, a counting year for TSC state funding and the college made a minimal to zero effort to increase enrollment during that period.
To date no obvious effort is being made to increase enrollment for fall 2015.
No student recruitment is the apparent policy at TSC, so one wonders what the plan is for paying the bills when UTRGV stops lease payments. I am hearing that currently TSC is depending on lease money to balance the budget and, if that is true, what's the plan when that income dries up? Obviously, offsetting some costs by building enrollment is not of interest to TSC administration. Dipping into the fund reserve to balance the budget is not good business, raising taxes is not a good alternative and you can forget passing a bond.
 I guess that leaves the tooth fairy.
And what if the University of Texas System decides tomorrow to shed the REK Center, pay off what is owed and leaves it to TSC?
 My guess is TSC will be buying plywood to board it up because the college likely could not afford to open the REC doors again. Right now the former Newman Center and the former UTB/TSC Student Affairs building across the street as well as Tandy Hall may as well be boarded up.
 Two are vacant and Tandy could easily be vacated by the few folks there who are requiring the building be lit, cooled, cleaned, etc.
I do not see the big picture or have access to information you do as TSC Board members.
So, without facts I may only observe and speculate.
 Unfortunately, I am beginning to think things are falling into place for the demise of TSC. Once UTRGV settles in, my guess is we are heading toward the RGV (or South Texas) Community College System.
 After all, TSC accreditation will still be pending, enrollment growth will primarily be in Dual Enrollment students and finances may likely be too weak to sustain operations.
TSC will continue to have excess real estate that the UT System will be happy to take over for a price. That trade would give the balance of the TSC Fort Brown Campus holdings to the UT System and leave ITECC as the Brownsville branch of the South Texas (or RGV) Community College System. Funds from that trade will upgrade ITECC.
State legislators will be pleased to close TSTC and TSC consolidating them with STC. The UT System will be pleased to then have a strong feeder in Brownsville not unlike STC currently is for the UTRGV Edinburg Campus.
If TSC continues to stumble the forgoing may be the better option so that youth and adults in the Lower Rio Grande Valley have community college opportunities available to them.
Someone needs to lead.
Thank you for your ongoing work to ensure TSC is rebuilt into a strong, free standing institution serving Brownsville and neighboring communities.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stunning. If this develops as the writer thinks it might, Brownsville incompetence and greed will have lost two higher education institutions headquartered here. Corruption matters, and it has its costs.

Anonymous said...

"That trade would give the balance of the TSC Fort Brown Campus holdings to the UT System and leave ITECC as the Brownsville branch of the South Texas (or RGV) Community College System. Funds from that trade will upgrade ITECC." Exactly my $.02 3-5 years ago or whenever the great trial and tribulations (grand divorce) were taking place. Leave the crumbling high maintenance campus behind, sell to or lease to UT, and consolidate in ITEEC, saving millions of $$$$$, meanwhile offering initially college remedial classes and tech programs, then expanding gen ed courses. Now STC will be picking up the pieces.

Anonymous said...

"The Partnership"? Aunt Jamima's monumental con-operation of criminal minds as seen in TV .

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile what are the "trustees" saying????
LOL?????

Anonymous said...

I thought it would take 5 years for TSC to shut down. Now it looks more like 3.

Anonymous said...

The quality of students and the quality of instruction is in free fall at TSC. I taught at TSC/UTB and TSC and I know whereof I speak.

The accreditation problems are real as administrators fail to put in place the necessary pieces and people needed.

Brownsville desperately need a quality community college, but TSC is not it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Kiko, Ed, Ray and Art. All are in it for the money and this board is more concerned as to which contract is comming up to line their pockets than to protect the intrests of TSC. Ray just called in his favors from Art, Ed and Kiko and had his cousin chosen at a very high price to become a lobbyist for TSC. Quid Pro Quo Ray, you read the Proclamation given to Tercero and your cousin can get that contract.
Art is a kiss ass who agrees with everything Tercero says and Ed is an idiot with an education following Kiko run this once prestigious institution to the ground.
Adela has more balls than all these four clowns.
Tercero wants to raise taxes so that the spending can continue but Kiko will have non of that untill past the election. He nor Ed will be around past elections to pull this off. There are two candidates already working a grassroots aproach to correct the damage done.

Anonymous said...

The faster tsc closes, the faster a real university can move in. Best case scenario is utrgv completely takes over the whole campus. If not, possibly Texas A&M . It worked in Kingsville it can work here. Main problem is the poor quality of "graduates" that the piss poor BISD produces. The RGV can not attract outsider students because it is such a crap place to live.

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when too much testosterone, whipped up by insane bloggers, gets its way. Cigarroa and the UT System literally got down on it hands and knees to preserve the partnership and was prepared to make the necessary adjustments to enable TSC to better fulfill the role of a community college. But noooo..., the machos had to have their way. No thought or analysis was made of the consequences and the chest puffing rhetoric won the day. This is on you hands Kiko, Rene and the rest of the pendejos who voted to dissolve the partnership.

Anonymous said...

April 28, 2015 at 4:05 PM Anonymous said..

Can you NAME another university and junior college anywhere in the United States that has a similar "partnership"? What is the success rate of such a partnership if it exists.
The separation of the Junior College and the University was a good thing. The "bad"thing was that the people handling the Junior College accreditation DO NOT KNOW how to handle such accreditation.
TSC, the old TSC was an accredited Junior College because the people that handled the Junior College KNEW what they were doing, were willing to invest in programs and advertising (what places like Kaplan and STVT do). I would advise Tercero to hire two or three deans of instruction that have PhD's and work for BISD and have worked on SACS accreditation (something that probably the people doing it at TSC right now have never done)but they dont want to spend or invest and they get what they pay for.

Anonymous said...

Adele has balls? Where ? She is on the tit too .

Anonymous said...

Who needs PHD's to teach welding? Screw the accreditors an their PHD academic mafia. They just don't get it. Just give us welders, mechanics, IT techs. We don't need PHD's for a work force we so desperately need for economic development. Nor do we need juliet Garcia, Irv Downing, nor other freeloaders.

Anonymous said...

I do not think Adela has gotten a contract for her cousin just yet like Ray Garcia (Mr. Rightious) has. Let me double check.

Anonymous said...

If Mr. Righteous had a brain inside his cranium-skull he'd be dangerous to Humanity.

Anonymous said...

Kiko's friends are looking for him to return some Rolex watched that they claim he has. They seem pretty upset.

Anonymous said...

All I know is that 80% of TSC's buildings are vacant while UTB students, staff, and faculty are suffering a mass shortage of classroom and parking availability. Yet, when the topic of leasing buildings comes up, TSC seems quite reluctant to lease them despite the fact that they know they need the funds. Taxpayer money is paying for TSC's empty buildings and pothole-filled parking lots... meanwhile the quality of education has stifled for the UTB student , staff, and faculty body because of this stupid political game.

rita