UTB-TSC: THE TOWER OF BABBLE

By Juan Montoya

First it was a three-quarter page ad in Sunday's Brownsville Herald of 12-year incumbent Rosemary Breedlove where she unveils the catch-phrase "community university."
Then, in a free half-page editorial in Wednesday's paper, Texas Southmost College board of trustees president David Oliveira continued the UTB-TSC frontal assault on college critics and supporters of Breedlove's opponent Kiko Rendon's criticism of the high tuition rate and climbing taxes costs.
Using selective numbers, Oliveira countered critics who said their actual outlays in cash because of yearly increases in the appraisal of their properties meant that regardless of the claims by UTB-TSC administrators,rendered the claims of lower taxes meaningless.
Then, in a rambling posting by Tony Zavaleta on the local blog El Rocinante, he tears into Fred Drew's Monday editorial where he lays bare the UTB-TSC emperor's new clothes with simple elegance and down-to-earth logic.
The full-court press in this runoff election between Breedlove and Rendon indicates to most observers that the administration feels threatened by Rendon's candidacy and is using all the weapons in its political arsenal to salvage the Breedlove candidacy.
We are told again that UTB-TSC and UT-Pan Am have the lowest tuition in the UT-System. What he doesn't address is the irrefutable fact that TSC students pay the highest tuition and fees of all community colleges in the entire State of Texas. In other words, his claim to lower rates is an apple to oranges comparison that makes UTB-TSC look good in comparison to places like Austin and El Paso.
The only difference is that UT built those campuses. In our case, we are renting them to the UT Sytem and the trustees - David Oliveira included - have allowed the UT System to fall more than $10 million behind in rent. The UT System claims penury and wants to work out a deal instead of paying, while the Legislature claims its running a deficit and can't pay.
Regardless of who's claiming what, the local taxpayer is still left holding the bag.
Oliveira goes on to say that the result of this "partnership" has meant "excellent teachers in local schools."
Perhaps then he can explain how it is that of 2,060 new students admitted to the institution, almost half, or 775 had deficiencies in math or writing.
Does that mean that all those "excellent teachers" who graduated from UTB-TSC and then went on to teach at local schools didn't receive such "excellent" training there as Oliveira claims? Those students that got sent to the remedial classes spend their grants, financial aid and their own money to attend the courses. By the time they finish - if they don't get discouraged and drop out - it may be six years before they get a four-year degree and are loaded with debt.
And he doesn't even address the findings by the Education Trust that in a study of UTB-TSC students in the six years preceding 2007, UTB-TSC achieved a less than "excellent" 16 percent graduation rate.
There has been some tweaking and refining of the administration's media blitz to counter the anti-Breedlove forces. In her Sunday ad, Breedlove said that because of the endless sources of financial assistance available to local students, most paid less than $200 out-of-pocket a year for tuition and fees.
This assertion was obviously too much of a whopper for even the most gullible to believe. In Oliveira's Wednesday epic, that number had risen to $400. Will it increase in the next editorial or ad?
He then goes on to claim that the "trustees spend more than $3.2 million of tax revenue to lower the tuition costs for in-district students."
Ah, were that only true!
The sad reality is that trustees voted in 2007 to do away with "in-district" tuition rates for local students at the community college and used the $3.2 million generated by charging them rates equal to those charged to university students. That sum was then use to issue scholarships to individuals selectively. In other words, these scholarships to both TSC and UTB students are really being financed by increasing the cost to TSC students by 39 percent.
Both Breedlove and Oliveira end their fairy tales by urging local voters "to move forward, not backwards."
But what was wrong with having a top-notch community college that served all our students and gave everyone an affordable educational opportunity to attend without having to sell the family farm?
Are high tuition and fees the the price we pay to have the UTB-TSC teams sport burnt orange uniforms. We are all too familiar with what other substance has the same color, aren't we?