EXODUS! MOVEMENT OF JULIET GARCIA-DR. ROBERT ROBLES PEOPLE ALREADY UNDER WAY?

By Juan Montoya
Well, we can't say that Dr. Robert Robles, local super-duper heart surgeon, fine arts patron, up-from-the -bootstraps barrio phenom, and also Texas Southmost College trustee didn't warn us about it.
He has gone around the TSC college district (Los Fresnos, Port Isabel, the Brownsville service clubs, etc.) shouting for all to hear that doom will befall us if we don't allow the UT System to swallow up the TSC community college district, give UT all its assets, and give a peripheral role of the management of said institution to a "partnership" controlled by the UT System.
Uh?
Oh, yeah. Rumor has it that the residence above belonged to a high-level academic who feared what the future would hold if the obstinate majority on the TSC board doesn't listen to Juliet or el dotorcito Robles.
His followers and cadre of campaign workers has been spreading the word ( a la Egypt through Facebook, emails, and full-page newspaper ads) that taxes for TSC residents will increase by 75 percent (or maybe even triple) if we allow the four trustees on the TSC board (Trey Mendez, Kiki Rendon, Adela Garza, and Rene Torres) to stick in their provincial thinking and refuse to wrap-and-ribbon the district and all its assets and present it on a silver tray for UTB's president Juliet Garcia.
The fear-mongering spiel goes like this:
"Option Two would require the separation of UTB and TSC. TSC, which is not currently accredited as a stand alone junior college, would have to begin a 3-4 year accreditation process. TSC would be forced to hire administrators, faculty and staff to run the junior college. TSC would be responsible for the maintenance and repair of all of their buildings, as well as the cost of providing electrical and water service to those buildings. At a minimum, TSC would have to raise taxes 75% and possibly triple taxes."
Guess what children?
While it is true that TSC gave up its accreditation to become a partnership with the UT System, UTB on its own is not accredited either. So while it may take TSC two to three to regain its accreditation, it would take UTB infinitely more time because it does not have the 200-acre real estate required for it to be accredited in the first place. Actually, its real-estate holdings are more like 88.5 acres.
Now, why isn't the good doctor being fair about his presentation and analysis? Why is he and others being so obdurate in their approach to selling this indefensible proposal for a partnership? Someone ask them, please.
Ditto with the UT system's first option. It is also intellectually and academically dishonest when it presents the famed Option One that they say "would unify UTB and TSC into a single community university. The TSC property tax would be immediately reduced two-thirds. After the bond debt is retired, the tax would be eliminated completely. This single entity would continue the junior college mission of open enrollment, vocational, occupational and continuing education programs. UTB would be responsible for maintenance and repair of all the buildings. Tuition would be reduced for all remedial, vocational, occupational and continuing education classes."
Hold it there, podner. In fact, tuition would only be reduced for certain UTB degree plans. Only a 100 to 200 of post-partnertship UTB's projected 4,000 students would qualify for the lower tuition while all 4,700 TSC students would pay lower tuition and student fee rates.
The fact also remains that the UT System would not immediately unify with the TSC district and UTB, but only until the debts owed by the district are paid. Now, let's see. We still owe some $65 million for the next 20 years that with interests and other charges will probably total some $102 million before they're paid in 2034.
Only then, and only until then, would the district finally be "united" with UTB.
Meanwhile, the district will continue to exist as a taxing entity bringing in the UT System an annual $15 million, and UTB would conveniently "forget" about the $15 million in rent arrears it owes to one of the poorest communities in the country. To be fair, UT negotiators did introduce a new wrinkle to the scheme. They want the county to collect the debt for the district, dissolve it, and once the debt is paid, the college district residents end up with nothing, nada, zilch for their troubles.
As for open enrollment, only TSC can provide that. All other UT System components require that the student meet academic requirements and pay top dollar before they can enter. Without TSC in its "partnership" UTB cannot offer that inducement. Can you guess who will be hurting more for students once the separation is complete and TSC returns to being what it was before it became the recipient of the UT System's largess? Will it be TSC's community college mission?
Au contraire, ma cherie, says TSc chairman Kiko Rendon. In an analysis he had prepared envisioning the separation, it was found that the board could reduce TSC tuition by 15 percent without raising property taxes once the dissolution of the partnership occurs.
Now, last Thursday, when UT System negotiators met with TSC representatives, they agreed that if a separation does occur, the student distribution would be something like 53 percent for TSC while the remaining 47 would go to UTB.
"We don't know what surprises the state is going to pull on us in the next few years so we can't predict that far," he said. "We do know that the board will be able to fulfill the community college mission that the voters entrusted us to fulfill."
So faculty, and poverty-stricken residents, before you call Betancourt or Castillo Movers to lift up the homestead and pull up stakes, look at the real numbers. We'd love to continue having you around. Hear that, neighbor?