A BROWNSVILLE ACADEMIC WEIGHS IN ON UTB TSC SPLIT

By Dr. Baltazar Acevedo y Arispe Jr.

BROWNSVILLE, Sept. 12 - Before there were any community colleges in Texas, there was Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, which was founded in 1926 under the name, The Junior College of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
For the past 20 years, Texas Southmost College has been engaged in a “partnership” with the University of Texas at Brownsville. Due to conflicting roles and scope, and other issues, this partnership will cease in 2015.

Deep South Texas needs an outstanding community college with a mission to provide its students and taxpayers, with economic and workforce training to prepare them for gainful employment. If I have learned anything, in my 45 years as an educator, it is that a community college education and training should have two tangible outcomes for its participants: employability and readiness to transfer to a senior institution if such is the objective.

It is my observation that the "old" University of Texas Brownsville/Texas Southmost College partnership spent too much time, financial resources and energy on creating programs and purchasing properties that have yet to demonstrate the cost effectiveness that our harsh economic times demand.

While the legislators that helped guide the legislation, creating the University of Texas at Brownsville, may claim otherwise; no one has produced data on how many of its graduates enter the workforce through the assumption of gainful employment; long term with benefits. Has this partnership demonstrated outcomes for being cost effective and returning a significant return on investment to the taxpayers of south Texas and the balance of the state?
A good example of such an initiative is a center at the University of Texas at Brownsville that conducts research on Black Holes and other celestial events; good to know but I am not yet convinced that knowing that a star's light is a billion years old will feed, cloth and shelter many of the disenfranchised residents of deep south Texas.

I may be accused of being anti-science but I would rather be known for being ant-poverty and anti-hunger. This center has not demonstrated a remarkable track record of graduates that are entering the workforce. While its research may be valid; it is a costly proposition in a region that needs to prepare individuals for the workforce.

I appreciate research, I am a researcher who studies the human condition, but attending to the issues of underemployment, unemployability and unemployment is more pressing in this region. There are other similar curricula on the ledger of the old UTB-TSC enterprise.
It is important to take notice of the fact that between 70 percent to nearly 80 percent of the students of the present UTB-TSC are graduates of the Brownsville Independent School District and from 40% to 60% of those are in need of immediate remediation upon enrollment. The “old” UTBTSC chose to be Brownsville’s higher education institution and never saw a need to assume a regional mission.

With the inception of the University Center at Texas State Technical College in Harlingen, the reconstituted UTB will have to compete in a game that its cadre of leaders has not played in before. As recently reported, in the Rio Grande Guardian of September 7, there is now a significant number post-secondary education institutions, nine, inclusive of UTB at the Harlingen University Center. Mayor Chris Boswell of Harlingen will affirm this fact with enthusiasm, as he should. These institutions are here to compete for the same students that the University of Texas at Brownsville will have to recruit, retain, educate and graduate.
In reality, the new University of Texas at Brownsville must prove its relevancy and necessity to exist.

The old partnership was more about meeting political and social agendas and buying land than fully implementing a regional educational/training and economic development agenda. The one critical oversight of the old UTB-TSC board and administration was its failure to fully engage its constituencies in the region beyond the northern city limits of Brownsville. The one means to convey a continuing commitment to regional engagement is to review the recently approved mission statement by the UT System and Board of Regents for the new University of Texas at Brownsville. It is one that is filled with much jargon but conveys no expected outcomes.

One cannot help but be reminded of a committee of regents working with Moses to draft the Ten Commandments or mission statement for the Children of Israel.
I propose, as a resident of Brownsville, that the following mission statement be considered because it conveys tangible outcomes. The proposed mission statement reads as such, “The University of Texas at Brownsville will prepare its regional constituencies to assume sustainable economic and social roles that have a positive impact on the quality of life of south Texas and our global community."
This statement, I believe, states what taxpayers and participants in the university community should expect of its service provider, the University of Texas at Brownsville.
The playing field, for implementing a revised mission, is now more expansive and certainly not a level one. There are several questions that the UT System has not addressed to south Texans, during the transition that is occurring in higher education in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Of concern here is whether the role and scope that has been set for the reconstituted UT Brownsville is in sync with the needs of this transborder region.
Secondly, it appears that the administration of UT Brownsville will move forward with no precursor expectations or realistic assessment that it has the right mix of professional educators who possess the appropriate mix of demonstrated assets and experience that this region requires for a great university to both competitive and sustainable. This is not the same landscape that was evident in 1990 and simply rearranging the deck chairs will not bode well for the University of Texas at Brownsville.
Both the designated service area for the University of Texas at Brownsville and the taxing district for Texas Southmost College extend to Port Isabel and as far north as Willacy County, inclusive of Harlingen.
The newly constructed higher education center at Texas State Technical College should have been a Harlingen based initiative of UTB-TSC but instead its board and administration decided to invest millions of dollars on a white elephant that was Amigoland mall. Nearly $17 million, beyond the $15 million plus purchase price, has been invested in upgrading the mall, which on any day is rather empty.
Unfortunately, it seems that under the ongoing negotiations that the community college will inherit this albatross. However, the Economic Development Corporation of Harlingen, its city government and the administration of Texas State Technical College did what was necessary to fill a much-needed gap. Their efforts should be applauded as they move forward to expand accessibility to higher education in deep South Texas.
If anything, it would be wise for the new University of Texas at Brownsville to consider relocating as far as possible from the enclave it built in downtown Brownsville and maybe build on land near Olmito. It also needs to expand its revenue and enrollment stream because its continued reliance on the Brownsville Independent School District is not a good hand of cards to hold if it is to recruit a competitive student body.
The rising Phoenix that is Texas Southmost College needs to have a board that is committed to transparency and accountability and not to patronage and must not oversteps its policy role. This board consists of several well-meaning members that have limited experience in higher education governance.
It is the responsibility of the new president to go about the task of training this board about its role and scope. The holdover board members that were recalcitrant, during the transition debate, need to roll up their sleeves and join in expanding the capacity of the new community college. Their leadership must emerge. The voters of the TSC district also need to be vigilante and assertive in the oversight of this board and its agenda.
Taxpayers should support the Texas Southmost Community College District and its incoming president, Dr. Lilly Tercero. The citizens and Texas Southmost Community College should work on a shared vision that targets utmost success as they collectively undertake the task of rebuilding an institution that was neglected for too long.
I am a taxpayer to this community college district, so I expect a tangible return on my investment. I am hopeful that the incoming Texas Southmost Community College District president has the latitude to hire the best and most qualified faculty and staff to implement its new mission.
Texas Southmost College must reclaim its heritage and continue a legacy that was disrupted by a badly written prenuptial agreement with the University of Texas System. As a proud graduate of the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, I cannot abide by how this higher education system stood in silence and allowed a proud community college to be decimated over a period of twenty years. It failed in its stewardship of the future of its south Texas constituencies.

(Baltazar Acevedo y Arispe, Jr., Ph.D. is a professor of research and leadership at a south Texas university, a former community college president in Houston, Texas and a resident of Brownsville whose taxes support the Texas Southmost Community College District. The views expressed in this article do not reflect those of any educational institution in the state of Texas. This article first appeared in the http://www.riograndeguardian.com/)