TSC BOARD SLASHES TUITION, FEES, BY 35 PERCENT

By Juan Montoya
Promises made. Promises kept.
The trustees of the Texas Southmost College voted unanimously during their meeting Thursday to slash the tuition and fees students pay to attend the community college by 35 percent.
For a normal 12-hour course semester that is currently running at $2,600, this will mean a reduction of almost $1,000, some trustees estimate.
The tuition and fees reduction go into effect in August, when TSC recovers operational control of the college district, another said.
"The cuts in tuition and fees that will go into effect in August will be around 35 percent," said trustee Trey Mendez in an email in response to an inquiry. "They go into effect in August when TSC regains operation control" from the partnership, he wrote.
Trustee Adela Garza, who along withe Mendez, Rene Torres, and Kiko Rendon, faced unrelenting pressure from adherents to the partnership and voted to separate from the UT System rather than donate the entire assets to UTB, said the reductions mean that more local residents will be able to afford to attend the community college without having to pay university-level tuition and fees.
"If you had told me that this was going to be possible just a few short years ago, I would find it hard to believe," she said in a telephone call. "We were under unbelievable pressure to let the college go. Lowering the tuition so more of our residents can attend college makes it all worth it."
Perhaps the lowering of the tuition will seem more satisfying to trustee Mendez, who had to endure a protest led by Fr. Armand Mathew who send him a letter promising to destroy him personally and professionally for supporting the TSC-UTB separation.  Many thought that Mendez would break under the pressure and considered him the weak link that would snap under the umbrage of the Garcia administration and her minions. Not to be. Trey held his ground and can now say that the majority's conviction that higher education should be made affordable for local residents had the support of the people who voted him trustee.
None other than the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board confirmed that the TSC costs were obscenely higher in comparison with 53 other public community colleges in Texas.
In fact, the costs for local students were not only above the state average, but leapfrogging beyond comprehension.
The cost information used by the Coordinating Board is based on average costs for tuition and fees for dependent students living off campus who enroll in 15 credit hours in both fall and spring. TSC's rates were higher than all 53 community colleges surveyed in the state of Texas.
The Coordinating Board said that statewide average for tuition and fees in community colleges was $1,870. In contrast, TSC costs were $5,498.
As far as books and supplies, room and board, transportation and personal expenses, the statewide average per year comes to $13,184.
TSC student had to pay about $19,462.
This was one of the main points that the trustees disputed with the outgoing UTB administration under President Juliet Garcia during the partnership separation debate.
The majority on the board then claimed such incompassionate policies worked to deny access to a large number of local students whose families are struggling to make ends meet while dealing with double-digit unemployment and a depressed economy.
"This is just the beginning," Garza said. "We're looking at the numbers closely and if we have a chance to lower them even more, we will."

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