The Texas Legislature has extended a $100 million loan to the University of Texas at Brownsville to tide it over from its recent separation and future divorce from Cash Cow Texas Southmost College.
That doesn't mean, however, that the UTB won't keep receiving its annual $50 million "transfer" from the community college as per the pre-nuptial agreement in its "partnership." This is just some pocket change for President Juliet Garcia and her administration to build new classrooms, a music instruction center, an IT center, and a few other tidbits.
Claiming penury after the separation form Moneybags TSC, the UTB pleaded with local legislative representatives to float it a small loan so it could make ends meet.
The legislature, through the good offices of Rep. Rene Oliveira, instead of floating it the $150 million in tuition-revenue bonds it wanted, authorized $100 million in bonds instead.This is the second prestamito that the UTB has acquired from the legislature. The last one was in 2006 when it was loaned $34 million to build the biomed research center on the TSC campus.
A tuition-revenue bond is not an "infusion," of that amount of money as the local daily would have one believe. It is no more and no less a loan to be repaid to the state.
And how is that prestamito to be repaid?
There's the rub. The money will have to be paid from the tuition payments students make to attend classes there. Now, with the "infusion" of yet another $100 million, that means that there's no hope that tuition at the UTB will decrease in the near future. Instead, with the UTB set to build at least part of its new downtown campus, it means that its administration will probably have to go to the legislature asking to raise it to cover the deudita.
Contrast that with TSC. Even though the terms of the "partnership" agreement means it has to fork out the $50 million for two more years until the final split in 2015, the trustees have already approved a tuition decrease for community college students starting this August. That decrease amounts to about one-third of what UTB is currently charging its students since under the "partnership" university and community college students paid exactly the same amount of tuition and fees. The decrease means that TSC students as early as this August will pay $1,000 less per semester in tuition and fees.
"Think of is as a $1,000 scholarship for our students," said a TSC supporter. "Over a year, that could amount to $3,000 to $4,000 in lower costs for local students."
Except for the establishment of a new UT System medical school at McAllen and Harlingen, the consolidation of the UTB and PanAm universities basically returns the Brownsville campus to the same satellite status it had before the "partnership" formed 22 years ago in 1991. The only difference now is that UT will pay its own bills and TSC will return to its mission as a community college and its won't have to subsidize the UT System.
In a roundabout way, the 22-year honeymoon for the UT System to pay its own way and depend on the TSC taxpayers to fund its construction and incur debt, returns us to square one. However, there are a few small matters yet to be decided in divorce court. There is, for example, rent arrears of some $12 million that UTB owes TSC for hanging out on its crib and which it claims it does not have.
Which leads some TSC supporters to cry out: "Que salga! No paga renta!"
13 comments:
Yea, they lowered the tuition but the fees for this that and the other have to be looked at. They are ridiculous! I think they are making up the difffrence they are "saving" on the tuition with the fees!
An "education" from a junior college is worthless. It's just another way to keep the Mexican down. pendejos!
Have you compared the fees of UT and TSC, or are you talking out of you're ass??????
utb should not lower tuition. as the lowest charging branch of the ut system, perhaps it should raise tuition. the injustice was that tsc students had to pay the same tuition. now that they are separate, tsc should go down, and utb should go up.
as for the fees, maybe tsc should sell off the rek center and music hall. typically, junior colleges do not have such amenities. most jc students are non traditional (old), and do not care for such amenities, if they have to pay extra for them. let utb take over these functions, charging the utb students mandatory fees to cover their costs, while perhaps giving the jc students the option to pay to use these facilities, if they so choose.
Juan, I thought TSC won't be paying UTB anything next year. Check to make sure.
All great journeys begin with a single step.
It is $1000 less for tuition and fees for 15 hours at tsc than it is for 15 hours at UTB.
If the legislature doesn't appropriate funding for new UTB buildings (rather than a 'loan') then (what is currently) UTB will basically cease to exist as we know it (which it may do anyway).
I sincerely want both institutions to prosper and do well for the benefit of our students and our entire community. The registration for fall classes started at TSC this week, and I am afraid that some students are going to be allowed to set themselves up for failure. I say this because many, many of the students were approved by the registration administrators to register for classes without having taken courses that were pre-requisits for the course they registered for, or they were registering for courses while having to take developmental college ready classes for that subject . This could be a design for failure, an we don't need that.
http://www.businessinsider.com/kyle-bass-macro-tourist-2013-5
The University of Texas blows $300 million on irresponsible gold speculation, but is still worth 30 billion dollars. Are they bankers or educators ? What they hell are they doing hoarding all that gold and cash, while charging such high tuition rates ?
This is morally wrong.
It does not matter how much you pay for it , it still is a crap education from Tamalie Tec. tsc will have a forsale sign on international blvd. In a couple of years. UTB will be patent and purchase the whole campus for pennys. Thanks kiko. People who have a clue know you and trey are working undercover for UT. That's ok with me.
The UT tsc break up is the best thing that ever happened to The UT system. UT realized they made a massive mistake in investing in tsc and they have corrected it after finally realizing they could not drag tsc up to their high standards. A tsc education is once again WORTHLESS in less you are going to go work for bisd or Chili's.
Speaking of the separation....TSC should take this opportunity to change their grammatically incorrect name to the correct Texas Southernmost College. How ironic for an educational institution to have a grammatically incorrect name.
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