Coming on the heels of getting stiffed by the Texas Legislature for the little $100 million in tuition revenue bonds, the administration at the University of Texas-Brownsville is asking its instructors to "be creative" in finding a place with shade to hold their student office hours.
We knew they were broke, but this broke?
In a rare revelation about the inner workings of the Julieta Garcia empire, the Brownsville Herald today published the contents of an email she sent professors and instructors asking them to box up their stuff, lock the doors and hand in their keys to campus police. In other words, vacate the premises pronto, mister.If push comes to shove about finding a place to meet with their students, she states that "I've hear departments are beginning to think very creatively about meeting in outdoor (shades) spaces."
We can just see it now. Education department instructors will stake out the gazebo next to the tennis courts. Business guys will crowd into the McDonalds. And the Life an Health Sciences people will stake out a spot in the old amphitheater next to Ft. Brown Resaca.
Not to be outdone, some rogue instructors will displace some of the homeless panhandlers who hang out under the overpass at US 77 and International. Next thing we know there will be someone holding office hours and hanging out with the winos at Hope Park.
How low we have fallen, indeed. Those cold-hearted legislators better get on the ball before classroomless profs and students spill over into the city and compete with the Market Square regulars for their favorite places to panhandle.
8 comments:
I am no fan of Juliet Garcia, but this mess is not about money or the lack thereof. It is about the giant cluster fuck between UTB and TSC over who goes where, when and how in September. They still have no agreement and time has all but run out. Who buys what, trades what or rents what is a big unknown. Where will the two faculties and administrators locate is also a unknown. The students? Screw em, they are collateral damage or so it would seem.
They should meet under an apple tree so a UTB professor can discover gravity.
Don't the trees belong to TSC too?
I heard they were going to rename the university to UT Been (as in has)
So where are they going to hold classes next semester? Is it true UTBeen is going to only have 3,000 students? Students better hurry up and go to TSC or miss out.
Trees for the faculty.
$200,000 to decorate new office for La Presidente.
That's fair.
No wonder she's so popular.
Business guys have more class than you give us credit for. We would hang out at Burger King and the wifi is a little faster.
I have the suspicion that (after seeing projected enrollment numbers) the UT system and legislature are afraid spending large amounts of money on what may a failing institution/campus. I suspect UTB will end up being a small branch campus of the new institution (merged with UTPA). With more than 1 campus is will be very easy to simply cancel classes or even programs in Brownsville that don't have enough students (or for any other reason).
Juliet and I were on the faculty together. I've known her for longer than that and I have always marvelled how far she has gotten with so little talent or intelligence. Now I wonder just how far down she can drive UTB before it just disappears. The TSC board has saved TSC from the sinking ship just in time. I guess you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool mother nature. If she is the best this town has to offer that explains this town.
She reinvented herself. Bravo Julieta, bravo!
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