THE COUP OF THE TSC BOARD, WHAT AWAITS US?

By Juan Montoya
Even before the meeting Thursday where three two reelected members and a new trustee were sworn in with much fanfare at the Texas Southmost College board , the intrigue behind the scenes points to a four-member majority popping up the Lily Tercero administration.
As the rotations on the board usually work out, members usually are elected as secretary, then vice chair, and – after due seniority – chairman.
By all rights, board watchers say, Adela Garza should have been nominated – and she was, by trustee Trey Mendez – and voted on by the board for chairman. However, before the meeting it had become obvious that there was something afoot involving reelected trustee Ed Rivera, chairman Kiko Rendon, newly-elected trustee Art Rendon, and member Reynaldo Garcia.
When Kiko Rendon opened the floor for nominations, Mendez, who was secretary, nominated Garza, who declined to accept knowing full well the votes were stacked against her. She told the board she had her "hands full," a tacit acknowledgement that taking her of her ailing husband would not permit her the time to dedicate to board matters.
If you were at the meeting or watch on the televised version, That's when Garcia, relying on his notes before him, quickly nominated Kiko to continue as chair, which Rendon quickly accepted and after a unanimous vote he was in.
However, Garcia didn't have time to make the other nomination of Rivera for vice chair because trustee Raymond Hinojosa jumped in quickly and nominated Mendez to vice-chair. Mendez was voted to that position unanimously. Then Garcia, looking something bewildered, nominated Rivera for secretary and the vote went through, also unanimously.
So the new majority – both Rendons, Garcia and Rivera – have now the full control of the TSC board, and it might not be what they had imagined.
Immediately after the vote and perfunctory picture taking, there was report on the status of TSC's accreditation application. What the board heard and what stunned those present, was the slipshod method which the Tercero administration has handled that most critical aspect of college governance.
That process, a reluctant UT System vice president Pedro Reyes told those assembled, had hit s bump in the road. Nothing that can't be fixed, he assured the board, but instead of  getting approval from the accreditation agency this year, it might be as late as December 2015 when it might be issued.
And even then, he and Tercero assured those present, if it took that long, accreditation of course work for students can be back dated to January 2015.
Even though Reyes was obviously reluctant to even touch the subject and attempted to soothe the trustees' worries, others say this is not the first problem TSC has encountered in the process.
Reyes told the board that data on these categories was missing from the documentation handed them from UT Brownsville and which should have been collected for TSC.
"When we separated the staff lost a lot of knowledge," Reyes said. "We should have been more alert. UTB did not collect the data. We didn't have all the data we needed to show compliance for an evaluation."
This is the second "snag, wrote a commenter on the post. " The first application for SACS accreditation that TSC submitted was outright rejected. First, it seems that UTB personnel basically submitted the entire application for accreditation for TSC. Also, TSC personnel advised UTB staff that they needed the SACS application only 2 days before the deadline and they simply threw something together as best they could in those 2 days (no wonder that first application was rejected)."
Others say that UTB President Juliet Garcia may have purposely sabotaged the process.
"When we separated the staff lost a lot of knowledge," Reyes said. "We should have been more alert. UTB did not collect the data. We didn't have all the data we needed to show compliance for an evaluation. About the only thing that Queen Julieta was interested in collecting was a paycheck!"
Chimed in another: "This is a failure of Julieta Garcia, not Dr. Tercero. She isn't "back pedaling" she is, again, suffering for a vindictive Julieta Garcia. It was her (Garcia's) responsibility to maintain and submit the TSC accreditation data as a part of the UTB-TSC "partnership." Julieta failed, or she just continues to be a 'woman scorned'...aka, a vindictive bitch."
Said another: "I find it very difficult that you continue to criticize Dr. Tercero. UTB/Juliet, left out four years of TSC student data and that's what caused the delay in the accreditation process.  Dr. Pedro Reyes was very clear in his explanation for the delay"
Whichever viewpoint you agree with, the fact of the matter is that the manner in which things have been running lately pale compared to the machination of Julieta and her staff.
Take, for example, the renaming of the arts center. Some trustees, and – it appears – a very small number of public and community officials got the invitation to attend with the resultant embarrassingly low turnout to the event. Some trustees got the notice only days before.
Even at the swearing in ceremonies, about the only attendees were a few TSC administrators and the trustees and their families. There were no students present at the event. To make matters worse, the notice of the reception did not include the time of the swearing in. Then, after the swearing in, those who attended the reception at the TSC Arts Center had to work their way through security guards at another event on the first floor, find their way to the second floor, through a ballet recital, before finally finding their way to the small are where it was held.
There was no one to guide visitors past the maze, no musical entertainment for the guests, and again, no students.
A visitor from Matamoros said he was surprised no educational administrators were invited given the fact that a good percentage of TSC students hail from our sister city.
Neither Mayor Tony Martinez or nay of the city commissioners attended.
A Brownsville Independent School District trustee and Superintendent Carl Montoya did attend.
"Even at her worse Julieta could always round up 100 or 200 people for these events," said a college observer. "This was pretty dismal."