TSC PROVES THEM WRONG: LOWER TUITION, NO TAX HIKE

By Juan Montoya

Those of us old enough to remember Jeane Dixon, the fortune teller known to millions through her books and newspaper columns who claimed to be a prophet of God doing “the Lord’s work," recall that she also had a bad seance session or two when the spirits failed her.

For example, she predicted that the Russians would be the first to land a man on the moon, that Richard Nixon would not resign from the presidency of the United States, that the Vietnam War would be over by l966, that the Panama Canal treaties would not be approved and ratified, that UFOs, with super-advanced humans from a hidden planet would land and make contact with us by 1977, and that in 1978 Pope Paul VI would “surprise the world with his energy and determination” – but, alas, he fell ill and died.

There were a couple of would-be Jeane Dixons on the board of trustees of the Texas Southmost College who had a few notable missteps in their dire predictions about gold old TSC. Foremost among these were David Oliveira, Robert Roles, and Rosemary Breedlove.

This trio vehemently opposed the dissolution of the UTB-TSC "partnership" and said the sky would fall if the residents of the community college district did not heed their calls. They flatly predicted that TSC would fold, that taxes would double, that tuition would be sky high, and that community college enrollments would plummet.

Dixon, we're sure, probably twisted in her grave over some of those doozies.

Instead, in Fiscal 2014-2015 – due in no small part to the sound financial management of the current administration and board of trustees – the bond rating for the college has been upgraded by the rating services, full-time faculty and staff are getting raises, student fees will be lowered and tuition and property taxes will remain the same. TSC president Lily Tercero said that  the cost to attend the community college has decreased by 37 percent since the separation of the "partnership."
TSC also eliminated the Student Union fee of $45.30 in the Spring 2014 semester as part of the final settlement agreements with the University of Texas System.

Whether the former trustees' predictions were merely "educated" guesses or just plain bile because their counsel was ignored, we'll never know. 

In May 2012, Oliveira, despite the testimony of industry leaders before the Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce that thousands of skilled trade jobs are going unfilled because they couldn't find enough qualified candidates for them, flatly said that "We have enough welders. We have enough plumbers. What we need is more people in higher degrees."

If the rest of the TSC trustees would have heeded his flawed logic, we very well may have lost the opportunity to provide open-collar careers and trades to those members of our community who wanted certification in the skilled trades to improve the economic outlook for themselves and their families.

Even former UTB president Julieta Garcia grudgingly admitted in an article that was never published in the Brownsville Holler that the separation might have been a good thing.

She told the Valley Morning Star that she "accepted the decision to split the University of Texas at Brownsville and the Texas South most College and declared that it is a positive step for the students in the area." 

But Julieta being Julieta just couldn't help herself and cast a brickbat or two at the four pesky trustees who didn't allow her to have her way.

"The Regents made the most important decision that could have ever been made," she said. "They said, in spite of the violence on the border, in spite of the deficit in the state of Texas, in spite of this fracaso – this latest problem here – we have had with the trustees, we believe we have a future with UT-Brownsville and we're committed to expand our presence and to building a four-year university."

Well, the UTB will continue as a satellite campus to the UTRGV, albeit without Julieta, while TSC enrollments are on a healthy uptick. If lower tuition for students, no increase in property taxes for district residents, and a sound financial rating is a "fracaso," then we beg to differ with these would-be seers and doomsayers.

TSC lives and – by a widespread and growing consensus – will only flourish and expand despite its detractors.