If you speak to the students who had aspired to enter Texas Southmost College's nursing or to their parents, you will get a much different viewpoint on its importance than you spoke with TSC board member Art Rendon,
Rendon. on Sunday, was quoted in the local daily in effect downplaying the importance of the program because the number of students involved was – to him – insignificant compared to the overall TSC student body.
To them, the nursing program is not something that can be discarded because there are "only 50" students currently enrolled when there are another 5,000 students at the college.
It has been an investment in time and money to help the students acquire the skills needed to enter the medical professional field, they say.
"This is not something we can just say, oh well, let's try something else," said the mother of a student who will be unable to enroll in the program following the Texas Board of Nursing changing TSC’s program status from “Full Approval with a Warning” to “Conditional Approval.”
"This is something our family has invested in and not something insignificant to us."
The failure of the program – one of the crown jewels of TSC when it was operating independently of UT System under the "partnership"– has indicated the disconnect between TSC President Lily Tercero and the board, and between trustees like Rendon and the students and parents of the district.
The local daily reported Sunday that it is "working with the Texas Board of Nursing to review additional options to improve the program’s status. TSC has also engaged Texas A&M University’s School of Nursing to enhance the College’s nursing program.”
Foremost is the improvement of pass rates which have dropped below 50 this year and have been dropping below 80 percent for the past three years.
"This is something our family has invested in and not something insignificant to us."
TSC must take steps to remedy its shortcomings with the nursing program and is prohibited from enrolling anymore students until certain issues are addressed.
The failure of the program – one of the crown jewels of TSC when it was operating independently of UT System under the "partnership"– has indicated the disconnect between TSC President Lily Tercero and the board, and between trustees like Rendon and the students and parents of the district.
"The problem with the program has been going on since 2013 and the trustees were never informed on the seriousness of the problem," said a source close to the board. "Tercero never informed the board that the state might shut down the program until it was too late."
Now the college has entered into a consulting agreement with the Texas A&M University School of Nursing to get the program back in shape. The local daily reported Sunday that it is "working with the Texas Board of Nursing to review additional options to improve the program’s status. TSC has also engaged Texas A&M University’s School of Nursing to enhance the College’s nursing program.”
Foremost is the improvement of pass rates which have dropped below 50 this year and have been dropping below 80 percent for the past three years.
The college is now under the gun to raise the scores past 80 percent. In fact, the survival of the program will depend on the percentage of students passing this September,
Trustee Trey Mendez and others say that Rendon's viewpoint of measuring the program's worth by the number of students currently taking the courses is shortsighted.
“I have confidence that A&M will get the program back into shape and in compliance with any applicable deadlines,” Mendez told the Herald. “We can’t afford to screw this up. It’s too important.”
"Think of all the millions that the college and the community have invested in the program," said the parent of one of the students. "My son has been planning to get into nursing as a first step to enter the medical field. From there, he could branch out to a lot of medical professions. That avenue is closed to him now. Why should our kids have to go to McAllen or Edinburg because the TSC administration dropped the ball on this?"
8 comments:
The Rendons are a well known bunch of self-serving assholes.
TSTC in Harlingen has a nursing program that beat UTB/TSC when it was at it's best. Locals don't have to leave Cameron County to get a quality nursing education.
After these elections, its obvious that Art Rendon has been rendered powerless. He no longer has his buddies Kiko Rendon and Ed Rivera to tell him what to do. Will he quit and save face like Kiko did? Or will he throw the students under the bus to protect the lame duck president?
If TSC is having a hard time giving good grades to their nursing students, it's the fault of BISD.
Bisd is a failed state. Lipstick on a pig. Self serving bunch of bus drivers an lawyers, sucking our children's blood.
Panco Villa
The 50 nursing students are not owed a damned thing, Juan. If they ant it badly, they will go where they have to go. Stop enabling the weepies.
The TSC Nursing Program receives the same quality of education as all the other programs. Canned course, low paid and low motivated teachers, with cheating being the norm to get passing grade. The big difference is there is a State exam to get a Nursing license and no cheating is allowed on that exam. This is the reason, the State exam scores have declined each year and the program has finally been held accountable.
If the other TSC programs required a State exam, they all suffer the same fate.
50 student are owed an education they paid for classes and starting with director Dela Garza the instructors and leadership are way way over their heads. This program has been abandoned for years.
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