THE TERCERO LEGACY: STATE TO SHUT DOWN TSC NURSING

By Juan Montoya
For Jose Sanchez (not his real name) – a  real college student who had started on his planned career as a medical professional –  the road there led through Texas Southmost College's nursing program.
He saw a counselor who directed him to take the prerequisites, not at TSC, but as was required, at the former UT-Brownsville, now UTRGV. That alone cost him more than if he had taken the courses at TSC.

But then, after he and his family had undertaken the expense, he was put off when he tried to enroll in the program.
"They kept telling me that I could register the next semester, and then the next," he said. "It wasn't until later that I found out that the program was in trouble with the state and was prevented from enrolling any new students."
What Sanchez didn't know – and in fact, what then-TSC President Lily Tercero neglected to tell the TSC board – was that the program was in deep trouble after its students taking the state nursing exam failed to achieve a 80 percent passing rate.

That, plus a number of other failures from the administration, led to the state prohibiting the college from enrolling any more students. The closing down of the program – once the crown jewel of the TSC medical vocational offerings – hinged on the 80 percent passing rate of its students.

Sources in the TSC staff now tell us that TSC has been notified by the state that the September 2106 test of the remaining nursing students did not attain that level.
"I hear it was close, higher than the 51 or 46 percent of the prior years, but id did not reach the 80 percent. The state is closing it down in January."
Meanwhile, some sources close to the board say that the college is seeking ways to deal with the closing of the program by the use of intra-university agreements that might allow accredited institutions to offer the courses to students attending TSC.

"Texas A&M is already helping TSC try to save the program and maybe there's a way they can take over until they get the TSC program on its feet without any extra cost to local students," one said. "They are going to try to make very effort to do good by them."
Sanchez remembers trustee Art Rendon saying that 50 or so nursing students losing the program was no big deal since they had 5,000 other students to worry about. He said those comments hurt him deeply.

"I was watching the last meeting of the TSC board when attorney Frank Perez said that the potential harm and damage caused by the negligence of Tercero didn't just hurt the college, but that it hurt students as well. He was right."
Sanchez and his family are now looking to see whether he can enroll in nursing courses somewhere else in the valley, perhaps in Harlingen or Edinburg.
"Maybe Mr. Rendon feels that 50 students don't matter," he said. "But those students represent the hopes and aspirations of 50 families who suddenly see their hopes disappear. Some of us don't get a second chance. If we don't do it the first time, we might have to forget about entering the medical field. It hurts all of us."

TSC board chair Adela Garza said that the damage could extend beyond the college and the students.
"We have hospitals and clinics and doctors' offices here who could have used and trained our students," she said. "We are bringing nurses from the Philippines, for God's sake. It hurts the entire community. We are already looking for ways to try to provide them a way to make their dreams come true."

Meanwhile, following the meeting where the board, by a 5-2 vote, voted to terminate Tercero's contract, some trustees have received correspondence from her attorneys asking for answers with a questionnaire.
Tercero was given a two-year extension by the former board majority chaired by Kiko Rendon in early May before the elections of the new board. Kikio Rendon and Ed Rivera decided not to run for reelection and left the new board saddled with Tercero.

She and her Dallas attorneys have said they would try to seek the payoff of approximately $500,000-plus of the salary she would have gotten for the two and one-half years she had left.