West Is the Best Wrote:I reference TSU in Houston. Through their open admission policy most of their new admits are not academically at the college level. Graduation rates are horrible. Degress have little value and the vast majority of students have incurred college loans to attend school and TSU has low graduation rates, meaning many students fail and are buried in debt they can not repay. Would the students not be better served by attending Houston Community College to complete their remedial courses and then apply for admission at any number of schools? This way you weed out students that will not succeed at college and raise the value of the degress granted by the institution by increasing graduation rates.
Former Texas Lt Gov Bill Hobby endorsed this idea the day before he left office, but stated it was such a political hot potato that he would have never raised the issue as it could have effected his re-election, as most people respond from an emotional position on this issue rather than an academic position.
Comments? Thoughts?
TSU has massive amounts of problems. Its former President, Priscilla Slade was indicted for embezzling around half a million dollars from the University to blow on parties and for home improvements.
She recently pled “No Contest” and got off with having to pay restitution and a slap on the wrist.
It has a revolving door administration and a Board of Regents. It is effectively running under State Conservatorship because of the financial problems. The auditors can't find where the money has gone.. dating back from the late 1990's.
I think the solution for TSU is to consolidate it into the University of Houston, which is located less than a mile away. In fact, this idea is considered every session of Texas Legislature, but dies in Committee when African American Legislators scream bloody murder about it.
While everyone recognizes that TSU has a corrupt administration and produces graduates that have trouble in the job market, the "Powers that Be" fail to do anything about it. Why? They are afraid of being called "racists."
I think you can easily consolidate TSU into the University of Houston. There are many "duplicate programs" such as Law Schools, Pharmacy Schools that can be cut to provide more funding. In fact, the State of Texas would be more than willing to write the check to UH to cover the additional costs.
Some at UH don't want TSU students integrated into their University because the TSU students would have problems competing with UH students, that are not subject to "open admissions" policy.