Transparency State University

           We like numbers at Transparency State.  While we have written in the past about King Lane’s desire to occupy a $2.5 million Mega Ego Mansion, aka the new Palace of Versailles as well as King Lane’s rumored $100K basketball tickets, we have a new number for King Lane- #129.               A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article estimates that King Lane is now ranked 129 out of 253 public university presidents for pay compensation.   King Lane’s total salary in 2016-1017 was estimated to be $437,800 not including other benefits such as house and car benefits.             It is very surprising to us at Transparency State when compared to other university presidents who work at possibly more wealthier universities such as the University of West Florida who’s president earns $346,758 and University of Arkansas at Little Rock who’s president earns $298,667 as examples.               Perhaps King Lane does deserve his palace of Versailles and the $100K basketball tic

The rumor is that the law school bill, HB2383 as we discussed in our last post will be removed by Mr. Dutton if there is no thought to place TSU into a state system such as UH or UT, etc in this legislative session.  We wonder what was the end game by such a drastic move to write a piece of legislation such as this.  Was this a threat to King Lane's autocratic rule by outside forces with inside help?  Is it a forbearance of things to come?  Inquiring minds want to know.  And we believe at Transparency State all is revealed eventually. 

A bill pending in Austin (see weblink below) appears to show that a legislator, Mr. Dutton has put forward a bill to have Thurgood Marshall Law School (TMSL) removed physically from TSU.   This would be a major step towards…..what?.....No one is quite clear what the bill means for the future of TSU.   Mr. Dutton seems to believe that separating the law school from TSU would be one method to prevent TSU from being annexed and consolidated into a UT/UH or A&M system which has been a persistent rumor for years. Putting a bill forward would be a method to save TSU, not forced merger.  The logic he seems to be espousing is sort of like saying, if you try and force us to separate we will break off parts of the university so we will be less valuable and thus less likely to be placed into a system.   Perhaps there is some logic, but we are not so sure this gamble will work.   Unless Mr. Dutton is a great poker player and he has more tricks up his sleeve, if TSU is once again rumored

The Center for Justice Research, a co-Koch and Thurgood Marshall College Fund investment is lead by Dr. Howard Henderson who had zero prior experience managing a research center.   He has hired 3 of his own Administration of Justice faculty- Drs. Onwudiwe, Baker and Drake as Faculty Fellows, a dubious and fluffy distinction we discussed in our post on November 7, 2018.   While we remain unsure of what exactly does the CJR do (besides Tweets promoting Ph.D. students present Brown Bag luncheons, traveling on Koch Brothers money to conferences and re-publishing spurious research), we are deeply concerned that Dr. Henderson is refusing to allow anyone else to work with him at the CJR.   We are aware of at least one refusal to a qualified SOPA faculty member via email by Dr. Henderson.   His reason for refusal seemed rather discriminatory and hostile.   There was no reasons given as to why he hired only certain SOPA faculty members and not others.   Another SOPA faculty member has expre

Transparency State has learned that the law school still seems to be having issues with the ABA accreditation status.   You may recall the American Bar Association (ABA) found Thurgood Marshall in violation of several ABA standards in 2015 and 2016.   So far as of Fall 2018, TSU law school has only been able to satisfy one standard.   There are several other standards that will be worked on until July 2020: ·                 Standard 104, which provides for data integrity with information that is complete, accurate and submitted in a form, time and manner to the Council ·                 Standard 205(b): provides for equality of opportunity for faculty and staff ·                 Standard 301(a): provides for a rigorous program of legal education ·                 Standard 309(b): provides for academic support ·                 Standard 501 (b): provides for qualified applicants (Source- HBCUBuzz) We at Transparency State support and will provide unqual