Transparency State University

Looks like the BOR has cancelled their June 5-6 retreat but surprisingly has called for a special remote teleconference meeting on Monday, June 1, 2020.  What could the meeting be about?  According to the agenda online looks like it comes down to 3 agenda items: https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?mk=50378537&fn=agenda.pdf 1) Fall admissions update (will we be increasing our GPA and deleting the SAT/ACT requirement as posted in the Houston Chronicle to boost enrollment?) https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Texas-Southern-board-to-discuss-upping-GPA-15303928.php 2) Final Internal Audit report delivered to the BOR: What could be in the report that hasn't already been splashed across the local news in Texas?  https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Texas-Southern-University-admitted-4-000-students-15302088.php?cmpid=gsa-chron-result https://www.texastribune.org/2020/05/28/texas-southern-university-gave-2...

Transparency State has confirmation that the tenured professor in SOPA who was accused of writing "mass emails" and "insubordination" has been terminated by TSU.  Recall our post on June 16, 2019: https://transparencystate.blogspot.com/2019/06/another-long-time-debuted-professor.html To take away our right for shared governance through frank and open dialogue will contribute to a harmful and toxic work environment. This decision to terminate may also have severe repercussions for our university’s reputation and character both locally and nationally.  This decision may bring more negative publicity and likely one more lawsuit to TSU. We are deeply disappointed by TSU's administrators decision to curtail and tear away our First Amendment right and strongly urge the Board of Regents to reverse this terrible decision. More than ever now, especially at an HBCU such as ours with a proud and distinguished legacy of civil rights and civil discourse, our faculty mus...

Rumors are stronger each day that the Provost will be replaced at the Board of Regents meeting in June.  The Provost seemed to have been caught up in King Lane's web of lies and deceit, even getting directly involved with admitting a student into an online program without any due process of being admitted through a graduate admissions committee or even the graduate school, a highly unethical and erroneous decision especially with our SACS upcoming accreditation: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/TSU-officials-say-student-who-sparked-admissions-15105559.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/bombshells-tsu-admissions-scandal-texas-southern-15124140.php See page 5: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6808138-Texas-Southern-University-investigation.html Also, it looks like our law school is still in trouble with the ABA even as recently as May 21, 2020 which was supposed to be the Provost's responsibil...

Why are we hiring a highly paid job position in a pandemic?  Below is an email from Provost Harris that appears to show that this would be a good decision for position of “ Executive Director of Curriculum & Graduation Initiative Position” .  But is it really such a good decision especially when we still do not know when TSU will open for the fall semester?  We have no idea what our enrollment will even be.  And finally, since when has this past administration even seemed to care about our students’ graduation?  Last president who appeared to care was President Rudley and that was 4 years ago.  King Lane came in with 9500 students but the rumors are that we are down to under 7000 and maybe even less now with the pandemic.  Need we forget our graduating students’ GIANT student loan debt as reported by the New York Times in 2012?  It could not have gotten any better especially with this pandemic even 8 years later.  (See below weblink- ...

In a Facebook post, Dr. Michael Adams (Interim Chair of the Political Science Department/Public Administration) and Professor Carroll Robinson (Political Science/Public Administration) published a new and more radical, yet much better plan for a re-alignment of schools and departments for the future of TSU.  We at Transparency State find their model very inspiring and have republished it below.  Hopefully the Huewitt administration and the BOR also find their plan incredibly worthy of further discussion and moving forward over the summer.  We have an international crisis at work and now is the best time to make YUUUGE changes.  As Rahm Emmanuel once said: “ You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before .”  Now is the time for TSU to do truly wonderful things with ideas from our dedicated and loyal staff, faculty, alumni and students…..for all our future.  Than...