Transparency State University

It is CONFIRMED- Transparency State has it on ironclad reliable information that the tenured professor in SOPA (see our June 16 post) has been indefinitely suspended due to "mass emails and insubordination."  The professor is currently appealing their suspension and will go through a faculty hearing process, most likely in the Fall semester.   We are not aware when this situation will be resolved and whether or not the professor will ever be able to come back to campus.  It seems that King Lane's minions have been extremely busy in finding more and more creative ways to rid the campus of individuals they disagree with.  Transparency State is very interested in the outcome of this case as it appears to hinge on the definition and usage of the First Amendment's right to free speech and what exactly does it mean to accuse the professor of sending out "too many emails"?  It is also something to be concerned about regarding the impact and effectiveness of ...

It is CONFIRMED- another lawsuit has hit TSU.  Rumors were swirling as to whether or not a lawsuit was going to be filed regarding the problems in the Aviation department and allegations of misuse of federal funds as well as other potential illegal quandries.  The case can be accessed here- https://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txsdce/4:2019cv01614/1664909

Another tenured professor in the School of Public Affairs has reportedly been suspended for 30 days and the administration is moving to fire him soon. The professor’s supposed crime was to send out too many emails criticising Provost Harris’s disastrous decisions regarding the SOPA dean search committee mishaps.  Like all authoritarian regimes, King Lane’s minions do not like dissent and are afraid of too many good questions being raised by the few rebels still left in the shattered country we now call Laneworld.  As a bonus to King Lane, due to this professor's unexpected suspension he has also been prevented from earning summer money through summer teaching. So the administration decided to break both his kneecaps, not just one. To send a message to him...or...for something else?  To send a not-so-subtle message to...? We wonder- what exactly is the long term plan to unite the campus under King Lane.  Or is this the best plan he has come up with?  Crush d...

Our campus seems to be in the throes of heated, passionate and frankly, tiresome Dean search endless marathons.  Out of 6 schools at TSU, 5 currently have ongoing permanent Dean searches.  We regard most of these fruitless and sycophantic Dean searches as yet another despotic opportunity for King Lane to create and continue to cause chaos, disruption and to ramp up stress and aggravation among the faculty, thus dividing and conquering and maintaining control over the divided and factionalized faculty.  Let's recap this madcap year of Dean searches: The College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences (COLABS) are going through yet another Dean search. COLABS had a search conducted over a year ago and yet they are going through the same search process all over again.  It’s very doubtful that this second finalist candidate will be acceptable to the President.   The School of Communications Dean Maruice Odine resigned after almost one year in office withou...

We were glad to be a witness to the recent removal of Dr. Cavil as the recently deposed Faculty Senate President in our faculty senate elections last month.  We heartily endorse and look forward to Dr. Wu's leadership as our new Faculty Senate President!  We hope she is able to bring stability and a sense of moral responsibility, ethics and leadership sorely lacking in our current Lane administration and look forward to the Fall semester. 

      Looks like this “disappeared” Dean’s job posting has been removed from the outside job posting website.   We are not entirely clear as to what happened as the rumors came from trusted sources on campus.   At this time the Dean seems to be back in his position on campus.   We will keep our readers updated as new information surfaces.  

It was only a matter of time before another lawsuit hits TSU.  On April 4, 2019 a second lawsuit hit TSU filed for gender equity pay dispute.  This is disappointing but not surprising as TSU has had authentic and genuine complaints over the years for disparate treatment and pay inequity.  We hope these lawsuits bring light and increase accountability and transparency to our university's employees.  At a time when our president demands a $2.5 million mansion and a $100K basketball tickets, we at Transparency State believe that these lawsuits and others potentially forthcoming can assist with cleaning up the corruption and ugliness surrounding our work environment. https://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txsdce/4:2019cv01225/1653167

It is now confirmed that it does appear that President Lane splurged $100,000 on Houston Rockets basketball team courtside seat tickets.   It is still unclear if this was money through the TSU Foundation or directly paid from TSU’s coffers.   A recent video from Fox News locally on the Isiah Factor has 2 TSU law school alumni discussing this purchase and asking what is going on at our law school.   We want to know what's going on also.  Please watch the video in the beginning of the article.   http://www.fox26houston.com/news/isiah-factor-uncensored/new-bill-filed-that-would-separate-tsu-from-thurgood-marshall-school-of-law#/ Additionally, it is noteworthy that Isiah informs us that Fox News did reach out to the Lane regime to ask them if they would like to comment on the story, but no response from King Lane’s peeps.   All we can ask is…What exactly does a $100,000 view for the playoffs look like King Lane?   Be sure to wave to us peasants when...

Rumors are rampant that a second dean in the administration has formally resigned or has been terminated by King Lane due to alleged sexual improprieties with students.   Transparency State is not entirely clear on all the details but it does appear that this dean has been definitely removed as a new job posting has been posted online for their position. https://www.higheredjobs.com/search/details.cfm?JobCode=176960634&Title=Vice%20President%20for%20Student%20Services

A 5% budget cut across the campus has been requested by the President's office.  Seems odd that at almost the end of the semester suddenly everyone is being asked to cut budgets by 5%.  What good does a 5% budget cut do and what is the reason for such a sudden move by the Lane regime? One reason being bandied about by the Lane regime is that this money will then go to faculty and staff salary increases.  Really?  Seems a little spurious reasoning but Deans and Department Chairs have their marching orders from the King. We will see if along with the 5% budget cuts there are also job cuts as well as those rumors have been persistently circulating too.....perhaps TSU really does have some very serious financial problems and these cuts are just the beginning.....we remain vigilant as always. 

           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 Universi...

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 T...

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 ...

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 prog...

Transparency State has recently learned that the survey company- Precision Task Group –that has been given the greenlight to do the salary compensation survey for TSU for $302,255 on February 22, 2019 appears to have a previous potentially personal connection with King Lane.  Precision Task Group is holding a Star Gala fundraiser for the Lone Star College Foundation on May 4, 2019 and the co-chairs are employees of Precision Task Group.  The event is at the Woodlands Waterway at the Marriott Hotel & Convention Center.  However, Transparency State was at the Board of Regents meeting on February 22 and some BOR members did ask the HR Director, Ms. Yolanda Edmund and Mr. Huewitt (VP of Administration and Finance/CFO) if there had been bids from other contractors.  At that time, both of them admitted to the BOR that there had been a total of 4 bids but stressed that even though Precision Task Group may be more costly, they had necessary exper...

If so, then you may be in for a treat the next time you watch the home games.   According to a well-publicized rumor on the campus, King Lane recently was given $100,000 from the TSU Foundation to purchase 4 courtside seats for the Houston Rockets.   Transparency State is in the process of attempting to verify this rumor, but unfortunately with King Lane’s history of personal greed with his mansion, performance bonus, hiring his BFF’s, showing favoritism, etc, this rumor has been taken as something akin to gospel.   Again, we are trying to verify this rumor.   While Transparency State loves the Houston Rockets as much as the next die-hard rabid Houstonite, is $100,000 really something the President should have spent our money on?   Last question King Lane…..how does spending $100K on courtside seats benefit TSU’s students?      

In October 2018, the Faculty Senate pushed Faculty Senate President Cavil to go to King Lane and ask him for a faculty raise.   Lo and Behold after a ton of badgering, King Lane agreed to give us all a 2% ONE-TIME New Year bonus.      Emphasis on ONE-TIME.   What are we…..toddlers? The issue we have at Transparency State is why does the King need to bring in an outside consultant?   Does he not trust the faculty and staff?   More so, is someone getting a kickback on this study, i.e. there has been rumors for years that Board members who are unpaid for their service to the university find ways to enrich themselves either through lucrative family contacts in connection with university services or a personal stake in some company or a friend rubs their back, etc.   In fact, just about a year ago, one BOR member was forced to resign because of a financial conflict of interest.   There is precedent for our skepticism. ...

On Tuesday, January 5, 2019 Provost Harris met with the SOPA faculty to answer questions and provide answers to critical and pertinent questions that were germane to the future of SOPA leadership.   Provost Harris did his best to downplay and deflect questions that most of the SOPA faculty as well as the former SOPA committee asked him.   Questions were raised as to why was the previous committee disbanded and moreover what exactly did the previous committee do wrong for the search process to be so broken according to the Provost?   Several faculty also asked Provost to condemn and disavow the nasty and unprovoked email sent by Dr. Bullard (former dean of SOPA) who called most of his own colleagues and SOPA faculty as “deadwood” and that these faculty were “addicted to overloads” (extra classes payment).   The Provost refused to do this and kept insisting that the faculty needed to move on and forget the past.   Easier said than done however.   Dr. Bullar...

At the recent BOR meeting in late January, the BOR was supposed to vote on whether or not they will sign the agreement with the Foundation in order for King Lane to finally be able to move into his new digs in the Palace of Versailles, aka his Mega Ego Mansion (MEM).   However, it doesn’t seem like that occurred.   No vote took place at the meeting and it appears that there was quite a verbal scuffle that took place in the executive session between several of King Lane’s loyalists and the Rebel Alliance, aka Those Who Disagree With The King (TWDWTK).     It appears that for now the Rebel Alliance scored a major victory against the King because since several BOR trustees are either retiring from the board or being replaced by the Governor, very few want to take on the responsibility for signing off on the Palace and have it explode later.     We don’t blame them at all.   Taking on this responsibility and it blows up in your face later down the ro...

TSU has had a few morally righteous and aggressive Faculty Senate Presidents in our past but our latest Faculty Senate President Dr Javus Cavil has been quite clearly the least effective and the least faculty-caring among all the Senate Presidents.  He has been verified to have traveled with President Lane for events that a Faculty President does not need to go to simply to be able to enjoy the perks of free travel thanks to the Texas taxpayers.  However, this frequent flyer BFF nonsense isn't anything as serious as Cavil not respecting and responding to Faculty Senate requests regarding faculty pay increases and after much prodding from the Faculty Senate, Cavil finally went and spoke with King Lane.  King Lane responded as you all know by now by providing us with a one-time 2% payroll increase.    The Faculty Senate has repeatedly asked Cavil to send President Lane a clear and unequivocal message that the faculty is not appreciative of being sidelined by King...

In October we reported that there was a rumor that the School of Communications Dean- Dr. Odine- has been removed/resigned/terminated.  We are still sketchy on details but the rumor is now CONFIRMED- the SOC Dean has returned to his teaching duties and is no longer Dean of the School of Communication. We were able to confirm this change through a school-wide email on January 7, 2019 by the Provost informing of this latest development. As mentioned, we are sketchy on exact details as to what happened for this Dean to leave their position for whatever official reason.  However, it's terrible leadership and awful management for the Lane regime to keep cycling and recycling deans (such as in SOPA and the law school) and setting up, closing and re-setting up dean search committees. It harms and destroys employees morale, inhibits trust and accountability in our institution and ultimately will NOT benefit our most precious and valuable resource- our students.  King Lane needs...

So the rumormill is abuzz again about King Lane finally being able to move into his mansion, aka the Palace of Versailles.  The Board of Regents is meeting on January 25-26 in the Woodlands for a retreat and according to the Meeting Agenda, it looks like they will be signing some sort of lease agreement with a mysterious "Foundation". Rumors have been swirling since October 2018 that the Chief of Staff's father-in-law offered to buy the mansion and then mortgage it back to TSU according to the October BOR meeting.   So perhaps this is what has happened.  We shall know more this weekend.  Will King Lane be inviting Transparency State to his opening party?  Probably not, but hope springs eternal.   

On TSU's website for several months now there has been a humble brag about our university being the second biggest HBCU in America.  Humble brag indeed. But what exactly does “2nd biggest HBCU”mean? Is that a reference to the size of our student body?   Or is it more apt to describe the size of the student body at the BEGINNING of the Fall semester...?   We all have been aware for some time now that since King Lane came to TSU about the boastfulness  punctuated by our stellar roster of Lane hirees especially in the Media, Communications and Development offices.  The enrollment numbers will be boasted and swaggered about every Fall semester with a huge opening class and then quietly and without fanfare the Lane administration has downplayed or become creative in showing enrollment numbers going "up" or holding steady.  Slick marketing and propaganda is expected and necessary for any authoritarian regime to prop up it's authority of course.  ...

After many months of back and forth emails, secretive meetings in the dead of the night (we suspect!)it seems that the SOPA Dean search committee is finalized and the committee members are meeting or at least soon will be meeting this coming semester for another round of Dean search.  Recall that we have now had 5 SOPA Deans in 11 years. Looks like all the members appear to be best buddies and cronies of the former Dean, Robert Bullard. Perhaps Dr. Bullard will re-apply and this whole search is a farce to bring him back as Dean even though he was fired by the King Lane upon his Majesty's arrival in June 2016? We shall see.  In an interesting twist, all the 3 departments in SOPA (AJ, UPEP and Political Science) are NOT represented equally.  While AJ and Political Science are top heavy on the committee, for some reason there does not seem to be a single UPEP faculty member.  One of the faculty members on the search committee has a joint appointment with both Politic...

Recently an email was sent out from the President's office for a surprise announcement for a 2% one-time bonus pay increase for all part-time and full-time faculty and staff.   Ostensibly this was meant to thank and show an "expression of gratitude" from King Lane to all his subjects, big and small in the TSU Kingdom. More likely, King Lane had decided to throw us all a few bones to use a colloquial expression, i.e. a few drippings from the Lord of the Manor in order to fend off a possible Faculty no-confidence vote or more complaints from faculty and staff who feel that the President has done little in the past 2 years to improve our paychecks but has been reportedly given a $34,000 bonus for performance pay from the BOR. So a 2% one-time increase while he received $34,000 bonus seems.....well, I'll let you decide.   It is true that faculty and staff were given a one-time 2% raise in the Fall 2016 semester when President Lane arrived on campus.  But we tend not t...

Recently there was a THECB visit to our campus.  This meeting was announced (surprise, surprise) AFTER the THECB met with selected administrators, students faculty and staff. But only those chosen by King Lane could meet with THECB. We guess that only the chosen few can be trusted to say the "right" things to the THECB.  Hopefully the THECB could use their X- ray vision to see the massive dust bunnies eating away at the mildew of the red carpet laid out for them.....

On October 7, 2018 the Provost emailed SOPA faculty and staff that there is a new Dean search committee set up.  How these new committee members were chosen is a matter of consistent speculation among the SOPA faculty members as everyone is wondering what will happen on January 1, 2019 when Dr. Herrington will again head back into retirement wilderness after his contract ends.  You may remember the SOPA Acting Dean farce whereby Dr. Adams was booted out unceremoniously in the middle of the Spring semester and Dr. Herrington took office in April 2018 but was only confirmed by the BOR in August 2018.  How strange is that?.....How was Dr. Herrington's $100K plus salary authorized without BOR approval? There is increased speculation about whether or not Dr. Herrington will actually leave his position or will his contract as Acting Dean be extended for another year while the Lane regime again tries to concoct a Lane-friendly dean search committee, so they can plug in the cand...

We have so many Dean searches going on on our campus it has become incredibly difficult to keep track of which committee at which school is current.  We discussed the SOPA dean search run amok and railroaded due to several faculty haters in SOPA, one of whom was forced to publicly recant and pseudo-apologize in a Spring 2017 email for trying to poison and destroy Dr. Michael Adams's chances for becoming permanent dean and unfortunately it looks like these faculty members have succeeded...for now. The law school also has been going through it's search process as Dean Douglas stepped down last year and Dean Bledsoe who was formerly a member of the Board of Regents was sworn in.  No idea how that search is going.  We wish the law school much luck in finding a capable and fair dean. Recently it appears the COLABS search committee for the next dean is now in the final stages of being established.  While details are scarce we understand that recently the Provost sent an ...

A long-time, tenured Education professor has reportedly been removed from employment at TSU (on leave with pay pending a hearing for an appeal to be re-instated) after being found liable for Title IX (sexual harassment) by an investigation through an outside law firm hired by King Lane.  It appears that King Lane seems to have found a new tactic to bully, harass and intimidate his critics or critics of his supporters as this Education professor was well-known to be butting heads with the Dean of Education who is a supporter of Lane. Who knows where King Lane came up with this creative idea...possibly our new General Counsel Ms. Hao Le advised him or possibly someone outside TSU advised the king.  We will likely never know how this idea came about, as it is certainly unusual to have an outside law firm do an investigation without going through HR first. ***We are not aware if HR was involved prior to outside investigators brought in with the Education professor.  They m...

In February 2018, without any fanfare or prior announcements, the TSU President, Provost and other bigheads held a press conference and invited selected members of the public and other King Lane favorites to come join them in celebrating a $2.7 million, 5-year Koch Brothers "grant" to TSU due to the "grant" proposal written by Dr. Howard Henderson and who is now the Director of the Center for Justice Research, the new "think tank" on our campus. But what exactly does the CJR do? So far since February they seemed to have simply fattened the wallets of a few Administration of Justice faculty, naming them with the dubious and banal title of "Faculty Fellows", perhaps a more apt description of their role at CJR might be "Faculty Friends of Howard" enriching themselves through this so-called "grant" by being paid approximately $20,000-$30,000 a year in addition to their salaries.  At least 2 Fellows are both faculty and ...