Transparency State University

The Faculty & Staff Excellence Awards are a YUGE deal for TSU.  YUGE!!  Last year King Lane had a big ceremony in the MLK auditorium.  It was like the Oscars broadcast via live webcast.  There was nominee names placed up on a big screen and names were called out and people went up to clapping and cheers and awards handed out with handshakes with the King himself!    The awards ceremony was probably one of the best (maybe only) thing King Lane ever did for all of TSU, showcasing years of hard work, sacrifice and dedication for just 1 afternoon in a year of recognition and pride. Now it appears that the Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards have mysteriously been postponed, delayed or cancelled.  We can't quite figure out which category to fall into since there hasn't been any TSU mass emails ;-) Certainly it is puzzling .  Below is an email from Dr. Rasoul Saneifard extending the Faculty Excellence Awards deadline by 14 days and yet the entire s...

We wonder about the rumors ongoing for several months now that Chief Mary Young may be terminated.  Rumors have been ongoing that she is about the get the axe mainly because of a supposed strong friendship and connections with deposed King Lane that had an expiration date once he was banished from the kingdom.  The clock is ticking fast on a lot of Lane cronies and appointees once King Lane had to make a fast dash with his ca$$h to SIU.     We wonder how much truth is those rumors as we viewed this social media statement from Chief Young during the week immediately after the BOR meeting of August 12.  We applaud all the obstacles she has overcome, but we wonder what it may suggest for her future at TSU.  

The latest rumors are that enrollment at TSU is  significantly lower  from fall 2019 when we were over 9000 students. The numbers are rumored to be much lower. Additionally, a vast majority of students still haven’t paid their tuition, and we wouldn’t blame them if they decided to take a gap semester or a year. If this is true ... TSU could be in a serious financial mess.   https://transparencystate.blogspot.com/2020/05/why-are-we-spending-110000-on-job.html  We are still scratching our collective heads wondering why Dean Kieh offered to provide a “waiver” for Dr. Baker in Administration of Justice (after Dr. Drake rescinded her application for Interim Chair- see our previous post) to allow Dr. Baker to serve another 2 years beyond what the Faculty Manual states, but would not extend the same offer to Dr. Adams in Political Science.    https://transparencystate.blogspot.com/2020/07/sopa-pass-popcorn-please.html There is no such thing as a “waiver” and ...

When will the full report be released?  On TSU's website, the summary report is still showing up.  BOR had said they would release the full report when discussed on June 1, 2020 but no specified date for release has been set.  It's almost like BOR doesn't want to release the full report.  http://www.tsu.edu/about/board-of-regents/pdf/brg+enrollment-executive-summary.pdf Will the full report ever be released?  What's in the full report?   

Looks like absolutely NO fall sports at all for everyone in SWAC.  I mean, we expected this but still.... .....let's not forget- this was going to be THE YEAR for HBCU sports to finally start attracting some amazing super talented sportsmen and sportswomen from PWI's.  We could have seen a re-surgence of our once proud legacy and dominance in sports.  Prior to PWI's actively recruiting minority players, HBCU's lead the way for sports dominance and proved to the world that we could take on the "best" and be better. And what happens to all our TSU scholar athletes and enrolment? https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/29351930/why-hbcus-again-become-serious-options-elite-basketball-prospects https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/10/black-athletes-should-leave-white-colleges/596629/ https://theconversation.com/star-player-who-expressed-interest-in-going-to-an-hbcu-may-shake-up-how-athletes-select-a-college-140195

We can't believe we are reporting even more SOPA drama.....but Dean Kieh has done a 180 degree turn and agreed to provide the Interim Chair election results.  After a SOPA-wide email from one of the SOPA Faculty Senators requesting the voting results, Dean Kieh agreed and turned over all the votes to the 3 departments.  Individually of course.  No idea why he either ignored or refused requests earlier. https://transparencystate.blogspot.com/2020/07/update-on-musical-chairs-re-shuffling.html More surprises.  After less than 45 minutes from Dean K's email, the presumptive AJ Interim Chair choice- Dr. Drake rescinded her application due to new policy changes regarding earning extra money from grant work (Koch grant we theorize) as well as extra pay from being Forensics Lab Coordinator.  Seems that the Provost or President has a new rule they are trying to enforce- if you are a classified as an administrator (12 months) you cannot make extra money from grant wor...

An update on our post from June 19, 2020: https://transparencystate.blogspot.com/2020/06/musical-chairs-re-shuffle-ongoing-at-tsu.html Looks like at least one Dean- Dean George Kieh has quietly announced 2 out of the 3 departments in SOPA- Administration of Justice and Political Science have new Interim Chairs- AJ has named Dr. Jasmine Drake (8th Chair in 12 years) and Political Science has named Dr. Rina Majumdar (3rd chair in 12 years). We say "quietly" because he hasn't emailed a SOPA-wide announcement for the 3 chairs, but is emailing each department separately.  Normally, there is a SOPA-wide email for chair announcements to have full transparency.  Why the secrecy? We wish both the incoming Chairs much luck especially since one of them has NEVER taught a single undergraduate class and will likely be wholly unprepared to understand our undergraduate needs especially in the Age of the Coronavirus and the other Interim Chair has a Ph.D. in Chemistry which we fi...

In a meeting last year in 2019 February we wrote about previously: https://transparencystate.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-center-for-justice-research-stands.html Provost Harris insisted that SOPA is part of CJR and vice versa. But yet at the meeting at least 2 faculty members informed the provost that they were being denied opportunities to conduct research with CJR. It has so divided up one department -Administration of Justice -that rumors are there has been at least one lawsuit inside of AJ indirectly based on the moneyed influence due to Director Henderson.  There are rumors of 3 more lawsuits, 2 pending and 1 already filed possibly due in part to the influence of the poisonous Koch money (2 SOPA professor are being sued by another SOPA professor in a defamation of character and libel lawsuit).  In AJ, at least 50% of faculty are CJR Fellows and despite at least 2 SOPA faculty requesting to work, Director Henderson has refused and has hired an outside faculty member...

The Kochs have a very long history of being antagonistic towards African-Americans because they threaten the Good Ol’ Boys Club (White Men of Privilege). The Kochs’ do not believe in civil rights and have even been supporting Neo-Confederates teaching college students: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-charles-koch-is-helping-neo-confederates-teach-college-students/ https://www.newsweek.com/koch-bros-hide-donations-behind-civil-rights-precedent-477786 There is even a non-profit organization called UnKochMyCampus actively working against the Kochs: http://www.unkochmycampus.org/ The myopic and narrow-minded muppetry of the previous Lane administration appears to be  carried on blindly by the Huewitt administration. The Kochs are not friends of academic freedom, transparency, faculty rights and shared governance as has been made clear in their past universities lawsuits and their interactions with the media. The Kochs have been extremely successful in doi...

As everyone knows from our previous posts, the Center for Justice Research is a Koch front much like centers at Auburn, George Mason and Florida State University. The Kochs and their cronies operate by creating so-called "academic centers" sometimes hiding behind other organizations as they did with our campus, funneling the money through the Thurgood Marshal Scholarship Fund.  These centers typical churn out white papers and other pseudo-scientific documents and official-sounding "reports" in order to give the appearance of a serious and legitimate academic think-tank on a college campus after which the Kochs then go to state legislatures waving the "scientific" papers and lobby for changes in business practices which of course directly benefit them.  The only people who win are the Kochs and their cronies who either directly or indirectly own businesses which benefit from the newly deregulated laws and/or favorable business climate approved by the govern...

Emails provided to  Transparency State  show that 3 times now TSU has had to delay and move their re-opening of our beloved campus from June 15......to June 22......to June 29...... will the 3rd proposed re-opening finally be successful?  Sources say Nope.  Phase 1 has been effectively frozen until..... Will TSU ever really re-open again as a physical university?  We wonder.  Maybe, maybe not. All of this would be simply easier to just go ahead and make everything online for the fall semester except for the labs (duh).  Even HBCU football has taken a beating already (no pun intended!).  If we can't even get Coronavirus away from football on a field with a dozen players.....how can we possibly re-open an entire campus of 7000 plus students? https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/19/college-football-players-test-positive-virus-hbcus-cancel-four-games?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=6ca460fea6-DNU_2019_COPY_02&utm_medium=e...

On Sunday, June 7, all of us were treated something rather unusual.....an email from TSU Information Office informing us at 6:51 pm that a new Title IX coordinator had been appointed.  We find it interesting to send out this type of announcement on a Sunday evening. We can speculate about the timing but it is also worth reporting that Dr. Fisher is a TSU insider both working and education (Bachelors, Masters and Ed.D.- all from TSU) and is a former Chairperson (or will remain so?)..... http://coe.tsu.edu/?page_id=1810 We are disappointed that TSU has chosen an insider (and a long-term insider at that) for important issues related to Title IX especially with past rumors of certain administrators and sexual harassment cases (one of whom has now moved to China) as well as the #MeToo movement which King Lane tried to cudgel and bully possibly two faculty members with threats of sexual harassment investigations, including hiring a private Austin law firm (your tax dollars at work). ...

Is it already time for another BOR meeting?  No predictions but.....here we go: https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicAgenda.aspx?ak=1000526&mk=50380774 Lot of IT purchases, possibly dismissal and terminations?  Tenure and promotion. Looks like a full meeting. According to the April 16, 2020 meeting, the BOR is supposed to release the full Berkley Report- so why hasn't it been released yet? Also, what's up with the Admissions Committee- are we really going to deny students below 2.0 GPA?  Ideally we would love to see TSU increase their quality of students' with increased GPA, but in this pandemic with all the stress and uncertainty with high school students not even having reliable high-speed internet access, perhaps this policy can wait another year?  Seems like there are methods to make appeals but we suggest the BOR consider delaying this policy another year. https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=46569694 https://v3.boardbook.o...

Interesting lawsuit filed by former mayoral candidate Ben Hall.  We have copied/pasted the press release below from Ben Hall's office- Certain facts in the allegations raised seem to mirror complaints in some of the lawsuits filed against TSU recently.   Houston Community College Hit With $100 Million Dollar Racial Discrimination Class Action Suit Filed On Behalf of Black Employees on Juneteenth HOUSTON, TEXAS.   A $100 million dollar racial discrimination lawsuit has been filed in a Houston, Texas state district court on behalf of hundreds of Black former and present employees of Houston Community College (“HCC”).  The suit was filed Friday, June 19, 2020–“Juneteenth—the anniversary date that Black slaves in Texas learned they had been freed from slavery two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln.  The lawsuit details a damning list of allegations about what is going on at Houston Community College under the leadership of Chancellor Cesar Maldo...

Summer should be a time of rest and reflection for everyone, but instead it appears that the Deans and Provost Harris appear to be busy playing "musical chairs" at TSU in some of the schools on campus: School of Communication (SOC) Dr. Michael Berryhill is still listed as the Chair of the Journalism Department but it has been confirmed that he is no longer the Chair and it is rumored that the new chair is Dr. Vera Hawkins.  Another professor- Dr. Toneisha Taylor- seems to have arrived on campus recently in order to chair a new department in SOC- Communication Studies.  There is a possibility that she was hired from PVAMU with connections through the Provost office and Dr. Cavill.  We are unaware if Dean Brown-Burton had complete involvement with these changes in chairs and departments. School of Public Affairs (SOPA) All 3 of SOPA's departments- Administration of Justice (Dr. David Baker), Political Science (Dr. Michael Adams) and Urban Planning (Dr. Sherri Smith) h...

An update on our post from April 14- https://transparencystate.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-houston-housing-authority-and-mr.html Looks like more troubles for Houston Housing Authority- and TSU's LaRence Snowden has a criminal complaint filed against him - "Four separate criminal complaints have been filed Wednesday, May 6 th , 2020 against three Houston Housing Authority officials and the Houston Housing Authority legal counsel. The sworn complaints by Dolcefino Consulting were delivered to Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleging the city housing agency is falsely using the COVID-19 disaster to hide the release of critical public records on two controversial East End land deals. The complaints target HHA Chair LaRence Snowden, attorney Tammye Curtis-Jones, HHA President & CEO Mark Thiele and Vice President of Finance and Business Operations Mike Rogers. Rogers is also the HHA official in charge of maintaining financial ...

On Thursday June 11, TSU faculty and staff were informed that prior to entering their offices, they needed to visit the General Services and have their temperature checked.  On Friday they were informed that police would be stationed outside buildings prior to allowing people to enter beginning June 22. We have to wonder and strongly question.....the fall semester hasn't even begun yet.....and we already are at the point of doing temperature checks prior to entering buildings even with significantly less people on campus? Right now in the summer, we have very few faculty, admin and staff on campus.  Almost no students assuming all our classes are online.  So these temperature checks are manageable.....temporarily.  But when the fall semester hits and with enrollment possibly increasing or staying at the same levels (we hope).....will TSU really be able to provide the same standard of rigorous care and safety while continuing to do lecture style teaching, campus a...

The Berkley Report (as mentioned in the Houston Chronicle) has been released as discussed on Monday’s BOR meeting:  http://www.tsu.edu/about/board-of-regents/pdf/brg+enrollment-executive-summary.pdf Unfortunately, this isn’t the full report- this is only a 5 page summary.  This report is rather light on details; in fact there aren’t even any names mentioned.  When will the full report be released?  And will there be names in the report?  As compared to TSU’s own internal audit, this is a surprisingly detail-less report especially from an outside agency.  We hope when and if the full report is released there are much more details for transparency.  https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6808138-Texas-Southern-University-investigation.html At the BOR meeting on Monday, the Provost claimed he hadn't read the full report or been giving a copy.  Seems odd considering he is and was in charge of admissions policy.  It must...

Seems like the Provost can't catch a break at any school on the campus.   Provost Harris tried to forcibly lower the summer salaries of the business faculty without any consultation, not even trying to have an amicable meeting, even as a mere formality. There was also no reason given to cut summer salaries either. Understandably, JHJ faculty were not happy about this latest dictatorial maneuver by the Provost.  And the rumors are that President Huewitt rejected Provost Harris's proposal to cut salaries and protected faculty rights. Every now and then, the TSU leadership finally does the right thing!  Thanks for doing the right thing Mr. President. 

In October 2019, Provost Harris called for an ad hoc committee to be set up to set new guidelines for transfer of departments and joint appointment.  No reason that we know of was discussed as to why there was a need to tamper and meddle with the faculty transfers as the Faculty Manual is quite clear on transfers: 4.13 Faculty Transfers from One Discipline to Another. A faculty member may transfer from one discipline to another provided that the transferring faculty member meets the minimum standards established for entry into the faculty of the discipline to which he/she seeks to be transferred.   It appears that the Chairman of this committee for joint appointment and transfers has quietly allowed himself a joint appointment with both the College of Education and the School of Communication.  Dr. Cavill has 3 degrees from TSU, but it is unclear if he has any academic credentials for holding a joint position with the School of Communication.  His creden...

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- ...