I wasn't sure if I was to include the sender's name, so I erred on the side of anonymity. If attribution is desired, I will correct that.
You may be aware that UTB is expecting a visit from SACS in a couple of weeks. SACS is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. They will be auditing UTB to determine if UTB should stay an accredited institution of "higher education".
Needless to say, the powers that be are scrambling at UTB to cover the traces of their incompetence.
They seem to be succeeding in some areas. However, how are they going to cover the fact that they have not been keeping minutes of the meetings (except for the last couple of months when they started the cover up) of the Provost Council, Deans Council, Business Affairs Division director's weekly meetings, or the Executive Council meetings (can we all say "Juliet Garcia"?), to name a few, for YEARS, as is required by law? No minutes? Then no one can be held responsible for the stupidity and waste of funds that is rampant on campus and no records of the decisions made.
There will be more to come if you want more items. All of this is easy to check via open records requests. Request some, and watch Rosemary Martinez and J.V.G. start scrambling!
Hope you check your email. I'd put it on your blog, but don't know how.
Just thought that "it is your business to know"
Thursday, April 3, 2008
More interesting mail....
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15 comments:
Mr. M,
Not surprised by this e-mail one bit.
The Old Guard could not even begin to explain why it costs more to attend a community college-university than one up the road.
So much for 20,000 students, how will they afford it? Not enough Pell to cover. Not enough loan money in the world to help the poor who may not obtain their degree and pay it all back. Vicious cycle the Old Guard has provided for us!
SACS does not care! No one cares! Those southerners think we live in Mexico!
V
Mero,
It is this entire community's business to know! Unfortunately, there are either:
(1) not enough who care,
(2) not enough who can read or write or understand why they should care, or
(3) not enough willing to risk biting the hand that feeds them, by discussing the relevant issues.
And there are many inexplicable issues at UTB/TSC. Where do you want to start?
What I just posted as an article might be too drastic a place to start, but it is somewhere.
I do get your point.
In my not so humble opinion, cooperation with BISD, HISD,LFISD, etc. Would go the furthest. I don't mean the present incarnation of the University's idea of cooperation, but the real thing.
M.
Not at all too drastic. It's true!
You pointed out a major flaw with how the administration runs the business. Their are lots of flaws in what they do for students tambien. SAP, Dual Enrollment, unavailability of classes they need?
Sing it loud, sing it long. What else do you know?
Knowledge is a scary thing, but isn't that what they sell?
Mero,
I used to think like RGV, that SASC does not care.
I was wrong.
Texas Tech is on academic probation.
Kurgan
Sigh.
I have written about this for years, and the response was generally something along the lines of "Oh, it's not that bad," "We can't believe anything you say because you post anonymously," or the ever popular practice of blaming "white Anglo racists" or whatever other non-Latino target strikes the particular naysayer's fancy at the time.
Still I see a failure to recognize one of the major problems here: NOT EVERYONE IS CAPABLE OF DOING COLLEGE LEVEL WORK.
I worked inside that system, and still have a number of associates who struggle along there, and the fact is that a large number of students who have no real chance to complete any type of program that will even offer them a real chance to repay student loans—let alone provide for a better life in this greatly troubled community—are funneled into the system purely to bolster enrollment numbers in order to obtain funding earmarked for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and other monies intended for use by deserving but financially disadvantaged minority students. (NOTE: One of the ironies here is that Latinos/Hispanics are not a minority in Brownsville or south Texas, and those students who do comprise minority groups in this area are not eligible for minority status and it is the reputation as an institution doing great things for minority students that is being fostered.)
So, hold hands and sing Kum By Ya, organize a committee to coordinate a meeting to establish an agenda replete with the ubiquitous "taquitos" and full color glossy paper handouts printed in Spanish, and continue to feed the fallacy that every Jose and Juanita who manages to stumble out the door of a local high school "deserves" the opportunity to attend a college or university for pocket change.
Cooperation with BISD? That almost made coffee come out of my nose. I have been to BISD and I have to tell you that the large numbers of students arriving at UTB who require 27 hours of remediation before they can even qualify to enroll in the university's developmental classes are an accurate reflection of the quality of the majority of instructors there. Which should be something of an iceberg tip to anyone paying attention to the festering dual enrollment fiasco.
TSC is its own little realm, and it was groomed in the best tradition of plausible deniability and, to borrow from Pink Floyd, a "keep your hands off my stack" mentality. This persists to this day. The university and the community college aspects of the institution have never been fully merged because that would mean someone is going to lose their prestigious position, their lucrative (by local standards) secretarial position, their standing in this fiefdom of certificate programs.
Associates of mine had urged me to continue posting about SACS, the criminal misuse of the dual enrollment program to bolster student numbers in order to perpetrate a series of frauds, the blatant lies, and misrepresentations and I had declined because the community is in denial.
I know this will piss every one of the dozens of local-culture apologists off, and doubtlessly invite yet another of the inevitable endless waves of finger pointing, name calling, and all the other Techniques of Neutralization utilized in an effort to make all this someone—ANYONE—else's fault, but the problems here are not the result of some foreign body that has infected the local culture; they are a direct result of the traditions of the society in which the institution exists. No one wants to deal with that, fine. Continue on, throwing effort and dollars at shadows, pontificating, debating, and coming up with ever more elaborate justifications for refusing to see.
Mr. K,
UT System has had some of its universities lose accreditation for a time in one or more of its programs. Texas Tech is currently having a hiccup. But the overwhelming majority of schools skate by without any test or challenges.
Our partnership is of a unique stature. For this reason I find it hard to believe that SACS will care. They will not want to give any impression of racism as will be argued by the school's administrators if they fail to meet SACS's approval.
Mr./Ms. Anon, you mention Juanita and Jose, but what about Austin, Sage, and Chad, the new breed of names for Latino children, can they not learn either. ;)
Joke aside, I agree we must realize as a culture (not the liberal academic culture that besets our school) that not every child is left behind on purpose. Plainly stated they are not teachable. They do not meet the basic standards that colleges and universities are supposed to have. It is not racist to think this way. It is a fact!
V
Mr. V,
I hope no child is ever left behind on purpose. I do agree though, that not everyone is cut out for a 4-year degree. In every society there is a need for doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs but it certainly does not make the butcher, the baker or candlestick maker any less important.
It's a shame we don't place more emphasis on a job well-done. Any job. Which may be part of the problem with education here, from pre-k on up: if it's not done right the first time, it will not kill little Juanita, Jose, Austin, or Chad - or Dick or Jane for that matter - to send them back to do it again, until it's right. Maybe then our students would be better prepared for college, and for life.
I'm saddened to think there is an assumption that playing the race card would threaten the people at SACS. If there is an act that needs to be cleaned up (and I'm sure there is) why can't we just act like grownups and clean it up? SACS will be here tomorrow and if they don't care, who will?
Mero, please don't let this topic get buried. Education, not politics, is the key to the future.
Latest anon,
Do not misunderstand my point on no child left behind. It is not a purposeful exercise. All children should be given an opportunity to learn, but the facts remain some children for varying reasons do not learn. We must be a results oriented society after giving opportunity. It is the academic elites that place such emphasis on teaching everyone when not everyone is capable of learning the cosign of an obtuse triangle or C++ or what characterized the poetry of the English Restoration period.
In my private discussions with many early high school instructors, they all say how difficult it is to teach certain students who they believe are doomed for failure in a four-year degree. They are meant for something else, whether it is a vocational degree or no degree at all like Bill Gates or a early child certificate.
Forced education is difficult due to the challenges faced by students who hinder learning at the expense of those students who want to learn. We must care for those students just a tad more than those trouble makers and malcontents.
SACS's present tomorrow will not change the culture of social passing at the college. Playing the race card is convenient and easily understandable if that is what you want to hear. I want to hear reasons with bite, not something that could be expressed by a racist Rev. Jesse Jackson.
If SACS does not care, who will? We will. We should care more than those in the Ivory Tower some distance away.
This is not politics rather the realities of education. Obtaining a degree of higher education should not be the same as a high school diploma; it is a privilege not a right.
V
This is a continuing topic on this forum. If you haven't read it, comment-worthy-of-distinction
puts it very well.
M.
Mr. M,
Reading that post made me happy to know that I am a reader of such a useful and insightful blog.
It also made me sad to read that some are so blinded by their allegiance to their school. They cannot accept any negative criticism that may offend their rosey belief system.
V
Thanks for the link. What a sad, but accurate portrayal. I have so many questions, so little time.
If the college has 7000 dual enrollment students and, as a Hispanic Serving Institution, receives extra funding from the state and federal government for each and every one of them, where is that money going? I understand no minutes are kept of the meetings, but does anybody keep the books? Will anybody ask Rosemary Martinez or Juliet Garcia for an accounting?
Very few reliable services available, but oh my, we must speak with reverence about the pristine nature of the lovely campus. Aren’t the buildings beautiful?
How does the Old Guard plan to pay for 20,000 in 2010? They just increased the tuition, of course!
"Forced education is difficult due to the challenges faced by students who hinder learning at the expense of those students who want to learn. We must care for those students just a tad more than those trouble makers and malcontents."
I think I understand what you were trying to say. Students who want to learn are hindered by those who just want to throw the erasers? Speaking of SAP - ok, we weren’t, but should be - Does anyone care that this exalted effort has come at the expense of those students who Want to learn? No one has time for them anymore. The work of the staff tripled, but there is little real support in this make-the-rules-up-as-you-go fiasco. Was this done just to impress SACS? Will it go away when they do?
Latest Anon,
"Forced education is difficult due to the challenges faced by students who hinder learning at the expense of those students who want to learn. We must care for those students just a tad more than those trouble makers and malcontents." I think I understand what you were trying to say. Students who want to learn are hindered by those who just want to throw the erasers?
It is not an “I think”. You are right. There should not have been any interpretation on your part. I do apologize if my 6th grade language skills offends or hinders your 5th grade abilities.
Dual Enrollment (DE) numbers fluctuate. It was closer to 6,000 in the fall, a mere 2,000 in the spring. The Old Guard will not have 20,000 students in 2010 even if they include all of the DE students. They have been saying 20,000 for many, many, many years. It is a dream that will happen in 10 years, maybe.
SAP was not necessarily created in reference to the SACS accreditation. It was primarily a response to a senate bill that mandated a certain percentage of classes passed and a limited amount of dropped courses throughout one’s degree program. Many administrators have spoken of the permanence of this program, which I believe should be targeted more towards university students and not those students at school trying to better themselves (i.e. community college students).
Let community college students learn! Do not weed them out! It is not forced education if they are paying for it, and it does not hurt a university student unless they are intermingled, which is precisely the problem with this partnership. There is a difference between a 45 year-old trying to increase their pay in a certificate or associate’s program and a 19 year-old fresh out of high school attempting a marketing degree.
Anon, overall, I do agree with your message and tone.
V
Just to put in my two cents about a bizzare mindset so divorced from reality, I have seen quoted in print from the hand of Dr. Juilette Garcia that when you have more students, it costs more per student to educate them.
I am not kidding! And all the evidence is there to show that this mindset is in every member of the kool-aid drinking board at TSC.
I got no response from a 'Juliette suicide bomber' when I suggested that she (Dr. Garcia) go immediately to the Economics Department and get straightend out on a few things.
M.
wait! wait! have to stop laughing before I can respond!!!!!
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