Texas Southern looking out of state for students

Frustrated by the university's reputation in Houston, Texas Southern University president John Rudley is aggressively courting students from out of state. "A lot of local kids, had such a negative opinion of Texas Southern," said Rudley. "I couldn't get them to come here."

California and Louisiana have proven especially fertile recruiting territory. But Rudley has also pursued students from his hometown of Benton Harbor, Mich., arguing that Texas' largest historically black university had something to offer students from a small town in an economically depressed state. Now there are nearly three dozen TSU students from Benton Harbor, population 11,000.

Other historically black schools also are recruiting from outside their geographic regions in an attempt to grow enrollment, said Marybeth Gasman, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the schools.

Many of the schools, including Texas Southern, have relatively low admission standards as part of a commitment to make higher education more accessible. But Rudley also has launched scholarships and special programs for honors students in order to attract better students.

Texas Southern trying to manage $4.9 mil cut

Texas Southern University, like many historically black colleges across the country, is facing new realities in budgetary management. As the State of Texas tightens its belt on spending, TSU projects institutional cuts to reach nearly $5 million.

Proposed cuts include $700,000 through a hiring freeze; $450,000 through reduced business travel; $1.1 million through cuts in office supplies, utility costs and other operations; $1.6 million through a cut of 28 staff positions; $1 million through cutting six faculty positions. Those may be done through attrition or retirements.

Texas Southern University returned to probation

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recently placed Texas Southern University back on probation just six months after lifting the punishment. The probation was reinstated because TSU failed to provide the accrediting body with an official audit of its finances or of its financial aid programs, a spokeswoman for SACS said.

TSU President John Rudley said he expects this latest probation to remain in effect until June 2010, as official state audits will not be available until January.

SACS placed TSU on probation in late 2007 after a series of financial and management problems were discovered at the university. That probation was lifted in June although the accrediting commission continued oversight of financial aid and sponsored research programs at TSU. That oversight was scheduled to end this month until SACS officials re-imposed the probation. SACS officials, who noted that TSU remains accredited despite the probation, are scheduled to visit the Houston campus in April 2010.

Feds forgives $11.7M in Tx So debt

Texas Southern University President John Rudley has crossed the final item off the to-do list he created when he took the top job at the historically black university in early 2008.

The U.S. Department of Education has decided to waive $11.7 million in debt owed the federal government by Texas Southern University. The debt had lingered for 13 years, through three presidential administrations, and started out as a $40 million penalty issued by the education department in 1996, following its finding that TSU couldn't prove all federal financial aid went to eligible students.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, interceded on TSU's behalf.

“It was a steep mountain to climb,” the Jackson Lee said Monday.

The decision means TSU can instead use that money to improve its academic programs, said Provost Sunny Ohia.

“We still have a lot of work to do, with growing our enrollment and improving the quality of our academic programs,” he said.
Boosting online programs

One initiative will be to expand the number of programs offered online, Ohia said, noting that online programs are a good option for people who work full time but are expensive to create.

The original penalty was reduced to $15.7 million in 1998 during the Clinton administration. Talks continued throughout the administration of President George W. Bush, even as the school paid off almost $4 million of the debt.

Jackson Lee said a settlement appeared imminent several times but apparently lost momentum when responsibility was shifted around the department.

TSU argued that the Department of Education relied on a faulty statistical analysis to determine how many ineligible students received financial aid; Jackson Lee said school administrators provided records to support its claim that the problem was less widespread than it originally appeared.

She met with Education Secretary Arne Duncan soon after he was appointed by President Barack Obama, and he named a new team to reconsider the issue.

Jackson Lee said the reorganization begun under Rudley played a role in the decision, as did TSU's focus on underserved students, one of the Obama administration's priorities.

Department of Education officials did not return telephone calls Monday to explain their decision, or why the matter took so long to resolve.

Tx. Southern gets off probation

Texas Southern University cleared a major hurdle in recruiting and fundraising last week when its accrediting body agreed to take the school off probation.

“It’s a big deal,” said President John Rudley, who took office in January 2008, one month after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed TSU on probation for a series of financial and management missteps.

The impact is mainly symbolic: Parents who were reluctant to send their children to TSU because its accreditation was in doubt now can feel secure, Rudley said.

“The value of our degrees has been affirmed,” he said.

Belle Wheelan, president of the association’s commission on colleges, said her board voted to lift the probation Thursday morning, two days after Rudley and a team of TSU administrators presented evidence of their progress.

Rudley announced the news to his school’s board of regents soon after.

Gregory Maddox, interim dean of the TSU graduate school and a member of the administrative team that worked to end the probation, said he never thought the school actually would lose accreditation.

“But it certainly has been bad for morale,” he said. “Now we can go about the business of being a university. We’re not under the burden of having to constantly prove what we’re doing.”

The biggest step came earlier this year, when auditors were able to complete their tally of the school’s financial position. That took almost two years — the first firm hired for the job gave up because the financial records from previous years were in such a mess.

The financial problems and shoddy recordkeeping were highlighted when Rudley’s predecessor, Priscilla Slade, was accused of spending $500,000 in school money on herself. She is on probation.

Rudley said the school would have an annual outside audit for the next five years to ensure its finances remain clear.
“We don’t ever want to get in that position again,” he said.

Now, he said, TSU can go about the business of being “a normal university.”

That doesn’t mean no problems. The TSU library is inadequate for a school of its size and ambition, but the Legislature didn’t approve a request for $46 million in tuition revenue bonds to build and furnish a new one. Only the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston was authorized to issue tuition revenue bonds, used for university construction, during the session that ended this month.

That will be TSU’s top priority when the next session begins in 2011, Rudley said.