My Thoughts

My dear sweet alma mater is having, what I think is, one of the roughest years in its 59 year history. On the heels of a presidential spending scandal the university is in the news yet again, announcing the layoff of 178 employees. They, the current administration and the board of regents, say it’s not because of the spending scandal and firing of Dr. Priscilla Slade, former TSU president, but because of rising insurance costs and a decline in enrollment. Recently the school instituted a 21.5% increase in tuition and fees. That rate increase it what hurt and will continue to hurt the enrollment at the school because many of the students are working and paying their tuition themselves and the government is giving little help by way of financial aide. I think all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The district attorney has indicted the former university president and several staff members, on charges that they misappropriated funds. So all the work to improve the school’s image in the past 7 years, that former university president, Dr. Pricilla Slade (who was indicted), has done will be negated in a matter of months. TSU has one of the lowest records for alumni giving and we are at the bottom of the list for enrollment vs. graduation rates (we have an open door policy).
Despite all this scandal and drama I still believe in our motto “Excellence in Acheivement” I know that TSU will weather this storm as it has so many others. I don’t understand why HBCU’s can’t get it together and handle business like it should be handled or at least keep the dirty laundry out of the media like PWCs do.