The shell game that University of Texas at Brownsville President Juliet Garcia and her cohorts started way back in the pre-"partnership" days with Texas Southmost College buttressed with lies and betrayals of the community college community just took a new turn.
The pattern that began with the unjust attack and removal of Dr. Albert Besteiro set the pattern of "by any means necessary" regardless of whether basic ethics and principles are compromised to get what you want.
The close relationship between UTB and TSC began with the need to bring a four year university to Brownsville. So in 1991, the so-called "partnership" was born and its proponents asserted that it was supposed to last as long as necessary to get the university firmly established.
With the help of Mary Rose Cardenas, Garcia signed to extend the partnership contract period to 99 years. This was done knowing very well that the community college, its mission, and its programs would suffer by taking a back seat to the almighty university. The main beneficiary would be Garcia and her cadre of overpaid underachievers and co-conspirators. That was OK with Garcia, as she has benefited personally while she gladly betrayed all the needy people at the bottom of the totem pole that needed a community college education. TSC tuition zoomed from comparable rates to the state average to the most expensive in the state and Garcia and her gang did not care because those funds were subsidizing her operation.
Source: http://www.tacc.org/documents/Sp12tuition_001.pdf
When they were denied $100 million dollar bond election, they came back two years later with a $68 million dollar bond election that was successful with the voters.
They soon found out, however, that the election was just a formality to give her access to the funds and a justification for spending $108 million instead of spending the $68 million approved by the community – a documented betrayal of the community's trust to the tune of $40 million. (Read for yourself. It is all in the report by an external auditor on page 12 of 22.)
http://www.tsc.edu/images/stories/About/BondConstructionProjects/ReportOfFindings.pdf
Remember when she promised the students that UTB was not going anywhere? What happened to that promise?
She said UTB would continue with dual enrollment. What happened to that?
What happened to Envision UTB in 2050?
What happened to the Ocelots? How long did that last, all of 6 months? They were, indeed, an endangered species from the get-go.
The final betrayal is convincing all the clueless Brownsville politicians – including a majority of the trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District who should know better – that the merger of the valley UT schools (University of the Americas) is good for Brownsville.
In a perfect world, having a Rio Grande University of Texas school is something that our clueless politicians and citizens should have fought for a long time ago. It was an issue of equality for the brown citizens of South Texas. The Black citizens of Prairie View realized it way back when and recruited the U.S. Office of Civil Rights to force the UT System – kicking and dragging – to include their campus in the Permanent University Fund pie.Now they are using that as the carrot to get Brownsville to back a legislative initiative that will translate into Brownsville losing more than 100 executive-level and administrative jobs to McAllen. Mayor Tony Martinez is saying that McAllen is making the UT merger their number one legislative agenda and Brownsville should do the same.
If you were the mayor of McAllen, wouldn't you do the same thing?
McAllen and Hidalgo County's gain of good high-paying jobs will result in Brownsville's loss of those same jobs. Is it any wonder that their legislative delegation is making it their Number One priority?
The shame of it is that our clueless Brownsville politicians and conniving United Brownsville technocrats who are accountable to no one are spearheading the initiative to ship Brownsville jobs to McAllen. And the kicker is that we are paying them (in the form of $25,000 "memberships" to fund United Brownsville) to screw us.
Why move the administrative offices to McAllen?
The taxing district is just another dodge (la misma gata, pero revolcada) because while they will tell us about all the jobs that will be created, they fail to mention that those jobs will be subsidized by middle-class and disadvantaged citizens through taxes on their property. This double and redundant taxation paid through rents or ad valorem taxes will subsidize the elite class of doctors, nurses, medical school students and well-paid staff.
Dr. Garcia is busy telling the staff at UTB (and the media megaphone) that the merger to one valley university is going to be a great thing. But she fails to clarify who it is going to be great for because it will definitely not benefit the UTB staff who will all lose their jobs to the more productive and established UT Pan-Am personnel.
The Brownsville community subsidized the University for 20 years at an exorbitant cost to our community that surpasses the $1 billion mark and in the end the only thanks we get is to the usual Garcia dog-and-pony show convincing the community that the best thing for Brownsville is for everyone to lobby to lose jobs in Brownsville so McAllen can benefit.
Whose side is this woman (and the mayor and United Brownsville) on?
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