"AND THEN JULIET CRIED..."

By Juan Montoya
Word has reached us that at yesterday's meeting of the UTB-TSC Faculty with UTB President Juliet Garcia where the subject of the 257 staff members with the University of Texas at Brownsville who were notified their jobs were eliminated the recriminations against her reached such a pitch that she broke down and left in tears.
Garcia is personally blamed by some for the faculty for gross mismanagement of the UTB-TSC resources that resulted in the pink slips handed out to their colleagues. Some say that the over staffing in some departments resulted in the mass layoffs today.
"The business office under Rosemary Martinez had more than 25 employees," said a former instructor. "And the hiring process was used by Garcia as a source of patronage for her favorites and political allies. The bubble was bound to burst as the TSC subsidy money to UTB under the partnership ended with the separation."
UTB Provost Alan Artibise has also blamed TSC in past statements concerning the layoffs.
He said that as "the university reorganizes itself new positions with new qualifications and duties will become available. The reorganization of the school is a response to its separation from Texas Southmost College."
The fact of the matter is that under Garcia ll kinds of excessive spending on needless luxuries ran rampant.
The $68 million bond issue authorized by the voters
that ended up with the university spending $125 million is but one example. The spending of $640,000 for a mural to be paid from the bond issue and was only stopped when the public found out about it is another.
As TSC president Lily Tercero goes about reestablishing the community college as a free-standing accredited institution as it was before it was bamboozled into the "partnership," observers say the public will  be shocked to learn of the excesses still not revealed.
"Tercero is a smart lady," said a source close to the TSC trustees. "The excesses and mismanagement under Garcia is mainly responsible for these mass layoffs. The revelations will show the voters just what was going on under Garcia and her bunch."