Ask Texas Southmost College trustee Adela Garza about her school losing its longtime, wealthier university partner—University of Texas at Brownsville—and she is relieved, even proud. Praising the pending split, Garza expects tuition will fall and educators will be able to focus on preparing people for the workforce.
On the other hand, if one asks TSC trustee David Oliveira his opinion, he says the breakup between the community college and upper-division UTB will be “one of the greatest tragedies” his hometown might ever endure. “I don’t see any way we can maintain the current level of services without raising either tuition or taxes or both.”
Whether either trustee’s assessment is accurate remains to be seen. What is known is that TSC, which, along with UTB, serves one of the most impoverished areas of the country, are on a path fraught with financial risk and uncertainty. As UTB cuts ties with TSC, the outcome is expected to greatly affect a city of 176,000 whose 2009 per capita income was less than $14,000 annually.
The split will mark the official end of an unusual 20-year partnership between TSC and the University of Texas system that, for the first time, ushered a four-year university education into overwhelmingly Latino Brownsville, the southernmost city in Texas. For many years, residents had clamored for the opportunity to earn bachelor’s degrees without having to commute more than an hour to the nearest university.
However, the partnership is dissolving amid unresolved, long-running fiscal disputes between UT and TSC, as well as power struggles between two governing boards. At times, both governing boards have each tried to politically one-up the other. In recent years, the fracas has seen TSC demand more state monies for its role in the partnership and UT officials trying to swallow community college assets at the expense of taxpayers in Brownsville where about 29 percent of families live below the poverty level.
Some observers wonder whether the quality of local higher education will suffer once UTB and TSC split.
“Things can work out for both schools, but everyone is better off if there’s a high level of cooperation,” says Dr. Raymund Paredes, Texas higher education commissioner. “Too many south Texans need both schools.”
