By Dr. Bobby Eugene Mills
AframNews
https://aframnews.com/
The incompetence and lack of fiscal integrity of TSU’s Board of Regents is on full display in the State Audit Report con- cerning TSU’s fiscal ineptness and inability to account for 451 million taxpayer dollars. The Board of Regents is the policy and procedures governing authority at TSU. Additionally, it is the responsibility of the Board of Regents to hire/fire Presidents. Unfortunately, TSU’s Board of Directors (Regents) in recent times has a history of hiring Presidents who cannot command the intellectual and moral respect of the faculty.
The President leads the faculty, as teaching and learning remain the central roles of higher education institutions. Hence, the President must be the President of the faculty, because without “quality” teaching/learning a university ceases to be a university, only a paycheck system. Spiritual moral question: has TSU turned inward to serve itself rather than the community it was created to serve? Moreover, how do we transform TSU into a Communiversity that invariably serves the larger community that it was created to serve? Lest we forget, TSU was created out of a racist mindset, separate and unequal in 1927. Thus, TSU for almost one hundred years has been the colored stepchild of the state of Texas.
Of course, under- funding and unfair race-based funding are not excuses for lack of fiscal integrity/ac- countability. Everything starts and ends with the policy and procedure oversight Board of Regents, because policies and procedures must govern an institution of higher learning, not personalities. This largely explains why TSU has not fully leveraged its Special Pur- pose Legislative Designation awarded by the Texas legisla- ture in 1973, because without a vision people perish.
TSU’s Board of Regents currently has nine members: five White and four Black. The current chairperson of the Board of Regents is White, and he previously chaired the finance committee for five years as a member of the Board of Regents. During this time, the Chief Financial Officer reported directly to the Chairperson of the Board of Regents’ finance committee, who is now the current Chairperson of the Board of Regents. The CFO oversees TSU’s finances remotely from Florida, visiting the campus only once a month. Long distance financial oversight, not on campus daily oversight. What an ungodly disgraceful shame. Currently, there are only two individuals on TSU’s Board of Regents that are graduates of TSU. Therefore, we can spiritually conclude that the overwhelming majority of TSU’s Board of Regents have no ethical-spiritual- moral investments in TSU’s long term futuristic success. Contrary to other state universities.
For example, I researched the make-up of three universities: University of Texas, Texas A & M University, and University of Houston. All university state board of regents consist of nine governing members. Therefore, all state-funded universities share this circumstance. At each of the three universities all nine members of the board of regents are graduates of the university on which they serve as a regent. Once again TSU only has two regents that are graduates. What a shame. TSU is at a historic spiritual crossroads. Which way? Excellence in achievement or oblivion. To ensure its continued existence, TSU should demand the appointment of Regents who are both spiritually, morally, and financially prepared to support the university’s commitment to Excellence in Achievement.
This includes hiring capable Presidential leadership, enacting shi ing policy approaches, making thoughtful administrative choices, and responsibly preserving institutional resources according to ethical-moral standards. Above all, TSU must demand quality Presidential and administrative leadership that spiritually understand that a university should never just become a paycheck system.
Thus, TSU must be about the business of quality student development, institutional development, and community development. Then and only then can TSU transform itself into a Communiversity set on a hill shining brightly as the educational developmental light of the Black community.
