However, the process is tedious and patience is wearing thin in the legislature. During hits testimony last month, State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, admonished Douglas: "I don't want to come here next [legislative] session and have us recounting the same problems. Whatever heads must go in order to protect the students, that must happen."
Nonetheless, TSU still needs operating money. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, wants the federal Education Department to revise the reimbursement arrangement with the college to allow TSU officials to draw down a percentage of its financial aid.
"I am asking them to recognize that there has been a good faith effort to correct the problems," Jackson Lee said in reference to Douglas's work. However, many say education officials have no reason to help TSU when it still owes the department millions.
King says racial pride and emotionalism are blocking discussions of reasonable solutions to TSU's problems, which should include joining a university system, as Prairie View A&M University has done. The historically Black college about fifty miles west of Houston became part of the predominantly white Texas A&M System more than a decade ago.
"Coming from Mr. King, I guess he
expressed his view. However, I don't see TSU
as being unable to solve its problem," says
Jones, president of the Houston alumni
association. "We ought to have brains
enough to run the school."
COPYRIGHT 1997 Cox, Matthews & Associates
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
