Governor Perry demands TSU fix their money problems

(1/25/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- The interim president of Texas Southern University was in Austin Wednesday asking for more funding for his school. But he didn't want to talk to us about it. Now, the governor is talking, demanding the university come up with a solution to fix the financial problems at the school.

Just hours after TSU interim President J. Timothy Boddie, Jr., went to Austin to ask for more funding, the governor sent a stiff message to TSU regents -- fix the money problems and fix them quickly. Those money problems could lead to some employees losing their job.

It could mean as many as 200 job cuts at the university, which is 20% of the university's staff. The governor's office tells us TSU doesn't have enough cash on hand to make it to the end of the fiscal year in September.

They're $20 million short and they'll need to go to the legislature to ask for the money to bail them out for this year alone. TSU is promising they'll do it all with no tuition raise to students.

It's a huge mess at TSU, but university leadership tells us they didn't know how serious it was.

"I'm not going to say they lied. I'm saying we didn't get a correct snapshot, so I'm going to push it to them now that we do get a correct snapshot of what's going on here at TSU," said TSU Regent Harry Johnson. "I think, like anybody else, it's time for us to correct it."

This didn't just happen to the university, but the regents say they are now just finding out about it. They're blaming former administrators, among them former President Priscilla Slade, for poor management. TSU spent $2.5 million it didn't budget for. It hired 190 employees the state didn't approve.

TSU needs $54 million worth of repair over 10 years, including finding a way to keep water from filling up the administration building's basement. Equally costly is $34 million worth of construction debt over the next decade, which the university has no way of paying for.

Governor Perry has given the regents a month to come up with a plan.

"We thought we had the money and it's proving now we did not, so now we're taking corrective actions," said Johnson.

The governor's office tells us that if the board of regents does not come up with a plan that includes serious changes in the next 30 days, he expects the entire board to resign. Of course, there's always the threat that when this school goes to the legislature in Austin asking for that $20 million that the legislature could say they want to absorb now-independent TSU into the larger state university system. Alleged financial mismanagement has been the story at TSU for several months. Slade is accused of spending almost $2 million on landscaping and artwork. She has pleaded not guilty and will go on trial in a few months.

And as we first reported Tuesday, the school's tennis program has been suspended after allegations of unpaid scholarships. Many players claim they were promised a full ride by the tennis coach, but never saw a cent.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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