LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
Exclusive: TSU admitted thousands of unqualified students over 3-year period
Texas Southern University admitted thousands of students who did not meet the college’s...
www.houstonchronicle.com
4,000 TxSu Students Admitted Did Not Meet Admissions Standards
- Thread starter LAW DAWG
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www.houstonchronicle.com
LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
Look at this way Fiyah, some colleges and universities wave admissions standards at times. Especially, those schools that are low resourced, historically underfunded and dependent on a state funding formula that in part is based on enrollment numbers. My Texas Southern has had to survive that way most of its life, it just was called "Opened Admissions" and as a result went over most peoples head what was really going on and why.
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LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
Texas Southern University admitted 4,000 students over three years who were not qualified
Texas Southern University admitted thousands of students who did not meet the college’s academic criteria and awarded a total of $2.1 million in scholarships over a three-year period to hundreds of students who were not qualified, according to a recent review.
The five-page executive summary of the college’s admissions and enrollment process, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, details consulting firm Berkeley Research Group’s review into the school’s admissions, financial aid and administration practices, and cites higher numbers of students who fall short of academic criteria than previously reported.
The review, ordered by the TSU Board of Regents, revealed that half of the students — or 4,141 of 8,273 — admitted to TSU in the fall semesters of 2017, 2018 and 2019 did not meet TSU’s academic criteria and were admitted “based on a variety of undocumented scenarios.”
Incoming students must have a 2.5 minimum GPA, and a combined SAT score of 820 or higher if taken before March 2016 or a score of 900 if taken after that date, according to the college. Those who take the ACT must earn a composite score of 17.
TSU’s interim President Kenneth Huewitt said in a written statement that the university received the Berkeley report and submitted it to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas State Auditor’s Office, as required.
“Most important, we will continue to address this issue and the recommendations listed in the report,” Huewitt wrote.
Albert Myres Sr., chairman of TSU’s Board of Regents, said the long-awaited report was disappointing, but it’s another step toward getting the university on the right path with compliance and strengthening the university’s connection with the greater community and businesses.
“We’re going to have to digest the data. Even though (the data) is not favorable, even though it’s upsetting, what we have to do is put it into perspective and say ‘Let’s not let it happen again,’” Myres said. “…We have to look at it for what it is, what we’re going to do to correct it, improve it and give these students at this university what they deserve.”
Board member Marc Carter said in a written statement that he was appalled by the report’s findings, saying “scholarships should go to students that meet admission standards but cannot afford tuition and to students for high academic achievement.”
“Nothing devalues a degree more than not adhering to admission standards,” Carter said, adding that past practices have harmed the TSU brand. “… The board is committed to reversing the practice, increasing admission standards and focusing on being the best HBCU rather than the biggest.”
‘Exceptions were made’
The Berkeley summary of the report said “exceptions were made to TSU’s academic admissions criteria without sufficient documentation or (Board of Regents) approval” that allowed students to be admitted.
Those who were admitted but did not meet TSU’s admissions criteria did worse than students who did, and were less likely to remain enrolled at the school, the review found.
Around 63 percent of students in the fall 2017 cohort and around 49 percent in fall 2018 were no longer enrolled at TSU in fall 2019, according to the report. TSU’s fall 2017 cohort, of which 56 percent did not meet academic criteria, saw the highest number of withdrawals within the students’ first semester.
The research group reported that the board-approved criteria for several financial aid and scholarship programs, including the Texas B-On-Time Loan, Maroon and Gray Program, the Helen Giddings College Completion Program, and the First-time Freshmen Scholarships, were not always applied and were sometimes changed without approval or sufficient documentation.
Students were still given an average of around $30,000 in financial aid in 2018, $28,800 in 2018, and more than $21,100 in 2019.
Myres said he found the data on attrition especially disheartening.
“That number is showing you want happens when you (admit students) if they’re not prepared,” Myres said.
Berkeley’s analysis comes after controversy at the school that includes an investigation into TSU’s law school admissions, which revealed several students had been fraudulently admitted, as well as the ousting of former president Austin Lane in February. Lane had served as president since 2016 and is now being considered for the position of chancellor at Southern Illinois University.
The university’s board hired the research group to conduct the admissions audit following the issues at the school and previous claims and concerns.
According to the report, a TSU employee submitted an anonymous complaint to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in November 2018, saying the college tried to increase enrollment by encouraging staff to admit all candidates, regardless of their qualifications.
TSU’s office of internal audit and insurance investigated and later issued a report that cited criteria for incoming students and the percentages of students who were considered “exceptions,” based on their participation in TSU’s summer success program or the application of a sliding scale. But the TSU office’s report, the Berkeley Research Group wrote in its recent review, included inaccuracies and much lower numbers regarding students who didn’t meet the admissions criteria.
Myres called the contrast between the reports “troubling … from an internal audit perspective” but added that it will be addressed.
The Berkeley review made several recommendations for TSU, including establishing an automated admissions criteria formula, redesigning freshman scholarship programs, and additional budgeting and accounting of awards to help determine how scholarship and financial aid is used. The group also recommended requiring an annual report be submitted to the board of regents and the need to analyze student success and improve graduation rates.
More recommendations
New goals to help shape decision-making, including those made on “borderline” students, should be established and documented, the research group said. The review also recommended that TSU re-issue an updated and accurate report to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and that all changes and exceptions to the admissions policy be approved by the board.
Myres said the board of regents and the president will meet to discuss how the recommendations can be incorporated.
“I think the report turns on a light of clarity in terms of the admissions process at the university,” Myres said. “What my job is now is to put the right policies in place, work with President Huewitt and his people to put forth the right effort … and put in place steps and different scenarios to where we make sure this university is operating” correctly.
Myres said moving forward the board and president will focus on the students and ensuring that that the university has a “value proposition” and that students will have a degree of value that will make them competitive in the marketplace and help them get a job.
“We’ve got to get past everything that’s being printed, everything that’s being communicated about this university. There are some very good things that are happening there, and those are the things that we need to get at the forefront,” Myres said. “That’s where I really want to get. It might take a minute, but we’re working in that direction.”
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Most public HBCU's were "Open Admission" schools, as that was the only way we could get in college.
LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
You get no argument from me. I was just pointing out, IMO, why up until recently it had always been the practice at my Texas Southern.
I am not shocked tbh.....But I find it funny how some people want to be in SU business about this and that, yet our enrollment is rebounding. Yet the first thing they want to talk about is how their facilities are top notch etc...When you have to DO ALL THIS when you are supposedly top notch.. It says a lot about your institution.....
People knew what was going on...Ex President and some board members
People knew what was going on...Ex President and some board members
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LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
It sounds like it, but it was not.....nor was it for the reasons listed in the report. Think about it for a millisecond, the one metric that will always tell what you're admitting is the graduation rate. The regents new exactly what was going on and went along with it until things devolved from professionalism to personality conflicts with Lane.
With that said, Lane isn't entirely innocent. The safe route would have been to continue the admissions practices of the last administration and leave any waiving of admissions practices to the board.
Hopefully, from here on out we'll get our s _ _ t together.
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J-State2DaPoint
"Eye Of The Tiger"
Damn. That was hard to read.
He wasn't there long enough for any of the admitted students to affect the graduation rate. It's a 6 year number.
GRAM4LIFE
Well-Known Member
I know they did and I will leave it there.
LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
He didn't have to be president six years for them to know who and what was being admitted to my dear TSU. They already knew what type of students were being admitted based on our historically low graduation rate. True the graduation rate is a six year number, but it is a perpetual number that is calculated annually, not every six years. The regents knew what the outcome of the study was before the report even came out. They not only have access to graduation rates, but they have access to retention rates as well. A study was not needed it amounts just a waste of time and money. It only served one purpose, but that purpose was eliminated by Lane departing before its completion. That report would have never saw the light of day if Lane wasn't the sole finalist for the chancellor job at SIU, but he is so it has been released to help them save face at the expense of dragging my TSU further in the mud.
No regent(s) or trustee should come into an institution handling things in a way that will likely take a university years to recover from. They claimed Lane was hurting the brand at TSU, but no one has harmed the brand much as they have in their pursuit to fire him and save face. He is gone and they are still releasing information that at this point only hurts TSU.
It was reported just last month, April 15, 2020 to be exact, that over a twelve year period from 2006-2018 Rice University intentionally engaged in a pattern and practice to defraud the federal government in its use of national science research grants. They settled the matter quietly by paying a $3.7M fine. Their regents/trustees handled it as discreetly as possible and have moved on. It was a one day story in the newspaper. The school and its brand only minimally harmed as a result, but regents at HBCUs act a damn fool leading to multiple negative news accounts and it's supposed to somehow be okay.
Rice University pays to resolve claims it defrauded federal grant program
William Marsh Rice University has paid the United States more than $3.7 million to resolve claims it engaged in a pattern and practice of improperly charging National Science Foundation (NSF) research and development awards
Rice pays $3.7M in science foundation fraud case
Rice University paid the U.S. government more than $3.7 million to resolve claims that it...
www.houstonchronicle.com
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I think you're misunderstanding what I was saying. None of the kids admitted during his tenure have counted in any of the graduation rate calculations during that same period.He didn't have to be president six years for them to know who and what was being admitted to my dear TSU. They already knew what type of students were being admitted based on our historically low graduation rate. True the graduation rate is a six year number, but it is a perpetual number that is calculated annually, not every six years. The regents knew what the outcome of the study was before the report even came out. They not only have access to graduation rates, but they have access to retention rates as well. A study was not needed and just a waste of time and money. It only served one purpose, but that purpose was eliminated by Lane departing before its completion. That report would have never saw the light of day if Lane wasn't the sole finalist for the chancellor job at SIU, but he is so it has been released to help them save face at the expense of dragging my TSU further in the mud.
No regent(s) or trustee should come into an institution handling things in a way that will likely take a university years to recover from. They claimed Lane was hurting the brand at TSU, but no one has harmed the brand much as they have in their pursuit to fire him and save face. He is gone and they are still releasing information that at this point only hurts TSU.
It was reported just last month, April 15, 2022 to be exact, that over a twelve year period from 2006-2018 Rice University intentionally engaged in a pattern and practice to defraud the federal government in its use of national science research grants. They settled the matter quietly by paying a $3.7M fine. Their regents/trustees handled it as discreetly as possible and have moved on. It was a one day story in the newspaper. The school and its brand only minimally harmed as a result, but regents at HBCUs act a damn fool leading to multiple negative news accounts and it's supposed to somehow be okay.
Rice University pays to resolve claims it defrauded federal grant program
William Marsh Rice University has paid the United States more than $3.7 million to resolve claims it engaged in a pattern and practice of improperly charging National Science Foundation (NSF) research and development awardswww.justice.gov
Rice pays $3.7M in science foundation fraud case
Rice University paid the U.S. government more than $3.7 million to resolve claims that it...
Also, the audit report on the law school issues was issued a good month ago. This report on the undergraduate admissions and scholarships was going to be issued regardless of the status of Lane's employment at SIU. We're used to them at SU and Grambling because they happen multiple times a year.
LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
I probably did misunderstand you. It is not easy for me to be objective about this.
JAG89
THE NEW AMERICA'S TEAM
I think that most who have something negative to say about SU is personal. You have to agree that SU have pissed off many over the years.
Many colleges and universities have programs that bridge students with the hope of them completing their bachelor's degree. SU not to long ago started a program thru SU-SHREVEPORT, where students could live on the BR campus and have access to student life while taken online classes through the bridge program thru SUSLA. These students applied to the SUBR campus but could not make the admission standards.
But to blatantly accept students in the thousands that you knew did not have the qualifications to be admitted his reprehensible...It makes me wonder what TXSU true enrollment is.. How many students out of the 11,000 actually got accept with the admission standards set in place.
But to blatantly accept students in the thousands that you knew did not have the qualifications to be admitted his reprehensible...It makes me wonder what TXSU true enrollment is.. How many students out of the 11,000 actually got accept with the admission standards set in place.
LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
No need to wonder, read the article and do the arithmetic. If you stop trying to make it about SU you would have noticed that.
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Not trying to make it about SU many Colleges have bridge programs..Including UH... Instead of trying to boost your enrollment TXSU should have being doing some research.. Bridge programs is NOTHING NEW.. BUT like I said when the only thing you can boast about is being the largest university in the swac it is telling.
Storm96
Well-Known Member
So now they trying to raise the undergraduate GPA admission requirement from 2.5 to 3.5. What the hell are they smoking down there?
www.houstonchronicle.com
Texas Southern University’s board of regents will discuss increasing GPA requirements and waiving test scores in a special board meeting Monday.
Texas Southern University’s board of regents will discuss the possibility of increasing...
www.houstonchronicle.com
Storm96
Well-Known Member
LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
So now they trying to raise the undergraduate GPA admission requirement from 2.5 to 3.5. What the hell are they smoking down there?
Texas Southern University’s board of regents will discuss increasing GPA requirements and waiving test scores in a special board meeting Monday.
Texas Southern University’s board of regents will discuss the possibility of increasing...
At this point I'm starting to think our latest set of regents are Trumpsters. I"ve never witnessed a TSU board make as many errors publicly as this board has and continues to do. They are a public relations nightmare.
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