The Breakup

This article reports on the breakup between Texas Southmost College (TSC) and the upper-division University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB). The split marks the official end of an unusual 20-year partnership between TSC and the University of Texas System that, for the first time, ushered 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 UTB 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. Some observers wonder whether the quality of local higher education will suffer once UTB and TSC split. Squabbling will likely continue as the partnership winds down, but Texas higher education commissioner, Dr. Raymund Paredes, hopes it will not harm students.