In Defense of the University

It's quite common to bash Juliet V. Garcia here in the Valleyblogosphere.
And I'm sure a lot of bloggers may have genuine grievances against the prez and the universities.
I'm proud to say I'm not one of those.

And it's not just hechandole madres to President Garcia, but to the university itself. And that's where I take issue with the criticism. It's personal.

See, without UTB/TSC...we'd just be Pan Am, Jr. But hell, given the defeatist attitude of half the valley, it's what people want, isn't it? Something easy. A rubber-stamp university. Something that's jussssst enough to get a simple job.
But it can't be like that.
Why should things be that simple? Why should we just up and settle for the easiest thing? We have to erase this mindset if we want the valley to grow.

Then comes the issue about tuition, and the rising costs of fees that was approved by the TSC Board and Dr. Garcia herself.
"Oh, noes! We're going to have to pay more!"
Gas prices are up. Groceries are up. EVERYTHING is up. Why should tuition be any different? College IS STILL AFFORDABLE.

About 2,000 dollars per 15 credit hours. It's no chump change, but answer this--can you really put a price tag for your education?
The answer is no.
UTB/TSC is a great university now, in our very own backyard, no longer the Pan Am Jr. it was 15 years ago. People, capitalize on it! Brownsville needs us.

Now, if tuition and fees are that big of a problem for you, you're more than welcome to show up at the tuition and fee hearings they have every two years.
The voice of the community was largely absent in the hearings last fall. Few, if any, students showed up. And from the community, the only one who showed up was a very angry man who had a number of good points but did not make a good case for himself presenting them.

We need Scorpions, and we need members of the community there.

On to other criticisms. People have strongly criticized the university's expansion.
Again, what's wrong with trying to become a better university?
A new library. A new classroom building. A new theatre. An almost-complete recreation center.
Do people not want to progress?

Yeah. These things will cost money. But so what? Can't we just put the selfishness aside and invest in the future of not ourselves, but our families?

I'll give you an example. The UTB/TSC Athletic fee almost 2 years ago. A lot of people were against it, but I wasn't. Why? For the future.

Without the likes of Dr. Garcia, Mary Rose Cardenas, and the like, we'd be in the same place we were, 30 years ago.


Forget the past and progress!