Incompetence run amok at the school justifies this action.

Gov. Rick Perry asked Texas Southern University's regents to resign Friday in favor of a single conservator with extraordinary powers to make changes at the financially troubled school.

The governor did not announce who the conservator would be, but campus leaders have heard the name of Kerney Laday, a TXU Corp. board member and retired Xerox Corp. executive.

Pending Senate confirmation, Laday, 65, would be placed in charge of the university's spending, with the ability to fire any employee, hire new people and change the administrative structure. The conservator would likely be in place for a year, said Krista Moody, a spokeswoman for the governor.

The proposed move comes after a series of financial missteps and a spending scandal that led to criminal charges against the university's former president, Priscilla Slade, and three aides.

The state Senate and House leadership first must appoint a committee to authorize Perry's recommendation of conservatorship. Confirmation of his choice would come later.

"Conservatorship will bring a strong leader to the forefront of the university to reinstate accountability, take immediate and decisive action to correct mismanagement, and make the fiscal decisions necessary to get TSU back on track," the governor said in a statement.

I still have a better idea -- merge the school with the well-run, academically strong University of Houston, which is a matter of blocks away. That will strengthen the school and provide it with a much more stable source of leadership and funding. Keep it as a separate entity in the UH system, at a bare minimum, but provide such a step will provide it with the sort of support the institution really needs -- and keep it from continuing to be little more than a community college with a law school and a graduate program.

Posted by: Greg at 01:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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