Stan Geiger

TCC: Growing Enrollment?

Back in 2003, Tulsa World reporter Omer Gillham wrote a series of investigative reports concerning TCC. I hope to do a post that reviews the dirt he dug up sometime between now and election day. But for now, I'll note one specific TCC lie that Gillham documented.

TCC, at the time, claimed an enrollment of 22,000 students. I contested that number---as did an inside source. Gillham pressed. An administrator ultimately admitted to the lie, and cut the number to 17,000. Even that tally was likely overstated, but it was at least closer to the truth.

Basically, the school was counting a student that was taking, say, two classes at two campuses as two different students.

Why lie about enrollment figures? Well, for occasions such as the one we are in now. TCC wants voters to approve $76 million in new debt, which will result in a temporary property tax increase, and a permanent property tax increase so the school can have more operating revenue. To justify its request, the school claims it has seen enrollment growth of 18 percent since 1999. And, according to KOTV's report last night, the school claims enrollment will grow by 20 percent over the next 10 years.

TCC officials have lied about enrollment in the past, which, all by itself, tends to throw a bucket of cold water on the school's claims of increasing enrollment today. But there is more.

After years and years of pounding away at the student body, increasing tuition and fees, adding new fees, charging more and more for books, doing anything to squeeze another buck out of a student, TCC suddenly decided to start giving it away.

Why would a school that has seen its enrollment climb by 18 percent since 1999 and is expecting continued enrollment growth for the coming decade throw the doors open and invite people in at no charge at all?

Remember, we're talking about educators here---people that spend most of their time and energy screaming for more money.

I don't have anything in the way of specifics on this, but I remember reading that TCC offered an early-retirement package for teachers a few years ago.

Why would a school that has seen enrollment growth since 1999, and is expecting more, offer early retirements to instructors in order to get rid of them?

In the mid '90s, I worked in what was called the Business Services Division of TCC's Metro Campus. I left in 1997. I have an old catalog from that year, so I took a look at the roster of full-time teachers employed by the division at that time. I counted 18.

I went to the web and found a page showing the roster today. I counted 15.

Half of the instructors that were on the payroll in my day---9 of them---are no longer listed. I can't say I know what happened to them, but they are no longer listed as teachers in the division.

In my day, there were two full-time accounting instructors in the division. I found only one listed now.

Yet college administrators claim enrollment is on the rise. And they claim they need a permanent tax increase because they need to hire teachers. Things don't quite seem to match up.

Incidentally, the lone accounting instructor of the day has the letters "J.D." and "C.P.A" after her name. That tells me she's a tax attorney. Tax attorneys, out in the real world, make a whole lot of money. Yet this one took a job as a full-time instructor, teaching basic accounting, at a junior college. Poor, downtrodden, underpaid educators?

When it comes to money for public education, no lie is too big. Keep that in mind.

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