BLINN ADMINISTRATORS SPEAK BEFORE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
A committee of the Blinn College Board of Trustees spoke before the House Committee on Higher Education on Wednesday night in Austin on the effects that state Rep John Raney’s House Bill 1903 would have on the Blinn Brenham campus, affects the state funding of the school based on contact hours.
Board President Douglas Borchardt, Board of Trustee member Carolyn Miller, and Interim President Dr. Ana Guzman took turns addressing the committee.
The funding bill would affect the Brenham, Bryan, Schulenburg and Sealy campuses, which highlights the districts problems with handling school finances. In order to make up the shortfall, there would need to be a continual need to raise tuition rates for students.
Representative Raney says that the Brenham campus has relied on the Bryan campus for years, and hopes that even if this bill does not pass, that it will encourage better fiscal responsibility from the college, and says that Brazos County is the reason the Brenham campus is still in existence.
Interim District President Dr.Ana Guzman believes that the issues is that the student population on the Bryan campus has grown to more than 12,000 students in comparison to Brenham, which has a little more than 2,000 students. She says the Bryan campus was only suppose to be able to support 7,000 students. She says she believes that growth of the student population would do much to make the Brenham campus self-supporting. Guzman also says that Blinn College will begin the process of not having to depend on other sources of money to sustain itself.
Miller told the committee that the school has failed to use resources properly, and that the plans to correct the problems “start now.”
Board President Douglas Borchardt said at Tuesday night’s Board of Trustee’s meeting that he believes the legislation is “an overreach of state government that significantly revokes local control and removes some of the decision making related to Blinn College to the Legislature.”
Washington County Chamber of Commerce president Page Michel says that the impact of the bill would have a negative effect on the Brenham economy and would affect the type of programs being offered on the campus.
The bill now goes to the Higher Education Committee, waiting for the next step in the process.