An external review of admissions irregularities at Texas Southern University found that the school awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to students who did not meet its academic admissions criteria from fall 2017 through 2019, according to an executive summary released Thursday.
The full report, also reviewed by The Texas Tribune, says an anonymous complaint was sent to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in November 2018, alleging that the university, one of the country’s largest historically black colleges, “tried to increase enrollment by encouraging staff to admit all candidates, regardless of whether the candidate met the university’s academic admissions criteria.”
The university’s office of internal audit issued a report about six months later, including the number of admitted students who did not meet the baseline academic admissions criteria.
The document caps a tumultuous year at Texas Southern, as officials contended with allegations of bribery and improprieties in its law school’s admissions process that were first disclosed in November.
A whistleblower letter and complaint filed with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, both referenced in the March report, make broad accusations that scholarships were given to failing students to inflate enrollment numbers and that unqualified students were admitted.