Items acted on should be in the county our trustees represent.
If you showed up to Killen Center Tuesday for the Alamo Colleges’ regularly scheduled board meeting to voice your thoughts on a proposed change in tuition, you were probably in shock when you found their meeting room empty.
This was because the Alamo Colleges board of trustees decided to hold the meeting — in which they voted on agenda items — at the Central Texas Technology Center in New Braunfels, away from the county that pays taxes and elected them as trustees.
There is nothing wrong with the board wanting to show off the district’s expansion efforts; however, it becomes a big problem when you are removing yourself from the very population you represent and acting on items that affect them.
Who thought that was a good idea?
It’s no wonder no one showed up at citizens-to-be-heard, and even trustees showed up late to a meeting that required you to essentially leave by 4 p.m. from this college or risk competing with Interstate 35 traffic.
That is not even considering the travel time it would take from Northwest Vista College and Palo Alto College.
How are you giving people any opportunity to be heard on an issue outside of a survey with an unacceptable sample size?
The Student Government Associations at each of the five colleges conducted a survey through Orgsync, a student life website available on ACES. Of about 60,000 students, 852 responses were received.
Students at Pizza with the President Oct. 13 expressed objections to the tuition plan, and The Ranger received letters to the editor also in opposition.
None of those students or others who objected showed up in New Braunfels.
If trustees want to use a meeting to showcase something outside of Bexar County, they should call a special meeting with an agenda exclusive to that facility.
Now they’ve passed a new tuition schedule without giving citizens an opportunity to express their thoughts on the schedule.
That should give the trustees pause.
Let’s hope they made the right decision absent the perspective of the people they represent.
