Priscilla Slade

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Priscilla Dean Slade was president of Texas Southern University (TSU) from October 27, 1999, until June 2006.

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[edit] Education

She holds a doctor of philosophy degree in accountancy from The University of Texas at Austin, a master's degree from Jackson State University, and a bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University.

[edit] Career at TSU

Slade joined the TSU faculty in October 1991 as the chair of the accounting department. In 1992, she was named dean of the school of business. In 1999, she was named president of the university. In 2006 she was fired as President of TSU following an audit that found she had used more than $650,000 in university funds to cover personal expenses (including personal landscaping, kitchenware, and a massive bar tab) over a period of seven years. Subsequently she was indicted on four felony counts. Her trial in the early fall of 2007 ended in a hung jury; she was scheduled to be retried in the spring of 2008 but made a plea deal with the prosecution on March 26, 2008. In the deal, she pleaded "No Contest" to the charges against her and agreed to 10 years of deferred adjudication, to repay $127,672.18 to the school, and serve 400 hours of community service.

Quintin F. Wiggins, who had served as Chief Financial Officer of the university during Dr. Slade's tenure as president, was found guilty of similar charges and sentenced to ten years in prison; he is appealing his conviction. Bruce Wilson, former Vice President for Purchasing, is awaiting trial. In March of 2008 prosecutors raised the possibility of allowing both men to testify against Dr. Slade in her retrial, in return for immunity.

In December of 2007 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed Texas Southern University on probation.

[edit] Accomplishments

As president and chief executive officer, Dr. Slade led the second-largest Historically Black College and University in the nation with an enrollment of more than 11,000 students and 900 faculty and staff. She oversaw, however controversially, an annual budget of nearly $130 million and a campus infrastructure of 40 buildings on 115 acres.

Slade assumed the presidency in 1999, during a turbulent period in the University's history. Shortly after her appointment she instituted Five Points of Vision, which would be implemented as Texas Southern University’s guiding principles and were intended to support the campus’ mission ("Excellence in Achievement") by (1) restoring stakeholder confidence, (2) increasing enrollment to record levels, (3) facilitating institutional effectiveness and accountability, (4) expanding academic programs and facilities projects, and (5) positioning TSU as a “doctoral/research intensive” campus and a premier institution of urban programming in the first class.

The Five Points of Vision were applied particularly to the following areas:

• Planning and administration • External relationships • Student services • Campus enhancements • Academics • Information technology • Business and finance

[edit] Notes

Planning and administration

While her legacy will likely be permanently overshadowed by allegations of financial self-dealing and by the dire fiscal and academic situation in which the university found itself following her dismissal, Dr. Slade accomplished a number of goals during her tenure as president. These include:

Developing and implementing a long-term Management Improvement Plan, which formed the beginning of a strategic planning process with built-in accountability; establishing a short- and long-term planning process, to include development and implementation of a five-year strategic plan (tied to vision) facilitated by one-year unit-level action plans; establishing a system of accountability to encourage growth and productivity in the highest levels of management; instituting annual planning retreats for the executive management team; restructuring top-level management to move from crisis-operations mode to long-term strategic planning and operations mode, resulting in an 83.6 percent enrollment increase, an increase in alumni participation, and significantly increased state appropriations; increasing federal grant funding; reaccreditation following a threat of accreditation loss; removal from reimbursement basis of financing from DOEd; increasing TSU's bond rating from “junk bond” status to “A3”

[edit] References

[edit] External links