As Texas Southern College (TSU) approaches its one centesimal anniversary in 2027, the establishment is reflecting on a century of affect whereas laying the groundwork for its future.
The college’s Board of Regents has unanimously authorised Ascend 2030, a complete strategic plan designed to information TSU into its second century of service and affect.
Roadmap for the subsequent century
Because it prepares to mark a century of affect, the college is setting its sights firmly on the long run.
To fulfill the problem of renewing, enhancing, and increasing TSU’s affect, Ascend 2030 seeks to align tutorial excellence, operational effectivity, and institutional progress round a central objective: making ready graduates to steer and affect the way forward for Texas and the nation.
“As we method 100 years of service, this plan represents the College’s mandate. Ascend 2030 is disciplined, data-informed, and designed for execution. It honors our legacy whereas positioning TSU to compete, innovate, and lead in a quickly altering world.”
– TSU President J. W. Crawford III
“As we method 100 years of service, this plan represents the College’s mandate,” stated TSU President J. W. Crawford III. “Ascend 2030 is disciplined, data-informed, and designed for execution. It honors our legacy whereas positioning TSU to compete, innovate, and lead in a quickly altering world — and to strengthen our position as a catalyst for financial progress in Houston and throughout Texas.”
Centering scholar success
At its core, Ascend 2030 locations scholar achievement on the heart of the college’s mission — increasing academic alternative, rising diploma completion, strengthening profession readiness, and rising doctoral schooling and utilized analysis tied to high-demand industries shaping Texas’ future.
On the similar time, the college plans to modernize monetary, human assets, and knowledge know-how methods whereas diversifying income streams and increasing partnerships that create better alternative for college kids and communities throughout the state.
Legacy rooted in entry and excellence
With TSU turning 100 subsequent yr, it is very important word the affect the varsity has had over time. One of many causes for the present Ascend 2030 plan is to each acknowledge TSU’s previous contributions to Houston, the state, nation, and world, and to place the college to have comparable impacts within the current and future.
Based throughout the period of segregation to supply Black college students entry to greater schooling when different Texas establishments barred them, TSU has lengthy been greater than a college. It has been a cornerstone of alternative and a key driver in constructing Houston’s Black center class.
Over the a long time, TSU has produced generations of pharmacists, attorneys, educators, artists, elected officers, and group leaders who’ve formed Houston, Texas, and the nation.
Among the many college’s most impactful establishments is the Thurgood Marshall Faculty of Regulation (TMSL), which has produced numerous attorneys, judges, and authorized advocates serving communities throughout the nation.
TSU can also be residence to the internationally revered Texas Southern College Debate Group, one of the vital adorned applications in collegiate debate historical past. Its alumni embody trailblazers akin to former U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, whose management and eloquence left an indelible mark on American politics.
The college’s affect additionally stretches deeply into arts and tradition. Legendary muralist John Biggers helped form generations of Black artists whereas educating at TSU, and Grammy-winning gospel singer Yolanda Adams stands amongst its celebrated alumni.
At each stage of presidency — metropolis, county, state, and federal — TSU graduates have served as policymakers and public servants, reinforcing the college’s position as a coaching floor for management and group change.
Strategic priorities
The strategic plan is organized round 4 core concepts meant to information the college’s subsequent section of improvement.
The primary, “Enabled by Know-how. Powered by Individuals,” focuses on embedding superior applied sciences — together with synthetic intelligence — into tutorial and operational methods to strengthen institutional efficiency.
Second, “Scholar Outcomes Outline Scholar Success” emphasizes aligning levels, credentials, and hands-on studying alternatives with measurable completion charges and profession outcomes.
Third, the plan envisions TSU changing into “The Nation’s Most Superior City Dwelling and Studying Surroundings,” leveraging its location in Houston to deepen connections with business, analysis companions, and experiential studying alternatives.
Lastly, “The Collaboration Hall” proposes constructing a purpose-driven ecosystem linking tutorial applications, analysis, philanthropy, and business partnerships to speed up innovation and long-term institutional progress.
Challenges
The plan comes at a time when TSU is going through severe challenges. Neighboring and rival HBCU Prairie View A&M College (PVAMU) has, for many years, lagged behind TSU in scholar enrollment. That’s not the case.
Latest information exhibits PVAMU hitting document enrollments, reaching 10,085 in Fall 2025, constructing on regular progress from 9,400 college students in 2023. TSU skilled a slight decline to roughly 8,137 in Fall 2024, following a smaller drop from its 8,469 in Fall 2023.
Moreover, the current transfer by the state of Texas to chop ties with the American Bar Affiliation (ABA) has many rightly nervous concerning the affect the transfer could have on TSU’s TMSL.
Daria Rose, a practising legal professional and Yale Regulation Faculty graduate, not too long ago sounded the alarm for her 62,400 Instagram followers about this seismic shift in authorized schooling.
“By eliminating the ABA, the schooling is not standardized,” Rose stated. “In the event you go to an ABA-accredited regulation faculty, you possibly can usually sit for the bar examination in any state.”
She additional defined that with out ABA accreditation, regulation levels and people who earn them grow to be geographically trapped and politically weak.
“It’s public regulation faculties and people college students who’re going to undergo. With out ABA accreditation, you’re primarily trapped in your state,” she stated. “[And] politicians get a bigger say over the curriculum, the college, the funding, and most significantly, the ideology,” shared Rose, a troubling evaluation for regulation faculties in states dominated by GOP lawmakers.
The implications are huge. The TMSL produces 43% of practising African-American legal professionals in Texas and 17% nationwide.
With out ABA accreditation, that pipeline of Black authorized expertise may shrink dramatically. Austen L. Parrish, dean of UC Irvine Faculty of Regulation, warned that faculties with out nationwide attain grow to be “much less enticing to college students.”
And TSU faces one other problem: an uphill climb to regain monetary autonomy because it approaches its centennial celebration amid a crippling state funding freeze.
Following a monetary audit that uncovered systemic mismanagement, TSU should now navigate intense state oversight to show that it may be trusted with its personal funds.
Board confidence
Nonetheless, TSU Board of Regents Chairman James Benham expressed robust assist for the plan.
“The Board of Regents is absolutely aligned behind Ascend 2030 as a result of it does what a strategic plan ought to do — it units clear priorities, ties them to measurable outcomes, and provides the College an actual framework for accountability,” said Benham. “President Crawford and his staff constructed this plan round what TSU really must compete on the highest stage over the subsequent decade: modernized methods, stronger scholar outcomes, and deeper ties to Houston’s economic system and employer base.
“We’re not simply planning for the centennial — we’re laying the muse for the subsequent hundred years.”
For almost a century, TSU has stood as a gateway to alternative for generations of Black Texans and past. Because the college approaches its centennial, Ascend 2030 represents an effort to make sure that the legacy of entry, management, and group transformation continues effectively into its subsequent hundred years.
