'Sorry, but the president spent your salary'

Who says TSU has accounting problems? Everything with regard to the university's books is done on the up and up — just ask former President Priscilla Slade, who's learned a thing or two about finances. And if you don't believe her, talk to Treva Mott, an instructor who has tapped into a bit of creative accounting we haven't heard of: She worked for more than two months as TSU and never got a paycheck. That's normal, right?

Mott told KHOU she moved to Houston from Virginia to take a job at TSU's Smiley School of Communication. In early March, Mott went through a week of training; then, from March 5 to May 14, she didn't teach but claims she was repeatedly told she was being paid anyway — except she didn't get a check. The situation struck Mott as odd, and it got more so when she had to verify employment for a child custody case back in Virginia. She asked James Ward, the dean of the communication school, for a letter saying she was a TSU employee, and he gave her one saying she had been employed since March and was making $3,200 a month. Mott said she had filled out all the necessary paperwork, so she called TSU's human resources department and was told they had never heard of her.

TSU says it's investigating, and Mott's supervisor, Cliff Edwards, wouldn't answer Channel 11's questions. It's a weird story all around: If Houstonist were Mott, we'd have been demanding a paycheck long before two months had gone by. On the other hand, if we believed we were getting paid for doing nothing, maybe we wouldn't.