TSU tennis program under investigation

Sure, most of the TSU-related news lately has been focused on former President Priscilla Slade, who's now awaiting trial on charges of spending $2 million in state funds on personal stuff — but that doesn't mean there aren't other, uh, irregular things going on at the university. Case in point: The NCAA is investigating TSU's tennis program based on accusations of "scholarship irregularities," and both the men's and women's teams have been suspended for the spring semester.

KTRK talked to Carlos Garcia, a Venezuelan who came to Houston to play tennis at TSU and found one day that he wasn't getting the money from the full scholarship he had been promised. He expected to have all bills paid, but has ended up paying all his bills — and he can't even take the court. "I expected to practice, to get equipment, to get everything," he told Channel 13. "It's not gonna happen." A player on the women's team, Priscilla Cervantes, puts the blame squarely on tennis coach Alberto Rojo Jimenez: "He was the one having control over the money so he had to pay. He was always late," she said. "We always had to tell him. In the end, we got evicted. That's when everything started here at the university."

The players on scholarship have been told their tuition and books will be covered this semester, but it's not clear exactly what's going on: The university won't release any details because the NCAA investigation is under way, and KTRK wasn't able to find Jimenez to interview him. According to a university statement, "The university will regroup and develop a program that benefits the students and TSU" — though the school hasn't said when that might happen. As for the student athletes, they may not stick around to find out: "My grades went down last semester," Cervantes told Channel 13. "Right now, I don't even want to think about this anymore. I just want to get through this semester and transfer to another university. I am through with this."