Perry creates TSU advisory panel

Gov. Rick Perry took another step Tuesday in his effort to get Texas Southern University's finances back on track: There's now an 11-member advisory panel in place, and it has been charged with finding a plan by mid-March to get TSU out of debt.

We talked last week about the school's financial troubles, which include millions of dollars in debt for capital improvements, building repairs, purchase orders and athletic program; without emergency funding, university officials said TSU might not make it to the end of the current fiscal year. That's the situation Perry told the 11 advisors — who include former local NAACP President Harold Jefferson, former UT-Austin president (and current Houston Endowment chief) Larry Faulkner and Judge Zinetta Burney — to find a way out of. "The governor is concerned that TSU needs to improve, get on the right track and become a first class university, and that's what I want to be a part of it," Jefferson told KTRK.

The group, which will be chaired by state Rep. Glenn Lewis of Fort Worth, has until March 15 to come up with recommendations for making TSU financially stable.