Though there remains some resistance at Texas Southern University to even this small step forward by that failed institution of what is misleadingly called "higher education."

Which is quite scary, given the minimal standards that are being set.

The admissions proposal includes:

•Requiring all entering students to have a 2.0 grade-point average in high school.

•Requiring that they take either the SAT or ACT, although no minimum score has been set.

•Students who don't meet the standards would have to attend a summer program; if they don't successfully complete that, they will be referred to community college but accorded status as students at both TSU and the two-year school. TSU would provide counseling and their community credits would transfer to TSU, said interim Provost James Douglas.

•The best teachers would be shifted to freshmen classes, and all students would be required to attend class.

Imagine that -- being required to show that you can keep your head above C-level in high school before being admitted to a four-year "university". Being required to take one of the national college admissions test -- even though that is the entire requirement, as no minimum score is set by the school. That anyone would object to these proposals (other than to say they are insufficiently rigorous) is absurd.

Over six decades ago, Texas Democrats established the Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University) in an effort to ensure that blacks in the state of Texas continued to have fewer educational opportunities than whites, received a poorer education, and received degrees that were of inferior quality than those received by the (white) students of the state's top-tier schools, the University of Texas and Texas A&M. It is sad to see that in 2008, there are still those who want to ensure that the vision of those racist segregationist Democrats is fulfilled by failing to hold the overwhelmingly African-American student body to even minimal academic standards.

Of course, the best option available option would still be to fold TSU into the much more successful University of Houston system -- especially since TSU and the main UH campus are mere blocks apart. But if we are going to continue to allow the school to survive as a stand-alone institution, these new standards are the very least that should be accepted -- and the taxpayers of the state of Texas should be demanding much more.