HOUSTON -- Texas Southern University students rallied on Thursday to express their opposition to the governor's plan to install a conservatorship, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Students denounced Gov. Rick Perry's plan and chanted, "no conservatorship."

"This move would further tarnish the image of the second-largest historically black college and university," Student Government President Clare Bailey said.

Some students said they are worried that the school would lose its accreditation and their degrees would be worthless.

Beyond degrading the value of degrees earned at TSU, losing accreditation would also mean the federal government would stop providing financial aid for students attending the university, said Belle Wheelan, who heads the college division of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the regional accrediting body for 780 colleges and universities in 11 Southern states including Texas.

The vast majority of students at TSU, an open-enrollment university, receive federal financial aid.

"We're going to stand up in the name of Mickey Leland and Barbara Jordan and all those who graduated from this school," said the Rev. Robert Muhammad with the Nation of Islam. "We're going to stand up. We're going to resist. We're going to overcome."

Perry decided to place TSU under a state conservator after the school was rocked with allegations of misspending, corruption and mismanagement.

If a conservator took over TSU, it would violate the association's requirement that an institution have a multi-person board, Wheelan said, and "the commission would be required to take some action. It would indeed get our attention and we would go down and find out what's going on."

Perry spokesman Robert Black said the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board spoke with several accreditation agencies, which said "they would welcome a strong, decisive action by the state because that would show some proactive efforts."

The Texas Legislative Black Caucus, which objects to Perry's plan, is working on an alternative to the drastic measure, which they say amounts to a government takeover.