Former Texas Southern University’s law school dean of admissions given 8-year prison sentence

HOUSTON – A former dean of admissions will be spending nearly a decade behind bars.

According to the FBI Houston’s Field Division, Edward Wayne Rene, the former dean of admissions for the Thurgood Marshall Law School at Texas Southern University, was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

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Rene acted as the school’s chief enrollment officer and was employed as the law school’s Assistant Dean of Admissions since 1999, according to the school’s website.

However, court records revealed back in 2020, the FBI and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office launched a joint investigation into Rene because he “may have abused his power as the assistant dean of admissions and financial aid to privately enrich himself.”

In November 2020, KPRC previously reported how the university said an employee had been fired over improprieties in the admissions process, but did not specify who the employee was or what the improprieties were. At the time, the school said the findings of their internal audit were turned over to local authorities.

In February, TSU President Dr. Austin Lane was fired after the university’s board of regents voted 6-1 in favor of his termination.

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Records showed a student got a phone call back in 2017 from Rene about admission into the law school, along with a scholarship, but had to return whatever excess scholarship money to an undisclosed foundation. The total amount of excess scholarship money totaled out to be $46,715.43, according to court documents.

A similar situation happened with another student, where they had to reimburse Rene a total of $26,942.88.

As part of his prison punishment, Rene must also pay a restitution of $177,000 to TSU.

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