“If I sound a little shaky this morning, it’s because this is heartfelt.”
Tennessee State University board of trustees vice chair Pam Martin was addressing a state Senate committee on Feb. 7. She asked the committee members to keep TSU’s board alive another year or two rather than vacating it, as a recently filed bill aims to do.
Last year, the historically Black university’s board of trustees was threatened with similar actions after a report from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury highlighted communication, finance and student-housing issues at TSU. The report also suggested potential policy actions such as reconfiguring the board or handing it to the Tennessee Board of Regents, but the TSU board had a year to address those findings. Now Republicans don’t seem interested in giving its members any more time.
“[I] think we need a new board in place as soon as possible,” Sen. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol) told the Scene ahead of the committee meeting.
Because the board is slated to sunset this year, its structure would cease to exist unless the General Assembly takes legislative action. Two bills seek to allow Gov. Bill Lee to appoint a new board this year, or if that doesn’t happen by June 30, allow the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to take it over if a board ceases to exist. The governor already has the power to appoint members to state university boards. State Rep. Harold Love (D-Nashville) is a TSU alumnus and represents the district in which the university is located. Though Love wants to see the board continue in its current iteration, he tells the Scene he has faith in the governor if Lee were to appoint new board members, noting that a certain number of board members must be alumni.
Following ongoing financial issue, bills would vacate the school’s board and turn control over to the state
During the Feb. 7 committee meeting, Martin acknowledged that “some things are not right, and we have been working very hard.” As she argued her case to extend the current board, she told lawmakers that its members’ institutional knowledge is important to maintain. Responding to accountability-related requests from the state, Martin said the board has worked with a consulting firm and requested reports on housing, scholarship, staffing and enrollment data from TSU management — all of which, she says, has resulted in “a change in personnel, policies and procedures.” According to Martin, TSU has also hired a facility management firm and established a customer service center. Martin says reconstituting the board would disrupt students, academics, faculty and donors — as well as the board’s search for a new president. TSU’s current president, Glenda Glover, will retire at the end of the school year.
Student trustee Shaun Wimberly Jr. testified alongside Martin. He reiterated that reconfiguring the board would negatively affect students. He told the Scene he’s experienced some of the issues described at TSU, but added that it hasn’t affected his academics, and that students in other colleges experience similar issues. He says the proposed changes add an air of uncertainty to student life.
“This is very hurtful,” Wimberly said during the committee meeting. “This is very destructive to not only the university but to the students.”
Student government representatives meet with Gov. Lee
State Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) represents the district home to TSU. She points to a long history of the school being underfunded by the state. Recently, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack sent a letter to Gov. Lee noting that school has been shorted more than $2.1 billion over the past 30 years alone, more than any other historically Black college or university across the country. A 2021 study led by Tennessee lawmakers found that the state has shorted TSU at least $544 million between 1956 and 2006. The state’s other land-grant school, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, hasn’t experienced underfunding like TSU — but the state did reduce UT’s board in 2018. In 2022, the state gave TSU $250 million to partially address the historic underfunding.
Last week, Oliver urged her colleagues to wait and see the results of a forensic audit requested by lawmakers last year before moving forward with the legislation.
“I won’t sit here and only see one side of the coin like my colleagues have done and ignore the effects that the chronic historical underfunding by the state has had on TSU,” Oliver said during the committee meeting. “I also won’t deny that there are legitimate reasons why members are frustrated with university leadership. Two facts can be true.”
