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Senate panel backs move to vacate TSU Board of Trustees – Tennessee Lookout [1]
['Sam Stockard', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-02-07
Despite TSU President Glenda Glover’s decision to step down this year amid criticism, a Senate committee opted to keep punishing the historically Black university, taking a step Wednesday to force out the university’s board of trustees.
The Senate Government Operations Committee voted to remove TSU’s 10-member board amid more than a year of complaints about the university’s operations, including complaints about scholarships and housing as enrollment escalated in fall 2022. The measure will go next to the Senate floor for a final vote.
The Senate’s move knocked Tennessee State University on its heels, creating a sense of uncertainty for the university community, Sen. Charlane Oliver said Wednesday.
The committee’s move doesn’t serve the students or “set them up for success,” the Nashville Democrat said, noting other options need to be considered.
“That will be catastrophic and detrimental,” Oliver said. “We’re going to send them further into chaos.”
The Senate also could consider placing TSU under the Tennessee Higher Education Commission if the state doesn’t put a new board into place by June 30. Gov. Bill Lee would appoint the new board.
Oliver contends TSU should be a “world-class” institution, but it hasn’t been funded adequately, especially with the Legislature shorting the university by $2.1 billion over the last 30-plus years, according to a federal study.
A separate state study found the Legislature shorted TSU – one Tennessee’s two land grant universities – by $150 million to $540 million over the course of a century. The Legislature then approved $250 million for campus upgrades two years ago. The money can’t be used for a campus dorm, but TSU plans to construct one nevertheless.
“The state has a huge debt to pay,” Oliver added, noting the state can’t continue to “micromanage” the university without providing the funds owed.
TSU student Shaun Wimberly Jr., a member of the TSU Board of Trustees, also questioned the committee’s action Wednesday.
“As a board member, I’m hurt. … As a student, I’m devastated,” Wimberly said.
Students need to learn more about the committee’s action while still studying the funding shortage over the last 100 years, he said.
He defended the board of trustees, saying it is working on the university’s problems, taking his views into consideration, as well as those of other students.
TSU doesn’t have enough housing for the number of students enrolled there, and the problem hit a crisis two years ago as the nation’s historically Black colleges saw a renaissance. Wimberly considers the criticism directed at TSU as far too “harsh” as lawmakers started digging in on the matter in the fall of 2022.
With Republican senators threatening to have her fired and with a $2 million audit of TSU’s finances starting, Glover announced last year she would step down June 30 to raise her voice on a “national platform.” Her decision came after Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower recommended a change in leadership, replacement of the TSU Board of Trustees and renewed oversight by the Tennessee Board of Regents even though his office found no financial wrongdoing by TSU in the state’s regular audit.
Mumpower’s spring report followed a fall 2022 pounding by a special Senate committee that told Glover she could be removed because of the way TSU handled a major influx of students without a plan for housing them.
Questions also were raised about the historically black university’s handling of scholarships – which increased to $28.3 million from $6.4 million – and whether students received all the money they thought was due them. Glover said at the time students were probably mistaken.
TSU’s 2022-23 freshmen class saw a 1,600-student increase that year that forced the university to make a last-minute request for extra hotels to house them.
The State Building Commission Executive Subcommittee approved another request by TSU to place students in hotels last fall at the same time it gave the OK for the University of Tennessee-Knoxville to use hotels for student housing.
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https://tennesseelookout.com/2024/02/07/senate-panel-backs-move-to-vacate-tsu-board-of-trustees/
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