NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Already under duress at the threat of losing its board, Tennessee State University is under further scrutiny with a new audit report from the Tennessee Office of the Comptroller.
TSU has experienced audit findings before about how it deals with the school's finances. Those previous findings influenced state lawmakers to craft legislation to vacate the school's board, a point of contention in the legislature now. The House version of the bill would partially vacate the board with three people removed and replaced by Gov. Bill Lee. The Senate version would take everyone off and have Lee replace every position.
TSU wasn't the only university with findings. There were three others, as well.
How can I read the audit for myself? You can read the whole audit here, which TSU starts on page 20.
Previously, Comptroller Jason Mumpower said the financial audit on TSU found the most issues of any state entity and that some of these problems had been repeating for the last five to seven years.
The report for 2023 has six findings:
- TSU didn't follow federal guidance for Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund during the COVID time period. This totaled to $318,113 in question.
- The financial aid office didn't adequately reconcile its direct loan records to the Direct Loan Servicing System's records as required by federal regulations, and could not resolve discrepancies timely.
- TSU didn't have adequate procedures to ensure Title IV credits were refunded timely per federal guidelines.
- For the federal direct loan and Pell grant programs, TSU didn't report timely and accurate information regarding students' enrollment statuses.
- TSU didn't return Title IV fund in compliance with federal regulations.
- TSU's Office of Financial Aid granted Title IV funds to ineligible students.
In the audit, TSU could respond to each finding — some of which they agreed on. Some of the people who were employed during the time of the discrepancies are no longer working with TSU, the university reported back to the comptroller's office.
TSU said its bursar's office had undergone restructuring overall to help with some of the problems noted in the audit. TSU reported it would hire more staff to oversee enrollment.
I reached out to TSU about this. They replied before our afternoon newscasts.
"TSU has implemented corrective measures as outlined in our summaries and has addressed these findings from 2023. The university will continue to take proactive steps, as we are certain the other public institutions and departments named in the report will do, to improve our delivery of services to students. We remain committed to enhancing all areas of operations."
How we've covered TSU on this topic
TSU and the state have been at odds with the school's leadership for the last two years.
President Glenda Glover will step down this summer after years with the university. While she is beloved, TSU hasn't gone without its problems.
TSU experienced an influx of enrollment, which resulted in a housing crisis. That caused students to live in hotel rooms. The university also struggled with distributing scholarship money, which crippled how students were going to make it through their semesters. We interviewed multiple students about their issues with the school.
From 2022: State audit into TSU leaves big question for future housing issues
Last year, TSU received 86 pages of findings, detailing some financial reporting irregularities. Statehouse reporter Chris Davis delved into those pages.
Mumpower's office focused on the housing crisis on campus that started back in 2017. It was only made worse in 2022, when TSU quadrupled the scholarship budget from $6.4 million to $28.3 million, with dorm space limited for that influx of students.
The 2023 report made 12 policy suggestions that range from requesting more paperwork from TSU to severe punishments like placing TSU under the authority of the Tennessee Board of Regents, vacating and restructuring the TSU Board of Trustees and replacing current TSU management. Davis has continued to cover what the future of TSU might look like as the legislature is considering that restructuring.
Additionally last year, the federal government wrote a letter to Gov. Bill Lee explaining that Tennessee State University is owed $2.1 billion in back pay for underfunding the school.
I looked into what that meant.
Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee are land-grant colleges. As outlined in the Second Morrill Act of 1890, all land-grant colleges should receive the same funding. A land-grant college is a research-based school within the state. Both schools have extensions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and both have agriculture programs.
In essence, TSU still had to function as a land grant college without the same funding, the letter stated. I looked to see if the University of Tennessee and TSU were funded the same. We looked through 10 years worth of state budgets to figure out that the two are not funded the same.
Our in-depth reporting: Is the state funding University of Tennessee and TSU students the same? No.
There has been no conversation in the legislature in 2024 about the federal government's letter.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
