NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee State University is already in the process of replacing their longtime president Glenda Glover, who announced her retirement last year. But that may not be the only leadership change at the school.
Senate Republicans advanced a measure Wednesday that would vacate the TSU Board of Trustees and replace it with new appointees.
"We have to make some changes," said Sen. Jon Lundberg, a Bristol Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee. "If you look at the faculty and staff, I think the majority of them are absolutely phenomenal. There is some challenges they have in leadership and management."
The controversy started last year, when the Tennessee Comptroller issued a scathing audit, criticizing TSU management on their oversight of scholarships, housing and enrollment. With the Tennessee Senate passing the measure out of the Senate Education Committee, all eyes are now on the Tennessee House.
"Just curious, what do you hope happens on the House side of what to do with the TSU board?" asked NewsChannel 5 during a Thursday news conference.
"Well, we’ve been in conversations. We’re working with individuals from the other, the Democratic Caucus as well on this issue," said Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, a Republican from Crossville. "I think that we have a path forward that either vacates or does remove people from the board. So we’re working through those options right now and we’ll see what happens."
One of those Democrats is Rep. Harold Love Jr. of Nashville. He agrees with TSU, that completely resetting the board would erase their progress and disrupt the search for who will become the university's next president.
"Certainly don’t want to have all the institutional knowledge, the institutional memory of a board go away in one fell swoop," said Love.
That's why he hopes to broker a compromise, to where only a few board members are replaced instead of all 10.
"I would think probably four or five is what would be the best result," he said.
It comes as several reports have also indicated that TSU has been chronically underfunded over the years. Love wants to change that too. "That by federal law, it’s supposed to have equitable and just funding comparable to the University of Tennessee," said Love.
But tackling that under-funding issue may spark a new, heated debate. Sen. Lundberg expressed some doubt whether the university's claims of under-funding were actually true.
"I’ve heard conflicting reports. Haven’t spent enough time on it to make sure for certain," said Lundberg.
TSU provided us a lengthy statement on why they feel like vacating their board would be damaging to the university:
Rep. Harold Love, Jr. is a part of the TSU family and understands the ramifications of passing the proposed, amended legislation. If the amended version of SB1596 ultimately becomes law, TSU students and faculty will be profoundly affected due to the significant and immediate disruption to the University’s academic activities and progress. The proposed legislation, if it becomes law, will also harm TSU’s student and faculty recruitment efforts, erase governance related institutional knowledge, potentially damage TSU’s relationship with grant agencies and current and prospective donors, and jeopardize TSU’s accreditation status.
The eradication of the Board also comes at a critical time, as the University is currently undergoing a national search for a new TSU president. As noted in today’s hearing, rather than vacating the Board, TSU needs infrastructure and operational support from the state to address the decades of underfunding of the state’s only public HBCU and urban based land grant institution.
We still believe the best course of action, for lawmakers, is to support the original bill as written that would extend the TSU board for one year. This course of action allows for a smooth transition in Presidential leadership and the addition of new board members through new appointments. This approach would serve the best interest of TSU and can still happen. We look forward to continuing to work with members of the House and the Senate to pass legislation authorizing a reasonable extension of the TSU Board. Rep. Love’s willingness to broker a compromise to avoid vacating the entire TSU Board of Trustees is to be commended and is aligned with our efforts to extend the board.”
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
