NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee State University has been through a tumultuous year.
The school has been fighting against underfunding, had its board vacated, been through three presidents and found themselves in a financial deficit.
This new year will prove crucial for the school, as the state is questioning how it will remain functional given its finances.
We break down what has happened in 2024.
TSU is running out of money.
TSU told lawmakers the school would run out of money between April and May, creating millions in deficit. Comptroller Jason Mumpower said that figure could be as high as $58 million, which he said the state would have to provide to keep the school open if something didn't change.
This fall, the school laid off more than 100 staff members, eliminated ads at the Nashville International Airport, cut band trips to away football games and nixed the football team staying at a hotel near the Tennessee Titans stadium before home football games.
The school is traveling in golf carts on campus, not vehicles, to keep fuel costs down. They are also repurposing assets, like furniture. The school also eliminated 117 contracts that duplicated services, saving $3.5 million.
State leaders will meet again in February to review the school's financial status.
The Tennesse Black Caucus is fighting with the comptroller.
The Tennessee Black Caucus — made up of Black Tennessee state legislators — has now called out Comptroller Mumpower for his dealing with the situation as it unfolded across the last state building commission in December. That is when the school and state leaders talked about turning the school's finances in a better direction.
The Black Caucus wrote that the Comptroller should consider discontinuing the idea of selling the Avon Williams campus, which has a downtown footprint off Charlotte Avenue.
TSU received the property during a 40-year lawsuit with the state for both TSU and UTK to have equal funding and to stop having dual higher education systems based on race.
The Avon Williams building was originally owned by the University of Tennessee as a continuing education center that started in 1947.
Caucus members were also mad at Mumpower specifically over comments earlier this month in a meeting about TSU's finances, where he criticized former TSU president Glenda Glover.
Glenda Glover's contract is over.
Before Christmas, TSU provided me with former president Glenda Glover's contract with the university, which school leaders said is being severed.
The contract was supposed to go through 2028 for her role of president emeritus. With the job, she was provided an assistant, a reserved parking permit and access to the TSU and Titans games at Nissan Stadium. The document also mentioned naming a building in her honor.
Her contract totaled up to $1.7 million in two parts. She was given $850,000 — the remaining amount of her presidential package from the school for as she put it "being forced out."
The remaining money would come from her president emeritus salary of $212,500 per year.
The Tennessee Attorney General's Office had no comment on how the cancellation of her contract is going.
In the contract, it said that Glover would get her money even if terminated unless malfeasance or fraud is discovered.
TSU is owed money. How much is disputed.
How much is still up for debate and depends on who's asked.
The state said half a billion was owed in 2022, while the federal government said that number is actually $2.1 billion.
TSU has the same funding status as the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in that the two were given resources for land and later should have been given the same state appropriations for agriculture extension offices and expanding their academic programs.
Back in 2023, the federal government wrote a letter to Gov. Bill Lee explaining that Tennessee State University is owed $2.1 billion — which occurred from 1987 until 2020. The state has provided $250 million a couple of years ago.
TSU and UTK are not funded the same, but they are land grant colleges.
On average, the state spends around $2,206 more per student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville than at TSU, and it paints a clearer picture of funding given the enrollment numbers.
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville and TSU are land grant colleges, meaning they have an elevated funding status when it comes to dollars from the state. The two were established before desegregation and Tennessee higher education institutions wouldn't accept Black students.
The Second Morrill Act of 1890 — more or less — created a separate but equal collegiate system for students of color, who couldn't attend public universities with White students. This was aimed at Confederate states, like Tennessee, that were struggling with the outcome of the Civil War and failing to integrate.
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville is the state's first land-grant college, established as such during the Morrill Act of 1862 during the Civil War.
Both Morrill Acts focused on creating schools that emphasized agriculture and mechanic arts. The federal government bequeathed 10 million acres provided by land grants across the country, which meant taking land from Native American communities, according to the U.S National Archives.
The student aid financial director lawsuit lingers
The former financial aid director of the university claimed in a lawsuit late this year that she was fired this fall because she wouldn't commit perjury for scholarship money.
Former Metro Council person Tanaka Vercher worked at TSU for 21 years. However, the lawsuit stated that this fall caused turmoil for her when it came to distributing financial aid.
By federal law, TSU has to verify students' credentials in what's called a reconciliation process. Those credentials include a high school diploma or an equivalent certificate. State auditors notified Vercher that TSU had previously provided student aid money to students who did not qualify because they lacked proof of those documents.
When Vercher refused to file the paperwork without the reconciliation process, she claimed in the lawsuit she was fired the next day. Previously, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission had findings for the school for this very issue.
Nothing else has been filed in the case since early December.
The TSU board is completely new.
Gov. Bill Lee has signed a bill into law in March that vacated the former Tennessee State University Board of Trustees.
This comes after brokering a compromise on the TSU Board of Trustees bill that would only remove three members. The House reversed and supported the Senate’s full removal of the board. The idea of dissolving the board arose from a recommendation from the Office of the Comptroller to remove the board because of the mishandling of the school's money.
Multiple audits throughout the years showed that TSU has struggled with keeping its finances in line. That has included a forensic audit, which said there was no fraud or malfeasance. However, it did note 56 observations and 60 recommendations for the school.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at emily.west@newschannel5.com.
This story by Aaron Cantrell reminds me of my first school in Dyersburg, TN. I was a student at Bruce School from Kindergarten to second grade until the school system was integrated. My parents graduated from this K-12 school in 1960 in one of the city's African American communities. After sitting empty for several years, part of the school was demolished while the rest was renovated and now serves as a community center for the Bruce community in Dyersburg. A local pastor is now trying to do something similar in the Cemetery community in Rutherford Co.
-Lelan Statom
