NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It now appears former Tennessee State University President Glenda Glover is receiving more money than previously reported.
Glover admitted on Friday she has two agreements with the school — one was a buyout of her five-year contract with the school if she agreed to retire early. The other is to continue working for the university as a president emeritus helping raise money and recruit new students. The two contracts total $1.7 million.
"There's no guilt feelings. I have a retirement package," Glover said. "It's like someone asked you, would you give up your retirement package? No. You don't ask someone to give up their retirement package. That goes beyond the bounds of decency to ask me to give up a retirement package especially if I'm still doing a lot of work for the university."
Glover failed to mention the existence of the second contract when she sat down with NewsChannel 5 Investigates earlier this week.
“It’s not only fair what they paid me, it’s owed.”
But she insists state lawmakers knew about the agreement. Glover said this is money she earned and continues to earn.
Board members voted unanimously Friday to urge interim TSU president Ronald Johnson to end Glover's agreement. They said this deal was signed by the old Board of Trustees — not long before state lawmakers voted to replace the entire board.
All of this came to light as we learned just how bad the university's financial problems are. In October the school was forced to lay off 114 employees to cut costs. This month, state leaders said the school would have to make bigger cuts, including degree programs and tenured professors. The state has been providing emergency funds this semester to keep the school afloat. But state leaders said that can't continue.
The TSU Board of Trustees met this week to discuss the dire financial situation. Without financial intervention, the school would end the school year $46 million in the hole. Even after tapping into multiple school resources, it's likely the school will have just $3 million in cash at the end of next semester.
This fall, the school 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.
Trustees didn't discuss cutting into degree programs or tenured professors, despite the enrollment figures plummeting at the only public HBCU in the state.
The school posted its fall enrollment figures in early November. Those show that the university only had 6,310 students enrolled for fall classes. In 2023, the school started the year with 8,198 students. So far for the spring, only 3,542 students have enrolled for the spring at TSU — which is less than projected. The school figured 4,390 students.
Glover said she was asked to leave TSU two years ago
State lawmakers recently chastised TSU for still having Glover on the payroll.
Glover clarified that state lawmakers knew about her retirement package since they forced her to retire.
"They sent a posse to me," Glover said on Wednesday to NewsChannel 5 Investigates. "To ask me to retire immediately. I didn't do that at the time. But I did know at some point we would come to a point where I would retire. This was key legislators telling me to retire. They were cowards. They sent others to me — people I trusted to talk to me about retiring. It was a very carefully constructed decision and agreement. What is this hypocrisy that's going on?"
Glover calls these latest questions about her retirement package is just another example of the state trying to distract from the fact it has unfunded TSU for decades.
So, she has no intentions of going back on the agreement that forced her to step down as president.
