Senate Education Committee gives a negative recommendation to Tennessee State University’s budget

The Tennessee Comptroller’s criticism of Tennessee State University leadership is causing a new setback for the university’s budget.On Wednesday, members of the Senate Education committee referenced the Comptroller’s findings in their decision to give TSU’s budget a negative recommendation to the Senate Finance Committee overseeing it.Last month the Comptroller issued a scathing report that found university leadership worked to spike their enrollment despite serious housing issues that forced some students to live out of a hotel. The Comptroller recommended state legislators consider replacing TSUS’s Board of Trustees and management.Lebanon Senator Mark Pody specifically referred to the comptroller’s report saying he doesn’t want to approve of the university’s budget because of it.“One of the most frustrating things that I see in this report is it seems a lack of transparency or almost misdirection or misinformation is coming from this institution which is extremely disappointing to me,” said Senator Pody.Supporters say TSU’s housing problem is partially the result of historic underfunding throughout the years by the state.Last year, the Tennessee General Assembly provided $250 million dollars to TSU for infrastructure funding the university is still using. TSU is the only public historically black college or university (HBCU) in the country.Wednesday’s budget hearing was scheduled discuss current TSU spending plans including new resident halls and moving TSU from a Research 2 University to a Research 1 University, which would substantially increase funding.“We’re not requesting any additional funding not already present in the budget,” said TSU President Dr. Glenda Glover.Dr. Glover told members of the committee that her university has addressed the housing crisis referenced in the Comptroller’s Report but she said next fall TSU does plan to request two hotels for the projected 4,300 students they will be housing, including 1,600 incoming freshman.“We’re going to manage our enrollment to meet a housing capacity for the next two to three years if we’re getting permission to have new residence halls,” said Dr. Glover. “That approach will help us to better manage the housing, so we won’t have the problems we had last fall.”