We all know that the Tennessee State government is dominated by Republicans. What we may not have noticed is what the Nashville Scene reported recently in their Volume 44, Number 4, February 20-26, 2025 edition: The Biden administration and his cabinet members were the officials who reminded Tennessee that we owe Tennessee State University $2.5 billion. And we wonder why the purple state of Tennessee went over to Trump.
Could it possibly be that the Biden administration had made a few enemies here? After all, graft can happen on lower levels than the federal government, can’t it? Wouldn’t our Senators do all they could to protect their buddies who are actually receiving the 2.5 billion?
Now, we know that Comptroller of the Treasury Jason Mumpower, Senator Cameron Sexton and his selected committee immediately went on the offensive. They are, after all, obviously great fans of Knoxville TSU. So they went for the football thing and decided that the best defense is a great offense.
Former President Glenda Glover — The facts behind Tennessee State’s campaign to remove her from office.
Firstly, I refer you to former TSU President Dr. Glenda Glover‘s own words that describe the TSU predicament in detail.
I commend the Tennessee Tribune for re-printing Dr. Glover’s statement — unredacted and above the fold — in its Volume 35, Number 45 Nov. 21-27, 2024 edition.
Just in case you are not already outraged by TSU’s unpaid funding of $2.5 billion, which is the only state land grant school whose funds have been withheld in Tennessee, but not the only HBCU to suffer a similar attack, here are a few bullet points to summarize Dr. Glover’s statements. I include my own comments in italics here and do not ascribe them to Dr. Glover’s extremely detailed and factual report in the Tribune.
- The Joint Land Grant Institutions Funding Study Committee was formed by State Representatives (in response to President Biden’s directive).
- The committee found that TSU had been underfunded by $2.5 billion dollars.
- President Glenda Glover then fulfilled her responsibility to TSU by approaching the governor and key state legislators on how to address the under funding problem. It required repeated requests for meetings (with no swift response).
- Governor Lee then provided just $250 million, (way, way under half the owed amount) for “infrastructure projects only.” No new dorm rooms were allowed because they would be a source of income, and we can’t have that can we?
- “Lawmakers” handed out a backlash in the form of the unavailability of said funds due to “internal requirements and approvals” from a newly placed agency that appears to have been set up specifically to harass TSU.
- “Key legislators and State officers” then decided to conduct an independent audit on TSU. Funds that were needed by students and not controlled by TSU were withheld at the State level while the numerous audits were conducted.
- The state forced a private contract onto TSU, taking jobs away from their staff and costing them $1.2 million per month, considerably more than they were paying their staff previously.
- The state of Tennessee chose the contractor which would get TSU. No other bids were allowed.
- The state refused to pay any lottery money to TSU students. TSU had already loaned the students this money, expecting payment in a timely manner.
- The withholding of lottery funds for the students resulted in over 2,500 students withdrawing from school involuntarily.
A campaign was waged in the media (through public officials) that portrayed TSU as unreliable. Many students and their parents believed it. This led to even lower enrollment the coming year.
Tennessee State University has still not been paid any of the monies owed to it. At the same time, $1.2 million per month is bleeding out unnecessarily, due to the forced private contract with a private maintenance crew. TSU has still managed to maintain a much higher endowment than any other state school.
Let us also remember that TSU has a huge amount of land and marshland that acts as a buffer for all of North Nashville. It creates a peaceful environment and a lovely greenway area to relax and recreate, plus softens the environmental impact of busy roadways.
Jesse Washington of HBCU News had some very entertaining comments, specifically that African Americans have been forced to turn 15 cents into a dollar many times. You have to wonder if his statement isn’t referring to that $2.5 billion because really if TSU and other HBCUs have been operating on severely limited funding, they have really put the rest of us to shame in terms of what they can do with that money.
The independent corporation called CliftonLarsenAllen LLP, conducted the comptroller’s forensic report on Tennessee State University. The corporation wrote this to Mumpower on March 27, 2024: “Based upon the procedures performed, CLA did not identify evidence indicative of fraud or malfeasance by executive leadership of the University or Foundation.”
In fact, Nashville Scene reporter Eli Motycka quoted State Representative Harold Love Jr. in the article mentioned above saying, “At the end of the day, several things can be true. There can be some areas in the university that need to be improved – and they do, and they are being improved now. Also, the state can owe the university money.“
Are HBCUs being targeted?
This couldn’t possibly be true, right? Well, let’s look at a little history. What history do we have of public lands being seized and then sold to private interests in regards to land trust grants?
What about the two whistleblowers?
Whistleblowers now receive awards for missing money. In this instance, I don’t see how awards should be given, but if the alleged missing $300,000 is all they will get, then there isn’t that much incentive — unless some lower paid worker was prompted to think about the benefits. If they were prompted, they probably weren’t informed of the enormous number of taxes that will be levied on that money.
Fixing to get $2.5 billion? The state is at fault for not granting us that. The feds should be upset that the state has not granted this money.
Why are TSU‘s problems all descending on them at the same time that the state wants to force purchase of some of TSU‘s land? Will our State Senators — who all have a hand in real estate development deals — plan to take all of our public land? It has happened before. Trail of Tears, anyone?
Tennessee State politicians and businessmen — and the dreaded hybrid, those people who are both businessman and politicians — who have the most to gain from harassing TSU are Sexton, Mumford and other State Representatives and high rollers who hold private stakes in the TSU stadium.
Many of our Republican State Representatives are very clear that they feel that the civil rights act is unnecessary. They would like to see all the people that are living in the ghetto as voluntarily occupying said ghetto. Just. Stay. There. Why is this?
Refer to Reagan and Bush’s campaign to flood our poor neighborhoods with drugs for sale as the only business option, while redlining every other opportunity, including buying a house. The Reagan administration needed to make sure that there was plenty of “black ops“ money available so that they would not be answerable to the public for their actions.
Was the Tennessee Senate Finance Commission formed just to attack and restrict TSU?. Mumpower prevented TSU from spending their (pitiful allotment) on dorms because it would have been an income stream. Our State Senate could use this excuse because TSU was under financial review. The timing of these audits seem convenient. Could it be a response to the federal government holding the State Senators’ toes to the fire?
That’s 2.1 BILLION dollars, folks! And I doubt that includes any of the interest that would’ve accrued.
Granting TSU 43 million to stave off the bleeding is insulting to the highly qualified staff and faculty at TSU. Let’s fight to save our endangered Tigers.
Silence is Violence
Contact your state representatives and senators today. Use your phone, your emails, your written letters and your megaphones to make your voice clear. Tell a neighbor to tell a neighbor to do this. Let’s get some action here, folks!