Ex-TSU President Glover Details Fight for $2 Billion in State Funding
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Former Tennessee State University President Glenda Baskin Glover details her fight to recover more than $2 billion in unpaid state funding in a new book. The historically Black land-grant university received $250 million from Tennessee in 2023, which Glover and advocates said was insufficient. The book covers her tenure from 2013 to 2024, including a housing crisis that led the state comptroller to call for leadership change in March 2023.
Key Facts
- In a 2023 letter, former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tennessee owed TSU more than $2 billion over three decades.
- A 2021 Tennessee Office of Legislative Budget Analysis report put the unpaid land-grant funds at between $150 million and $544 million over 50 years.
- Tennessee invested $250 million in TSU in 2023, but Glover and other advocates said it was not enough to stabilize the institution.
- Glover led TSU from 2013 to 2024 and retired after receiving a contract buyout, according to local news reports.
The Funding Dispute
Tennessee State University is one of the most underfunded historically Black land-grant universities in the country. In a 2023 letter to Governor Bill Lee, former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the state owed the institution more than $2 billion accrued over three decades. A 2021 report from the Tennessee Office of Legislative Budget Analysis estimated the unpaid land-grant funds at between $150 million and $544 million over the last 50 years. The state report set off an advocacy campaign to recoup the unpaid money, with then-president Glenda Baskin Glover at the center. In 2023, the state invested $250 million in the college, but Glover and other advocates said it was not enough to stabilize the struggling institution or make up for decades of underfunding.
Glover's Tenure and Book
Glover led TSU from 2013 to 2024, a period of financial instability and controversy, including a year when TSU enrolled more students than it could house and had to put hundreds of students in hotels. The housing debacle led the state comptroller to call for a change in leadership in March 2023. Glover retired the following year after receiving a contract buyout, according to local news reports. In her new book, "How Dare You: A University President's Fight for Half a Billion Dollars Owed—and the State's Actions to Avoid Payment," Glover gives an account of how she learned about the structural deficit and her fight to recover the funding. She said she hopes the book will put the university's budgetary situation in context and dispel the idea that the financial stress was a result of mismanagement by her administration.
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Ex-TSU President Glover Details Fight for $2 Billion in State Funding
