Education

Still chafing over questionable decisions at TSU two years ago, the Senate Education Committee voted Wednesday to clear out the historical black university’s board of directors.

The measure moves next to the full Senate, charging Gov. Bill Lee with appointing eight new members by June 30 to the 10-member body that runs one of the state’s two land grant universities. The other two members come from the student body and teaching staff.

“We believe that the students of TSU deserve better than what they’ve received,” state Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, said Wednesday before the Republican-controlled committee voted to vacate. 

Based on the “crises” the state has dealt with in the last two years, Roberts added, “it’s time we have a new vision.”

TSU President Glenda Glover announced late last year she would be retiring June 30, a move that came months after a Senate panel threatened to remove her and the entire board following a campus housing shortage created by burgeoning enrollment, questions about scholarship payouts and lingering audit problems.

The state embarked on a $2 million forensic audit of TSU’s finances last year, even as Glover opted to step down. That came after Comptroller Jason Mumpower filed a report recommending the university’s leadership be replaced.

Questions were raised about a freshmen class increase of 1,600 students in 2022-23 that forced the university to make a last-minute request for extra hotels to house them. Much of that stemmed from a renaissance in historically black universities following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mumpower and lawmakers also challenged TSU’s handling of scholarships, which increased to $28.3 million from $6.4 million that year, and whether students received all the money they thought was due them. Glover said at the time students were mistaken about how much scholarship money they should receive.

Black lawmakers have said removing the entire board, especially in the midst of a presidential search, could prove “catastrophic.”

Sen. Raumesh Akbari, leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus, called Wednesday’s vote a “severe action” and argued that it could prevent a presidential candidate from wanting to take over the TSU presidency.

Instead of vacating the board, lawmakers should address the “historic per-pupil underfunding,” Akbari said.

The Legislature approved $250 million for campus improvements two years ago. Six of them are under way, and seven more are set to start, Glover told lawmakers Wednesday.

That funding was spurred, in part, by a state study that determined the Legislature underfunded the university by $150 million to $540 million over the last century. A federal study published last year also found the state shorted TSU by $2.1 billion over the last 30-plus years.