The 38-year-old Geier civil rights lawsuit formally ended (today/yesterday) after a federal judge in Nashville dismissed the case.
The resulting settlement aimed more than 77-million dollars at leveling the higher education playing field in the state. Tennessee State University recieved most of the Geier settlement – named for the Vanderbilt law student who originally brought the suit.
As a result of (today’s/yesterday’s) action, the historically black college will take in a 40-million dollar bonus over the next several years. TSU president Melvin Johnson announced that 30-million dollars will go into an endowment for educational excellence that will pay for merit-based scholarships.
The school’s downtown campus, which caters to adult students, will house at least two new programs in the colleges of health and business, and 5-million dollars will fund scholarships for non-traditional students in Middle Tennessee and graduates from area community colleges.
Johnson calls the allocation an investment in academic quality that will be the answer to the school’s struggle to retain white students in recent years.
“I think our programs are as competitive as any university in this state or in the country, and that is the whole key for us dealing with our enrollment. That’s the whole key of dealing with diversity. When you have quality academic programs, they drive the rest of the agenda – be it enrollment or be it diversity.”
Johnson says the enrollment drop results from an increase in course offerings for non-traditional students on the web and from local, private universities.
A renovation of the Avon Williams Downtown Campus is set for completion this spring. School officials say some of TSU’s new courses and scholarships will be available as early as next fall.