How decades of underfunding harms TSU students and hurts graduation rates

Unlike many of his peers, graduating from Tennessee State University came easy for alumnus Micah Williams.

Williams, who is Black, finished his degree in four years.

But that wasn’t the case for many of his former classmates. A lot of them left the college because of poor housing options.

“They felt, ‘I’m paying all this money to go to tuition. I’m supposed to get a good education, as well as live comfortably. This isn’t happening,'” he says.

Williams’ alma mater is widely known for its marching band and packing out North Nashville’s John A. Merritt Boulevard and Jefferson Street during its homecoming parades.

The crowd grows as thousands anxiously await the start of the TSU Homecoming Parade along John Merritt Boulevard. #UnleashThePrideOfTheTiger #TeamTSU #BigBlueRising pic.twitter.com/BPQsmDGhSO

— Tennessee State University (@TSUedu) October 19, 2019

TSU is the state’s only public historically Black college. HBCUs are often seen as institutions where Black students can thrive without being forced to fit into white norms. But that hasn’t been the case at TSU.

The college has the lowest Black student completion rate — 36.7% — of any public four-year university in the state.

It’s a complicated issue that some TSU stakeholders say comes down to one thing: underfunding.

Damon Mitchell WPLN News

TSU alumnus Micah Williams stands on the front steps of his North Nashville home.

TSU was originally formed by state lawmakers as an agriculture and industrial school in 1909. It was then labeled a land-grant institution. The designation meant the federal government would give the college money while requiring matches from the state.

A report found that TSU didn’t have a record of receiving its state matching money from 1957 to 2007. That’s even though Tennessee’s only other land-grant college, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, did.

The state could owe the college upwards of a half-billion dollars. President Walter Kimbrough of Dillard University in Louisiana says he’s seen similar funding issues at HBCUs in Maryland and North Carolina.

In TSU’s case, Kimbrough believes adequate funding would raise graduation rates.

Courtesy Dillard University

Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough.

“Sometimes people say, ‘You can’t just solve problems by throwing money at it.’ No, this is one you actually could,” says Kimbrough. “If I’m providing more financial aid for students, I could improve graduation rates overnight.”

In April, the state of Maryland settled a half-billion dollar lawsuit with its four HBCUs. The money will support scholarships, academic programs and faculty recruitment.

Kimbrough expects the Maryland lawsuit to become a blueprint for other underfunded Black colleges.

But Tennessee already has a blueprint. In the early 2000’s, the state spent millions of dollars improving TSU’s facilities after a court settlement from what was known as the Geier case.

“There are people in a lot of states that saw what happened in Maryland. And then the report came out about what the state of Tennessee probably owes Tennessee State alone, which is a half-billion dollars,” says Kimbrough.

“And other people are looking around, saying, ‘What are we owed?’”

In Tennessee, there’s no talk of a lawsuit yet. But a state legislative committee was established to look into the issue. The Joint Land-Grant Institution Funding Study Committee adjourned in June. It tasked the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration with identifying potential investments that could benefit TSU.

The departments submitted their initial suggestions on Sept. 1. Remedies included more funding for financial aid and money to build new study halls.

More: Education Officials Propose Plan To Make Up For Years Of Underfunding At TSU

It’s unclear, however, how soon investments would be made. Gov. Bill Lee’s administration and the state’s two finance committee chairs will need to have a say.

And some students, alumni and faculty members say what state leaders have already suggested isn’t enough.

Plus, not all lawmakers are convinced that TSU is owed money. Tennessee state Rep. Chris Todd told his colleagues on the joint committee that he didn’t “want to move forward with assumptions that there’s something owed.”

There are also questions surrounding how those funds would be paid out. A lump sum payment is unlikely.

A spokesperson for TSU told WPLN News that no one from the college was available for an interview. But at a state hearing in January, TSU President Glenda Glover told lawmakers the school was losing students.

Glover — in part — chalked up the departures to noncompetitive financial aid packages. But she also said worn down buildings had a negative impact on the learning environment.

Investing in students

“It’s more than the money,” says TSU professor Cynthia George. “People’s life outcomes have been impacted by this.”

George says underfunding has interfered with the ability of TSU students and graduates to buy homes, start families and get jobs. She also says her students aren’t getting the same quality education that she received in college.

“In my master’s program at UT, I had access to a computer lab all day long, with a working printer in my building where I went to school,” she says. “My students don’t have that at TSU.”

George joined the faculty at TSU in 2017. She and her students eventually launched advocacy group #FairFundingForTSU to address many of the issues caused by underfunding.

But there are also other factors that cause students to leave the college or drop out completely. It starts with them not being properly prepared for college in high school.

Data show students who enter TSU are less likely to be prepared by K-12 schools than students who go to other four-year colleges. Alumnus Edward Howard says addressing K-12 disparities is the key to upping graduation rates.

“I think that a lot of the funding could go towards developing those young kids,” says Howard. “And helping them understand that the decisions they make as freshman will determine whether or not they graduate on time, or graduate at all.”

TSU isn’t perfect, he says. But he does feel the college has been making the right moves.

The next step, Howard says, is for the state to correct the university’s funding issues.