After decades of dealing with rundown buildings and chronic underfunding, the state’s only public historically Black college is getting one step closer to operating as a fully funded college.
Tennessee State University is set to receive $250 million for infrastructure projects. The funds would come under a new state budget proposal from Gov. Bill Lee.
The president of the college previously told lawmakers that the lack of building improvements was taking a toll on the learning environment. The college has the lowest Black student completion rate — 36.7% — of any public four-year university in the state.
Last year, a Tennessee budget analysis found the state owed the college upwards of a half-billion dollars — which was the result of legislators failing to provide TSU with its state land-grant matching money from 1957 to 2007.
State Rep. Harold Love Jr. of Nashville, who chaired the committee tasked with looking into the issue, told WPLN News that the potential funds could go towards dorm halls, and academic and administrative buildings.
“It sets TSU on a course to physically … be on par or above every university in Tennessee that’s publicly funded,” said Love.
The funding proposal is part of a nearly $53 billion state budget for the forthcoming fiscal year. It’ll need to be approved by the Tennessee General Assembly before taking effect.
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