A contracting firm recently pegged the bill for TSU’s deferred maintenance at $427 million.
Getty ImagesThe Republican governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, proposed giving $250 million to the state’s only public historically Black college, Tennessee State University (TSU). The money is needed to repair the 6,600 students’ crumbling campus infrastructure, Lee said in his Monday night state of the state address.
If the Republican-controlled state assembly approves Lee’s request and includes it in its fiscal 2023 state budget, 110-year-old TSU will get the funds.
“Gov. Lee has taken a crucial step in highlighting the state’s commitment to our infrastructure needs, but more importantly to our students,” TSU President Glenda Glover said in a statement.
A Forbes investigation that looked at state underfunding at the 18 public land-grant HBCUs found a total of at least $12.8 billion owed over the last three decades. TSU is owed at least $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Lee’s proposal comes after a long effort by State Rep. Harold Love Jr., a 1998 alumnus of TSU whose late father, Harold Moses Love Sr., also a TSU alumnus, tried and failed to get funding for the HBCU. Love, who was elected in 2012, has documented up to $544 million in state land-grant funding owed to TSU since 1957.
Most of the institutions are more than a century old, created by an act of Congress in 1890. The total amount they are due far exceeds the figure calculated by Forbes from publicly available data, which only goes back to 1987.
To cope with a lack of funds, most of the institutions defer infrastructure maintenance, which can cause bigger problems. After a series of electrical storms in 2019, TSU’s Nashville campus lost power in several student dorms and the cafeteria. The administration had to bring in food trucks to feed students. Buses ferried students across campus so they could take hot showers.
A contracting firm recently pegged the bill for TSU’s deferred maintenance at $427 million.
“I feel good about the investment in TSU infrastructure,” Love said in an email about Gov. Lee’s proposal. “As you saw, the buildings need substantial work.”
When Forbes visited the TSU campus in June 2021, cracks in the interior wall of the studio art building were visible. The heating and ventilation system in a student dorm appeared to be a rusted relic from the 1960s.
State Sen. Brenda Gilmore, also a TSU alum, gave Forbes a tour of Nashville’s Black institutions in February, including a visit to Meharry Medical College, founded in 1876. Meharry is also struggling financially.
Gov. Lee’s proposal came as Black History Month was beginning under the threat of violence at Black colleges. Tuesday was the second day in a row that HBCUs were the target of bomb threats. The targets included Vice President Kamala Harris’ alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C. Federal authorities are investigating the threats. As yet no explosives have detonated and no perpetrators have been identified.
Said Sen. Gilmore in a text message: “My people have been through so much.”
