Tennessee State University finalized an agreement with the state to reallocate $96 million to address the university’s immediate financial needs on June 17 — something university leaders hailed as pivotal in stabilizing the school’s troubled finances.

The historically Black, public college in Nashville has undergone massive leadership and financial upheavals over the last 18 months while facing budget deficits and declining enrollment. It is now under the leadership of an entirely new board, which was seated in April 2024. The new board appointed interim President Dwayne Tucker in December, who led the charge to reappropriate the funding as part of his ambitious five-year financial plan for the school.

The $96 million is part of what remains from $250 million the state gave TSU in 2022 that was earmarked for infrastructure projects. The reallocated funds will be spent over the next three years to enhance the university’s operations, according to a June 17 news release from TSU.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

More: Tennessee State University raises tuition 6% as leaders work to stabilize finances

Tennessee State University interim President Dwayne Tucker shakes hands with supporters after giving a financial update during a State Building Commission meeting at Cordell Hull State Office Building in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.

In the release, Tucker thanked several state leaders, including Comptroller Jason Mumpower and Commissioner of Finance and Administration Jim Bryson, along with state lawmakers for their role in what he called a “transformational opportunity” for TSU.

“It not only provides crucial cash flow to ensure the university’s financial sustainability but also allows us to invest in enriching the student experience and strengthening our capacity to attract both students and qualified employees,” Tucker said.

State leaders praise progress at TSU

In the release, Mumpower said he is encouraged by the progress TSU has made in recent months and expressed confidence in its current leaders and their ability to navigate the challenges facing the university.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

“Investing in education is investing in Tennessee’s future,” Mumpower said. “The state is committed to TSU and is proud to support its legacy that advances workforce development and agricultural innovation.”

Bryson said TSU was “once again on the rise.”

“This agreement provides TSU with the opportunity to solve its financial challenges and regain its legacy as one of our nation’s great, historic institutions of higher education,” he said.

Tucker’s interim term runs through June 30. A longtime businessman and the former CEO of LEAD Public Schools, Tucker is not drawing a salary for his interim role. In May, LEAD announced Ricki Gibbs would take over as its CEO. While TSU has halted its previous presidential search, it has not yet said who will lead the school once Tucker’s term expires.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

In a June 13 TSU board meeting, Board Chair Dakasha Winton said more information on who will lead TSU will be shared soon and praised Tucker for his leadership over the last several months.

From left, Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Commissioner of Finance and Administration Jim Bryson and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, listen as Tennessee State University interim President Dwayne Tucker speaks during a State Building Commission meeting at Cordell Hull State Office Building in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.

How the $96 million will be used

Tucker first presented the plan and the request to reallocate the funds to key state leaders in February. While lawmakers approved the change in April, a memorandum of understanding on how the funds would be spent was not finalized until June 17.

The $96 million is part of what remains from $250 million the state appropriated to TSU in 2022 for capital projects. That $250 million was allocated after a 2021 report by the state Office of Legislative Budget Analysis that revealed the state underfunded TSU by up to $544 million over the course of several decades.

TSU has used $99 million of that initial $250 million, meaning there is $151 million left over, according to the release. Under the new agreement, $96 million of that balance will go toward TSU’s immediate operational needs, while the remaining $55 million will be designated for key projects. Those projects including upgrading campus electrical grids and funding for new buildings in the College of Agriculture.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Tucker has previously said he sees the $250 million the state gave to TSU as a starting point in addressing historic underfunding. He also said he hopes to discuss how the remaining $294 million can be provided to TSU in the years to come.

After the state report determined the $544 million in underfunding, the administration of then-President Joe Biden came out with a different figure, saying instead it was $2.1 billion over multiple decades. However, Tucker has chosen to focus on the previously determined number as he works to rebuild trust with state leaders and restore the university’s financial stability.

More: How the state underfunded Tennessee State University by $2 billion

Further plans to stabilize TSU finances

Students walk out of the student center on the Tennessee State University campus in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024.

Tucker’s five-year plan also includes plans to reduce TSU’s budget deficit by $32-37 million over the next two fiscal years through further staff cuts, a cap on how many scholarships are given to students, hiring freezes and other cost reductions. Under Ronald Johnson, the previous interim president, TSU laid off more than 100 employees last fall. It also paused hiring and froze nonessential spending.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

During a June 12 finance committee hearing at TSU, acting CFO Jim Grady said the university had already reduced costs by around $25 million. The school’s board also voted to increase tuition by 6% for the 2025-26 school year, citing rising operational costs and a commitment to maintaining academic excellence. The change comes as other public universities statewide roll out similar increases.

The June 17 release from the university also said the new board and administration is working with state agencies to implement “proper processes, reporting, training and safeguards to strengthen financial oversight and compliance.”

After the $96 million agreement was reached, TSU Board Chair Dakasha Winton expressed her excitement for what’s ahead for the university.

“The support from the state to reallocate these funds underscores our commitment to providing a top-tier education and the necessary resources to cultivate global leaders,” Winton said in the release. “These vital improvements will modernize the campus infrastructure and enhance the college experience for today’s students and for future generations of Tigers.”

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Rachel Wegner covers education and children’s issues for The Tennessean. Got a story you think she should hear? Reach her via email at RAwegner@tennessean.com. You can also find her on Twitter or Bluesky under the handle RachelAnnWegner.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSU inks $96M agreement with state to free up funds

AI-assisted summary New TSU football coach Reggie Barlow acknowledges the financial challenges facing Tennessee State but expresses confidence in the leadership’s ability to address them.

Barlow plans to bring most of his staff from the DC Defenders to Tennessee State and will focus on team building activities instead of traditional spring practice due to the timing of his hire.

Reggie Barlow said he is focused on coaching the Tennessee State football team and not the school’s financial woes after he was introduced as Eddie George’s replacement Monday at a new conference at Nissan Stadium.

Barlow left as coach of the DC Defenders in the UFL to return to the historically black college and university coaching ranks after previously being at his alma mater Alabama State and Virginia State.

George, who was hired at Bowling Green State on March 9, was in the final year of a five-year contract and had not received an extension. He said his decision to leave was based on TSU’s financial struggles.

TSU has undergone extensive staff cuts and layoffs while dealing with financial shortcomings and a drop in enrollment. The school is awaiting state approval to repurpose $154.5 million in state funds intended to help steer the school out of its current conundrum.

Barlow, 53, accepted the job fully aware of the school’s financial challenges. He told The Tennessean he is confident the leadership under interim president Dwayne Tucker, who attended Monday’s news conference, will find answers to the problems. Barlow wants to focus on maintaining the momentum the football program gained coming off a 9-4 season, which included winning a share of the Big South/OVC championship and a berth in the FCS playoffs.

“For me, I saw stability and the opportunity to be at a great school,” Barlow said. “The money aspect, I just wanted to know what’s going to be the salaries of the coaches and what’s going to be the budget for our program. Anything outside of that wasn’t really a deal for me.”

TSU athletic director Mikki Allen said Barlow’s salary and the terms of his contract are being finalized, along with the budget for Barlow’s staff and the operating budget. Allen and Barlow reached an agreement in principle and Barlow signed a letter-of-intent.

Allen said the school’s financial issues did not hinder his search for a new coach.

“We had a lot of great candidates; up-and-coming stars, established head coaches in college football, from pro football we had some head assistants,” Allen said. “But Reggie was our first choice. He just fits what we need right now. He’s got credibility, experience, he’s been a proven winner. I really feel our program is not just in great hands, it’s in winning hands with Reggie Barlow.”

After spending eight years as a wide receiver and special teams player in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars (1996-2000), Oakland Raiders (2001) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002-03), Barlow became the head coach at Alabama State in 2007.

In eight seasons, Barlow was 49-42 and won three Southwestern Athletic Conference East Division titles at Alabama State.

EDDIE GEORGE’S EXIT WAKEUP FOR HBCU: Eddie George’s departure as TSU football coach should be a wakeup call for HBCUs | Opinion

TSU HIRES REGGIE BARLOW: Tennessee State football hires Reggie Barlow to replace Eddie George as coach

He became the head coach at Virginia State in 2016. In six seasons there, he was 34-15, including the 2017 undefeated season, the program’s first.

Barlow also had success with the DC Defenders where he was named the league’s coach of the year in 2023 after a 9-1 season, which included a berth in the championship game.

“Coming off the success Tennessee State had last year, that’s really something good to build on and have some momentum moving forward,” Barlow said. “We’ve been really successful as a head coach, but that has happened because we populate ourself with good people, good coaches, who are going to care about the kids and pour into the young men.”

Barlow said he will bring most of his staff from the DC Defenders to TSU; most of George’s staff followed him to Bowling Green. Those coming with Barlow to Nashville include former TSU offensive coordinator Fred Kaiss, former TSU quarterback and offensive coordinator Shannon Harris, and former TSU offensive line coach Russ Ehrenfeld.

Barlow met with TSU’s players for the first time Sunday. He said the Tigers will not have a traditional spring practice due to the timing of his hire and instead will have meetings, weightlifting sessions and on-field individual agility tests.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.

Six Tennessee counties are now part of the ICE 287(g) enforcement program.

A growing number of agencies across the country are participating in step with the Trump Adminsitraion’s immigration crackdown.

The Sumner County Sheriff’s Department is the latest law enforcement agency in Tennessee to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the state begins to see sweeping immigration crackdowns.

The effort comes as Nashville on Sunday saw a mass traffic sweep where the Tennessee Highway Patrol in partnership with ICE pulled over 150 cars and detained an unknown number of people.

The operation sparked a mass public outcry from immigration advocates and state and local lawmakers, including Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell.

Meanwhile, a growing number of law enforcement agencies are signing on to an ICE enforcement program called 287(g) that allows local officials to take on some federal duties, like jail enforcement and serving civil immigration warrants.

Sumner County signed on for the ICE 287(g) program on April 29, according to the federal list.

It now joins five other Tennessee counties, including Giles, Knox, Greene, Hamilton and Putnam.

The Knox, Greene, Hamilton and Putnam sheriff’s departments are all part of the program’s jail enforcement model, where local law enforcement work to identify undocumented people in custody and begin the immigration proceedings on behalf of ICE.

Sumner and Giles counties are part of the program’s warrant service officer model, which allows local officials to serve civil immigration warrants on undocumented residents in the agency’s jail.

Summer County Sheriff Eric Craddock in an email Monday said he opted to join the program to enhance the safety and security in the community.

“By entering into the Warrant Service Officer (WSO) model of the program, we will be able to more efficiently and lawfully process these individuals – ensuring that those who pose a threat to public safety are not released back into the community,” he wrote.

Officials have touted the ICE program as a way to streamline warrants for people with criminal charges in a secure environment, while reducing the number of criminal offenders released back into the community.

ICE trains local law enforcement but does not provide any extra financial incentives.

The state, however, could begin providing financial incentives for local agencies that participate in 287(g) under Tennessee’s new immigration enfacement division.

Craddock said Sumner County is not receiving any state grants or financial benefits tied to immigration enforcement at this time, but he does plan to pursue any available grants in the future.

Gov. Bill Lee last month appointed a new immigration czar, Ryan Hubbard, to head the division as the state’s first chief immigration enforcement officer. Hubbard, who spent 28 years in immigration enforcement, previously served as a special agent with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

For years, Greene and Hamilton counties were among the only local state agencies participating in 287(g), but more are now signing up in step with the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement.

The number of gencies across the U.S. are now participating in 287(g), is skyrocketing and Florida has mandated that all agencies participate. As of April 9, ICE has agreements with more than 400 agencies in 38 states.

That number has climbed to 571 agencies in 39 states as of May 5.

This story was updated to add a gallery.

Tennessee State University

Dwayne Tucker, right, speaks up at a Tennessee State University board meeting in November 2024. A month later, Tucker would become TSU’s interim president.

In his first day on the job on Monday, Tennessee State University’s new interim president, Dwayne Tucker, took questions from members of the State Building Commission, the group that helped the historically Black university avoid bankruptcy last month by redirecting federal grant money from a building project to general operating expenses.

In return, the state is asking for budget cuts. The school already cut more than 100 staff members this fall. But the building commission asked for further belt tightening. Commissioners said they want the board of the university to declare financial exigency. The drastic measure would allow TSU to do things like end faculty tenure and renegotiate contractual obligations.

That’s particularly relevant because TSU is currently working with Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to back out of its agreement with former university president Glenda Glover. The school paid Glover $850,000 in exchange for retiring as president early, and an additional $850,000 to raise funds for the university.

Glover’s successor, Ronald Johnson, served as president for just four months. He resigned abruptly last week citing, “a fundamental difference of perspective with the board on how best to move this institution forward.”

Now Tucker has that role. As he testified before state officials, he struck a conciliatory tone. He referenced a federal government study that found the state has underfunded TSU by $2 billion since the 1980s. But he said the university needs to be realistic about what it can get from the state in the short term.

“Prior leadership to some degree has created this narrative about funding that could potentially come from the state. But I don’t think there’s an accounts payable for Tennessee State for $2.1 billion,” Tucker said.

Before becoming interim president, Tucker was one of the TSU board members appointed last year by Gov. Bill Lee after the state fired and completely replaced the old board. He is also the CEO of the charter school network LEAD Public Schools, and a TSU alum with a 40-year career working for Fortune 500 companies like Northwest Airlines.

Times are lean at Tennessee State University. The historically Black land-grant institution cut 114 positions this semester, slashed duplicative contracts for software and other services, and froze all nonessential hiring and spending in an attempt to get its finances back on track. The chronically underfunded university has gone so far as having staff use golf carts instead of larger vehicles on campus as a cost-saving measure.

State auditors informed the Tennessee State Board of Trustees at a recent meeting that the university could face a $46 million deficit at the end of the year. The university had $8.4 million in reserves when its interim president Ronald Johnson started this summer—about one-fourth of what he’d consider “healthy,” Johnson told Inside Higher Ed.

Earlier in the month, state officials gave the university an early allocation of $11 million and $32 million in liquid funds, previously designated for a new academic building, to enable the university to make November payroll and pay operating costs. (The building will be built using capital improvement funds instead.)

But some lawmakers told university leaders at a tense Nov. 14 state hearing not to expect such help in the future.

“There is no reason for you to feel like the pressure has been relieved,” Jason E. Mumpower, Tennessee comptroller of the treasury, said at the hearing. “It is up to you to reorganize, reorient and lead a rebirth of this university … The state cannot continue on a month-to-month basis propping up the payroll at the university.”

Johnson said Tennessee State has already made significant strides. For example, he noted that the estimated $46 million deficit at the end of the year would have been $52 million had TSU not made meaningful cuts. Administrators have taken a granular look at the university’s expenses and made changes accordingly, he said, from cutting back on travel for its marching band to changing how promoters are paid for its annual homecoming. The university is also trying to improve retention by overhauling its student advising model.

Tennessee State University is “an institution that matters,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure that the institution continues to matter and have greater impact with respect to its mission and to do so in a way that we continue to maintain our finances.”

Nonetheless, the cutbacks and torrent of bad news have left faculty members uneasy.

Learotha Williams, a professor of African American and public history, said he worries that students can feel a shift in faculty and staff’s “overall morale.” And from a practical standpoint, it’s challenging for him that staff members he used to call on for support services for his students aren’t there anymore. He expects more layoffs to come.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” Williams said.

Mismanagement, Chronic Underfunding or Both?

How did Tennessee State get into such deep financial trouble? It depends on whom you ask.

Some state lawmakers have put the blame squarely on the university’s former president, administrators and trustees—so much so that they voted to vacate the university’s 10-member board this spring and replaced it with university alumni hand-picked by Republican governor Bill Lee, an outrage to some of the university’s staff, graduates and supporters.

A forensic audit of the university released earlier this year, paid for by the state, found no fraud or malfeasance by administrators but identified “significant procedural deficiencies” and some “not sustainable” spending, including a 250 percent increase in money spent on student scholarships between 2020 and 2023. The audit also details a “student housing crisis” in academic years 2021 and 2022, due to an enrollment boom, in which some students had to live in local hotels in Nashville.

Michael Campbell, a legislative audit manager for the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, said past audits have found a variety of issues at the university including inaccurate financial reporting, delayed bank reconciliations and problems with collecting payments from students and other entities, including the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, which pays for Saudi students to attend Tennessee State.

“It starts with management. Management needs to establish proper oversight in all aspects of the university,” Campbell said.

Tennessee State University students at graduation in 2022. Seth Herald/AFP/Getty Images

Johnson blames the university’s sharp enrollment decline, among other factors, for its financial troubles. Enrollment plummeted from 8,198 students last fall to 6,310 this fall—a devastating blow for an institution heavily dependent on tuition dollars. He believes that drop-off is partly because students were fed up with the housing crunch, but he also blames the botched rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which prevented many high school seniors from completing the form. (He stressed Tennessee State isn’t alone—the University of Memphis predicted a 25 percent loss in freshman enrollment this fall.)

FAFSA is “another part of the perfect storm,” Johnson said.

Other university supporters, including former president Glenda Glover, have thrown the blame right back at state lawmakers. They claim that chronic underfunding, equating to billions of dollars, has hampered the university’s financial growth for decades.

A report by the Tennessee Office of Legislative Budget Analysis in 2021 found the state had shortchanged the university by between $150 million and $544 million in unpaid land-grant funds over at least 50 years. State lawmakers coughed up $250 million last January, but some university advocates argue the money was restricted for infrastructure costs and made up a fraction of what the cash-starved university is owed.

The U.S. Education and Agriculture Departments put the underfunding estimate even higher, at $2.1 billion from 1987 to 2020, in a 2023 letter to Lee. They found, based on an analysis of 16 states, that Tennessee had underfunded its historically Black land-grant institution more than any other state.

“The state of Tennessee should recognize that finger pointing, scapegoating, mischaracterizing the facts, engaging in retaliation, and taking occurrences out of context will not explain away the fact that the State owes TSU $544 million and $2.1 billion dollars,” Glover wrote in a scathing comeback to lawmakers’ critiques, published in The Tennessee Tribune in November. “Any planning or discussions that do not address this fact are pretextual at best.”

Glover repudiated the claims that her administration caused the university’s financial woes. She said that relations with policymakers soured after the state’s debts were uncovered and university leaders pushed for the funds. She also argued that enrollment fell, at least in part, because of state officials’ “negative public attacks on the university,” including its drastic move of replacing the entire board.

“In follow-up conversations with applicants, many students and their parents reported that they chose not to attend TSU because of the negative publicity,” she wrote.

Glover also claimed university leaders dipped into cash reserves last year because the state delayed reimbursing state scholarships to students, as it would have normally done, until the university was finished with its audit process.

Glover’s reputation, and her buyout deal, have been on the line since news of Tennessee State’s financial challenges spread. The university’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted in a November meeting to further cut costs by urging Johnson to end a buyout agreement with Glover, who retired in June. She was set to receive $850,000 through a transition agreement and $212,500 annually for four years in a role where she’d continue to help with fundraising and advising, according to The Tennessean.

Johnson said the state attorney general’s office, which represents the university in legal matters, is currently in discussions with Glover regarding the agreement. “The board gave me responsibility, and that responsibility is now being handled,” he said.

A spokesperson for Glover wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed that the controversy over her buyout agreement is just another “distraction from the much larger issues involved in the state’s failure to compensate TSU for decades of underfunding.”

Williams agreed that historic underfunding is “at the root” of the university’s current financial issues.

Glover’s administration “may have made some mistakes,” he said, but “one of the things about working at an HBCU is that all of your stumbles are going to be magnified.” HBCUs are often hyperscrutinized for their missteps, Williams said, based on racial stereotypes that “Black folks are bad with money” or “extravagant.” As an example, he noted that other universities, including in Tennessee, have housed students in hotels before without it drawing so much negative attention from state lawmakers.

As Williams sees it, Glover and other administrators have been judged harshly for inheriting the challenges of running an underfunded institution—and for demanding the state pay up.

“We’ve been making bricks without straw from day one,” Williams said, “and we’ve always been criticized for not making as many bricks as UT [the University of Tennessee] or other places.”

But John Dunn, director of communications for the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, said that as far as he’s concerned, historic underfunding isn’t what’s at issue.

“Our work is really based around the financial resources that the university has at the present time,” Dunn said. “We’re interested in how well it’s managing the money it has, and certainly our audits have shown that that financial management has been poor at TSU.”

But “the new board and the new interim management are coming to a realization that there’s a lot of work ahead of them,” he added. “It does appear that they’re taking this pretty seriously.”

And Now, a Lawsuit

Adding to the tumult is friction with a former financial aid director.

Tanaka Vercher, who worked at TSU for 21 years, sued the university last week, claiming officials retaliated against her for following federal rules. Vercher insisted on completing a required reconciliation process to verify student financial aid information was sent to the federal government, including students’ eligibility.

She reportedly told university leaders over the summer that financial aid dollars wouldn’t come through until October because of the required validation process. She also informed them that roughly 20 percent of students had been admitted without proof of a high school diploma and therefore couldn’t receive financial aid, amounting to about $7 million.

A consultant hired by the university allegedly told Vercher that financial aid dollars would come too late if she proceeded as planned. She was fired the next day with no explanation, the lawsuit says, despite a history of positive performance reviews.

“The only explanation is that TSU was retaliating against her for her refusal to request government funds for TSU to which she knew TSU was not entitled,” the lawsuit reads. Vercher is asking for back pay, front pay, lost benefits and pension, damages, and attorney fees from the financially beleaguered institution. (Vercher didn’t respond to email requests for comment from Inside Higher Ed.)

Johnson said he couldn’t comment on pending litigation. “I know that our process in financial aid and our process related to our obligations to employees in the employee handbook are all something that we prosecute,” he said. “We make sure that we are in alignment.”

The interim president said he’s ready to move on from the university’s troubles and initiate a better era for Tennessee State.

“We have to make sure that we are in a position to sustain a future-ready TSU,” he said. “The reason why we’re doing all this is so that these students can go out and make a difference in the lives of people. Because it matters, we have to make sure that we put it in a position to continue to matter.”