TSU was about to name new president before Tennessee lawmakers ousted board. What now?

At 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 28, the board of trustees at Tennessee State University sat down to meet William E. Hudson, one of three finalists to be the next president of the historically Black school. They had plans to meet with a third and final candidate the next morning as they neared the end of the search process.

But most, if not all, of them couldn't have imagined how quickly the search would get turned on its head.

The board's Thursday morning meeting came after nearly two months of uncertainty over whether the board itself would be ousted by a bill carried by Republican state lawmakers. But there was still hope for the board's survival, this time in the form of a compromise proposed by House Democrats to retain half of the trustees.

Despite the uncertainty, the board was determined to stick with its original timeline for a search as longtime President Glenda Glover prepared to retire at the end of the academic year.

They planned to appoint a new president in April, marking the first time the 112-year-old university would choose its own president with an independent board. That board was first established by state law in 2016 under an initiative pushed by former Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.

Call to action: As Tennessee State University board is vacated, leaders weigh what's next

As the trustees met with Hudson, however, talks over the compromise fell apart and the House passed a bill that vacated all the board members, matching the already-passed companion Senate bill.

The bill passed just hours after the release of the long-awaited results of a forensic audit of TSU, commissioned last year by lawmakers. While the audit found no fraud or wrongdoing on the university's part, it did point to continued management issues and an unsustainable increase in scholarships that spurred housing shortages.

After board members came out of the meeting with Hudson, they heard the news.

"It just shocked me to death," said Bill Johnson, a professor who was serving as the board's faculty trustee.

Johnson said he and other board members received a text message around 6 p.m. from the school's general counsel telling them Gov. Bill Lee had signed the measure into law. Lee also named eight new appointees. A new faculty trustee, elected by TSU faculty, and a non-voting student trustee will later round out the 10-member board. The bill's language indicated that vacated board members, including Johnson, would not be eligible for reappointment. All eight of Lee's new appointees are TSU graduates.

The newly ousted members were told not to come to their meeting the next day with the final presidential candidate.

Read more: Republican lawmakers vacate full Tennessee State University board over Democratic objections

The state's actions have stirred confusion and controversy as lawmakers, university leaders, students and the presidential candidates alike seem unsure of what's next. Johnson sees the move as an affront to his colleagues and the school and said it jeopardizes the presidential search, among other things.

"If you were a presidential candidate for a university, would you accept a job from an entirely different management group that hasn't met you?" Johnson said. "We’ve got a serious problem."

What the TSU board ouster means for its presidential search

Johnson said the board was ready to select the new president within days — if not hours — after the final meeting they never got to attend.

Now, a week-and-a-half after Lee signed the bill into law, more questions than answers remain: Who's in charge of the board's affairs right now? When will the new board take power? What does the change mean for the presidential search?

As of Monday afternoon, the governor's office had not responded to repeated requests to answer those questions.

"They left us with a rudderless ship," Johnson said.

While the board members do not need to go through an official confirmation with the state legislature to begin their work, Lee it responsible for calling their first meeting. New board appointee Dwyane Tucker said he believes that meeting will happen sometime in late April, with Lee presiding, but that a final date has not yet been set.

A spokesperson for TSU said they had received no information about the presidential selection process. Attempts to reach the other newly appointed board members were unsuccessful.

The now-ousted TSU board established a 30-member presidential search committee made up of faculty, administrators, trustees and community members and hired an outside firm for the national search.

In March, it announced three finalists: Michael Torrence, Charles J. Gibbs and Hudson. Torrence is the president of Motlow State Community College in Tennessee. Gibbs serves as CEO of the national 100 Black Men of America. Hudson is the vice president of student affairs at Florida A&M University, a public, historically Black school in Tallahassee, Florida.

As of Monday, Hudson said he had also not received any communication since the state vacated the previous board.

Meet the appointees: Gov. Bill Lee names new TSU board after House vote

Johnson, who is also a tenured professor at TSU, believes the legislature's swift action was a direct response to the board's impending announcement of a new president. The forensic audit's main purpose was to find whether there was evidence of fraud or wrongdoing by university leaders. The audit found none. Instead, Johnson said it showed sloppy bookkeeping, at worst. The whole ordeal has left him feeling angry and frustrated.

"It's a targeted assault," Johnson said. "It's intentional. It's blatant. It's disgusting — and it's not in the best interest of the state of Tennessee."

A loss of institutional knowledge

Obie McKenzie, another former board member and a TSU alumnus, added his voice to growing concerns from university leaders, students and former board members about the loss of institutional knowledge that comes with the board's removal.

"In any business situation, historical data and historical information is very important to the transition process," he said. "In my humble opinion, you unnecessarily penalize the student population because of the disruption."

Although McKenzie has not heard from any of the newly appointed board members, he said he's willing to help any of them who come to him for advice.

"I trust they have as much love for the institution as I do," he said.

The state has vacated and reconstituted a university board before.

Up until 2016, oversight of TSU — along with schools such as Middle Tennessee State University, Austin Peay State University, the University of Memphis and the state's community colleges — fell to the Tennessee Board of Regents.

The FOCUS Act gave TSU and the other four-year schools under Board of Regents control new, independent boards. Haslam made eight initial appointments to the board and Lee reappointed all but two of them.

A year after the FOCUS Act, Haslam then moved to rein in the University of Tennessee’s sprawling, 27-member board and replace it with an 11-person board. Haslam sought to preserve institutional memory by re-appointing four of the trustees from the dissolved board. The legislature, however, insisted on a fresh start and rejected those nominees.

It's not clear when lawmakers will hold confirmation hearings for the newly appointed TSU trustees.

A mission cut short

Throughout hearings on the now-passed legislation and the former board's final meeting last month, members said they wanted more time to finish their work.

In his time on the board, McKenzie was part of the team addressing TSU's housing needs.

"When you don't have solid housing when you're going to college, it leaves you feeling like a second class citizen," he said. "I wanted to this to be my legacy before I stepped off the stage."

In 2023, TSU was forced to lease hotels for students when it ran out of space in dorms after a large enrollment increase. That lead to criticism from the legislature, two audits and ultimately the bill that vacated the board.

McKenzie, among others, also pointed to $2.1 billion in state underfunding revealed by U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Education findings released last year. He said criticism from state leaders over a lack of infrastructure at TSU is unfair in light of the shortfall in state funding.

$2.1 billion: The Biden administration says TSU has been underfunded. Here's what that means.

The state underfunding of the school is something Shaun Wimberly Jr., a TSU senior who was serving as a student trustee until the ouster, has also emphasized. While he was happy to see that all the new appointees are TSU graduates and is hopeful to work with them in the future, he said the fight over underfunding is far from over. He helped host a news conference at the Tennessee Capitol last week alongside other TSU and civil rights leaders.

"We’ve done enough begging in my opinion," Wimberly said at the event. "Now is not the time to be requesting. It is our time to take what is ours."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee State University: Presidential search jarred by board ouster