TSU students protest Haslam's college restructuring plan

A crowd of Tennessee State University supporters packed a Legislative Plaza hearing room Tuesday to protest Gov. Bill Haslam's plan to restructure higher education, marking its most potent challenge so far.

The group, largely made up of TSU students, was so big that they couldn't all fit inside the House Government Operations Committee meeting room. Committee Chairman Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, had to ask people to clear the aisles and exits before the hearing could begin.

The committee ultimately endorsed Haslam's plan — which is part of the Focus on College and University Success, or FOCUS, Act — on a voice vote. But TSU's opposition dominated almost 90 minutes of conversation before the vote, with concerns that touched on fairness and equal access to funding.

Students sat quietly on the floor in front of lawmakers, some of them with signs featuring wording such as "FOCUS is bad for TSU" and "Save our School."

The university's counsel, Laurence Pendleton, and students Tyra Laster and Delvakio Brown spoke against the plan during the hearing. They said the plan, which would create individual boards for TSU and five other universities included in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, would leave their school to fight for funding and other resources without the clout of a system behind it.

Pendleton said the change would give the University of Tennessee system, which includes four colleges across the state that would remain united, an unfair advantage over the individual Board of Regents universities.

TSU and the other universities "will then have to go against and compete for resources" with the combined UT system, Pendleton said. "TSU will have less resources and political power under this system."

“We want to make sure that our university is being treated fairly," Laster said. “I’m seeing that it’s not an even playing field for all of us."

Major overhaul planned for Tennessee colleges

Mike Krause, the member of the Haslam administration who has overseen the rollout of the college plan, said TSU and the other universities would have more power to control their day-to-day operations in the new structure. He said the Tennessee Higher Education Commission would act as a referee between UT and the other universities to ensure equal access to resources.

The commission “is the voice of higher education to the General Assembly, and they’ll continue to be,” Krause said. "This is not in any way to strengthen or focus on the University of Tennessee."

Haslam spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals said in an email statement that the FOCUS Act would "result in more empowered colleges that will connect to their local communities." She said that feedback from TSU President Glenda Glover has been woven into an amendment to the bill.

TSU has voiced cautious opposition to Haslam's plan recently, releasing a statement last week that included several concerns from students, faculty and Glover. In an interview after the hearing, Glover said parts of the bill were "unfair to TSU," particularly that  the university would have to compete with the combined political power of the UT system, which she called "an academic monopoly."

"There's no way that could be considered fair by any shape, form or fashion to have an academic monopoly on one hand and on the other hand you have six institutions to compete with that political power," she said. "I just don't get it."

Glover said she still supported Haslam and had worked well with his administration.

"We've been in contact with the governor's office and we've expressed some concerns, and to their credit they've listened to quite a few of them," she said. "We have a good working relationship. I have to be optimistic that we'll continue to work with the governor's office to work out the remaining differences."

Ideally, Glover said, she would like to stay in the Board of Regents system and opt out of creating an independent board. The bill would not allow for that in its current form.

Former Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan has harshly criticized the plan, and predicted it would pit the universities against one another. But the plan has support from other university presidents and leading Republicans and seems likely to pass. It easily cleared votes in other committees earlier in the session.

John Morgan testifies against Haslam's college plan

Under the plan, the local university boards would be allowed to set tuition, hire presidents and decide their own priorities. The Board of Regents would continue to manage the state's network of 13 community colleges and 27 technical colleges.

Faison, the committee chairman, repeatedly thanked the students for coming to the hearing. Before the vote, he encouraged them to continue voicing their opposition to the bill as it continues to make its way through the General Assembly.

Staff writer Joel Ebert contributed to the report. Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.