A University President’s Fight for Half a Billion Dollars Owed — And the State’s Actions to Avoid Payment
NASHVILLE, Tenn., — Dr. Glenda Glover, former President of Tennessee State University (TSU), has released a compelling new book, How Dare You, a firsthand account of the years-long battle to secure equitable funding for TSU and the State’s efforts to avoid paying the university hundreds of millions of dollars in underfunding owed under federal law.
Drawing on legislative records, state and federal documentation, and research conducted by TSU, Dr. Glover details how the State of Tennessee—by its own internal analysis—determined it had underfunded TSU by more than $544 million under the Morrill Act of 1890, and the lengths to which state leaders went to avoid paying it.
The book traces the fight from a 2022 legislative hearing—where a state senator publicly questioned why Black students attend TSU—to the long history of TSU becoming the segregation–era alternative to integration. It also includes the national reckoning sparked by the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, in which lawmakers finally began to confront the extent of the chronic funding disparity.
“This is a book about elected and appointed state leaders and the decisions they made that inflicted lasting harm on TSU,” Dr. Glover writes. “It is not about a fight with TSU. It is about my fight for TSU—for the truth that was hidden, the inequities that were protected, and the lengths to which some were willing to go to keep that truth from coming to light.”
Dr. Glover situates TSU’s story within a national reckoning: a 2023 federal review by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education found the state of Tennessee had underfunded TSU by an additional $2.1 billion over three decades—the largest shortfall identified at any of the nation’s 1890 land-grant HBCUs.
How Dare You examines the broader implications of public funding inequities affecting Historically Black Colleges and Universities and raises important questions about accountability, public policy, and educational equity. Through personal experiences, documented events, and historical context, Dr. Glover presents her account of one of the most significant funding injustices involving a public HBCU in recent history.
More than a memoir, How Dare You is a call to action. Dr. Glover has launched a national advocacy effort to close funding gaps at land-grant HBCUs across the country, describing the movement as “the next educational civil rights battle.”
For more information, please visit www.fair-funding.org.
