When Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover arrived at the president's office of Tennessee State University in 2013, recovering decades of missing state funding was not at the top of her agenda.
“I was more concerned about taking care of the students,” said the 1974 graduate of the Volunteer State’s only public HBCU. “I knew in the back of my mind that there was something about funding, because when I was there as a student, there was a conversation at that point about missing funding.”
But members of the TSU community persisted in their belief that she should take up the fight to recover the money the state owed the university — and eventually, the balance sheet made the gap impossible to ignore.
“I kept seeing the transfer of funds from the operating account to other accounts, and as a [certified public accountant], I had questions,” she said.
What began as a financial inquiry became a years-long fight over institutional accountability, state responsibility, and the promise of equitable public investment.
In her new book, How Dare You: An HBCU President's Fight for Half a Billion Dollars Owed —and the State's Actions to Avoid Payment, Glover recounts that fight and the resistance she says accompanied her efforts to hold state officials accountable.
The book, she said, is not simply an account of a past administration's fight. It is an opportunity to ensure that the underlying issue receives the attention it deserves and that other institutions do not have to spend years fighting for resources they should have received in the first place.
After years of pressing Tennessee to acknowledge and address its obligations to TSU, Glover is taking the message far and wide to encourage HBCU stakeholders to put pressure on their elected officials to hold states accountable to their obligations to these institutions. This week, she will address a national audience through Virginia Union University’s Center for the Study of HBCUs’ Exclusive Conversations webinar series.
Deflecting the Blame
“The state determined that they owed Tennessee State University $544 million — although we did our own research and came up with our own number. But after they made that announcement and did that report and did that study, they swept it under the rug,” she said.
In her mind, the path forward was straightforward: The state could repay the university, establish a payment plan, or negotiate a timeline for repayment. What it could not do, she argued, was acknowledge the problem and then behave as though it had been resolved.
She also disputes the suggestion that TSU's financial challenges were evidence that the institution could not responsibly manage additional resources.
"I said I'm a CPA. I know how to manage money," she recalled.
Glover maintains that TSU was forced to operate within the financial constraints created by years of insufficient state support. The university continued serving students, pursuing partnerships with major corporations and working to maintain academic programs, but doing so required making difficult choices about available resources.
The consequences, she said, extended well beyond the university's balance sheet.
Underfunding affects the educational experience students receive, from the facilities in which they learn to the technology, faculty expertise, research opportunities and academic programs available to them. HBCUs are expected to prepare students to compete at the highest levels, she said, while often having to work considerably harder to secure the resources their counterparts take for granted.
“We had to beg [for corporate support] and do so much more to make sure the students were able to compete,” she said.
Despite the fact that HBCUs continue to expand their contributions to the nation's workforce, research enterprise, and economic development, Glover argues that institutional resilience should not become an excuse for continued underinvestment.
A Call for Accountability
Now, as the country enters a new political chapter following the 2026 midterm elections, Glover is taking the conversation beyond Tennessee. Her message to the incoming Congress, particularly the Democrats who will assume control of both chambers in January, is that acknowledging historical inequities is not enough. She believes lawmakers have been given a mandate by the voters to right the wrongs of the past, which includes establishing consequences for states that fail to meet their obligations and ensuring that HBCUs receive the resources necessary to compete.
Glover also wants lawmakers to recognize that public investment in HBCUs is an investment in the communities and economies they serve; HBCUs cannot continue to be expected to deliver the same institutional outcomes as better-resourced counterparts while operating under fundamentally different financial conditions.
For Glover, the next phase of the fight must focus on enforcement.
The Morrill Act of 1890 established a federal framework for supporting land-grant institutions, but the fight in Tennessee and other HBCU states is evidence that the requirements have not been accompanied by sufficient consequences when states fail to comply.
“We can't let the legislation just get away from us because we're not enforcing it,” she said.
She is now meeting with members of Congress, including working with U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, to advocate for stronger federal accountability provisions. Her goal is to put enforceable standards, meaningful oversight, and sustained investment behind the law's original promise.
The issue, she said, is not simply that states have not fulfilled their matching obligations, but ensuring the federal government has the mechanisms necessary to ensure they do.
“The main thing we have to do now is talk to the legislators, talk to the Members of Congress about putting some teeth in the Morrill Act. And I plan to be right there doing it. It's going to be fun,” she said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's own Equity Commission has identified inequities associated with the matching requirements and recommended changes to address historical funding disparities.
The change in congressional leadership creates a new legislative environment, although the extent to which the election results will translate into a renewed commitment to public education and equitable investment remains to be seen.
Her mandate to those who will take seat in January: Put teeth into the law's promise. Establish enforceable standards. Require meaningful oversight. Ensure sustained investment so that the benefits envisioned more than a century ago become real for the institutions and students they were intended to serve.
“Stop settling for half measures and excuses,” she said. “If education is truly a vehicle for opportunity, prove it.”
“We don't need any more symbolic support,” she said. “It's time for action.”
