Legislature sends a crystal clear message to UT via board vote
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The legislature has gown tired of dropping hints, so last week a Senate committee sent a very direct message – one that even clueless University of Tennessee administrators couldn’t miss.
Legislators get complaints from constituents about the UT administration, from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, to Sex Week, to paying people millions of dollars to go away.
When legislators complained about taxpayer funds being used for diversity training or Sex Week, what was UT’s response? Using student fees and private contributions to continue.
Here’s what they don’t get: It isn’t about the money. It was the legislature telling UT to knock it off, which UT ignored.
Is it any wonder that the Senate Education Committee last week refused to approve keeping current members of the Board of Trustees on the new smaller board? Why would you approve keeping board members who haven’t lifted a finger to bring the campus under control?
The board and clueless Chancellor Beverly Davenport have ignored legislative “hints.” So the legislature made it clear. They were given the power to use a wrecking ball, and they used it, humiliating Gov. Bill Haslam in the process.
The sudden rejection of the Haslam nominees came as a surprise to the administration and to UT and the current board members. UT spent more than half a million dollars on a lobbying team that evidently didn’t have a clue. And Haslam’s people were caught flat footed as well.
About Sex Week, if the university wanted to defuse the controversy and eliminate the public outcry – and the provoked legislators – it could do several things. They could change the name. They could have it during fall semester when the legislature is not in session. But no, they make it deliber- ately provocative. (A how-to program on anal sex, for instance.) They essentially give the legislature, and the public, a middle-finger salute. So is it any wonder the legislators are not pleased and are upset about the lack of institutional control?
What’s the point in having a Board of Trustees if they rubber-stamp the administration and refuse to take action to resolve controversies?
The full Senate can overrule the committee and pull the nominees out and approve them. I don’t think it is likely unless senators suddenly decide they shouldn’t treat the governor so shabbily.
I wrote recently about the lack of discipline among the Republican supermajority. With the rejection of the UT governance plan last week it marked the end of the Haslam administration. Lame duck is what they call it when an outgoing governor has spent his political capital. Unless there is a complete U-turn in the Senate this week.
Frank Cagle is a columnist and former managing editor of the News Sentinel. He may be reached at efrankcagle@yahoo.com.