Senate Education Chairman Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville) said on Tuesday that the Senate Education Committee will hold hearings on Sept. 28 and 29 regarding the Tennessee Board of Regents. Ms. Gresham scheduled the meeting after receiving a written request to conduct hearings on the make up of the TBR Board from committee members Senators Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) and Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville).
The meetings will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 1 p.m. and will continue at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 29. The hearings will be held in the Senate Hearing Room in the Legislative Plaza in Nashville.
The meetings will include a briefing by legal counsel regarding the law followed by a briefing by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission regarding the mission and scope of the TBR. This will be followed by a statement and questions for individual members of the TBR board.
Tennessee law requires appointed members “shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.” The law states appointments “shall be effective until adversely acted upon by the Senate.” Any action or recommendations from the committee will be delivered in a report to the next State Senate which will convene in January.
The TBR operates 45 public institutions of higher education in Tennessee not governed by the University of Tennessee system, with a combined annual enrollment of over 190,000 students. TBR's six state universities, 13 community colleges, and 26 technology centers offer classes in 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties and is a $2.2 billion per year enterprise, making it the sixth largest system of public higher education in the U.S.