September 19, 2012

Grade-Changing Controversy Leads to Faculty-Governance Crisis at Tennessee State U.

Conflict Flares Into Governance Crisis at Tennessee State U. 1

Rick Goodfriend, USAF

Portia H. Shields, interim president of Tennessee State U., maintains that the Faculty Senate chair no longer holds that office, following a vote taken at a meeting from which the faculty leader was removed in handcuffs.

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close Conflict Flares Into Governance Crisis at Tennessee State U. 1

Rick Goodfriend, USAF

Portia H. Shields, interim president of Tennessee State U., maintains that the Faculty Senate chair no longer holds that office, following a vote taken at a meeting from which the faculty leader was removed in handcuffs.

By Peter Schmidt

Jane M. Davis faces a potential complication in her bid to preside as chairwoman over Thursday's meeting of the Tennessee State University Faculty Senate. There's a chance that the campus police will haul her out of the room.

It would not be the first time the campus police department has silenced Ms. Davis, who ran afoul of the university's administration earlier this summer by publicly accusing it of improperly altering the grades of hundreds of students without their instructors'