(The Center Square) â A joint legislative committee looking into the stateâs historic funding of Tennessee State University tabbed the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to plot out a plan to help the institution makeup for state funding issues throughout the years. The Joint Land-Grant Institution Funding Study Committee spent the past year looking into what state funding had looked like in the past for Tennessee State, one of the stateâs two Land Grant Institutions, along with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. The committee came away with several conclusions, including the state had not fulfilled its obligations to match federal funds sent to Tennessee State for years, something that has been corrected over the past five fiscal years.