Prior to the redevelopment of campus in the 1990s, Centennial Blvd. ran through the center of campus.  The Administration or "A" Building has been renovated as the Humanities Building.

    The university (then known as Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University) was elevated to full-fledged land-grant university status by approval of the State Board of Education in August 1958. The Land-Grant University Program, as approved by the State Board of Education, included: the School of Agriculture & Home Economics, the Graduate School, the Division of Extension and Continuing Education, and the Department of Aerospace Studies. The School of Allied Health Professions and the School of Business were created in 1974. In addition, the School of Nursing was established in 1979. Currently, TSU consists of five colleges, three schools, and the Institute of Government: The College of Arts & Sciences; the College of Business; the College of Education; the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science; the College of Health Sciences; the School of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences; the School of Nursing; the School of Graduate Studies and Research; and, as mentioned, the Institute of Government.
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    n 1968, Andrew Torrence, also an alumnus, was named the university''s third president. It was during his relatively brief tenure that the state legislature formally dropped "Agricultural & Industrial" from the university''s name, which became Tennessee State University. Also, one of the most significant events of the Torrence presidency would not be fully resolved or have its impact felt for decades to come.

    The Industrial Arts Building in 1961 (top) once stood on the busy corner of 35th Street and Centennial Blvd. Today (below) it overlooks the quiet greenway at the center of the main campus.
It was in 1968 that a TSU faculty member named Rita Sanders filed a lawsuit alleging a dual system of higher education in Tennessee based on race. An agreement in this case, which over the years evolved into Geier v. Tennessee, would not be reached for over 30 years.

    When Frederick Humphries became TSU''s president in 1975, Nashville still was home to two public four-year universities. On July 1, 1979, the former University of Tennessee at Nashville was merged with TSU as a result of a court order in the 1968 Geier v. Tennessee case. Humphries was the first TSU president to face the challenge of maintaining the balance between TSU''s role as one of Ameri