You help make higher education work. We help make your voice heard.
Decisions about pay, benefits, retirement, and workplace rights affect the people who keep Tennessee’s public universities, community colleges, and technical colleges running. TSEA brings those employees together to speak up, protect what they have earned, and push for better.
Your work matters. So do the decisions that affect it.
You should have a voice when lawmakers and higher education leaders make decisions about your livelihood. TSEA monitors legislation, advocates for compensation and benefits, helps members navigate workplace concerns, and connects employees across campuses.
Advocacy at the Capitol
We follow proposals that affect higher education employees and make their concerns part of the conversation with lawmakers and state leaders.
Pay and benefits
We advocate for funding and policies that recognize the work employees do, including compensation, health coverage, and retirement benefits.
Help with workplace issues
Members can seek guidance on grievances, reductions in force, reclassifications, benefits, and other employment concerns. The right next step depends on the facts and the institution’s policies.
Strength across campuses
Chapters, committees, meetings, and statewide events give employees a way to raise issues, meet colleagues, and help set priorities.
Protections employees rely on have a history.
For decades, we have worked to establish, extend, and defend provisions that affect higher education employees. Here are some of the results. Eligibility depends on your institution, position, hire date, and the rules in effect today.
Longevity pay
TSEA advocated for longevity provisions for eligible higher education employees.
Retirement savings
TSEA has worked to establish and extend the employer 401(k) match for eligible higher education employees.
Health insurance
TSEA has advocated for higher education employees’ access to employee and family coverage and defended retiree coverage for eligible employees.
Grievance procedures
TSEA helped advance grievance protections for support staff, including procedures that address certain disciplinary actions and violations of law or policy.
Sick leave banks
TSEA supported the establishment of sick leave banks for eligible higher education employees.
Bereavement leave
TSEA has advocated for paid leave following the death of an immediate family member.
Reductions in force
TSEA has worked with higher education institutions on advance notice and support for employees facing a reduction in force.
Outsourcing and accountability
TSEA backed measures to scrutinize major service contracts that could displace state employees, including the 2018 CARE Act.
Our work also includes changes affecting retirement distributions during qualifying part-time reemployment, retiree health coverage for eligible employees hired before July 1, 2015, and public access to support-staff grievance procedures. If one of these issues affects you, contact us so we can help you find the current rules.
Benefits and procedures vary by employer, position, and hire date. Contact us or your institution’s benefits office to find out what applies to you.
You don’t have to sort it out alone.
A benefits question or workplace problem can become urgent quickly. TSEA members can contact staff for help understanding the issue, identifying the right procedure, and deciding what to do next.
Workplace concerns
Grievances, discipline, changes in job duties, reclassifications, reductions in force, and questions about workplace policies.
Pay, benefits, and retirement
Questions about compensation, health insurance, TCRS or other retirement plans, and where to find the official rules that apply.
Facing a deadline? Contact TSEA promptly. A conversation with us does not pause an employer’s grievance or appeal deadline.
A voice on your campus and across Tennessee.
Eligible higher education employees can join TSEA and participate in the association. Members may connect through a higher education chapter or another applicable local chapter, attend meetings and statewide events, serve in association roles, and help identify issues that deserve attention.
Find your chapter
Our dedicated higher education chapters include Memphis Higher Education and Northeast Higher Education. You can also participate through another applicable TSEA chapter. Find yours and see its next meeting.
Help shape the work
Chapter meetings, the Higher Education Committee, Lobby Day, and Representative Assembly create opportunities to raise campus concerns and take part in TSEA’s decisions.
Membership and chapter choice
Eligible higher education employees join as regular TSEA members. You may choose an applicable campus chapter or a chapter based on your county of residence. Contact us if you need help choosing.
Higher Education Committee
Members from the State Board and general membership identify issues specific to higher education, bring campus concerns forward, and work to grow higher education participation.
Your chapter assignment may depend on your campus and chapter structure. TSEA can help you identify the right chapter if you are unsure.
TSEA members work across Tennessee’s campuses.
Our members have worked at universities, community colleges, and technical colleges across the state, including the campuses listed below. This is a snapshot of our reach, not a complete campus directory. If your campus is not listed, you can still join and participate.
Public universities
- Austin Peay State University
- East Tennessee State University
- Middle Tennessee State University
- Tennessee State University
- Tennessee Tech University
- University of Memphis
- University of Tennessee Health Science Center
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- University of Tennessee at Martin
Community colleges
- Chattanooga State
- Cleveland State
- Columbia State
- Dyersburg State
- Jackson State
- Motlow State
- Nashville State
- Northeast State
- Pellissippi State
- Roane State
- Southwest Tennessee: Macon and Union campuses
- Volunteer State
- Walters State
TCATs
- TCAT Elizabethton
- TCAT Knoxville
- TCAT Livingston
- TCAT Memphis
- TCAT Morristown
- TCAT Nashville
Where do I fit?
Memphis Higher Education connects employees from several Memphis-area institutions. The former ETSU Chapter is now Northeast Higher Education. Elsewhere, higher education employees participate through applicable chapters, including Knox/UT and other local chapters.
Find the information you need.
Health insurance
Review current plans, coverage, and enrollment information from Partners for Health.
Retirement health coverage
Check the state’s eligibility guidance. Retiree coverage has specific service and hire-date requirements.
Grievance policy
Consult your institution’s published procedure immediately if you think you may need to file a grievance. Ask TSEA for help.
TSEA membership
Apply online or call 800-251-8732 to discuss membership and the services available to you.
The benefits employees have today did not happen by accident.
Higher education employees spoke up and worked together to win protections that matter. Pay, benefits, retirement, and workplace rights will keep changing. Your membership helps ensure employees have a voice in what comes next.
