How One College’s Lobbyist Is Handling a Controversial Bathroom Bill

With bills criticized as hostile to LGBT people making their way onto state legislative dockets nationwide, colleges are trying to make sense of the potential effects on them.

In Tennessee, lawmakers are considering a bill that would require students at public colleges, among other educational institutions, to use restrooms that correspond with their birth sex. According to the state’s attorney general, if the bill passes, the state risks losing federal funding — as much as $1.2 billion for elementary, secondary, and higher education.

That warning has prompted the bill’s sponsors to put it on hold while studying its predicted fiscal consequences. Gov. William E. Haslam has expressed skepticism about the bill but has not said whether he would sign it.

At the intersection of statehouses and colleges are higher-education lobbyists, who are charged with teasing out controversial bills’ likely effects — financial and otherwise — on campuses.

Anthony Haynes is no stranger to activist legislators. As vice president for government relations and advocacy for the University of Tennessee system, he has dealt with constant attacks from some lawmakers on funding for the diversity office on the Knoxville campus.

The Chronicle spoke this week with Mr. Haynes about how, exactly, he helps formulate the university’s response to legislation that could leave a mark on higher education in the state, including the bathroom bill that has concerned lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Tennesseans. The following interview has been edited and condensed.

Q. What’s the process when bills like this come up? Who are you talking to, and when are you discussing what to do if the bill becomes law?

A. I take a look at the political climate and try to find out what’s driving the bill. I think it’s fair to say that elected officials don’t wake up one morning and say, “We’ve got a problem with transgender bathrooms.”

You usually try to find out where this is coming from. Is it a national organization? In Tennessee’s case, it’s the Family Action Council. You try to figure out, Is this real, or is somebody trying to make a point and move on?

When these issues first started popping up, in January, I think we felt that this would get a lot of discussion but not a lot of action. And there’s probably a lot of legislators, Democrat and Republican, that felt the same way.

What we’re seeing now is it [the bill] really has some legs. Here in Tennessee, looking at Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina, and seeing that something passed in other states, that gives an added life when it [the bill] might otherwise die.

I don’t know where this is going to go in the end. It’s held up in Tennessee at a funding level, but that doesn’t mean it’ll stay or that it’ll come out either.

Q. Whom do you talk to about bills that may change any university facilities?

A. Our legislature has a Fiscal Review Committee who puts a dollar sign on any proposed legislation before it passes, and a lot of times that can be the death of legislation — depending on state revenue.

The Fiscal Review Committee then goes to our chief business officers at the universities. And this [bill] could cut any number of ways. I don’t know if anyone could put an honest price tag on the legislation.

If you pass the bill, you’re probably going to wind up with a number of lawsuits. That’s going to have different costs. If you don’t pass the bill, it raises the awareness of it, so it’s not to say there will not be a cost.

I think what allows the legislature to spend time on the bill is this broader issue that’s come to bear here in Tennessee of diversity and inclusion, which mostly is centered around us, the University of Tennessee right now.

Political veterans say a lot of these moves are fueled by the “Trump effect.” State elected officials usually don’t have as much well-rounded experience in politics that a member in Congress or [the] U.S. Senate has.

Those legislators see Donald Trump just skyrocket in success, and they think, “I gotta act like that. I gotta be like that if I want to stay in this business.”

Q. When bills come out of committee, and become more concrete, whom do you work with at the university to deal with implementation?

A. Whenever legislation like this is moving, our business officers don’t wait. They start having those conversations and start talking about some of the challenges. There are many conversations going on at one time.

Q. What have universities’ business officers said to administrators about the bill and where it stands?

A. I imagine they are saying if this bill were to pass, there are colleges and universities in Tennessee that have such [single-occupancy, dual-gender] restrooms.

I think less of the attention is on the higher-ed side and more of it focuses on K-12. On any given day we can be upstaged by K-12. With all the K-12 facilities across the state, there’s going to be some real financial ramifications one way or the other there.

Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a web writer. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.