Staying on Course

COVID-19 response serves as testament to focus on student success

STAYING ON COURSE

by Drew Ruble

With almost 22,000 students and nearly 1,000 full-time faculty and staff, MTSU is really the equivalent of a midsize city on a beautiful 550-acre campus.

That all changed in early March as the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and University officials made the difficult but necessary decision to close the campus and move all instruction temporarily online after an extended spring break. Overnight, the MTSU campus was a virtual ghost town.

On the first weekend that the campus was shuttered, MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, who lives in the President’s Residence on campus, and his family took their dog, Mitzi, for a walk through Walnut Grove.

“I looked around and realized how quiet and serene our campus looked,” he said. Passing by Kirksey Old Main, the nearly two-decade MTSU president said he found himself thinking back to the incredible challenges this campus has faced in its past. “In its more than 108 years, our community has experienced two World Wars, the Great Depression, conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, desegregation, and the modern recession,” he said. “Each time this campus and our Blue Raider family have emerged stronger, with an even greater sense of purpose and resolve.” The experience gave him confidence in the future of the University.

“I have no doubt that we will prove that once again, as we move beyond the health and financial challenges our world is facing,” he said.

Although the University was still during the pandemic, it did not sit still. Faculty quickly turned more than 3,000 traditional courses into creative, challenging (and according to some reports, even fun) remote learning opportunities. Meanwhile, students handled the major disruption in their lives with maturity and optimism, making a difficult situation manageable.

“I am truly amazed at how much we have been able to accomplish—much of which was achieved in record time,” McPhee said. “I am appreciative of our students, faculty, and staff, who were confronted with a crisis that upended

their studies, plans, and lives, yet have persisted. . . . I am particularly grateful for our faculty, who were confronted with perhaps the greatest challenge of their careers and responded with resolve and innovation.” In the end, walking across campus that day with his dog, McPhee said he actually felt as optimistic as ever about the future of MTSU.

“I know the character and values of our faculty, students, ability to handle challenges, no matter what they are,” he said. “In the very near future, we will thrive, and that is directly attributable to each of them. Each of them is vital to our campus’s success—no matter what role they play.”

There are many examples of the positive ways the MTSU family handled the crisis. Published here is just a sampling of the many extraordinary efforts that took place. Collectively, they gave new meaning to the phrase “True Blue” that has come to reflect the and staff. They have great capabilities and an amazing

identity of the MTSU community over the past decade.

MTSU unveiled three new guaranteed academic scholarships

for qualified freshmen entering this fall, marking the first time such awards have been made available beyond the University’s traditional Dec. 1 deadline. Applications for these four-year awards are being accepted through Aug. 14—just 10 days before the start of the Fall 2020 semester:

Lightning Scholarship ($3,000 a year, 30–36 ACT, 3.5 GPA) Blue Raider Scholarship ($2,000 a year, 25–29 ACT, 3.5 GPA) Future Alumni Scholarship ($1,000 a year, 23–24 ACT, 3.5 GPA)

At the behest of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, MTSU used 3D printers to help health care workers guard against COVID-19.

Out of the Blue, MTSU’s long-running monthly TV program, pivoted to two shows per week containing crucial and timely information on the University’s response to the pandemic. The program, facilitated by Andrew Oppmann, MTSU’s vice president of marketing and communications, began broadcasting on the University’s main Facebook page. Rebranded as Stay on Course, the web-only show featured twiceweekly productions about the University’s response to COVID-19.

A virtual commencement ceremony broadcast via Facebook Live and livestreamed on Saturday, May 9, celebrated our Spring 2020 graduates. Each also received a True Blue Graduation Box in the mail. On April 29, the University hosted a virtual stole ceremony for graduating student veterans.

Students who vacated their residence hall rooms before April 19 were eligible for a partial refund. While MT Dining remained open for takeout and available to the more than 500 students who continued to live on campus, MTSU absorbed the financial cost of offering a refund plan on unused meals for students who returned home. Sheridan Sain, a senior majoring in Business Administration who graduated in May, was 36 weeks pregnant at the time of the campus shutdown. "MTSU has supported those students and have made it known they are here to help in any way they can,” she said.

Based on CDC recommendations, MTSU has assigned only one student per dorm bedroom for the fall semester, while prioritizing freshmen. MTSU apartment residency remains unchanged. MTSU continues to work with students who have been affected by the pandemic. Remote tutoring was launched for 200 courses and subject areas. The free service— normally offered at the Tutoring Spot in James E. Walker Library and various oncampus locations by the MTSU Office of Student Success—was available to students via Zoom online teleconferencing and other methods. MTSU’s Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center also guided students through classwork in cyberspace.

The campus pharmacy and Student Health Services

remained open and available to students living in residence halls on campus, in nearby apartments or rental property off campus, or in the surrounding communities. Professors like Anne Anderson, MTSU’s Weatherford Chair of Finance, adjusted

teaching methods and tapped technology

for remote learning, as did hundreds of other professors and instructors across campus in response to the ongoing coronavirus threat.

MTSU supported students needing technology assistance by distributing laptops

and providing hot spots to help students

with remote classes.

About 25 MTSU Nursing students helped staff the

Tennessee Department of Health’s COVID-19

hotline at the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency’s Command Center in Nashville.

Students were provided a pass-fail grading option for classes they were enrolled in during the Spring 2020 semester. Thanks to our Admissions and Marketing teams and their creative efforts to attract excellent students to our University, we have 17,394 students registered

for Fall 2020 as compared to 16,958 students at this same time last summer, which is 436 more

students, or an increase of 2.57%.

MTSU also provided a credit to each enrolled student’s account to offset the cost of the portion of the program services fee that covers student recreation (including the Campus Recreation Center); postal services; campus access (including parking services); and international services. In addition, MTSU is not charging the online course fee for summer sessions.

MTSU’s Admissions recruiting team pursued an alternate route when its scheduled on-campus tour event was canceled because of coronavirus precautions. The staff conducted True Blue Spotlight livestream events or virtual happenings for prospective students and their families to get as close of a look as was allowed of

the Blue Raider campus.

Our Student Affairs team continued to innovate ways to keep our students connected through virtual Connection Point events, which are crucial Campus Life events geared toward student retention. As an example, caricature artist Adam Pate produced real-time portraits of students who registered for a webinar.

MTSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy continued its popular Star Party events online. Using the University’s on-campus telescope, the Star Party series brings students, families, and community members together on campus for interesting science talks and amazing looks into outer space.

With the added stresses of stay-at-home orders and the switch to remote learning for all of our students, MTSU’s counseling professionals continued offering a variety of free,

remote mental health resources to students, faculty, and staff

during the pandemic.

Students had remote access— and restricted physical access for pickups—to James E. Walker Library as the University continued to adapt to changes necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak. Thousands of

resources from e-books to articles from magazines, newspapers, and academic journals, to audio and video

resources, were available online as students continued their studies from home. “Pull and Hold” also enabled students to continue to check out books via the library’s website prior to the governor’s statewide safer-athome order.

Su Ling, a graduate of the College of Media and Entertainment who works for China Radio International in Beijing, and Li Jiabin, the first exchange student from China Agriculture University, reached out to other MTSU alumni

in China and provided

1,000 N95 masks for use by Student Health Services and University Police.

The Blue Zoo student group made its return to Floyd Stadium and Murphy Center in 2019 after being nearly dormant for two years. During the pandemic, the group contributed

$1,000 to a University fund to aid students

who are unable to work because of campus or business closings.

The University donated

and delivered 400-plus bottles of our famous MTSU Creamery chocolate milk to Hobgood Elementary

School one morning during the pandemic to help them continue the mobile CHOW Bus breakfast and lunch meals program while students were out of school because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The school, part of the Murfreesboro City Schools system, was running low on milk and wasn't expecting another delivery soon.

In mid-February, Cara Skaggs scheduled a meeting to defend her dissertation to her committee on March 25. Little did she know that she would be defending four years of hard work from her kitchen table during a pandemic. Skaggs earned her third degree from MTSU—a Doctor of Education in Assessment, Learning, and School Improvement from the MTSU College of Education—at

a virtual dissertation defense

with her advisors. She got to hear herself called “Dr. Skaggs” for the first time on Zoom. Skaggs is currently the coordinator of school improvement for Maury County Public Schools. MTSU’s Student Food Pantry

continued to feed students

in need. Bags of food and hygiene products remained available for students at the Student Services and Admissions Center. [Note: Donations can be made electronically at mtsu.edu to various student emergency funds and services, including the food pantry, that support students in need.]

The Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia at MTSU transformed its Fox Reading Conference from a hybrid of in-person and cyberspace communication to an all-digital endeavor because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Some 5,500

people on four continents logged

in for all or part of the March 21 videoconferencing session.

MTSU Graduate Studies temporarily offered a $1 application fee (normally $35) to help support prospective students during the COVID-19 crisis. It also waived admission tests (GRE, GMAT, etc.) for many of its programs. This will apply for Summer 2020 and Fall 2020 start terms.

Fifteen student workers at the farm laboratories and MTSU Creamery—and about 50 altogether on campus in various academic departments—were deemed “essential” workers by Provost Mark Byrnes. This small group of student workers

continued to staff areas where their

hands-on services were needed, including the University farm, on-campus computer labs, and flight instruction. Recent MTSU graduate Cassidy Johnson, a Buchanan Fellow and Media Management major, turned her nearly

empty residence hall into a dance

studio. Before the pandemic, Johnson would work out almost daily for four hours at MTSU’s Campus Recreation Center and drive to her studio in Nashville two to three times a week for six-hour dance practice sessions with her coach. After choosing to stay in the dorms for convenience and safety, she created her own daily dance “boot camp” schedule to keep herself sane. Asked if anyone had run into her dance sessions in the hallway yet, she laughed. “I think I’ve seen—face to face— maybe three people? No one complained

about me being disruptive yet!”

About to graduate summa cum laude and head to graduate school, undergraduate researcher Lucas Remedios participated in his second consecutive Scholars Week. Only this time it was a virtual event featuring

more than 150 research posters

available for viewing online, rather than the usual weeklong schedule of activities and speakers. Since K–12 students couldn’t go to their classrooms, MTSU

College of Education experts helped provide parents with the tools to conduct a “Classroom in

Your Living Room.” The college, with technical assistance from the Center for Educational Media, produced a podcast series designed to assist parents trying to keep their children’s minds on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new batch of freshmen and transfer students embarking on their MTSU journey

experienced CUSTOMS

orientation in a new way in summer 2020. Presentations, group meetings, academic advising, and registration took place virtually as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.