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Joining Forces
MTSU’s Board of Trustees approved the merger of the Department of Global Studies and Human Geography with the Department of Political Science and International Relations. The new department, which will be known as the Department of Political and Global Affairs, will streamline the reporting structure within the college and create efficiencies. All academic majors, minors, and certificates offered by the two departments, as well as all faculty and students, will be retained in the new entity.
mtsunews.com/board-of-trusteessept2023-recap
Twice as Good
Biology assistant professors Liz Barnes and Donny Walker each landed a $1 million National Science Foundation grant through the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program. That two MTSU professors won the award speaks highly of the University’s current research efforts. Barnes researches effective ways to communicate polarizing, yet foundational, information about climate change and vaccines to undergraduate science students. Walker’s work focuses on the interaction between bacteria and pathogenic fungi in the microbiome of snakes.
mtsunews.com/biology-faculty-nsfearly-career-grant
A Head Start
MTSU’s Dual Enrollment program experienced record enrollment last fall as a result of strengthening partnerships with Rutherford County Schools, as well as expansion into Sumner and Wilson counties. With dual enrollment, high school students can get a head start by taking MTSU courses for college credit at little to no cost. Currently, MTSU partners with 16 area high schools; in fall 2023, it had more than 1,450 dual enrollment students, 250 more than the previous record.
mtsunews.com/dual-enrollment-newrecord-fall2023
Helping Hand
The Tennessee Department of Education recently brought on Tiffany Wilson, professional school counseling coordinator for MTSU’s College of Education, as the school counseling consultant for its just under $14 million grant project to retain and recruit mental health professionals into high-needs, rural school districts across the state. Typically, rural communities have limited access to mental health resources. The shortage of mental health professionals in schools across the state grew even more severe during the pandemic.
mtsunews.com/project-raise-statepartnership-counseling
Meeting a Need
Rural Tennesseans will have a better chance at recovering from opioid addiction through a $2.92 million federal grant awarded to MTSU’s Center for Health and Human Services (CHHS), in partnership with Cedar Recovery treatment clinic. This grant will establish new medication-assisted treatment access points in six rural Tennessee counties. Separately, CHHS, in conjunction with the University’s Data Science Institute, has launched the MTSU Office of Prevention Science and Recovery in response to the national opioid epidemic.
mtsunews.com/mtsu-center-healthopioid-grant-rcorp-hrsa
“Four the Future”
MTSU and nine other Tennessee public universities launched a coordinated campaign to increase public awareness about the value of a four-year degree. The “Four the Future” effort will engage community and business leaders, prospective students, and Tennesseans in all 95 counties. “A bachelor’s degree increases the life trajectory of not only those who earn them, but also their families,” MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee said. Among key messages is that a degree also benefits all Tennesseans.
