INTRODUCTION

TRUE VIEW MTSU at a Glance

Founded Sept. 11, 1911, at the geographic center of Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State University is proud of its more than 100-year commitment to academic excellence and student success. Starting out as a teacher training institution, MTSU today is a major comprehensive university accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The University is composed of eight undergraduate colleges offering almost 40 departments/schools and more than 180 majors/degree programs. MTSU houses a wide variety of nationally recognized academic degree programs at the baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral levels. The College of Graduate Studies offers more than 90 master’s and specialist’s programs and nine doctoral degrees.

A comprehensive, Carnegie Doctoral-Research Intensive institution, MTSU boasts the largest student enrollment among the six locally governed institutions (LGIs). We currently enroll nearly 22,000 students, with 90% being from the state. We serve students from almost every county in Tennessee, as well as students from 48 states and 71 foreign countries. MTSU is also the state's No. 1 choice of transfer students, military veterans, adult learners (ages 25 and up), and college students attending summer school.

MTSU boasts almost 1,000 full-time faculty members and nearly 3,000 full- and part-time employees. Located on a 550-acre campus, MTSU is really the equivalent of a mid-size city. The University is among the largest employers in the Nashville metropolitan statistical area and has an estimated regional economic impact in excess of $1.1 billion annually. MTSU is the largest supplier of college-degreed workers in the mid-state, providing the vibrant Music City economy and workforce with more graduates than all other local universities combined (approximately 5,000-plus each year). According to the Business and Economic Research Center at MTSU, one in every five collegeeducated individuals in the Nashville area is an MTSU graduate.

Introduction

As a valued MTSU stakeholder, thank you for joining me in taking stock of the accomplishments of the past and the promise of the future at MTSU. As I approach my second decade as MTSU’s president, I have never been more proud of the work being accomplished by the University and the achievements of our student body.

Innovative and life-changing work emanates from MTSU on a daily basis. MTSU has indeed carved out a unique position among public universities. We can, and should, take great pride in the faculty accomplishments and institutional progress achieved throughout the past year, our student success stories, and the steps we’ve taken to make it possible for students to stay enrolled and complete their degrees, as well as the overall enhancements we’ve made to the academic experience. At the same time, we must plan for the challenging and unpredictable road ahead and MTSU’s future. In our rapidly changing global society, the demographics and the needs of our students are also changing. This calls for our University leaders, faculty, and staff to develop strategies addressing the challenges that our students face and to use data-informed processes to make higher education an achievable reality for our diverse student population.

MTSU WAS RECENTLY NAMED A TOP COLLEGE ACCORDING TO THE PRINCETON REVIEW IN THE NEWEST EDITION OF ITS COLLEGE GUIDE, THE BEST 385 COLLEGES

Employers expect newly hired graduates to be productive from day one on the job. That means we must ensure that students graduate with a high level of knowledge and the advanced competencies that employers require. We’ve set a standard for student success that other universities seek to emulate in their own programs. Yet, the field of higher education is not static. The target is continually moving. Therefore, to remain relevant, the strategic plans that we create to accomplish our goals and the metrics we use to measure our achievements must change correspondingly.

Through our unwaivering commitment, we have earned a reputation as a top university in America. As you will read more about in this report, MTSU was recently named a top college in the U.S. according to The Princeton Review in the newest edition of its college guide, The Best 385 Colleges, a designation only 13% of America’s fouryear colleges have earned.

Nine years ago, I introduced the phrase “I am True Blue” in an effort to recognize that MTSU is a community committed to learning, growth, and service. I still hold these values dear. They underscore our core values of honesty and integrity; respect for diversity; engagement in the community; and commitment to reason, not