TRAIN

TRUE GROWTH

Facility planning at MTSU is always done with an emphasis on students and with modern training techniques and methodologies top of mind.

During the reporting period, construction continued on time and on budget on the desperately needed College of Behavioral and Health Sciences building, a 91,000-square-foot, $38 million facility to house classrooms, lab space, and faculty offices for Criminal Justice Administration, Psychology, and Social Work.

Importantly, now in the works is a new building to house MTSU’s School of Concrete and Construction Management. Gov. Bill Lee provided $31.6 million in this year’s budget for the project, which will be located on the east side of campus. To make room for the 54,000-square-foot building, Abernathy and Ezell halls—which served as dormitories more than 20 years ago—will be torn down. The new classroom building is expected to be finished in late 2021. The total project cost is $40.1 million.

A joint initiative between MTSU and leaders from the concrete industry, the Concrete Industry Management program provides students opportunities to enter a broad field that has an urgent need for skilled professionals.

Changing to meet a need, MTSU is the first university to integrate a technical education in concrete with business and communication skills needed to advance in the industry.

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TRUE MASTERY

MTSU provides students the opportunity to interact with and be guided and trained by some of the nation’s leading educators and practitioners. At the administrative and staff level, MTSU has become a true talent magnet, attracting the best and the brightest professionals to top posts in the academic, administrative, and athletic spaces.

Here is an example of a faculty member at MTSU who achieved deserved recognition during the reporting period and whose work and profile are key to retaining students who wish to learn from the best.

TRUE REPRESENTATIVE

MTSU Professor Charles Baum was among legislators sworn in as a member of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly.

Baum, an Economics and Finance professor in the Jennings A. Jones College of Business, was sworn in as a Republican state representative for Murfreesboro’s 37th District in the state House of Representatives.

Baum took the seat previously held by Dawn White, an MTSU alumna who gave up the seat for a successful run for state Senate. Baum’s district covers parts of north central Rutherford County, stretching from Murfreesboro north to the county line.

Baum previously served during 2010–18 on the Rutherford County Commission, where he chaired the commission’s Audit Committee and was a member of the commission’s Budget, Finance, and Investment Committee.

Baum’s research interests include the costs and economics related to obesity in America. About 30% of adult Americans are currently obese, which is roughly a 100% increase from 25 years ago. Baum’s studies have drawn conclusions related to the impacts of everything from smoking cigarettes to possessing food stamps as they relate to the obesity epidemic.

TRUE EXPLORATION

MTSU is now poised to become one of the premier institutions for furnishing personnel to a burgeoning industry that is critical to the mid-state economy and in need of skilled professionals. The University announced the creation of a Tourism and Hospitality Management major that becomes the first such degree in middle Tennessee.

The multitrillion-dollar industry supports one in 10 jobs worldwide and is growing by about 5% each year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. That organization projects that the tourism and hospitality field will support more than 413 million jobs by 2028.

The MTSU degree offers three specializations—travel and tourism, hospitality and hotel, and event planning. Students can choose one or combine all three. The program also plans an accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s track that will enable students to graduate with both degrees in five years, allowing graduates to enter the workforce more quickly. Omni Hotel General Manager Eric Opron applauded MTSU’s development of a program that he feels will serve as a pipeline of talented graduates attractive to his company and others.

“How would it be to know that when you go to school, as soon as I graduate, I have a great job waiting for me?” he said. “Because you do, trust me you do.”

Partners in supporting the new program include the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Tennessee Recreation and Parks Association, Rutherford County Hospitality Association, Embassy Suites, Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp., Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association, and Rutherford County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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TRUE COMMUNITY

cultivate: “to prepare and use . . . “to try to acquire or develop (a quality, sentiment, or skill) . . .”

People who are engaged in the world around them, who are intellectually curious and understand nuance, add a great deal to our Tennessee citizenry and have a much better chance of achieving innovation and solutions than people who lack those abilities.

In a day and age where our society seems to constantly transform and shift, the ability to cultivate students and graduates who can keep their eyes open and to see the big picture—the picture that serves the community, the state, and the nation best—may be the most valuable skill we impart at MTSU,