Midpoints

A look at recent awards, events, and accomplishments at MTSU

compiled by Gina E. Fann, Jimmy Hart, Gina K. Logue, Drew Ruble, Stephanie Wagner, and Randy Weiler

Eight Straight

MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry—and the College of Media and Entertainment that houses it—are marking an eighth straight year on Billboard magazine’s latest international list of top music business schools, once again earning acclaim for the program’s diversity, depth, and longevity. According to the industry publication, “opportunities abound” for students’ professional development at MTSU, thanks to participation in events such as Bonnaroo and the CMA Music Festival; the presence of an active on-campus music venue, the Chris Young Café; and the studentrun record label, Match Records.

MTSU has been on Billboard’s best music business schools lists since 2013, receiving recognition that first year for the Recording Industry program’s entrepreneurial turn. The magazine skipped a 2015 compilation as well as one in 2021 due to the pandemic. MTSU appears on the 2022 list alongside long-recognized programs at Berklee College of Music, New York University, and the University of California–Los Angeles.

Treating Our Teachers

About 70 local teachers arrived on the MTSU campus Sept. 27 to enjoy the MTSU College of Education’s inaugural Teacher Appreciation event. “Teachers really need our support right now,” said Pam Ertel, MTSU associate professor of Education. Ertel added that MTSU would not be able to effectively prepare teacher candidate students without professional teachers serving as mentors or without local district support.

“To be appreciated at an event like this just really shows that they know and trust us, and they know that we are preparing the student candidates for the future,” said MTSU alumna Kelsey Rone ('16), a fourth-grade teacher at Hobgood Elementary in Murfreesboro who has mentored student teachers for six years. “Being honored by my former professors . . . seeing that we are doing the work, that I’m continuing the legacy as an MTSU alum from the College of Education has been very special.”

One for the Ages

MTSU’s football team achieved its biggest win in program history by stunning the then-No. 25 ranked University of Miami Hurricanes (the “U”) on Sept. 24. Chase Cunningham passed for 408 yards and three touchdowns, including a 98-yarder to DJ England-Chisolm, for the 45-31 road victory. It marked the Blue Raiders’ first win in 21 tries against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25 poll. MTSU joined the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of college football, in 1999. The Blue Raiders finished the 2022 season with a 7-5 record, meriting an invite to the Hawai’i Bowl, where the team defeated San Diego State University 25-23 on Christmas Eve.

Writing History

Every branch of the armed forces has an official song, from "The Army Goes Rolling Along" to "The Marines’ Hymn." Each song is part of the service’s foundation and represents its values, traditions, and culture. And now the U.S. Space Force, the newest military branch, established in 2019 as a part of the U.S. Air Force, has its own anthem, thanks to an adjunct professor of songwriting at MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment. The Space Force officially adopted "Semper Supra," written by Jamie Teachenor, during the 2022 Air and Space Forces Association Air, Space, and Cyber Conference in Maryland.

Photo by Dennis Hoffman, Air Force Public Affairs photographer

"Semper Supra" was named after the Space Force motto, which is Latin for “Always Above.” Teachenor, a veteran himself and prior member of the U.S. Air Force band at the Air Force Academy (and currently a Sumner County commissioner), has previously written songs and recorded with many country artists including Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, and Trisha Yearwood.

True Blue Value

MTSU has substantially increased the value and broadened eligibility of its True Blue Scholarship, almost doubling the amount of the award offered to qualified incoming freshmen. As the first tier of MTSU’s array of guaranteed academic scholarships, the True Blue Scholarship is now available to first-time freshmen scoring 22–24 on the ACT with at least a 3.5 high school GPA. MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee also raised the scholarship payout from $8,000 to $14,000 total, paid out at $3,500 a year for four years. As a guaranteed scholarship, it is awarded automatically to all who meet the criteria— which includes applying to the University by Dec. 1. The True Blue Scholarship is now the largest guaranteed academic award given by any public university in Tennessee to students with these criteria.

McPhee also announced a new top-tier offering to its guaranteed scholarships: the designation of Centennial Scholar, which provides $32,000 over four years ($8,000 per year) to students scoring 34–36 on the ACT and a 3.5 high school GPA. MTSU continues its guaranteed Trustees Scholarship to students with ACT scores of 30–33 and 3.5 GPA, paying $20,000 over four years ($5,000 per year). Students scoring 30 and above on the ACT and with a minimum 3.5 high school GPA can apply for MTSU’s highest academic award, the Buchanan Fellowship, a competitive and selective full-tuition scholarship offered through the University Honors College.

Holding Serve

MTSU broke ground last fall for its new $7.1 million outdoor tennis complex at the corner of Middle Tennessee Boulevard and Greenland Drive. The new state-of-the-art facility will serve as the on-campus home of the men’s and women’s tennis programs, featuring new locker rooms, spectator facilities for 250 Blue Raider fans, eight upgraded tennis courts, and new coaches’ offices, among many other amenities. The complex is the latest development to get underway through MTSU Athletics’ Build Blue capital campaign, with the goal to provide all 17 Division I programs with the resources and infrastructure to compete at a championship level.

The University of Opportunities

MTSU again made U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 national list for Top Performers in Social Mobility for its efforts to help disadvantaged students reach their educational goals.

In its 2022–23 evaluations of 1,500 colleges and universities, the publication ranked MTSU at No. 82 nationally for social mobility; No. 156 for Top Public Schools; No. 130 for Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (at schools where doctorate not offered); and No. 206 in Nursing. The University also was ranked No. 299 among the top National Universities.

MTSU, which first made U.S. News’ Top 100 in Social Mobility in 2020, devotes considerable effort to serve first-generation and underrepresented college students. It recently launched a new push, called MT Tuition Free, to help qualified students determine pathways that could eliminate or greatly reduce their tuition costs.

“Economically disadvantaged students are less likely than others to finish college, even when controlling for other characteristics,” U.S. News said in its announcement for its social mobility rankings. “But some colleges are more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of disadvantaged students awarded with Pell Grants. The vast majority of these federal grants are awarded to students whose adjusted gross family incomes are under $50,000.”

Looking Inward

The “self-talk” going through MTSU Psychology Professor Tom Brinthaupt’s mind was clear on his face as he walked among his applauding colleagues to accept the University’s highest teaching honor. “This is great, but whew, it’s embarrassing,” said Brinthaupt, who has spent 32 years in the Department of Psychology. Brinthaupt specializes in “self-talk”—the internal conversations we have with ourselves.

Now an internationally recognized expert on the phenomenon, he was the 2022 recipient of the MTSU Foundation’s Career Achievement Award. “Those of you that I’ve worked closely with over the years know that I maintain that being a professor is a helping profession,” Brinthaupt said. “Whether that’s our teaching, our research, our service—all of those involve us helping others.”

Experts Abroad

MTSU’s Mary Ellen Sloane and Gregory Reish recently headed to Rwanda and Mexico, respectively, as prestigious Fulbright Scholar Program faculty awardees.

Sloane, Walker Library’s user services librarian for the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, was based at the new Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda.

Reish, director of MTSU’s Center for Popular Music, is teaching classes at the University of Veracruz in the North American Studies Program, which focuses on the U.S.–Mexico relationship.

Driving Down Costs

The rising costs of textbooks have been a topic of conversation for years, but several members of MTSU's faculty and staff are making it their mission to make course materials more affordable—and in turn keep students on track to earn their degrees. Since 2019, the group has used $100,000 of grant money through the Tennessee Board of Regents on open educational resources (OER) to save 2,500-plus students more than $150,000. OER is defined as materials in the public domain or licensed to provide “everyone with free and perpetual permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute.”

Erica Stone, an associate professor of English and OER steering committee member, found that 42% of MTSU students surveyed in her study either had delayed access to their traditional materials or were unable to afford them at all. Surveyed students also said they had to prioritize which textbooks they bought, sometimes forgoing the book for an elective or General Education course and spending the money on a textbook for a class in their major instead. In total, more than 70 MTSU faculty members in 25 different courses used OER in the most recent academic year.

Iconic Educator

The Greater Nashville Alliance of Black School Educators (GNABSE) named longtime MTSU Management faculty member Millicent Nelson as its top higher education professional for 2022. The alliance of professional educators “is dedicated to promoting excellence in the education of all students, particularly students of African descent.” Nelson, an 18-year associate professor in the Jones College of Business, worked for years as a corporate executive for what was then telecommunications giant BellSouth in Atlanta. As part of that work, she conducted training sessions, laying the foundation for eventually earning her doctorate at Oklahoma State University and entering academia. After joining MTSU in 2004, Nelson revived a dormant student NAACP chapter.

Representation Matters

MTSU’s College of Education staff are dedicated to making the best teacher preparation program and housing the most effective faculty and staff in the nation. So when the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) and the MTSU Education Trust jointly recommended that the college create a center for diversity, staff worked hard to make it a reality. Two years later, the Center for Fairness, Justice, and Equity at MTSU opened in 2022, led by Director Michelle Stevens. The center aims “to cultivate an inclusive and diverse College of Education by intentionally recruiting diverse faculty, teacher candidates, and educational personnel from a multitude of backgrounds.”

SCORE’s State of Education in Tennessee publication, which uses annual data from the state Department of Education, reported that Tennessee’s teacher workforce is not representative of the students being served. For example, about 38% of Tennessee students are people of color, but only 14% of Tennessee teachers are, according to the 2021 report. Data shows a particularly concerning demographic mismatch between Black male students and teachers: only 2% of teachers are Black men. The center also equips current College of Education students, faculty, and staff with cultural competency training opportunities.

Good Oversight

With an extensive background in international accounting and licensed as both a lawyer and CPA, Jarett “Jerry” Decker hopes to bring his global and legal experience to bear as the new Joey A. Jacobs Chair of Excellence in Accounting and professor of practice within MTSU’s Jones College of Business.

A former head of the World Bank’s Centre for Financial Reporting Reform in Vienna, Decker has advised governments on reforms to improve corporate accounting, auditing, and governance in more than 30 developing and transitional countries. Decker also served as the first deputy director and chief trial counsel for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), created by Congress in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals. Prior to that, Decker was senior trial counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago.