{"id":1935,"date":"2016-01-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/blogtest\/changing-times\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:02:50","slug":"changing-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/changing-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

As most of you are no\u00a0doubt already aware, Gov.\u00a0Bill Haslam has proposed\u00a0sweeping change regarding\u00a0the governance structure for\u00a0the six Tennessee Board of\u00a0Regents (TBR) universities,\u00a0including MTSU.<\/p>\n

The governor wants to remove those\u00a0universities from under the direct\u00a0control of the TBR, which has governed\u00a0them for decades. In TBR\u2019s place, new local\u00a0governing boards would be fashioned that\u00a0would have decision-making power over\u00a0such crucial University operations as tuition\u00a0rates, program enhancements, presidential\u00a0appointments, and budget control.<\/p>\n

According to Gov. Haslam, this\u00a0proposed major structural change\u00a0would be engineered, in part, to better\u00a0allow the TBR to focus on the state\u2019s\u00a0community colleges and Colleges\u00a0of Applied Technology, which have\u00a0experienced dramatic enrollment\u00a0increases as a result of the Tennessee\u00a0Promise scholarship. The Tennessee\u00a0Promise program offers eligible\u00a0high school graduates two years of\u00a0tuition-free community or technical\u00a0college. (The Promise contributed\u00a0to a 10-percent surge in first-time\u00a0freshman enrollment statewide, a key\u00a0development in Gov. Haslam\u2019s Drive\u00a0to 55 education initiative to raise the\u00a0number of Tennesseans possessing\u00a0postsecondary degrees or certification\u00a0to 55 percent in order to meet future\u00a0workforce demands.)<\/p>\n

At the time of the writing of this\u00a0report, there was still much unknown\u00a0and undecided about the proposed\u00a0new higher-education landscape that\u00a0would be created under this new\u00a0governance structure. The governor\u00a0had appointed a task force to fine-tune\u00a0his plan to create individual governing\u00a0boards for the six affected Tennessee\u00a0universities, and I was selected (along\u00a0with the other presidents of universities\u00a0currently governed by the TBR) to\u00a0serve on that committee.<\/p>\n

This proposed new governing structure,\u00a0I believe, has great potential to enable\u00a0MTSU to tackle its present and future\u00a0challenges in an even more laser-focused\u00a0manner. It could do so by\u00a0granting the University both greater\u00a0local autonomy in its decision making,\u00a0as well as greater freedom to think\u00a0entrepreneurially and even outside the\u00a0box as regards the need for program\u00a0enhancements and new initiatives.\u00a0With the work MTSU has already\u00a0been accomplishing over the past\u00a0few years, specifically as it relates to\u00a0attracting more college-ready students\u00a0(including transfer students) to campus,\u00a0I am confident that such a truly bold\u00a0and potentially transformational\u00a0proposal would lead to an even\u00a0brighter future for our University. I look\u00a0forward to learning and exploring the\u00a0opportunities it could provide towards\u00a0our mission of ensuring student success\u00a0and providing even more graduates for\u00a0the state\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n

In a related matter, John Morgan,\u00a0chancellor of the Tennessee Board\u00a0of Regents, announced his plan to\u00a0retire at the end of January. David\u00a0Gregory, who had planned to retire\u00a0in January as TBR\u2019s vice chancellor\u00a0for administration and facilities\u00a0development, was named acting\u00a0chancellor and will serve until a\u00a0permanent replacement is selected.\u00a0Morgan, who has served as chancellor\u00a0of the state\u2019s university and community\u00a0college system since October 2010\u00a0and led the system\u2019s transformation\u00a0to become more comprehensive\u00a0and student focused, called the\u00a0announcement\u00a0bittersweet and\u00a0said it was timed to\u00a0acknowledge the\u00a0accomplishments\u00a0achieved by the\u00a0system\u2019s institutions\u00a0over the past\u00a0five years.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Morgan\u2019s\u00a0visionary leadership of\u00a0the Tennessee Board\u00a0of Regents helped\u00a0bring about significant\u00a0reforms and\u00a0improvements in\u00a0our state\u2019s higher education\u00a0system.<\/p>\n

That leadership was demonstrated by\u00a0his able work to guide TBR\u2019s institutions\u00a0during implementation of the Complete\u00a0College Tennessee Act and Governor\u00a0Haslam\u2019s Drive to 55 initiatives.<\/p>\n

As president of MTSU, I have respected\u00a0and appreciated his counsel and\u00a0guidance as we secured our $147\u00a0million Science Building, one of the\u00a0top scientific teaching and research\u00a0facilities in the nation, and put forward\u00a0our Quest for Student Success, which\u00a0has transformed how we teach and\u00a0serve our students.<\/p>\n

I have enjoyed working with the chancellor\u00a0and, on behalf of our students,\u00a0faculty, and staff, we thank him for his\u00a0service to our state and system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As most of you are no\u00a0doubt already aware, Gov.\u00a0Bill Haslam has proposed\u00a0sweeping change regarding\u00a0the governance structure for\u00a0the six Tennessee Board of\u00a0Regents (TBR) universities,\u00a0including MTSU. The governor wants to remove those\u00a0universities from under the direct\u00a0control of the TBR, which has governed\u00a0them for decades. In TBR\u2019s place, new local\u00a0governing boards would be fashioned that\u00a0would have decision-making power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3194,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions\/3194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}