Spring 2025 Academic Achievements
Each of the colleges and academic units at MTSU maintains a high level of activity and produces news worth crowing about. Here are just a few examples from last fall.
Campuswide
A new report found that MTSU alumni, including alumni- owned businesses, generated more than $15.2 billion in business revenue in the state over the course of a single year. The 2024 MTSU Alumni Impact report by the Business and Economic Research Center (BERC) in our Jennings A. Jones College of Business detailed the positive financial impact made by the University’s graduates throughout Tennessee. It also reflected how MTSU particularly bolsters the economies of its home and surrounding counties. Rutherford County alone recorded more than $4.1 billion in business revenue, the highest among all counties. MTSU released the full report to local and state officials; numbers in the report were from 2022, the base statistical year of the study.
Retired U.S. Marine four-star Gen. Jim Mattis saluted the work of the MTSU Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center during a breakfast fundraiser for the center at Nashville’s Hutton Hotel last October. A captivated audience was treated to a one-hour conversation between longtime friends Mattis, a former U.S. secretary of defense, and former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, of Nashville, who previously served as Senate majority leader. Businesspeople from around the Midstate helped raise almost $500,000 for MTSU’s Daniels Center at the event.
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spoke to a packed house at MTSU’s Tucker Theatre on Sept. 17, to round out the University’s annual Constitution Day activities. The event drew nearly 900 audience members comprised of students, staff, community members, and local dignitaries.
College of Education
The Center for Educational Media in the College of Education recently hosted more than 350 people for targeted professional development for teachers of English learners, school counselors, and special education teachers. The collaboratives are comprised of practitioners in preK– 12 schools in Tennessee and are offered at no charge to the participants. The collaboratives are also made available to local, state, national, and global communities of educators via distribution through the web, satellite, and cable TV.
Middle Tennessee Electric gave $40,000 to MTSU’s College of Education to outfit future teacher classrooms each semester for the next four years. The College of Education awarded the first $2,500 Spark Awards to two student teachers—Lyric James and Natalie Burridge—which allows these future educators to jumpstart their careers without the financial strain of properly setting up their classrooms.
The College of Education recently hosted a banned book awareness event, “Let Freedom READ,” to facilitate public discussion around the increasing occurrence of book banning affecting libraries in local communities. The event primarily focused on the legal ambiguity of the laws that determine which books are deemed too graphic for K–12 schools, with many of the books banned as too graphic to be made available in school libraries discussing topics such as race, religion, and sexuality. Participants included MTSU students, retired and current librarians, classroom teachers, and other community members.
The 12th Annual MTSU Literacy Research Conference will be held March 1 at the College of Education. Conference registration opened Jan. 13. Visit mtsu.edu/literacy-conference for more information.
College of Basic and Applied Sciences
MTSU representatives recently accepted a $100,000 grant from global device care company Assurant Inc. that will go toward a new laboratory in the University’s new Applied Engineering Building, scheduled to open this fall. Assurant recently opened its new 259,000-square-foot Innovation and Device Care Center in Nashville and chose to commemorate the opening by awarding MTSU the grant over two years. This $100,000 grant will support the construction of a new Assurant Engineering Innovation Lab inside the Applied Engineering Building and expand the company’s partnership with MTSU’s Mechatronics Engineering program, of which several Assurant employees are alumni.
Aerospace Professor Paul Craig was honored with MTSU’s 2024 Career Achievement Award. Craig was the University’s first flight instructor for MTSU’s renowned aviation training program. Aside from his time in the cockpit, Craig has authored 15 books on aviation safety and flight training, worked for NASA, and received numerous other University and industry awards.
The Aerospace Department has launched a new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technology concentration that will allow students to explore the engineering and technology side of drone aircraft.
James E. Walker Library
Walker Library confirmed from recent student surveys an insufficiency of individual study rooms. Funding from the Library Enrichment Fund supported the acquisition of five new study pods. The pods are designed to mitigate external noise up to 32 decibels, creating an almost soundproof environment for students. This will provide students spaces to take online courses and conduct interviews without using headphones. Additionally, each pod has motion-activated lights and fans to ensure good air circulation while the space is in use.
College of Behavioral and Health Sciences
MTSU announced a planned public-private partnership to build a campus hotel on campus that will serve the campus community, bolster tourism in the area, and be a favorite destination for visitors to campus. On- or near-campus hotels at other universities accommodate sporting events, graduations, parent visits, speaker appearances, and more. MTSU’s facility also will provide educational opportunities for students, serving as a learning laboratory and a place for practical experience for students in our newly accredited Tourism and Hospitality Management program, the only such program in the state accredited by the national Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Administration (ACPHA). The University hopes to begin construction this year and open the hotel in 2026.
College of Liberal Arts
The Telly Award-winning “Joys of the Season” performance had its Nashville PBS premiere on Dec. 20. Nashville PBS aired both the 2023 and 2024 specials in a primetime spot and made the episodes available for streaming nationwide on the PBS app and website.
Professor Joan McRae of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures received two nationally recognized honors last semester. In October, McRae landed a $121,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The French language professor also received the national Online Teaching Award from the Distance Learning Special Interest Group of the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages, a professional organization that connects foreign language teachers from all educational levels.
The MTSU Arts Celebration Concert returns on Saturday, April 5, featuring the best of our MTSU Arts programs and our MTSU Arts Hall of Fame induction.
Jennings A. Jones College of Business
MTSU and the Nashville School of Law (NSL), two storied institutions founded in 1911, are now pairing their various areas of instructional expertise to train students and working professionals seeking deeper legal knowledge to enhance their careers. The collaboration for MTSU’s proposed Legal Studies master’s degree also will help fulfill a growing Midstate workforce need. Approved by MTSU’s Board of Trustees and submitted to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to consider final approval in early to mid-2025, the M.S. in Legal Studies will be offered primarily through the Jones College of Business. NSL faculty will teach initial core coursework online or at its Armory Oaks Drive campus, and students will complete the program through MTSU. Successful graduates of this program will be well positioned to fill the high-paying, in-demand legal roles for which they’ve been trained, with the vast majority of our graduates remaining in this region to invest back into the community with their time, talents, and skills. Designed for those who do not need or want to pursue a Juris Doctor degree, the 30-hour program aims to sharpen students’ and working professionals’ understanding of the law, including in the areas of contracts, critical legal thinking, legal ethics, writing, and case analysis. Coursework, which could begin as soon as summer 2025, will allow students to further develop in-depth knowledge in one of three concentrations: General Business, Compliance, or Entertainment—the last offered through MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment.
A team comprised of Jones College students took home the title of Grand Champions in their flight at a major collegiate sales competition and a biometrics research conference that together drew hundreds of participants from across the country. At the Selling with the Bulls sales competition hosted by Rob Hammond and the University of South Florida, team members Emilie Conners, Malissa Chanthavong, Chase Holmes, and Bradley Stiles took home over a dozen additional individual awards. They were coached by Thom Coats, director of the Center for Professional Selling, and Ricky Fergurson, a professor of Marketing.
In the ever-evolving field of marketing, understanding the underlying psychological mechanisms that drive consumer behavior is crucial. The Department of Marketing has created a new neuromarketing course, MKT 4200 – Neuromarketing, which provides an in- depth exploration of how insights from neuroscience and psychology can be applied to enhance marketing strategies. The department is also establishing the first neuromarketing research lab in the state of Tennessee and will be hosting Brain Behavior in the Age of AI, an international symposium exploring the topics of neuromarketing and AI, on March 19.
Honors College
MTSU senior Honors student Anna Collins of Pleasant View was recently awarded a Pioneer Award of $1,000 from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Collins, who was initiated into MTSU’s Phi Kappa Phi chapter last spring, is one of 50 students nationwide to receive the award. The Pioneer Awards are designed to encourage and reward undergraduate members for developing research, engagement, and leadership skills necessary to become a successful scholar. Recipients are selected based on their academic achievement, honors and awards, relevant research experience, service, and leadership experience on and off campus. An Agribusiness major, Collins is preparing for graduate school.
Philip Phillips, English professor and University Honors College associate dean, was elected last summer to serve as president-elect for the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. During his 2024–26 term as president-elect, Phillips will serve on the society’s 12-person board of directors. His election represents a six-year commitment to PKP, including successive terms as president and past president.
College of Media and Entertainment
MTSU’s Esports NECC Division IV Rocket League team defeated the University of North Carolina–Wilmington to win the championship in our new Level Up gaming arena. This is MTSU’s first Esports championship.
MTSU’s WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 opened a new satellite studio in Nashville that will allow the station to be where the artists are and expand its live radio and video programming as the largest Americana radio station in the United States. A ribbon-cutting celebration was held in late summer at the new 800-square-foot satellite studio at the Riverside Revival events venue in East Nashville.
Six MTSU alumni and former students all received a total of eight nominations for the upcoming 67th annual Grammy Awards. Receiving nominations in multiple genres, the MTSU-trained professionals, including some previous winners and nominees, are singer-songwriter Jessie Alexander (two nominations); audio production engineers Brandon Bell, Jason Hall (two nominations), Bobby Holland, and Jimmy Mansfield; and singer- songwriter Jaelee Roberts (below). MTSU alumni, former or current students, and faculty from across the University have been a part of more than 170 Grammy Award nominations in the last two decades. The number of MTSU-connected Grammy winners since 2001 currently stands at more than 20 people, with nearly 50 Grammys in categories from classical to pop to rock to country to gospel and rap.
The President's Annual Report
