The President’s Blog

Message from the President’s Office

Although it has been the busiest summer we have ever experienced, tomorrow marks the official kick-off to our new school year.  The bathing suits are packed away and football practice has started in earnest at the big university across town.  This means that it is also time for our annual Conference on Student Success.  This year’s speaker is Dr. Belle Wheelan, President of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACs).  Her selection as our keynote speaker is an indication of our move into a cycle of activities which will lead to our reaffirmation of accreditation as a college.

Reaffirmation of accreditation is scheduled every ten years in SACS and it is the process through which our peer institutions and employers around the nation accept our credit hours and our degrees as valuable college-level certificates of accomplishment taught by faculty with appropriate credentials and supported by qualified and effective staff.  It’s a big deal.  It is such a big deal that we’ve enlisted the help of two of our very best faculty members to lead the process.  Lois Reynolds will chair the overall college effort and Marilyn Harper will take responsibility for developing our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).  You will hear much more about these efforts in coming days and will be involved in our efforts throughout the next two years.

The College has been overwhelmed this summer by new applicants and by registration of former students.  In fact, as I write this, we know of over 10,000 students who have made some plans to attend Pellissippi State this autumn.  Many will be dropped for non-payment, but we fully expect a large percentage of them to re-register for courses again before the semester starts.

We have done everything possible to provide for those who want to study here.  For those who are willing to come on the weekend, we have provided half-scholarships for courses taken on Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday.  We have opened many more sections on site campuses and in the evening.  We currently have sections open that have no faculty assigned yet.  All in all, we are doing everything possible to accommodate the public need.  However, in the end, if enrollment patterns hold true, then many potential students cannot be served.  We will simply run out of space and out of qualified faculty to teach.

You will find many improvements to our campus again this year.  The bookstore has been expanded and the auditorium in the Goins Administration Building has been renovated.  The Pellissippi State Foundation has new offices and we are carrying through on plans to add new classrooms on the second level.

Magnolia Avenue is being updated with new energy-efficient windows, new landscaping, and a traffic plaza is being built out front there.  Blount County Campus continues to rise into its full two story being and looks magnificent even as a skeleton of what it will become.  We’ll start our new year in 2010 on that campus.  We have purchased some derelict houses in  front of Division Street Campus and will turn those spaces into much needed parking along that street.

Funding for the year is stable at present, thanks to ARRA (stimulus) monies.  Although we are still not quite clear on how we can spend all of the funds, the money has allowed us to start the year with a full faculty and staff and with money for travel and professional development.  We know that the State of Tennessee is struggling with tax collections though and other state agencies will still face sharp cuts in budgets that were cut only last year.   In this dynamic  fiscal climate, Pellissippi State will still be very conservative in how funds are allocated throughout the year.  Half of our income, however, now comes from student tuition and fees, and so an increase in enrollment could offset much of the damage of an impoundment by the State of Tennessee.  I will keep you posted as we progress through the year.

In case you missed it, we now have a new name: Pellissippi State Community College.  The irony of the loss of the word “Technical” is that we are moving to shore up old technical programs and possibly add new ones in the next few years.  For instance, this year we are adding faculty in a new Department of Nursing  for the first time as we prepare to operate our own nursing program beginning Fall 2010.  We also have over a hundred students on a waiting list to enter our new Industrial Maintenance option of Engineering Technology.   We are exploring the possibility of adding a program to prepare students to become Veterinary Technicians and discussing the possibility of collaborating with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville to offer a premier culinary arts degree.  We have certainly not lost our mission of providing  technical education to the community.

August is here;  it’s time to start a new year.  Best wishes to you all.

Allen Edwards