The President’s Blog

They like us…

This semester has been a whirlwind of activity and it’s hard to believe that we are staring mid-term in the face already.  With over 10, 250 students enrolled, our place in the community is secure.  We know for sure that when the going gets tough, people turn to Pellissippi State for help.  I am very proud that we provide this place and this opportunity for the people of our community.

We have been able to provide some other remarkable opportunities this year already.  We have given  over 500 new scholarships to those students taking courses on the weekends.  We have put into place 20 full scholarships, including books, for students selected into our new Electro-Mechanical program.  We have added dozens of new faculty members, both full-time and part-time, to help carry the load in our classrooms, and we have been approved to offer an Associate of Science Degree in Nursing.   This may count as one of our busiest years ever, and we are not done yet.

Senator Woodson

I met with Senator Jamie Woodson this past week about the reorganization of higher education in the State of Tennessee.  Governor Bredesen is moving  toward a system of accountability for higher education which will focus on graduation rates as a key indicator of success.  This accountability measure causes me some concern.  You know the reasons why.  First, most of our students do not intend to graduate.  Plus, we advise many of our students not to graduate because some of the requirements we have for a degree will not transfer into UTK.  Finally, many of our students will simply not complete a degree program because they were not prepared for college work.  As hard as we try…and we must try…it is very difficult to remediate a student who enrolls with poor reading, math, and English skills.  The first thing we ask them to do is to succeed in the very areas in which they failed in high school.  It is very discouraging for them and frustrating for us.  We are getting better, but we have a long way to go.  Yet, these developmental courses are very important.  We provide our citizens the opportunity to grow and achieve beyond all expectations.  This is a predominately American phenomenon  and I do not want to lose it to an artificial accountability system suited better for the upper 10 percent of our population.

Chancellor Cheek and Provost Martin

I also met with UTK Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and Provost Susan Martin this week to discuss the relationship between UTK and Pellissippi State.  I am very encouraged by the visit and by the commitment they have to make UTK the best university possible.  A strong and healthy UTK is important to us, to our community, and to the State of Tennessee, and I believe that good leadership is in place there to get the job done. 

While Chancellor Cheek and Provost Martin were here, we discussed a possible “dual admissions” pilot that would let UTK admit students on the condition that they successfully complete specified coursework at Pellissippi State first.  The number of applicants to UTK has increased so dramatically in the past few years that they are trying to find ways to accommodate additional students.  We are interested but have not worked out any details yet.

Thanks to all of you who admitted, oriented, advised, counseled, taught, tested, and comforted our many students this semester.  On to mid-term, then Halloween, Thanksgiving, and we are done for another semester.  It is just hard to believe, isn’t it?