News

The Tennessee Board of Regents today appointed Mike Whitehead as the next president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Pulaski, effective April 1.

The board’s unanimous vote for the appointment occurred during its quarterly meeting in Nashville and ends a four-month search. Whitehead has been vice president of TCAT Pulaski since August 2015 and succeeds Tony Creecy, who retired Jan. 2 after 33 years of service at the college.

The College System of Tennessee honored its outstanding students, faculty, staff and college of the year during the first Statewide Outstanding Achievement Recognition (SOAR) celebration Wednesday night in Nashville. 

After a four-month search process, Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora W. Tydings is recommending appointment of Mike Whitehead as the next president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Pulaski. The Board of Regents will consider and act on the recommendation at its next quarterly meeting Thursday, March 21, in Nashville.

The Tennessee Board of Regents will hold its next quarterly meeting March 21 in Nashville. The agenda includes appointment of a new president at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Pulaski, updates on the Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect programs, and small changes in student incidental fees at six community colleges.

Other agenda items include new training programs at nine technical colleges, routine revisions to TBR policies, and updates on research partnerships and Gov. Bill Lee’s budget recommendations for higher education.

The College System of Tennessee will honor its outstanding students, faculty and campus staff – and the College of the Year – during its first Statewide Outstanding Achievement Recognition (SOAR) celebration March 19-20 in Nashville.

The two days of activities will include judging and a dinner for finalists in each of the SOAR Award individual categories; a Student Honors Luncheon honoring members of the Phi Theta Kappa All-Tennessee Academic Team and the National Technical Honor Society, and the annual Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) Day on the Hill. 

Brandon Hudson, vice president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Shelbyville, has been selected to join the 2019 class of the Postsecondary Leadership Success Program at the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), a year-long immersion in leadership development activities for career and technical educators.

This is the program’s inaugural class and has only 20 members from postsecondary institutions offering career and technical education (CTE) across the nation. Hudson is the only class member selected from Tennessee.

The Tennessee Board of Regents Committee on Finance and Business Operations will meet Tuesday, March 12, to consider increases or other modifications in some incidental student fees at six of the state’s community colleges that requested them for the 2019-20 academic year.

The committee will meet by telephone conference call at 9 a.m. CT March 12. The conference meeting is open to the public. Anyone wishing to join the call as listeners should contact Board Secretary Sonja Mason at 615-366-3927 by 4 p.m. March 11 for call-in information.

The Audit Committee of the Tennessee Board of Regents and the chairs of the board’s standing committees will meet Tuesday, March 5, to review a number of items in advance of the board’s next quarterly meeting March 21.

Southwest Tennessee Community College’s Police Services/Public Safety Department is one of three national finalists vying for the American Association of Community Colleges 2019 Awards of Excellence in the category of Community College Safety and Planning. The prestigious award recognizes exceptional work among the nation’s 1,200 two-year, associate degree-granting institutions. The other finalists are College of DuPage in Illinois and Rockland Community College in New York.

(CMT) In an effort to increase the number of work-ready residents in the state, CMT has joined forces with TBR - The College System of Tennessee, for a free multi-city concert tour targeting rural areas of the state this spring to encourage Tennesseans to pursue higher education.  The tour will begin on April 3 and travel to four Community Colleges across the state. 

A Search Advisory Committee has selected two finalists for the next president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Pulaski. The candidates will visit the campus March 1 and March 4 to meet with faculty, staff and students – the next step in the selection process.

The finalists are:

Representatives from Jackson State Community College and Murray State University met at the City Hall in Paris, TN, February 18 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a partnership that will offer JSCC students a structured, guaranteed pathway for transferring to MSU.

The MOU provides a seamless transition from a JSCC associate degree program to an MSU bachelor's degree program.

Columbia State Community College signed an agreement Wednesday (Feb. 6) to extend the MTSU Promise to Columbia State Community College students. MTSU Promise is a pathway established for students with associate degrees to move seamlessly to the four-year university.

Columbia State is the fifth community college to join the MTSU Promise program, where the university pledges support to help students at partner schools complete their associate degree, then move forward in seeking a four-year degree.

Roane State Community College is among six colleges across the U.S. earning a “Leader College” designation from Achieving the Dream, a national reform organization for student success, for achieving and sustaining significant improvements in student outcomes.

The Tennessee Board of Regents’ Committee on Finance and Business Operations will meet Tuesday, Feb. 5, to begin discussions of student fees at the state’s community colleges and colleges of applied technology for the 2019-20 academic year.

The committee will meet by telephone conference call at 9 a.m. CT Feb. 5 – the first of three meetings the committee has scheduled to discuss fees other than tuition. The other meetings are set for 1 p.m. Feb. 22 and 9 a.m. March 12.

Twenty-three inmates at Tennessee’s Turney Center Industrial Complex were awarded their Associates degrees by Nashville State Community College during a special graduation ceremony Jan.24 at the prison near Only, Tenn.

More than two dozen student leaders from Tennessee colleges and universities discussed ways to support new adult learners arriving under the Tennessee Reconnect program and students with various needs when they gathered for the quarterly meeting of the Student Government Presidents Council on Jan. 25.

Two hundred college faculty and staff from across Tennessee participated in the second annual TBR Statewide High Impact Practice Conference Thursday, conducted and led by the TBR Office of Student Success.

High Impact Practices are data-driven teaching, advising and experiential practices that help our students learn, advance and graduate. The integration of HIP activities into the curricular and co-curricular work of our colleges results in the graduation of more globally aware, solution-oriented and workforce-ready students.

The Search Advisory Committee assisting in the search for a new president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Pulaski will hold its orientation meeting and public forum Jan. 10 at the college’s main campus in Pulaski.

The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT in the college’s main administration and classroom building at 1233 East College Street, Pulaski. The meeting will open with a forum in which members of the public and the college community can express their views about the search and the characteristics the next president should have.

Ten college and university faculty and staff members from across Tennessee have begun their year of leadership study and training as the Tennessee Board of Regents Maxine Smith Fellows Class of 2019.