Tennessee Board of Regents to meet in regular quarterly session March 31. Board retreat is set for March 30.

The Tennessee Board of Regents will meet in its regular quarterly session Friday, March 31, in Smyrna with an agenda that includes changes in some student incidental fees requested by colleges, appointment of a new director at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Morristown and a report by students on the Tennessee Promise scholarship program.

The meeting will follow a ribbon-cutting ceremony formally opening the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Murfreesboro’s new Smyrna Campus and Nissan Training Facility. The TCAT portion of the new $45.75 million state-owned facility offers technology certificate programs in several programs to any student. Its Nissan Training Center, operated by Nissan, offers advanced manufacturing and management training for employees and prospective employees of Nissan and its suppliers. Gov. Bill Haslam, TBR Chancellor Flora Tydings and Nissan executives will participate in the ceremony.

A day earlier, on March 30, Regents will also convene for a board retreat in Murfreesboro. The retreat’s agenda includes a discussion on education and economic development led by state Education Commissioner Candice McQueen, a member of the board, and Ann Thompson, director of workforce development at the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The retreat will also include a visioning session on the TBR system after its transition under the FOCUS Act. The board will take no formal action or vote during the retreat.

The schedule:

Thursday, March 30:

·    Board retreat, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the Embassy Suites, 1200 Conference Drive, Murfreesboro.

Friday, March 31:

·    Ribbon-cutting ceremony, 9:30 to 10 a.m., at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Murfreesboro’s new Smyrna Campus and Nissan Training Center, 663 Ken Pilkerton Drive, Smyrna. Gov. Bill Haslam, TBR Chancellor Flora Tydings, TCAT-Murfreesboro staff and Nissan executives will participate.

·    Tours of the Smyrna facility, 10 to 11 a.m.

·    The Board of Regents regular quarterly meeting, convenes at noon in the Smyrna Campus auditorium, 663 Ken Pilkerton Drive, Smyrna. The meeting marks the first time the full board has convened at a College of Applied Technology campus.

At its March 31 regular meeting, the board will consider requests for changes in various incidental student fees requested by community colleges. Incidental fees are fees charged to students for specific courses, programs and services – lab materials fees, for example -- that are not charged to all enrolled students. Incidental fees differ from "mandatory" fees, such as student activity fees and technology fees, that are charged to all full-time students. Any potential changes in mandatory fees  will be considered by the board at its summer meeting.

The board’s Finance and Business Operations Committee recommended approval of 31 incidental fee changes in a committee session March 14. They include elimination of 18 existing fees, establishment of four new fees, increases in five fees, decreases in three, and clarification of one. The changes involve students in a limited number of courses at eight community colleges.

Action on the fee changes will occur in the board’s vote on the minutes of the Finance and Business Operations Committee’s March 14 meeting.

The board will also act on a recommendation for the appointment of Jerry S. Young as director of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Morristown, to succeed Jerry Patton, who retired Dc. 31. Young has been director of TCAT-Crossville since 2014, after serving as assistant director for nine years and 17 years as a senior teacher there. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y., and a master of arts from the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky.

Also during the board meeting, Regent Josh Spurling will lead a report on the success of students in the Tennessee Promise scholarship program. Spurling is the student regent on the board and a Tennessee Promise student nearing completion of his associate degree in business administration at Roane State Community College.

The board’s complete agenda and materials are posted on the TBR website at https://www.tbr.edu/board/board-meeting-schedule-and-materials.

Other agenda items include:

·      Minutes of the Dec. 1 board regular meeting and Jan. 27 special called meeting

·      Chancellor’s reports on the system and on interim actions taken since the last board meeting.

·      Recommended revisions to various TBR policies.

·      Overview of the governor’s budget recommendations.

·      Update on legislative issues.

·      Update on academic initiatives.

·      Notice of a proposed change in TBR bylaws to change titles of TCAT directors to presidents, to be acted on at the June quarterly meeting.

·      Action on seven proposed TCAT program terminations, modifications or implementations.

·      Action on a proposed new bachelor degree program in African Studies at Middle Tennessee State University and an associate degree program in anesthesia technology at Columbia State Community College.

·      Action on a proposed new TBR policy on behavioral intervention teams on TBR campuses. The teams provide early intervention with students and employees whose behavior is disruptive or concerning, and a policy proposed by the TBR Safety and Security Task Force last year attempts to ensure that the teams operate consistently throughout the system and follow best practices.

·      Action on a proposed policy outlining a process for the limited TBR review of university budgets mandated by the FOCUS Act.

·      Action on a request to name at building at Motlow State Community College’s Smyrna campus in honor of former college president Arthur L. Walker Jr.

·      Resolutions of appreciation for former Acting Chancellor David Gregory and outgoing Regents Robert P. Thomas and Howard Roddy, whose terms on the board have expired.

Members of the public or media who plan to attend should contact TBR communications director Rick Locker at rick.locker@tbr.edu or 615-366-4417 by 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, to arrange for building access. The board’s March 31 meeting will be streamed live and archived on the TBR website at https://www.tbr.edu/board/march-2017-committees-meeting.