Board of Regents meets Sept. 19-20 in Greeneville. Agenda includes fall enrollment, state budget requests, new entrepreneurship program

The Tennessee Board of Regents will hold its fall quarterly meeting Sept. 19-20 at Walters State Community College’s new Niswonger Campus in Greeneville. The agenda includes fall enrollment, preliminary state budget requests for fiscal year 2020-21 and a proposed new entrepreneurship program at Motlow State Community College.

The board governs the College System of Tennessee – the state’s 13 public community colleges and 27 colleges of applied technology. Other agenda items include discussion of the board’s legislative priorities for the 2020 state legislative session that convenes in January and consideration of several proposed changes TBR policies.

The board’s committees will meet Thursday, Sept. 19, starting at 1:30 p.m. ET. The full board meeting convenes at 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, Sept. 20, following a 9 a.m. presentation by Walters State President Tony Miksa and Jerry Young, president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Morristown. All meetings will be held in the Lyceum Auditorium of Walters State’s Niswonger Campus, 221 North College Street in Greeneville.

Complete committee and board agendas, an executive summary and board materials are posted on the TBR website at https://www.tbr.edu/board/september-quarterly-board-meeting-0. The board and committee meetings will be live-streamed and later archived on the same website.

The meetings are open to the public. Contact Board Secretary Sonja Mason at sonja.mason@tbr.edu or 615-366-3927 by 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, Sept. 18, for access accommodations and to facilitate security access.

Schedule:

Thursday, Sept. 19:

1:30 p.m. ET and continuing consecutively through the afternoon:

• Committee on Economic & Community Development
• Committee on Academic Policies and Programs and Student Success
• Committee on Finance and Business Operations
• Committee on Personnel and Compensation
• Committee on External Affairs

Friday, Sept. 20:

9 a.m ET:  Welcome and presentation by host colleges Walters State and TCAT Morristown

9:30 a.m: Board of Regents fall quarterly meeting

The update on fall semester enrollment will be presented as part of TBR Chancellor Flora W. Tydings’ quarterly report during Friday’s full board meeting.

Consideration of the College System’s budget requests for Fiscal 2020-21 will occur in the Finance and Business Operations Committee on Thursday, Whatever the committee recommends would then be acted on by the full board Friday and will go to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission for review, along with state funding requests from the state’s universities. THEC will submit a combined higher education budget recommendation to the governor later this fall, and his administration will then decide what to include as part of its overall state budget proposal to the General Assembly, which ultimately approves all state funding.

The discussion of legislative priorities for the General Assembly’s 2020 session will occur in the External Affairs Committee.

The Academic Policies and Programs and Student Success Committee will consider Motlow State’s proposal to establish a new Associate of Applied Science degree program in entrepreneurship. If approved, it would be the first of its kind at a Tennessee community college. The program is focused on encouraging and supporting TCAT students to continue their educations toward an A.A.S. degree.

The Personnel and Compensation Committee is expected to receive a recommendation to hire the next vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, to succeed Dr. Randy Schulte who retired last month. The committee agenda also includes consideration of several proposed revisions to policies, including parental leave, faculty rank and promotions at TCATS, tenure at TCATS and community colleges, academic freedom and responsibility, faculty appointments, and financial exigency.  Most of the proposed changes are relatively minor but the proposal on tenure at the TCATs would mean that new instructors hired after Oct. 1 of this year would not be eligible for tenure. Current faculty, including those in tenure track positions, would not be affected. The board has been reviewing and revising its policies as needed to reflect changes in the system created by the FOCUS Act of 2016 and other state and federal law.

The Economic and Community Development Committee will hear updates on new student apprenticeship programs and new grants received by the system and its colleges.