“One of the best parts of my jobs is listening to students,” ETSU President Paul Stanton said Tuesday when he spoke to the Student Senate about the future of ETSU.
Stanton highlighted many of the high-profile projects that will take place at ETSU.
The biggest project in the immediate future is the construction of a new 540-bed residence hall, which Stanton said would take two years to build. He also mentioned the renovation of the old Sherrod Library, which will become the new home for the College of Nursing.
Stanton said that ETSU has plans to increase the size of the nursing program by 50 percent. Stanton also said that ETSU also has plans to build a performing arts center, but that it will be three or four years before construction will start.
Stanton also mentioned the growth of ETSU. “We have one of the highest enrollments in university history,” he said.
ETSU has 250 more students over last year, he said, and most of those gains have been made by way of juniors and seniors transferring into the university, as well as an increase in the number of graduate students.
Stanton also highlighted some of the recognition that ETSU has been receiving lately. “In the past few months we’ve been recognized as a leader in U.S. News and World Report and in The Princeton Review,” he said.
Stanton also fielded questions from members of the Student Senate. One senator had a concern as an honors student about being able to keep his Hope Scholarship after taking 120 credit hours.
“My understanding is that … when you hit that 120-hour wall or go past five years, you will have to start paying out of pocket,” Stanton said, adding that there are currently no exceptions in the Hope Scholarship rules to allow for students who are required to take over 120 hours to fulfill their academic program requirements.
Stanton also had concerns about the Hope Scholarship’s effect on summer schooling. “Hope doesn’t pay for summer school,” he said, adding that that credits taken over summer school count towards a student’s total of 120. “It becomes a penalty.”
Stanton said that the university couldn’t do anything about it, and that it was up to the Tennessee legislature to make changes to the scholarship program.
Stanton also responded to a senator’s question about the planned basketball complex.
“The state of Tennessee declared last year that state dollars won’t be put into facilities,” he said. “For facilities, every dollar has to come from private donations.”
The planned complex would cost $36 million to build and would sit where Memorial Center currently stands, Stanton said. There will also be a parking deck built alongside the new basketball complex.
However, because the university has to raise all of the money privately, Stanton said that it will take around six to eight years to raise the $36 million, and it will be at least eight to 10 years before the Mini Dome actually gets torn down.
Stanton’s speech wasn’t the only thing going on at the SGA meeting. Caroline Ross, a sophomore finance major and a Rhodes Scholar, was confirmed as a new senator and sworn in.

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