Historic graduation rate announced at Board of Trustees meeting

ETSU President Brian Noland emphasized graduation and enrollment rates within a packed agenda at the tenth meeting of the ETSU Board of Trustees on Friday, Sept. 20.

During the meeting, Noland gave university updates and an assessment of the successes and challenges facing the institution during his President’s Report. The two main areas of focus were the graduation and enrollment rates.

He announced that the graduation rate for the 2018-19 academic year was 50%, which is the highest graduation rate in ETSU’s history.

He acknowledged enrollment as one of the challenges. Noland described the institution’s current enrollment as flat. According to the 2018-19 annual report, enrollment for fall 2019 was 14,441 students, which is a decrease of 133 from 14,574 in fall 2018.

“The landscape is competitive,” Noland said. “We’ve done a great job of demonstrating the power of this institution to transform the lives of the people in the region. We’re excited about the investments that we’ve made in enrollment services, and we’re excited about the things that we’ve done in student success. We announced today the highest graduation rate in the history of the university, so some of the things that we do this year may not play themselves through in an enrollment perspective until next year, but I anticipate that I’ll be giving a very different enrollment update this time next year.”

Also during the meeting, Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Ross gave an overview and update of construction projects. Ross discussed the architectural changes taking place in the D.P. Culp University Center and the Martin Center for the Arts. Ross said they want to move away from brutalist architecture and introduce the idea of nature and architecture coming together. He also detailed progress and improvements to locations such as Rogers Stout Hall, Brown Hall, the Mini-Dome Indoor Practice Facility, the Football stadium, Gilbreath Hall and the Millennium Center.

Ross also gave a glimpse into future projects including renovations to Lamb Hall, Dossett Hall and the baseball stadium; and the possibility of a new humanities building near the Quad area. Additionally, they plan to completely renovate the boulevard commons area, the area in between the football stadium and the Culp with dorms, to create an outside common area similar to those of institutions like the University of Virginia.

Updates on the activity of the new Center of Rural Health Research were given by the programs founding director Dr. Randy Wycoff. The center was created by investments from the state of Tennessee and Ballad Health was announced earlier this summer with the purpose of examining the public health challenges facing the state.

“The real update is the work has begun,” Noland said. “The resources are in place, and I anticipate that within a couple of months we’ll have made some of the first key hires; but the most important thing is the work that Dr. Wycoff is doing to get out and make people within the industry aware of the center, aware of the investments and to lay that foundation for the work to come.”

Several announcements and approvals regarding faculty positions and programs took place throughout the meeting.

Christopher Santana was approved as the new student trustee by the boards in a unanimous vote. Santana received his Bachelor of Business Administration, or BBA, in Economics in May of 2018 as well as his BBA in Finance. He currently in his second year of graduate school to pursue his master’s degree in Business Administration.

“As you look at the skills that Trustee Santana brings, he has the unique perspective in that he is a graduate student, and he is a two-time alum,” Noland said. “So he knows the university from a comprehensive perspective. He brings that mature voice.”

Three faculty members were awarded tenure during the meeting: Director of the Master of Public Administration Program, Dr. Frederick Gordon; new Dean of the Honors College, Dr. Christopher Keller; and new Director of the University School, Dr. Brian Partin. Gordon’s and Keller’s positions went into effect in August, and Partin’s will go into effect on Sept. 30.

The board also approved a letter of notification on the creation of a Master of Science degree in Prosthetics and Orthotics.

During the president’s report, Dr. Keith Johnson was officially announced as ETSU’s Chief Diversity Officer and the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion.

Although Johnson has already done leadership work in his new role this semester in what Noland called, “the worst-kept secret on campus”, the president waited until the meeting to officially announce Johnson’s new title.

“Dr. Johnson has been a part of the fabric of the university for more than 20 years,” Noland said. “When Dr. Angela Lewis unfortunately passed a year ago, Dr. Johnson stepped forward and volunteered and said, ‘Dr. Noland, I want to help lead this campus,’ and over the course of the spring and summer he’s done just that.”

At the end of the meeting, Scott Niswonger and David Golden were re-appointed as chair and vice-chair of the board in a unanimous vote. Both will serve another two-year term.