On Oct. 2, President Noland gave the State of the University Address for the 2019-2020 academic year. There he reminded us of a few points that make ETSU the unique university that it is, and, I would add, a university at which we should be grateful to study.
Perhaps the most important of these is the financial aid ETSU offers. Noland labored in his address to debunk the myth that an education here is too expensive. He pointed out that just 54% of students receiving their degrees have debt, averaging out to $24,000 per student, as opposed to $79,000 of debt from 72% of students who have taken out loans, according to a national survey. Thanks to ETSU’s excellent financial aid, I will be one of the near-half of students who graduate debt-free in May.
The president also stressed the school’s superb outcomes and the money that has drawn in.
“We were the first state in 1978 to receive a Ford Foundation grant that led to the creation of performance funding … for institutions based on the accreditation of programs, student learning outcomes, program reviews, surveys of students, employers, of alumni,” he said. “We were, in fact, the first institution to receive a perfect 100 on those performance funding criteria.”
These outstanding outcomes, however, do not stand alone but are accompanied by state money we’ve received.
“Last year, we were ranked number two in the state,” he said. “Only Tennessee Tech scored better than us on the performance outcomes across these criteria. What does that mean for us? Well it means that over the course of the planning cycle … we have received $20 million in new state investments from 2012-13 to 2018-19.”
The school has been using these $20 million to keep raising academic performance, and that money has come in during the time Noland has served as president, which speaks volumes of his leadership skills.
One area where we can see ETSU’s excellence is in our health programs. For example, RegisteredNursing.org named us number one in the “2019 Best Online RN to BSN Programs in Tennessee” and also in the “2019 Best Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Programs.” Our Public Health program led by Dean Wykoff is listed in the top third in the nation by U.S. News. One example showing the eminence of our Public Health program comes from the experience from a transfer student from Johns Hopkins named Harrison Ihrig.
“ETSU’s College of Public Health teaches us not only how to identify health concerns, but provides hands-on experience in addressing them and finding solutions,” Ihrig asserted. “My experience at Johns Hopkins’ College of Public Health was valuable, but the program lacked the real-world applications and community integration that ETSU excels at. The difference between the programs is night and day, and my entire approach to public health has been changed here.”
It is true that no person or institution is perfect, and no one would claim our university is perfect. We have all heard the complaints concerning low adjunct pay and a bad professor every now and then.
However, we need to weigh these in a proper perspective. It can easy to be annoyed with one or two details and fail to see the majesty of how the big picture works. We forget sometimes that it is a massive undertaking to run a university, and administration – especially President Noland – carries a large burden on its shoulders to make sure everything operates the best it can.
Much like the way an in-grown toenail can upset our day even when the rest of our ultra-sophisticated body systems work flawlessly, a single aspect of the university that we think should be improved can disproportionately budge itself into the center of our focus. And besides that, administration is working to improve situations even now. For example, the decentralized budget system allowed the recent adjunct raise and allows college deans more say in faculty pay.
So Bucs, let’s remember who we are, and let’s be proud of our unique university in the many ways it continues to serve our region.
