Members of the Tennessee Board of Regents discussed progress toward the system-wide completion goals, approved committee recommendations for compensation plans and capital budgets, and approved building naming requests, among other topics at its quarterly meeting on the campus of Jackson State Community College.
In response to Governor Haslam’s Drive to 55 initiative, each segment of post-secondary education has developed a goal for increasing the number of Tennesseans with higher education credentials. For the TBR, the 2025 goal is to award 43,202 credentials. In the 2014-15 academic year, students at TBR institutions earned almost 34,000 diplomas, degrees and certificates, well above the 2015 target goal. Across the 46 TBR institutions, 13,543 bachelor’s degrees, 9,908 associate degrees, 3,511 community college certificates, and 7,071 Tennessee College of Applied Technology certificates and diplomas were awarded.
The Board also approved committee actions, including Personnel and Compensation Committee recommendations for institutional compensation proposals at the universities, community colleges, TCATs and System Office. The Committee on Finance and Business Operations report included system-wide capital outlay requests of $194,308,000, and capital maintenance requests of $118,940,000 for a combined capital budget request of $313,248,000 in 2016-17.
Two building naming requests were approved for Middle Tennessee State University. The John Bragg Mass Communication Building will be changed to The John Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, and a newly acquired building will be named the Andrew Woodfin Miller, Sr., Education Center.
The Board also heard reports of university and community college research programs and the success of TCAT students in the SkillsUSA competition.
Meeting materials and video of the committee and board meetings are available online athttps://www.tbr.edu/board/september-2015-quarterly-board-meeting