News

The Tennessee Board of Regents will hold a called meeting Friday, Jan. 24, to consider the position criteria for the next president of Austin Peay State University.

Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan is at the White House today taking part in a summit of higher education leaders focused on expanding college opportunity.He and others will join President Barack Obama and the First Lady to announce commitments to help more students afford and graduate from college with a quality education and skills.

Tennessee was named one of only three states selected to receive a grant valued at $1 million to increase on-time college completion rates.

The Tennessee Board of Regents today unanimously approved William Seymour as the next president of Cleveland State Community College.

Seymour will assume his leadership role on January 2 after current president Carl Hite retires.

The Board took the action during its regular quarterly board meeting in Nashville, acting on a recommendation from TBR Chancellor John Morgan. Seymour was selected after a nationwide search. He currently serves as vice president for Institutional Advancement at Jackson State Community College in Jackson, Tenn.

The Tennessee Board of Regents will meet in regular quarterly session on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the TBR Offices in Nashville. The meeting will begin at noon CST in the Genesco Building Training Center.

William Seymour will be recommended as the next president to lead Cleveland State Community College pending approval by the Tennessee Board of Regents on Dec. 5.

TBR Chancellor John Morgan will recommend Seymour’s appointment to the Board during its quarterly meeting in Nashville on Thursday, Dec. 5. If approved, Seymour will become president on Jan. 2, replacing Carl Hite, who will retire at the end of the year after leading Cleveland State for 17 years. Seymour currently serves as vice president for Institutional Advancement at Jackson State Community College in Jackson, Tenn.

The Search Advisory Committee members for a new president of the University of Memphis have been selected and will meet for the first time in December following a public forum on the UofM campus about the search process.

The advisory committee will meet at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, on the UofM campus in the University Center Bluff Room. Campus and community members are also invited to an open forum to discuss the criteria and search process for the new president from 11 a.m. – noon in the University Center River Room.

The TBR Completion Initiative Support Program is designed to provide grant funds to help TBR campuses increase the educational attainment level of all citizens of the state of Tennessee, with a primary focus on underrepresented and other targeted student populations. For details and application information, visit

http://tbr.edu/offices/accessanddiversity.aspx?id=6108

Tennessee Board of Regents Committee Chairs, Audit Committee and Academic Policies and Programs Committee meetings are scheduled at the TBR office in Nashville on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

The Committee Chairs meeting will begin at noon CST and include the following agenda items:

1. Finance and Business Issues

2. Legislative Initiatives and Legislative Briefings

3. Update on the Director’s Search at Morristown

Four finalists have been selected for the presidency of Cleveland State Community College. Each will participate in interviews, campus forums and community receptions during the week of Nov. 4.

Effective October 1, 2013, the federal CONUS travel per diems are increasing. Below are rates that will change:

• Lunch at $51 per diem rate increase from $11 to $12

General Lodging Changes:

• Level I Counties and Cities increase from $107 to $122 + tax
• Level II Counties and Cities increase from $97 to $102 + tax
• Level III Counties and Cities increase from $77 to $83 + tax

Lodging changes under Exception One (chancellor, presidents, directors, etc.)

The Tennessee Board of Regents System Office is migrating e-mail and other services to the Office 365 cloud offering. Unfortunately, issues with the old e-mail system are resulting in significant delays in the delivery of some messages, and in some instances messages may bounce back as undeliverable. We apologize for this inconvenience. The move to the cloud will address the problem, but it may take a few weeks to completely move all staff members to the new Office 365 e-mail system.

The Tennessee Board of Regents approved new academic programs, a policy to award credits for prior learning, and salary plans for all TBR institutions, among other actions at its quarterly meeting at Austin Peay State University today.

The Board also heard a report highlighting the system’s progress toward its completion goal, the TBR’s effort to increase the numbers of degrees, certificates and diplomas awarded as part of the state’s Drive to 55 initiative.

The Tennessee Board of Regents will meet in regular quarterly session at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 19 and 20.

Committee meetings will take place Thursday and begin at 1 p.m. CDT in the Mabry Concert Hall of the Music Mass Communications Building. Committees will meet in this order: Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology, Academic Policies and Programs, Personnel and Compensation, and Finance and Business Operations.

The full Board will meet on Friday beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the same location.

The Tennessee Board of Regents Ad Hoc Committee on Capital Outlay & Capital Maintenance, Committee Chairs, and Audit Committee meetings are scheduled at the TBR office in Nashville on Wednesday, Sept. 4.The Ad Hoc Committee on Capital Outlay & Capital Maintenance will meet at 12:45 p.m. CDT to review and act on the system’s 2014-15 Capital Budget Request and report on capital match plans. The Committee Chairs will meet immediately following the capital outlay and maintenance meeting. The agenda includes: I. Finance and business issues II.

The presidential search advisory committee for a new president of Cleveland State Community College has been selected and will meet for the first time Monday, Sept. 16. The meeting will begin at 12:45 p.m. EDT in the George R. Johnson Cultural Heritage Center Room J113 on the Cleveland State campus. Cleveland State’s current president, Carl Hite, previously announced his plan to retire in December after leading the college for 17 years. The new president is expected to be named by the end of the year.

The White House released a fact sheet this morning on President Barak Obama’s plan to make the nation’s colleges more affordable. Included in it and noted in the President’s speech today is recognition of Tennessee’s innovative higher education reform efforts and Austin Peay State University’s Degree Compass program.

Industry, the public workforce system and higher education leaders from across Middle Tennessee gathered last week to help identify and close the gap between the skills Tennessee’s college students learn and what employers need for their workforce.

The group heard from Governor Bill Haslam and Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan about the impact their efforts can have on the state’s economy.

A highly successful, cutting-edge high school math intervention program piloted in Chattanooga will be expanded to serve students statewide, according to an announcement by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and Tennessee Board of Regents.