Pellissippi State Community College

Students, faculty and staff at Tennessee’s public community and technical colleges collected and donated the equivalent of 128,039 food items during the College System of Tennessee’s 25th Annual Food Drive Challenge, which wrapped up last week. The food and cash donations collected during the six-week challenge go to campus food pantries for students and to local organizations, programs and food banks serving their communities.

This week, ahead of the upcoming Labor Day holiday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee visited three community colleges across the state to highlight key investments in career, technical and vocational education and reaffirm the administration’s commitment to workforce development.

 On Aug. 28, Dyersburg State Community College welcomed Governor Lee and First Lady Maria Lee as they toured its Nursing and Emergency Medical Services labs.

Thanks to the generosity of our campus communities, food insecurity is less of a barrier to attendance for students in need and hunger is less prevalent in our broader communities.

Students, faculty and staff at Tennessee’s public community and technical colleges collected and donated the equivalent of 148,578 food items in the College System of Tennessee’s Annual Food Drive Challenge for 2022. The food and cash donations go to campus food pantries and local organizations, programs and food banks in their communities.

Four Tennessee community colleges are in the process of implementing self-designed pilot plans for Reimagining the Community College Experience – a Tennessee Board of Regents initiative to improve student success through more extensive career exploration, career advising and a workforce-focused certificate in a student’s first semester.

Students, faculty and staff at Tennessee’s community and technical colleges collected nearly 76,000 food items, including almost $28,000 in cash donations, for food pantries on their campuses and food banks and other organizations in their communities during the College System of Tennessee’s 22nd Annual Food Drive Challenge.

Tennessee’s community and technical colleges are playing a major role in a crash project by the state’s public higher education system to manufacture face shields to help protect Tennessee health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 2,000 Fall Semester graduates were awarded their degrees and certificates at commencement ceremonies at several of our community and technical colleges in December.

About half of the 40 College System of Tennessee institutions hold Fall commencements. Fall Semester graduates of colleges without December ceremonies can participate in their college's Spring Semester graduation ceremonies, which are held at all the colleges.

A sampling of December commencements across the System:

A 20-person delegation of Germans and Americans working in education and economic and workforce development visited Pellissippi State Community College and the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville as part of the American Council on Germany’s initiative, "Transatlantic Cities of Tomorrow: Digitalization and the Future of Work."

The Tennessee Board of Regents will convene a special called meeting on Tuesday, May 14, to consider a building naming request from Pellissippi State Community College and seven proposed revisions to TBR policies.

The board will meet by telephone conference call at 4 p.m. CT (5 p.m. ET) for the short agenda. The meeting is public; anyone wishing to listen may contact Board Secretary Sonja Mason atSonja.Mason@tbr.edu or 615-366-3927 for dial-in information.

Several College System of Tennessee institutions and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission are reaching out to students of two proprietary colleges whose parent company announced are discontinuing operations.