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September 29, 2023 • 30 mins
The Tennessee Board of Regents manages the state university and community college system of Tennessee as well as the state's vocational technical schools. With 13 community colleges and 20 TCATs (Tenn College of Applied Technology) offering more than 400 programs of study, the goal is to create opportunities for all Tennesseans to attend college, regardless of age or income. Recently John Clark spoke with Rick Locker, Dir. of Communications about the many initatives to promote higher education in our state. Link to: TBR.edu.
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(00:00):
It's Tennessee Matters on the Tennessee RadioNetwork. Welcome to Tennessee Matters. I'm
John Clark on the Tennessee Radio Network. The Tennessee Board of Regents, manager
State University, and the Community CollegeSystem of Tennessee, as well as the
state's vocational technical schools, while atthe same time preserving the unique qualities,

(00:22):
integrity, and regional and community relationshipsof each of the institutions and schools.
Thirty seven community and technical colleges acrossthe state offering more than four hundred programs
of study, diverse campuses, andprograms to create the opportunity for all Tennessee
and to attend college regardless of ageor income. Here there talk about the
Tennessee Board of Regents is Rick Locker, communications director for the Tennessee Board of

(00:44):
Regents. Well, you're here fromthe Board of Regions and we always hear
Board of Regents and we think thisbig committee somewhere what it is. It
is a big committee. But talkabout what makes up the Board of Regions.
Well, first, first, missguard, chance or time sense,
her regrets for not being able tobe here. She looks forward to being
here the next time. The Boardof Regents is itself a nineteen member board

(01:11):
whose members are appointed by the governor, twelve citizens from across the state,
a student member, two faculty membersfrom our colleges, and the Governor of
Tennessee, the Commissioner of Education,the Commissioner of Agriculture, and the executive
director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. Which you had ye, he was

(01:34):
good. On the larger sense,the Board of Regents is our system of
Tennessee's public community and technical colleges.We have thirteen community colleges and twenty four
technical colleges, which we call theTennessee Colleges of Applied Technology and at the
focus and the mission. In fact, our mission statement is five words students,

(01:59):
success, us and workforce development.And we view workforce development not only
from from the viewpoint of the state'sworkforce needs, but from the ability of
tennis seins to to get trained andlearned for careers that will be valuable in

(02:19):
rewarding in to them. The Boardof Regions meets certain certain points in the
year. They meetings already set asideahead of time, or that they meet
when they're called. They will bothsay. There are four quarterly Board meetings
regularly scheduled board meetings a year inMarch, June, September, and December,

(02:39):
and then there are special call meetingsas needed. For example, just
last week we had a short specialcalled meeting to appoint the next president of
Jackson State Community College over in Jackson. So you so that that was an
important that was an important That's that'sone of the most important things that our

(03:00):
board does is searching for and findingthe best presidents to lead our campuses.
You establish government, manage maintained controlof the state university system. Does that
include all universities in the system?No, Okay, it's it's important to
know that the University of Tennessee systemwell, basically, our schools are two

(03:23):
year schools and the technical colleges.University of Tennessee campuses are government governed by
their own by the UT Board ofTrustees. And then the six university state
universities that are not part of theUT system, like Middle Tennessee State,
University, University of Memphis, Austinp and three others Tennessee State here in

(03:47):
Nashville, East Tennessee State, TennesseeTech, and Cookville. They are they
each have their own independent government board. And that's there's a result of a
significant legislative change that happened in twentysixteen in which they were pulled out from
under our Board of Regions and giventheir own independent governing board. So that

(04:11):
left our board with a laser focuson the community and technical colleges. Okay,
so do you deal with anything anytype of curriculum for those colleges?
You do lay it down or whatdo you do? There? Were the
Board of Regions approves the curriculum andwell approves new programs, and part of
that is to sort of try toavoid duplication for programs close by, but

(04:39):
also to make sure that there's enoughdemand for a program in a particular area.
YEA, and our our thirteen communitycolleges are all across the state,
from Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphisto Northeast State Community College in near Bristol

(05:00):
in Upper East Tennessee. Twenty fourTennessee College is of Apply Technology, which
we call tects. They're in communitiesacross the state as well, so if
they want to put together a program, they put it all together and send
it to you for approval, andthen you have to approve it or not.
That's that's right. The board,Well, the board racist yes,
yes, yeah, do you everhave anywhere you'd like? Man, this

(05:24):
didn't work haven like that. Idon't remember one recently, but I and
I should also add the Tennessee HigherEducation Commission T. Deck, who's executive
director you had on last week.Yeah, they sort of also do that
function for all of public higher atin Tennesse history. To avoid duplication the

(05:45):
trade schools, you you also workvery closely with the trade schools talk.
That's that's very interesting to me becauseit's not everybody can go to college.
Not everybody's got to go to college, you know, you can't go for
whatever reason. They go to tradeschool. But Tessey has been has been
exploded lately, it has and andin Tennesse and in our system, the

(06:05):
trade schools are called the Tennessee Collegesof Applied Technology, and they have a
wide variety of technical and career programsthat are just as you can imagine,
extremely popular. In fact, it'sgoing to get into this later because it's
a great segue. The governor andthe legislature this year funded, approved and

(06:30):
funded what is really a generational investmentin career and technical education in the state
a billion dollars to expand and modernizeour technical colleges. Our technical colleges teacats
offer everything from from cosmetology to autodeselmechanics, to welding, h to computer

(06:59):
and remation technology. One of theone of the great things that we're offering
now is cybersecurity. You know,you know here we hear about data breaches
all the time. Those programs reallyteach students how to work for companies or
organizations to try to try to makesure those things don't happen. But yes,
the billion dollar investment is just we'rein fact, we're in the process

(07:24):
of awarding the contracts for that now. We've had waiting lists at our so
in some of the programs, someof the more high demand programs on our
campuses. And that I mean inthe Board of Regions was established in nineteen
seventy two. That is the largestsingle investment in our colleges in our history.

(07:46):
And the teacats were built in thesixties and seventies and they were built
for a far different, you know, far different kinds of programs that Tennessee
needed at the time. So thisis this is just just going to be
transformative, and we have Governor Leeand the General Assembly to thank for that

(08:07):
funding. That's fantastic, that's that'sgoing to launch you forward. It's absolutely
yeah. Yeah. Now, interms of going to one of the schools,
can students get advanced money or moneyto go to the schools through you,
or they go to school themselves.They go to the school themselves.
Is the great starting rights because theyhave people in place who can advise them.

(08:31):
Now, that's one of the best, one of the great things that
Tennesseeans can be proud of. Wewere the very first state in the country
with tuition free community essentially to tuitionfree community and technical college. It was
called Tennessee Promise. Governor Haslam andthe legislature started that launched that in twenty

(08:54):
fifteen. It's funded entirely by proceedsfrom the Tennessee Lottery taxpayer not taxpayer funding,
and essentially Tennessee Promise. Oh,let me say that. Tennessee Promise
is for new high school graduates.Okay, so you graduate from high school,
you get Tennessee Promise to start toschool immediately. And Tennessee Reconnect is

(09:20):
for adults. Adults who don't havea college credential of any kind. So
if you're twenty one and up andyou don't have any sort of post secondary
post high school credential, you qualifyfor Tennessee Reconnects. So Tennessee Promise Tennessee
Reconnect or Last Dollar Scholarships, whichmean they put the advisors on our campuses,

(09:45):
connect you with all the financial aidthat you qualify for, and then
if there's anything left on the tuitionand mandatory fees, mandatory fees or fees
that all students pay, then TennesseePromise in Tennessee Reconnect fill that gap so
our community and technical colleges are affordable. To begin with, Tuition is less

(10:11):
than four thousand dollars for an academicyear, not one term, and most
most Tennesseeans can qualify for one ofthese two programs, which means it's tuition
for it. That's amazing. Sothere's people a lot of people during COVID
realize, oh, I'm not goingto be able to stay in this career.
They change careers. They have to. Is that who is for people
like that? Well, it's forthem, it's for them, but it's

(10:35):
for it's for any Tennessee in anyTennessee high school graduate and any Tennessee in
who does not already have either acollege degree or our technical colleges offer diplomas
and certificates and programs like welding orauto mechanics or whatever. We even have

(10:56):
airline aircraft addicts in Memphis and elsewhere. But if you already have a college
credential, then you don't qualify forthose programs. But there may be other
programs that you do qualify for,and the advisors on all of our campuses

(11:16):
that are well equipped to help peoplethrough that process. So at least at
least talk to somebody about it.At least, Yeah, you shouldn't.
That's great, that's great. Nowyou have a program trucking Tennessee. And
I read this about this and it'sit's it's fascinating, how well, how
you're you're gonna you want to traintruck drivers? But do you want to

(11:37):
train or to drive trucks or orknow something else? Well, the training
is for commercial driver's license, Okay, okay, And that's for that's sort
of the big tractor trailer rigs onthe interstates. That's for shorthaul trucking it's
for bus drivers. There's a needfor bus drivers. It's for anything that
requires a commercial driver's list, okay, us as passenger buses, etc.

(12:01):
Where are they going to take thecourses for that? Currently there are fourteen
of the teacats Tennessee Colleges of theHigh Technology that are offering those programs,
which, by the way, canbe you can graduate from those programs in
eight weeks, right, And thereare fourteen of them. They're across the

(12:22):
state, but more are in theprocess of getting ready for them. You
know, it takes buying trucks areand the trucks that we're using for these
programs are the most modern, stateof the art available, and I should
think Governor Lee and the legislature forthat as well, because that trucking Tennessee

(12:43):
is an initiative of his. Asyou know, and I think you mentioned.
During the pandemic, we all heardabout the back log, the logistical
backlogs, the shortage of drivers.So this is an effort to address that.
In fact, there are statistic thatindicate that there is going to be
a twenty that we need to increasethe number of CDL license holders by twenty

(13:07):
percent by the year twenty thirty andthe National Trucking Associate, the American Trucking
Association, estimates that nationally will needseventy eight thousand more wow in that period
of time. Wow. So thisis a response to that, and it's
a great thing. Those those folksstudents can qualify for the same aid if

(13:31):
they're veterans. They they're veterans.Benefits will cover it. So great things.
It has it started already, ithas if anybody been involved in it
right now. That are the studentsinvolved. There are students involved. They
are students who have already graduated.Oh good, oh wow, okay,
so it's going. We've had truckdriving pro we've also truck this training before

(13:52):
this. This new initiative greatly isgreatly expanding it. So the program as
anybody, what are the trucking companiesnow doing that need people? Are they
out there? Are they working withyou one this? Yes, yes,
trucking companies. The CDL, thecommercial Driver's licensing aspects of it are pretty

(14:16):
straightforward. We've been doing that foryears and the state's requirements are pretty straightforward.
You have to take the test atthe end. So we train for
all those skills. But and Thisis true not just for trucking truck driving
programs, it's true for just aboutany any sort of training that we do
that's related to the specific industry.And we didn't get into the Forward's Blue

(14:43):
Oble City project, and we'll dothat when the chancellor comes. Yeah,
our colleges work with those specific industriesto tailor the training to what they need.
So yeah, that happens with thetrucking companies in this program, but
also on many many other programs thatwe do. That's what other things like

(15:07):
that are going on at the borderregions that you're that you're looking at.
Well, you know, our communitycollege has just began classes this year,
and our technical colleges start the dayafter a labor day. But this year
is really it's an amazing year becausein addition to the new investment in expanding
the technical colleges, we're launching aprogram this fall called Reimagining the Community College

(15:35):
Experienced. And what this is focusedon is at four their four community colleges
across the state who are involved inthis pilot program to really enable students from
well even before they enroll, toexplore more career paths and really get them

(15:58):
on the track for what they're interestedin, the careers that they're interested in
earlier in the process. What wewhat we've what research found is that so
many young young students enter college withoutreally knowing what they want to do.
So we've really are intensifying the advisingexperience even before they arrive on campus,

(16:25):
like that summer between high school andcollege, or even in high school when
possible, and so they will enrollmore in these in the in the fields
that they're interested early on, andthey'll even be able to earn credentials before

(16:47):
they earn their main associates degree,like like, uh, you might be
interested in if you're interested in thecommunity in information technology, you might earn
an Amazon on Web Services certificate certifyingyou in those programs that Amazon Web Services
offer in your first semester of college, right, And so it's really an

(17:11):
intensive effort to well, you know, what we found is that a lot
of as I said, a lotof kids enter without really knowing what they
want to do. They they don'tand so some of them get to frustrated
and drop out, right. Sothis is an attempt to focus them on
what they're really interested in from thefrom the start, which would keep them

(17:33):
in college. Right, right doyou do you have you're trying to now
to I guess, to get them, get them whether they sit in high
school and get them on like that? Is that the truth? That is
true. The research indicates that thebigger the bigger the gap from the time
they graduated from high school to thetime they enter, the somewhat less likely

(17:56):
they are to stay in school andgraduate. And that is a great segue.
Is one of the best things thatwe're doing. Something that has just
absolutely exploded in the last two orthree years is dual enrollment high school students.
These are high school students who takecollege level courses get college credit for

(18:21):
them. Thanks to the state legislatureand the state administration, the state will
pay for five college courses for ahigh school student outright, and then the
next five courses they can attend atheavily discounted rates, So that's a total
of ten courses. We actually andthis we have this in the news every

(18:45):
spring during graduation time. We havehigh school students who walk across the stage
at their high school graduations and arealso awarded associate degrees two year degrees from
their community college. As those comersare increasing. It's just an amazing opportunity
for kids. Even even if theydon't earn their two year degree by the

(19:11):
time they graduate from high school,they can they can graduate with substantial a
substantial amount of college credit already.That's great. Then you can then instead
of having to wait four years youwant to got to wait two years and
you start your start your doing thisday. And as you know, from
community college or technical college, thosewho want to pursue their their educations,

(19:37):
it's easy to transfer to a fouryear university. We have we have something
in Tennessee called Tennessee Transfer Pathways.When I was in community college and I
transferred to four year university for mylast two years, and this was a
common experience at that time. Alot of the courses that I took at

(19:59):
community call, I just didn't transfer. Tennessee Transfer Pathways guarantee that those credits
you earn in community college transfer toa Tennessee public university. Plus twenty four
private universities in the state have signedon to have signed agreements to accept those

(20:21):
credits as well. Now you haveto follow the right you know, you
have to follow the course outline.And but but if you do that,
those courses are guaranteed to transfer.Wow, that's that's boy, that's worth
doing. That is I wish I'dhave had that when I was going online,
as you know, it was sittingthere going why did why didn't they

(20:41):
have that? Then? I guessit just took them a while to to
figure it. I've always fascinated bythat because I I'll talk to a friend
who's a student who's and they're like, oh, yeah, I'm graduating and
I've already got this much college.Really yeah, It's like it's still foreign
to me, but yet I'm I'mI'm getting to know it. So you
have a lot of students in thatnow we do. I can tell you

(21:03):
the exact nay we had in dueenrollment of high school students who are taking
college courses for credit. We've hada sixty eight percent increase in the number
of those students in the past sevenyears to nearly twenty seven thousand high school
students who took college courses and earnedcredit college credit last year. At the

(21:26):
technical colleges, that number has tripledin seven years, and the teacats had
nine thousand, three hundred high schoolstudents enrolled last this past academic year for
college credit. And those some ofthem may have just walked away and now
they had schooled, Now they hadschool there, and they stay in school

(21:48):
and they say that keep going absolutelyyeah, if again. Research has indicated
that students and high school students whoalready have who've already earned, worked for
and earned college credit, that's anatural incentive to continue to continue. You
know, once you once you graduate, and you still graduate. But once

(22:08):
you graduate, you're like, uh, okay, we had a file fold
going again, but this gus keepsgoing exactly, it really does, it
really does. We We've lost somany uh like in my day, but
now they're they're there, that they'redoing it. What else is the border
weas doing well? We I mentionedthe reimagined community college experience. We are

(22:33):
This is a little known fact aboutcommunity college. I didn't know it when
I was in community college, butthat was a long time ago. Most
people think that community college students don'tget to do the you know, some
of the fun extracurricular things that universitystudents do. We have an amazing and
very robust study abroad program. Wehave our own center which is based at

(22:59):
Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville thatarranges study abroad for students across our system.
We have financial aid to help themand we have we have you know,
thousand, hundreds or thousands of studentswho study abroad. Oh wow.
Yeah, and the border we justfunds it for him. There. There
is actually student government associations at mostof the colleges have asked for and received

(23:26):
approval from the border regions for asmall fee to be added to student tuition
bills, no more than five dollarsa semester. So that goes into a
fund and and they, you know, decide they use that to fund students
who want to study abroad. That'sfantastic. That's fantastic. This is another

(23:49):
great thing. Tennessee legislature a fewyears ago created a program to make sure
that veterans are able to feel welcomeand have services at our colleges and not
just private, not just our publiccolleges and universities, but private wants to.

(24:11):
So they established the Tennessee Veterans EducationTransition Support Act, which we call
the VETS Act. It has sevenrequirements that a campus must meet too,
and they're pretty rigorous to make surethat we're providing services and programs that help

(24:33):
veterans succeed on the campus. Andso the Tennessee Higher Education Commission they come
into a campus and they make sureor verify that all those seven priorities are
in place, and then they issuea certification and it's called VETS Campus Certification.

(24:53):
Well, all thirteen of our communitycolleges have earned that's campus certification.
Four of our twenty four colleges ofapplied technology have earned it, but all
the rest of them are working hardon it. And which should you go
to find out information on things likethat? There's VETS. As with almost

(25:17):
anything else, there's all you canfind out about it on the internet.
Right, it's run by the TennesseeHigher Education Commission. But you google,
you just google VETS Campuses Tennessee.It will come up. But you can
go to any of our community collegeor so far. Well, you can
go to any of our colleges andthey will tell you all about it.

(25:38):
They will advise veterans on the programs, the financial aid that transitions, support
services, all the things are availableto them. This is a great thing,
and you know, it honors theirservice and it recognizes that there are
you know, particular hurdles and transitionsthat are neque to them. Basically,

(26:02):
it makes them feel welcome, ithonors them. Our chancellor, Chancellor Tidings,
three years ago established the Chancellor's Commendationfor military veterans and every Veteran's Day
on every one of our campuses,there are Veterans Day Veterans Day observances and

(26:23):
a student or a faculty member ora staff member, whoever the president of
that campus nominates, they're awarded theChancellor's Commendation, which is a nice,
nice recognition. Two, that's great. What about people if they if they're
in the military, now, canthey still because we have current We we

(26:45):
have a coordinator Director of Veteran Serviceson our TVR System office staff and she
actually came to us from Clarksville whereshe worked very closely with Fort Campbell and
does. But yes, you don'thave to you can be a current veteran.
We have. We have several whoare attending our campuses. That's terrific,

(27:08):
so much to learn about the borderregions, so much the veterans and
truck drivers, every everybody just comingto get what you want to do is
get everybody engaging, get them involvedand get them educated. It's it's the
whole gamuts. It's careers. It'sattending a community college for a two year
associate degree, which also enables youto begin your career immediately. We offer

(27:33):
just I'm just pulling one out ofthe air. Emergency medical technicians and paramedics,
they can earn a two year degree. Students who want to pursue a
four year degree or advanced A greatplace to start is that a community college
where you take all the general educationcourses and some of the courses that you're

(27:55):
interested in pursuing, you transfer seamlesslyto a university two years at our places
are are frankly much more affordable,and you have these great financial aid opportunities
available to available to them too.Where is information available online for the border
regions, Well, a central placeis our website, which is simply TBR

(28:18):
dot du Tennessee Border Reasons TBR dotdu and and almost immediately what you see
is you'll see you'll see a headlineof something new like this billion dollar investment
and Tennessee trucking is at the topof it right now. But then you'll
see technol You'll see Tennessee colleges ofapply technology. You'll see Tennessee's community colleges.

(28:41):
You'll see the Tennessee e Camp,but it's it's a one stop shop.
Or you can go to the websitesof any of our colleges, or
you can walk in the door andget first rate advising. Thank you for
coming in today. Talking about that. I've absolutely enjoyed it, and I
want to thank you. Not onlya public service for informing Tennessee students are

(29:03):
mean informing Tennesseeans about issues that areimportant to them and that matter. But
you also I've listened to several ofyour broadcasts, you also provide a great
public service and letting Tennesseeans know aboutopportunities and things that are available to them,
like higher education. Well, thankyou, thank you so much.
I appreciate you coming in today absolutelyand we want to thank Rick Blocker,

(29:29):
Tennessee Board of Regents Communications Director.For more information on Tennessee Board of Regents,
you can go to TBR dot com. For questions or comments about today's
program, you can go to JohnClark at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks for
listening. I'll talk to you nextweek right here on your local radio station
on Tennessee matters,
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