Quest 2025: Student Success
MTSU continues to be recognized as a national leader for its Student Success initiatives.
MTSU was recently invited to join the 2022–25 cohort of institutions in the Student Success Equity Intensive (SSEI) coordinated by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. This program, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is focused on achieving equitable outcomes for Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-income students.
This opportunity occurs as we complete our work on the Intermediaries for Scale (IFS) project, coordinated by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), with funding from the Gates Foundation. This two-year project has focused on improving supports for all students, with an emphasis on underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation populations.
As examples, MTSU’s early arrival programs, Scholars Academy and Student Transition and Academic Readiness (STAR), have become integral components of our student success efforts. Both programs serve students new to MTSU. Students enrolled in Scholars Academy arrive two weeks before the start of the fall semester to participate in workshops, team-building exercises, leadership training, and service-learning projects. Students in the STAR program arrive one week early and are also involved in structured experiences to prepare them for a successful college start.
Students who participate in Scholars Academy and STAR have higher rates of success, including retention and graduation, than students who do not. First-year retention rate
projections are at 80% for participants in the Scholars Academy. The STAR program retention rate projections are 73%.
The Scholars Academy welcomed its newest cohort of 123 students last fall. Fifty-four percent of these scholars achieved a grade point average of 3.0 or above. Twelve percent achieved grade point averages of 4.0. Finally, the persistence rate for this cohort is currently 93%.
Learner support programs, including tutoring, also continue to be key elements of our commitment to improve graduation rates and close outcome gaps.
Of the students who went for tutoring during the Spring 2022 semester, 94% passed the course. This is an impressive 4% increase from the Fall 2021 semester. Of the students who passed the course, 57% passed with grades of A and B, and 29% passed with the grade of A.
We were excited to launch summer tutoring this year for a limited number of courses, including in physics, accounting, recording industry, media arts, and computer science.
Focused on our goal to eliminate the achievement gap, we saw a significant increase (66%) in Black males who attended tutoring in fall 2022 compared to the previous fall; there was a 44% increase in Black females who attended tutoring in fall 2022 compared to the previous fall. Overall, for fall 2022, there was an astounding 53% increase in the total number of Black students who attended tutoring compared with fall 2021. We will continue to focus on increasing the participation of students of color as tutees and tutors.
In fall 2022, tutoring usage overall (6,517) saw a 47% increase compared with fall 2021.
FEBRUARY
Bright Futures
Seven MTSU undergraduate researchers—and nearly 40 altogether from across Tennessee—attended the annual Posters at the Capitol event on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill in Nashville on February 16, showcasing research in the Cordell Hull Building.
Posters at the Capitol brought together STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) researchers from seven state universities. They visited with state legislators during scheduled meetings and discussed their research with peers, faculty mentors, the legislators, and others.
The group included Logan Carver, Hunter Brady, DeVonte Lewis, Sophia Taylor, Maria Clark, Carine Vazquez, Quinn Wilson, and Casey Penston.
The effort is coordinated by the Tennessee STEM Education Center at MTSU.
An MTSU administration delegation also visited lawmakers for MTSU Day on the Hill the same day as the posters event.
True Blue Give
MTSU gave the Blue Raider community a Valentine's opportunity to show love financially for its educational mission during the fifth annual True Blue Give February 14–16.
The goal of the 72-hour special Valentine's fundraising effort was to raise $500,000 in gifts of support from at least 800 University friends for academics, athletics, and scholarships.
In 2022, more than 840 MTSU alumni, faculty and staff, students, and friends (from all over the country) came together to give over $640,000 to support MTSU students.
Started in 2018, the True Blue Give is a crowdfunding movement created by alumni and friends. Supporters make a gift online or by text in a very short time frame (just three days) to show their support for current MTSU students by giving to areas on campus that have critical needs.
Black History Month
Comedian and author D.L. Hughley enthralled a packed house inside the University’s Business and Aerospace Building on February 3 during his Black History Month keynote address.
Hughley drew laughter throughout his 30-minute address, followed by a longer and extensive Q&A session with the audience that delved into issues ranging from social media to U.S. politics, from Confederate monuments to the NFL, and much more.
“Relax, laugh it up. We’re risking our lives to be together,” Hughley deadpanned to the heavily masked audience inside the State Farm Lecture Hall. But he quickly turned serious in homage to the occasion, noting the contributions of African Americans to this country’s history and culture.
The event was sponsored by the MTSU Black History Month Committee, the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, and the Distinguished Lecture Committee. It was coordinated by the Office of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs.
