On the Action Line for Monday (11/15/2021):
SEGMENT ONE:
During the first segment, WGNS' Scott Walker spoke to Dr. Kimball Bullington, management professor in the Jones College of Business at MTSU. The topic focused on MTSU’s new supply chain management degree, which fills a growing workforce need.
About the Show:
With supply chain disruptions and resulting product shortages and delivery delays again in the headlines, Middle Tennessee State University is looking to address current and future challenges in this area through a new bachelor’s degree in supply chain management launched this year.
The Jennings A. Jones College of Business pursued and received approval in the spring to transform its supply chain management concentration within its Department of Management into a standalone major that provides graduates a leg up in a burgeoning job market.
MTSU supply chain management professor Kimball Bullington said the university’s effort to develop the degree program, which launched over the summer, is certainly relevant in a state within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the U.S. population and that has already attracted numerous logistics-related companies and industries.
Tack on the recent supply chain snags amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and the new degree takes on added importance in positioning the Midstate workforce to fill in-demand jobs within a booming profession that touches on areas ranging from purchasing to logistics to data analysis.
“Supply chain management is a common path to CEO because you have to have broad experience. It’s very upwardly mobile,” said Bullington. “You may get into a particular job and say, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this forever.’ It doesn’t matter because you can move to a different role. There’s a lot of flexibility. … and really no ceiling.”
MTSU’s program is designed so that students gain the technical skills and real-world experience to prepare them for a career in this high-wage, high-demand field. Making up 37% of all jobs in the region, supply chain management is one of the fastest growing industries, with the average starting annual salary for graduates ranging from $55,000 to $65,000.
Read more: https://mtsunews.com/new-supply-chain-management-degree/
SEGMENT TWO:
During the second segment, WGNS' Scott Walker spoke to guests that included Dan Pfeifer, professor of recording industry, and Dr. Denise Shackelford, assistant professor of recording industry at MTSU.
About Segment Two:
Dec. 3rd is the grand opening, ribbon-cutting and Listening Night at the new Department of Recording Industry’s East Main Street studios on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, TN.
Students in the Department of Recording Industry are now using Studios D and E — nearly 5,000 square feet of customized, expandable, “world-class” space, complete with control rooms, equipment rooms and an open gathering/reception area — relocated from an aging dorm, targeted for demolition, to the former Parking and Transportation Services Building on East Main Street.
Those students range from freshmen getting their first chance to work on pro-caliber analog and digital equipment to candidates for the program’s unique Master of Fine Arts in Recording Arts and Technologies degree with years of experience on the mixing boards.
A grand opening and ribbon cutting will be held Friday, Dec. 3, followed by a Listening Night from the studios showcasing top student talent.
“These are going to be extraordinarily valuable,” department chair John Merchant said of the nearly $2 million studio facilities. “It’s a massive upgrade from where we were; the previous studios were very modest.
“These new ones are world-class, remarkable spaces that are going to be a game-changer for us, because it means that our students are getting to work in these acoustically, electronically superior spaces. You can really hear clearly what you’re doing, and that makes such a difference in terms of the kind of work you can produce. The fact that these are now our introductory studios means that students are getting that kind of experience right out of the gate, and that is hugely beneficial.”
The studios’ new location was originally a church gymnasium before the church moved and the university bought the property and turned it into office space.
Providing students with the foundation to succeed is the reason for the new studios, recording industry professor Dan Pfeifer said. Pfeifer co-chaired the committee that oversaw the studio project, which took nearly two years to complete with help from multiple departments and recording industry partners, including former concrete industry department chair and professor Heather Brown.
Read more: https://mtsunews.com/new-recording-studios-fall21/
SEGMENT THREE:
During the third portion of the Action on Monday, WGNS' Bryan Barrett had a conversation with Dr. Mary Evins, a research professor of history and coordinator of the American Democracy Project on the MTSU campus.
About the Topic:
There has been a significant increase in the MTSU student voter participation for 2020; and the numbers are in, showing the winners are MTSU students who have exercised their right to vote.
Student voting at MTSU increased from 44% in both 2016 and 2014 to 65% in 2020 — an increase of 21 percentage points, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement of the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
In addition, 84% of MTSU students registered to vote in the 2020 election compared to 72% in 2016, an increase of 12 percentage points.
“Everyone on campus made this happen, from professors in classrooms to campus organizations,” said Mary Evins, a research professor of history and coordinator of the American Democracy Project. “Everyone took the time to get students registered where they could vote the most efficiently, discussed with them the importance and value of civic participation and assisted students in getting to the polls.”
The vast majority of MTSU students, 93% of them, voted in person at the polls. Seventy-two percent of MTSU students took advantage of early voting, up from 58% in 2016.
“Helping students register to vote where they live during college so that they can get to the polls in person — the ‘live here, vote here’ principle — increases student voting,” Evins said.
Read more: https://mtsunews.com/voting-statistics-nov2021/
Evins is also involved with “Tennessee 101: Tennessee Women in the Progressive Era,” a series of 10 free online lectures sponsored by the Tennessee Historical Society.
The first five will run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 16.
Evins and Minoa Uffelman, a history professor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, are co-organizers for the lecture series.
Dr. Crystal deGregory, a research fellow at MTSU’s Center for Historic Preservation, will discuss “African American College Women” at 5 p.m. Central Tuesday, Nov. 16.
Access to the series is available here, under “Programs” on the Tennessee Historical Society website. Registration is required.
Evins and Uffelman also are collaborating on the second volume of an anthology on Tennessee women of the Progressive Era. The period spanned several decades of social activism and political reform focusing on women’s rights, among other issues.
Read more: https://mtsunews.com/tennessee-progressive-women-oct2021/
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