MTSU officially announced and celebrated the name of the College of Media and Entertainment, formerly the college of Mass Communication, during an event with faculty and alumni at Broadcast Music Industry Terrace on Tuesday night.
University President Sidney McPhee joined media and entertainment Dean, Ken Paulson, in introducing the name change and explaining the thought process behind the new brand.
“The world isn’t driven by mass communication. It’s now all about targeted audiences and tailored content and strategic audience building,” Paulson said. “And so this rebooted College of Media and Entertainment will strive to give student the skills and insight they’ll need to serve audiences on multiple platforms.”
Hillary Scott, MTSU alumna and co-lead singer of country music’s Lady Antebellum, was scheduled to speak at the event and present a gift benefiting students, but was unable to attend. Her manager Daniel Miller, an MTSU alumnus, spoke on her behalf.
“She tells the story when she was younger that, thanks to a cut her dad had on Leann Rimes’ first album, they were able to use the money from that to send her to MTSU,” Miller said. “So she decided now that she’s in a position to pay that forward, she wants to set up a scholarship for other young women that want to go into creative careers … just so they have the same opportunity that she’s had.”
Scott is currently working on a name for the scholarship and the amount of money to be awarded, both of which will be disclosed at a later time.
“I’ll just say it’s significant,” Miller concluded.
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I think that creating a scholarship on behalf of Hillary Scott is such an amazing thing because so many students move to Murfreesboro to pursue their dream in being in the music industry in some way,shape, or form. I think that this could help motivate female students to follow their music dreams in a male dominated industry. This will also take a major load off students shoulders who are facing debt because, let’s face it, out of state tuition is seriously ridiculous. It is so great that Hillary made this move, because Belmont had Miranda Lambert create a scholarship for their music business program and it was about time for MTSU to have one as well. This scholarship will only heighten MTSU’s success in the music industry and create excellent music business professionals. In my opinion, this scholarship will make Middle Tennessee State University more appealing to people who want to get into the music business program, and will make people realize that you can get a education at MTSU that is just as excellent as getting a education at Belmont without being thousands and thousands of dollars in debt. I am hoping that more artists and music business professionals will make the move that Hillary did… it will definitely make our school proud!