Feature photo courtesy of MTSU
Story by Ethan Schmidt
The MTSU Board of Trustees met yesterday to discuss developments on the MTSU hotel, enrollment numbers and other important topics at its quarterly meeting.
New developments on the upcoming MTSU hotel
President Sidney McPhee announced that on Sept. 3, MTSU selected Sila Developments as the best proposal for the hotel project.
“The hotel development concept includes a four-story, 122-key hotel developed on the existing Middle Tennessee parking lot [at the] southeast corner of Middle Tennessee Boulevard and Greenland Drive intersection,” McPhee said.
MTSU administration will finalize more details of their contract with Sila Developments in the coming months.
Due to recent coverage from Nashville news outlets about the project, McPhee said, “there are a number of major hotel brands that have inquired about this project.”
Board of Trustees Chair Steve Smith expressed delightment to see the new updates on the hotel development.
“We’ve been pregnant now about five years,” Smith said.
The chair said the hotel would have likely been opened already if the COVID-19 pandemic had not disrupted the hotel industry so severely.
“That’s a major accomplishment for our school,” Smith said.
Enrollment is up
The President also announced that MTSU saw a 1.69% year-over-year increase in enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year.
“That is a remarkable achievement,” McPhee said, citing a struggle among other universities to bring in new students.
Further, freshman enrollment also increased beyond last year’s massive 12% increase in freshman students. Transfer student enrollment also increased by 2.8%.
An off-agenda item: Reviving a Tennessee public university funding program
Smith initiated discussion on an off-agenda topic regarding the administration’s desire to get the state legislature to pass a program that would have the stage government match, to an unspecified extent, donations to public universities like MTSU.
“Any of us wanna parlay our money,” Smith said.
MTSU Government Relations Liaison Bill Ketron said after the meeting that the state government used to run a similar program that would only match specific donations, but eliminated it sometime in the late 80s or early 90s.
Ethan Schmidt is a reporter for MTSU Sidelines.
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