You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.

This story originally ran in the Jan. 30, 2002, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.

Sidney McPhee has been president of the university for only a short time, but he is already garnering accolades from his colleagues here at MTSU.

The Bahamas-born educator took the helm in late August amidst the state’s budget crisis and immediately took action.

“He hit the ground running,” said Duane Stucky, vice president for Finance and Administration. Stucky said McPhee studied the budget with an eye toward using the university’s investments to reap the greatest benefits. In addition to adding much needed faculty, he chose to update the furnishings in older classrooms, starting with the antiquated desks in Peck Hall.

In effect, Stucky said, “he got double use out of the money.”

John P. Montgomery, dean of the honors college, appreciates McPhee’s fund-raising capabilities, pointing out that McPhee was quickly able to help the honors college reach its goal for securing matching funds needed to construct its new building.

Newly appointed Athletics Director James “Boots” Donnelly is impressed with McPhee as well.

“He seems to be extremely conscientious and has a tremendous awareness of his goals and vision of where he wants the university to go in the future.” Donnelly finds McPhee supportive of the role that competitive sports play at the university as well.

Another upbeat take on the president’s first semester performance came from Robert Glenn, vice president for Student Affairs.

“I’m very encouraged and certainly very pleased,” Glenn said. “He takes the best folks, empowers them and gets out of their way.” Glenn said micromanaging is not McPhee’s style.

McPhee considers himself as a people person.

“People are my passion,” McPhee said. “I enjoy working with people and students. It’s our business. We’re an academic institution, and we exist for the sole purpose of having an impact on our students.”

“I’ve always felt we should never be too busy to deal with our students,” McPhee said, explaining his open door policy on campus.

He said he has made it a priority in the past six months to meet students and the faculty.

“I’ve completed visits to all the colleges and had an open forum with students during the first semester,” McPhee said.

McPhee’s workday is long. He’s in the office typically from 6 or 7 a.m. to well after 6 p.m. each night. The demands on the administrative side could make him, as he said, “a prisoner behind a desk.”

McPhee admits that the budget has been the most challenging and frustrating area so far.

“There is so much that needs to be done on campus,” McPhee said.

He explained that state funding is more in line with a student population of 15,000, whereas enrollment is at about 20,000 at this time.

While stretching dollars is important, his focus is on academics.

“We’re an academic institution,” McPhee said, accenting the word academic.

Regarding athletics, McPhee sees the role of sports at the university as secondary to academics but feels that they are vital to the connection between the community and the university.

“Athletics provides us an opportunity for the community to see the university and get excited about it,” McPhee said. His goal however, is “not to allow athletics to define who we are but be a part of who we are.”

McPhee comes across as a perfectionist. He accepts his fact.

“Part of who I am is that I want us to be the best at everything we do,” McPhee said. His goal ultimately is to raise the bar in terms of academic quality at MTSU. He is already very proud of various areas of study offered by the university, known as “destination programs.” As an example, he pointed to Columbia’s School of Journalism.

“Here at MTSU,” McPhee explained, “destination programs include the recording industry program, which is one of the top in the country…the whole College of Mass Communication, the aerospace engineering program and the concrete industry program.”

McPhee said all are ranked among the top in the nation.

“My goal is to expand that list to be thought of as one of the top in core curriculum and life education with a great general undergraduate study program,” McPhee said.

The class taught by Vice President Al Gore, Family-Centered Community Building, is in keeping with McPhee’s vision.

“Al Gore’s class is excellent. He’s doing an incredible job teaching and taking the job very seriously. We are very fortunate to have him,” McPhee said.

Gore’s class adds on other thing to the university that McPhee would like to see more of: a world-class profile.

“We need to really do a better job of attracting world-class people,” McPhee said.

For an educator who came to Murfreesboro by way of Nassau, McPhee can’t help but have worldly vision. He has lectured in various countries around the globe and wants to foster that broader perspective here at the university.”

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