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UNIVERSITY NEWS Martin Methodist in talks to become part of UT system . . .

MTFNBY5

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Jul 26, 2005
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. . . according to a report in The Tennessean.

As if we need another publicly supported school in the mid-state. Already four in the area.

At one time Martin Methodist, when a JUCO, was a primary feeder school for MT not only sending students but athletes (BkB and BB) and coaches (Jimmy Earle). Now they are going to be competition?

If this goes through when we consider the recent debacle of the law school it will show MT's relative place in the state, not that we don't already know.
 
A good friend of mine from HS and college is their AD. He’s a former Memphis St. student equipment manager. Martin Methodist was in Murfreesboro yesterday for a tennis match.
 
I don't foresee an issue with SACS. It may actually increase the academic strength of MMU.

THEC will greenlight the MMU to UTK. Meanwhile, THEC nixes a law school to MT.

This is not the first time the UTK/UT System has tried to enter middle Tennessee market. They will pour money into MMU / UT-Pulaski campus and it will affect enrollment at MT
 
I went to Martin Methodist for one year before transferring out. The school, the town, are what I affectionately call a sh** hole.
 
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I don't foresee an issue with SACS. It may actually increase the academic strength of MMU.

THEC will greenlight the MMU to UTK. Meanwhile, THEC nixes a law school to MT.

This is not the first time the UTK/UT System has tried to enter middle Tennessee market. They will pour money into MMU / UT-Pulaski campus and it will affect enrollment at MT

In a “SWOT” analysis, the branching of UT into Martin Methodist would be listed as a “threat-T” that our leadership should properly market counter and create stronger competitive advantage and affinity in Giles, Lawrence, Lincoln, and Marshall counties footprint. Those counties have not grown significantly since the 1950s and MT has great potential to create a captive affinity as a great educational institution to that market. Pulaski is a decent town, but too far from Nashville (74 miles), Huntsville (46 miles), and Florence (52 miles) and I65 (12 miles) to benefit from influence. Huntsville seems to have the strongest influence in Giles County, especially the southern portion.

The sad part of all this is our leadership is just now recognizing this and is probably too late to do any good. We should have recognized this back in 2010-11 when Lambuth College of Jackson merged into University of Memphis. Actions may be viewed as “crying over spilled milk”.
 
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One postscript I think about Pulaski and Murfreesboro is what would Murfreesboro look like had our city and state fathers had not made the decision in 1909 to locate MTN here in Murfreesboro? I would submit Pulaski and Murfreesboro would be highly similar in size and demographics. Think many here in Rutherford County (including some in MT leadership) don’t adequately appreciate what cachet and legacy MT has given this community over the last 109 years.
 
With McPhee in charge along with our incompetent board members, we should just shut the university down at this point. There is no hope.
 
One postscript I think about Pulaski and Murfreesboro is what would Murfreesboro look like had our city and state fathers had not made the decision in 1909 to locate MTN here in Murfreesboro? I would submit Pulaski and Murfreesboro would be highly similar in size and demographics. Think many here in Rutherford County (including some in MT leadership) don’t adequately appreciate what cachet and legacy MT has given this community over the last 109 years.

In my youth I knew several people who knew the history of M'Boro as the site for the public "teachers" college for the middle grand division of the state. Apparently the school was offered to Columbia but the city fathers rejected the proposal. At the time both Maury and Rutherford were county seats of counties with above average population and wealth when compared to most mid-state counties. Of course, when the phosphate industry became so important Columbia (The Dimple of the Universe) became more prosperous and was perhaps the most wealthy county outside of the big 4 in TN.
It's hard to know how this decision has affected both cities and how MT would be different should it have been in Columbia. I would guess MT would be somewhat smaller in size but would have been better able to develop a "sphere of influence" being somewhat outside the effect of Nashville politics and media. (At one time the Columbia Daily Herald had the 5th largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the state IIRC and sold in several counties). Hard to imagine what the phosphate industry could have done for MT during its heyday. If I had a guess I would imaging that the counties surrounding Maury would be more supportive of MT and there would have been no thought of MMC becoming part of UT, probably would have stayed a JUCO (But where would CSCC have gone?).
FWIW Maury Regional Hospital serves 9 counties - Be wonderful if MT had the support of 9 mid-state counties regardless of their mostly rural populations.
 
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