Yep, bout ready to throw in the towel. Tired of fighting for this place. Really starting to wish I would have went somewhere else for my graduate degree.
It's days like this that I start to 2nd guess or think all them years ago maybe I should have pursued other avenues of higher education. I know it really doesn't matter now as one can't go back and change past events. I just never imagined in my early days of choosing MT that the state would be one of the main forces holding the university back.
I almost hate to admit this here, but here it is: When I first came to MT, MT was Nashville's main public university that most people attended. Given the close proximity, I figured I would start at MT a couple of semesters and transfer elsewhere to finish undergrad. Funny thing happened in that short time, I started to really like MT, Murfreesboro, and the still close proximity to Nashville. Additionally, James Walker was the President at the time. MT was growing, and Pres Walker had lots of vision with plenty going on in the university. It was also when Pres Walker was pushing for MT to go 1A and get a name change for the university. I decided to stay. MT had so much going for it with an excellent leader and plenty of good people around. When I decided to stay, I figured a willing leader with vision and such dramatic growth were the difficult elements. For a fast growing Nashville Metro area and Middle Tennessee, I figured the State powers in Nashville would be glad to approve the growth and improvements to MT. Apparently, I wrongly figured the state leaders would gladly promote or accept a dynamic growing public institution of higher ed to pursue excellence and then even regional prominence and national recognition. Heck, the people of the region seemed to favor MT by such fantastic growth in enrollment.
Sadly, today's news seems to be further damning evidence that the State which has ultimate authority over MT simply will not allow MT to realize all it's potential. This constraint is unbelievable in that a growing dynamic excellent public university could be an economic powerhouse for the entire area. Indefensibly, the state has limited MT's economic impact to the area to that of only a fraction of what it could be.
Just as sad, so much of the resistance in the state to MT's growth and improvement has been from some other large state schools who fear competition and possibly having to share prestige and resources. In a way, it almost seems like the Grand Divisions of the state from it's inception has sort of contributed to stifling growth across the whole state. More accurately, it seems the people of the state may have used the Three Grand Divisions to suppress the other competing regions of the state. Or another way, bad politics yields bad results.
Sorry about the long rant folks. This is a rotten deal that has long lasting implications for the university that is both frustrating and disheartening.
