Tusculum College welcomed to Kingsport Higher Education Center

Dr. Nancy B. Moody, president of Tusculum, expresses the College's appreciation of the opportunity to offer further educational opportunities to those in the Kingsport area.

The Kingsport Higher Education Commission welcomed Tusculum College to the downtown Kingsport Academic Village during a Monday morning news conference.

Tusculum College will begin to offer classes during the fall 2013 semester at the Kingsport Higher Education Center. Courses will be offered in bachelor’s and master’s programs of the Graduate and Professional Studies program for working adults. To be offered are bachelor’s programs in business administration, interdisciplinary studies (K-6 education), organizational management and psychology with a behavioral health concentration. Also to be offered is the Master of Arts in Teaching program and the master’s program in education designed for licensed teachers.

It was announced during the news conference that the Kingsport Higher Education Commission has voted to allow Tusculum College and Milligan College to offer courses at the center. The two colleges join  East Tennessee State University, King University, Lincoln Memorial University, the University of Tennessee and Northeast State Community College in offering courses at the Kingsport Higher Education Center since the facility’s opening in 2009.

Currently, more than 2,200 students are studying in the Academic Village, including ETSU students who just started attending at a downtown campus earlier this year.

“The presence of Tusculum and Milligan in the Higher Education Center can only complement what has been started with Northeast State Community College, the University of Tennessee, King College and Lincoln Memorial University,” Mayor Dennis Phillips said Monday. “Along with East Tennessee State University, we now have seven outstanding higher education organizations serving our area.  This is extremely exciting and should be welcomed by the citizens of Kingsport as a major step forward toward reaching our access and educational attainment goals for the community.”

Tusculum President Dr. Nancy Moody indicated that the opportunity for Tusculum College to move to the Kingsport Higher Center for Higher Education is congruent with the mission of the College and compliments efforts that began almost 30 years ago to provide user-friendly programs designed with working adults in mind.  Tusculum looks forward to forming an even stronger presence in Kingsport by collaborating with other Colleges and Universities, as well as the community, to develop new concepts and programming for the benefit of the community and its citizens.

“Tusculum College is excited to join the Kingsport Center for Higher Education, and we look forward to the opportunities we will have to collaborate with other member institutions and also with the Kingsport community,” Dr. Moody said.

In all, Kingsport Higher Education Commission Chair John Williams agreed that Kingsport continues to move forward at a fast pace by continuing to open new avenues to access higher education in a local setting.

“Today’s actions have moved Kingsport many steps along the path to academic advancement and access to higher education for our city and region,” Williams said.  “These two well established and highly respected institutions bring more opportunity and options to the Higher Ed Center and elevate our Academic Village to yet another, higher level.  We are grateful to the trustees and administrative leadership of these colleges who share our vision.”

Speaking during the news conference were, from left, John Williams, chair of the Kingsport Higher Education Commission; Dr. Moody; Kingsport Mayor Dennis Phillips, and Dr. Bill Greer, president of Milligan College.