KINGSPORT ‚¬ During a Monday morning news conference, the Kingsport Higher Education Commission welcomed two new colleges who joins the ranks of higher education institutions offering instruction at the downtown Kingsport Academic Village.
With Monday mornings announcement, Milligan College and Tusculum College united with 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 facilitys opening in 2009.
Tusculum will begin classes beginning during the 2013 Fall Semester, while Milligan will offer classes beginning in January 2014.
Both Colleges intend to offer upper-division courses at the downtown site. 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.
Milligan President Dr. Bill Greer indicated that his school is looking to make it easier for people of all ages to improve their skillsets and marketability by focusing on bringing programs closer to students.
We are pleased to partner with KCHE to offer programs that are in demand and beneficial for the needs of our region, Dr. Greer said. The classes we offer at KCHE will be taught by our highly regarded faculty who are caring and respected experts in their fields. Professionals in the Kingsport area now will have the opportunity to experience the Milligan community closer to home.
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.
Todays actions have moved Kingsport many steps along the path to academic advancement and access to higher education for our city and region, William 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.