Leaving on a High Note - Austin Peay State University

Another first: APSU
enrollment tops 9,000
Your alma mater reached a milestone in
Fall 2006. When final enrollment was tallied,
APSU hit another historic high—pushing past
9,000 students—with an eye on 10,000.
Total University headcount for Fall 2006,
including main campus and the Austin Peay
Center @ Fort Campbell, was 9,207—up 5.5
percent over Fall 2005. Full-time equivalency
(FTE) enrollment was 7,443 in Fall 2006, up
1.2 percent from the previous fall.
The deployment of the 101st Airborne
Division (Air Assault) in Fall 2005 did not
affect enrollment at the Austin Peay Center @
Fort Campbell as much as expected, thanks to
the recruitment of military dependents and
civilians.
With the return of the 101st last fall, the
Austin Peay Center @ Fort Campbell had a
near 124 percent increase in enrollment of veterans
and a 52 percent increase in active-duty
soldiers.
Since Fall 2000, APSU’s overall enrollment
has increased almost 30 percent—making
it the state’s fastest growing university.
Degrees meet market demand
APSU soon will offer a Master of Arts in
Teaching, designed for students with a bachelor’s
degree who are seeking an education
degree and teacher’s license at the same time.
The Master of Arts in Teaching will be the
latest in a string of graduate studies added to
the University’s curriculum, many of which
are geared toward online learning.
On January 1, 2006, the University
launched a Master of Arts in Military History
program with 17 students enrolled the first
semester. The M.A. in Military History, the
only one of its kind in the state and one of a
few in the nation, includes such courses as
“Military Historiography and Criticism,”
“Warfare in the Classical World,” “War and
Ethics” and “Special Operations
Perspectives.”
APSU launched the online Master of
Professional Studies in Leadership program in
Fall 2006, with eight students registered for
the inaugural semester. A partnership effort
through the Regents Online Degree Program,
the program requires 33 hours of interdisciplinary
courses in such areas as leadership and
organizational structure.
Another new degree program approved for
APSU in 2006 is the Online Medical
APSU Public Relations Archives
Laboratory Technician to B.S. in Medical
Technology.
In a history-making announcement, APSU
officials are collaborating with the academic
staff at TBR to launch the University’s first doctoral
program, in education.
New minors include Asian studies and geographic
information systems and spatial
analysis, theatre or dance, global security
studies, decision sciences and real estate.
In a historic first, APSU gets
nod to build classroom
building on Army post
For the first time in history, a university—
In a history-making action, APSU received permission
to build its own building adjacent to the
English Education Center, shown above, at Fort
Campbell, Ky. Six higher education institutions offer
classes on post, but APSU enrolls more students
than the other five combined.
APSU—received permission from the State
Building Commission to construct a $4.7 million
education building adjacent to the
English Education Center at nearby Fort
Campbell, Ky.
This marks a unique situation in which a
state university has been granted permission
to build an educational facility on federal
property through a 25-year, long-term land
lease with the Army, with an option of a lease
renewal for an additional 25 years.
APSU officials have been working on the
project for more than two years, and
University officials say the goal is to be in the
facility by Fall 2008.
Currently, at the English Education Center,
APSU enrolls more students than the other
five universities added together, according to
Gerald Beavers, executive director of the
Austin Peay Center @ Fort Campbell, who
says, “We are at our limit of seats available
with the current classrooms.”
To further intensify the crowding problem,
several World War II barracks, which APSU
Spring 2007
currently uses for classrooms and labs, are to
be demolished by the Army by 2008.
“Our growing enrollment and the expressed
need for additional programs continue to
increase due to the number of Army personnel,
their dependents and civilians taking
classes at Fort Campbell,” Beavers said.
“Plus, an additional brigade has been
assigned to the post recently, adding about
3,000 soldiers, many with dependents.”
Currently, the Austin Peay Center @ Fort
Campbell has 30 full-time faculty, 80 adjunct
faculty and 15 full-time staff serving more than
2,000 students each term. APSU’s new onpost
educational facility will include six classrooms,
faculty offices and laboratory space.
Hoppe, Speck publish
biography of civil rights
activist Maxine Smith
Researched and written by the president and
provost of Austin Peay State University, an
authorized biography of Maxine Atkins Smith,
focusing primarily on her role as a civil rights
activist, was accepted for publication in 2007
by the University of Tennessee Press.
Dr. Sherry Hoppe, APSU president, and Dr.
Bruce Speck, provost, spent months conducting
research and interviews, including several
with Maxine Smith and husband Vasco.
Titled “Maxine’s Unwilling Pupils:
Lessons Learned in Memphis’ Civil Rights
Classroom,” the biography paints a picture of
this highly educated and extremely vocal
woman and how her powerful personality
expedited the civil rights movement in and
around Memphis.
According to Hoppe’s and Speck’s
research, although Smith spoke out against
unfair treatment of blacks in all
areas, her primary
interest was
education.
Following
her leadership
in the
integration of
Memphis’ elementary
and
high schools,
through such
actions as the
infamous “Black
Mondays,” Smith
was elected to the
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