Growth & Development
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The past few years have seen start-up businesses mushroom across the community – from hair salons and medical-related offices to a wide variety of service-related businesses. Tusculum College, the oldest college west of the Alleghenies, continues its rapid growth and is recognized as one of the best private liberal arts colleges in the three-state area. The college marked a milestone in its 217-year history in October of 2010 with the inauguration of its first female president, Dr. Nancy Moody. In February 2017, Dr. Moody announced her retirement. In fall, Dr. James Hurley became Tusculum’s 28th president. In September of 2012, the college received a facilities loan of $39 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the Ronald H. and Verna June Meen Center for Science and Math. The $15.5 million facility, featuring four stories with approximately 100,000 square feet, includes wings for biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and environmental science. There is lab space and research areas for faculty and students, as well as space to house the Bachelor of Science degree program in nursing and at least one other graduatelevel health-related program. Construction began in May of 2015, and the Meen Center opened its doors for utilization when students returns for the 2017 spring semester. The college was the recipient of a $6 million U.S. Agriculture Rural Development loan in early 2013 for the construction of two apartment-style residence halls. In the past decade, Tusculum College has raised several million dollars to help build the Niswonger Commons, remodel school dormitories, construct new resident halls and expand all of its major sporting facilities. In addition, the college completed an expansion to its library, which was originally built in 1910, almost tripling the space of the previous facility to more than 34,000 square feet. The expanded library includes six full-size classrooms, eight faculty offices, a conference room and study rooms and a special classroom dedicated to library instruction and information literacy. Local residents are welcome to make in-house use of the wealth of knowledge housed in Tusculum’s library, and arrangements may be made to check out books.
One of the sporting additions at the college is Pioneer Park, a 2,400-seat state-of-the-art stadium on the campus which is home to the Tusculum Pioneer baseball team. A major expansion of the Clyde Austin 4-H Camp was opened in the spring of 2012 with the unveiling of the new $1 million lodge, a 13,000 square-foot facility that can host retreats, conferences, weddings and meetings, as well as provide 16 motel-style bedrooms for housing. The center serves the entire region including surrounding states. As a youth camp, it serves the 33 counties that compose East Tennessee. The project required a $2.2 million investment, more than half of which was provided by the University of Tennessee Extension Service and the rest from private local donors. Both the Greeneville and Greene County school systems have initiated and completed facility expansions and erections during the past few years to address present needs, as well as prepare for the future. Greeneville High School completed a multi-million dollar expansion and renovation project, which included the 1,150seat state-of-the-art Niswonger Performing Arts Center that officially opened in December of 2004. Through the school system’s capital improvement plan, all school buildings in the system have been improved and upgraded. During the 2016-17 school year, approximately 2,750 students were served by the city school system’s seven schools. The system employs 450 certified and non-certified employees. The Greeneville City School District was named the number one public school district in Tennessee and ranked in the top two percent of school districts in the nation by Niche Ranking’s 2017 survey. This follows the 2016 designation as number one public school district by both Business Insider Magazine and in Niche Ranking’s survey. The College Board also included the city schools on its 2015 Gaston Caperton Opportunity
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