Odie Blackmon

odie.blackmon@mtsu.edu

John Merchant

Recording Industry

Smart Classroom

Recording Industry classroom in Miller Educational Center

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This project will build out and equip the new Songwriting Center's second classroom in the Miller Education Center. This room will provide teaching and lab space for Recording Industry Students studying Songwriting, Music Business, and Audio Production. In 2013, the Songwriting Concentration utilized one classroom (Ezell 120) and one full-time professor with an enrollment of eighty-four students and offering two classes, with three sections. The Songwriting Concentration now utilizes Ezell 120 and many other classrooms on campus. Those classes, across campus, would be better suited in a lab with pianos and guitars. The faculty has grown to one full-time professor and eight adjunct professors offering fourteen to seventeen sections of nine to ten classes per semester. Enrollment has grown to one hundred and forty-four students as of Fall 2020. Since the Songwriting Concentration is staffed with professional adjuncts from the Nashville area, scheduling an entire program based on one classroom and classrooms without the resources needed for a songwriting lab has become challenging. A second classroom in the new Songwriting Center would allow accommodating student schedules to take more than one class, back-to-back, while one mile from MTSU's main campus. It would also enable accommodating professional adjunct's schedules who bring their current music business experience from Nashville. Chairperson John Merchant has procured $40,000.00 from the Provost for construction costs. Chairperson Merchant is also allocating $10,529.47 from the 2021/2022 Recording Industry Operating Budget. The Recording Industry Department's TAF request is $100,000 of the 150,529.47 total estimate.