{"id":2003,"date":"2020-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/blogtest\/may-8-a-message-of-thanks-from-dr-mcphee\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:26:22","slug":"may-8-a-message-of-thanks-from-dr-mcphee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/may-8-a-message-of-thanks-from-dr-mcphee\/","title":{"rendered":"MAY 8: A message of thanks from Dr. McPhee"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Dear University Community:<\/span><\/p>\n

Twas the night before graduation and across Murphy Center<\/span><\/p>\n

The chairs were lined up but no one could enter<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019d hoped and we\u2019d prayed \u2013 kept our fingers crossed<\/span><\/p>\n

That tomorrow\u2019s graduation day wouldn\u2019t be lost<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Years of hard work, the dreams of family and friends<\/span><\/p>\n

It seemed that this story would have a sad end<\/span><\/p>\n

The virus was winning \u2013 that damn COVID-19!<\/span><\/p>\n

It was going to ruin the day or so it would seem<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But our students and faculty are a very special crew<\/span><\/p>\n

They refused to surrender \u2013 they would find a way through<\/span><\/p>\n

For the past several weeks, they\u2019ve adapted and changed<\/span><\/p>\n

To learning remotely – at first it was strange<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With Zoom on the screen or a virtual lab<\/span><\/p>\n

They quickly found out it wasn\u2019t that bad<\/span><\/p>\n

They all buckled down and went back to their class<\/span><\/p>\n

The weeks went by \u2013 so quickly they passed<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now finals are over, all projects turned in<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve turned a sure loss into a win!<\/span><\/p>\n

With everything done, there\u2019s but one thing to do<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s honor our graduates and celebrate with you!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, like our spring classes, we\u2019re trying new ways<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a virtual gradation for a celebration day!<\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s obviously strange that no one\u2019s around<\/span><\/p>\n

The creativity of folks was quick to be found<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s pomp and there\u2019s circumstance \u2013 it\u2019s formal you know<\/span><\/p>\n

And the Provost in regalia will be leading the show<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll honor each one and confer their degree<\/span><\/p>\n

From the Bachelor of Science to the PhD<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The President will offer encouragement and praise<\/span><\/p>\n

With the reminder to be proud Raiders for the rest of their days!<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll end with the rollcall of each of our grads<\/span><\/p>\n

And sincere best wishes to proud mothers and dads!<\/span><\/p>\n

When the alma mater plays that traditional song<\/span><\/p>\n

To think of its meaning wouldn\u2019t be wrong<\/span><\/p>\n

We are a true family \u2013 faithful and true<\/span><\/p>\n

MTSU is your home\u00a0and we\u2019ll be there for you!<\/span><\/p>\n

Hopefully you enjoyed this brief ditty on our shared experiences over the past several weeks.\u00a0 I truly believe it\u2019s important to smile and maybe even laugh occasionally at times like this.\u00a0 We are being challenged by this virus, but with a positive attitude and a commitment to our individual responsibilities, I\u2019m confident we will emerge from this as a stronger and more responsive university.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a more serious note, I want to again offer my sincerest thanks for the manner in which you have addressed this situation. I keep hearing stories from across our Blue Raider community about the many ways that you have contributed to the continued success of the University.\u00a0 As we look to our future; the perseverance, concern and commitment you have demonstrated over the past two months will help reassure our future students and their parents of their decision to come to our university, and will continue to mark MTSU as an institution committed to their individual success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow morning, we will host our first (and hopefully last) virtual graduation.\u00a0 I invite you to join us at 10 a.m. Central Time for the ceremony, which can be viewed here https:\/\/mtsu.edu\/virtual-graduation\/<\/span><\/a> . While we will invite each of our Spring 2020 graduates to formally walk across the stage at a future ceremony, I believe it\u2019s important to officially mark the culmination of our student\u2019s years of hard work.\u00a0 Also, for our faculty and staff, if you are in communications with your students, I would ask that you encourage them to join us tomorrow morning.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, I am so honored to work with each of you and want to assure you that your efforts are greatly appreciated!<\/span><\/p>\n

Sincerely,
<\/span>Sidney A. McPhee
<\/span>Sidney.McPhee@mtsu.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear University Community: Twas the night before graduation and across Murphy Center The chairs were lined up but no one could enter We\u2019d hoped and we\u2019d prayed \u2013 kept our fingers crossed That tomorrow\u2019s graduation day wouldn\u2019t be lost \u00a0 Years of hard work, the dreams of family and friends It seemed that this story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3161,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions\/3161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}