[164] MTSU Changes 'Exciting' for New Admissions, Enrollment Leader

Release date: Oct. 22, 2010

News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
Admissions/Enrollment contact: David Cicotello, 615-898-2239
or e-mail@mtsu.edu

MTSU Changes ‘Exciting’ for New Admissions, Enrollment Leader


(MURFREESBORO) — David Cicotello is finding “personal excitement” in joining the MTSU administrative staff as associate vice provost for admissions and enrollment services.
“Being part of this enterprise has been great,” Cicotello said. “I’m feeling welcomed, and the hospitality extended to me does not go unnoticed.”
Cicotello left the University of Nebraska at Omaha to join MTSU after a national search to replace longtime administrators Lynn Palmer and Sherian Huddleston. MTSU’s reorganization, via President Sidney A. McPhee’s “Positioning the University for the Future” plan, combined various aspects of admissions, enrollment services and financial aid, leading to changes in administrative tasks for the associate vice provost’s job.
Other staffing changes within the departments include naming Stephen White as the new financial-aid director, Teresa Thomas’ switch from Records Office director to director of enrollment technical systems and moving Cathy Kirchner to registrar from assistant director in the scheduling center.
“What’s exciting to me in the reorganization of this division (Student Affairs) and the ‘Positioning the University for the Future’ is that it’s not often we have these chances,” Cicotello said. “Plus, we have a new provost (Dr. Brad Bartel) and a new CIO (Bruce Petryshak). I’m very excited about being here.”
Along with the personnel changes, work on the new College of Education and student-union buildings is progressing rapidly on the east side of campus. Plans are in place for a new student-services building that will be a one-stop shop for prospective and current students.
“We already have the Campus Recreation Center, the Honors College building and the new entrance (off Rutherford Boulevard) on that side,” Cicotello said. “I’m enthusiastic about the prospects of creating an entrance to that side of campus and making that a positive first impression for visitors. We can show visitors ‘the new MTSU’ to go along with the historical side.”

The Pennsylvania native and other MTSU administrators are in the midst of an eight-city tour for student receptions and guidance-counselor luncheons. The one- and two-day trips include Chattanooga, Clarksville, Lynchburg-Shelbyville, Johnson City, Knoxville, Nashville, Jackson and Memphis.
“Our mission is to serve MTSU students and offer programs that serve students from around the region, state and world,” he said.
Cicotello has an English background, earning his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Kansas. He did doctoral work at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and “was a classroom professor for years” before venturing into higher-education administration.
He also is a baseball writer, co-editing a book about Forbes Field, former home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he recently co-authored Mysteries from Baseball’s Past with Angelo J. Louisa. He’s a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.

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Note: A high-resolution jpeg photo of David Cicotello is available. To obtain, please contact Randy Weiler in News and Public Affairs by calling 615-898-5616 or 615-898-2919, or e-mail jweiler@mtsu.edu.

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. This fall, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

For MTSU news and information, go online to mtsunews.com.