[103] New university provost featured on MTSU’s ‘Out of the Blue’ television program

MURFREESBORO — Veteran MTSU administrator Mark Byrnes, who became interim provost in April, is the featured guest on September’s “Out of the Blue,” the university’s public affairs television program.

This month’s program, which airs on NewsChannel 5+ and cable outlets throughout Middle Tennessee, also includes an interview with Chrisila Pettey, chair of MTSU’s computer science department, and looks back at the August commencement speech by former Faculty Senate president Tricia Farwell.

Andrew Oppmann, the university’s vice president for marketing and communications, became the show’s permanent host in September. The show has had interim hosts since the departure of Mike Browning, who left MTSU in 2014 to become public information officer for the city of Murfreesboro.

Byrnes, a 1983 graduate of MTSU, joined the university faculty in 1991 and served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 2010 until he was named chief academic officer by President Sidney A. McPhee. Byrnes talks with Oppmann about his new role and his goals as provost.

Pettey recalls in her segment the successful Hack-MT, a 36-hour marathon in MTSU’s Science Building last January, when students teams from around the region created apps, games and gadgets.

And the show concludes with a four-minute clip from Farwell’s commencement speech in August, which was described by McPhee as the shortest such talk in the university’s history.

“Out of the Blue” airs at 3:30 p.m. Sundays on NewsChannel 5+, which can be found on Comcast channel 250 in Nashville and Murfreesboro; Charter channel 182 in Nashville and WTVF’s HD channel 5.2.

It also airs daily at 7 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Comcast channel 9 (MTSU’s Education Resource Channel) in Murfreesboro; AT&T U-Verse channel 99 in Murfreesboro; channel 195 on DTC Communications in Alexandria, Tennessee, and channel 206 digital on United Communications in Chapel Hill, Tennessee.

It is available online on the university’s Out of the Blue playlist on YouTube, which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/MTSUOutoftheBlue.