Photo from Midlander

"What the essence of Middle Tennessee has always been is to take these Middle Americans, be they black, be they white--we are taking a few foreign students now--but to take those for whom . . . you might think college isn't for them.  And we have educated the children of Unionville, Shelbyville, Lebanon, Eagleville, all over and many, many first generations.  I still am touched as I saw today, during registration, a mom and a dad brought a girl up who I would imagine would be a first-generation college student.  And they were smiling, and who knows what it was about.  But I sat there and thought it's probably because the life-long dream they have had.  That's what we ought to remember in the first hundred years--that we have done that, and we've done that very, very well."