MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee State University has renewed its longstanding partnership with the Middle Tennessee Council of Scouting America, reaffirming a collaboration that leaders said continues to shape future generations of community and civic leaders.

MTSU Provost Mark Byrnes joined former Council President J.B. Baker, a member of the university’s Board of Trustees, and Council Scout Executive and CEO Robert Johnson, who signed the renewal document at a recent campus ceremony.

The partnership, first forged between the university and Council in 2018, allows prospective students from the Council, which serves 37 Middle Tennessee counties and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to attend events on campus and seek faculty mentors for activities and merit badges. 

Byrnes said more than 10,000 youth and their families who participated in the Council’s programs in 2025, and more than 3,700 registered volunteers serve as leaders and positive role models for Scouts.

“We at MTSU welcome hundreds of young men and women to our campus every year,” he said. “And, indeed, we see those Scouts as our prospective students.”

Johnson described the partnership as a “collaboration on strategic initiatives” between both institutions.

“In Scouting, we grow you people of character…  teach them leadership, teach them values. We send them to Middle Tennessee State, and you help educate them… and send them out in the world to be successful,” he said. “This is really a hand-in-glove type partnership that I look forward to continuing for many years.”

Baker, a MTSU alumnus and Eagle Scout himself, reflected on how the university and the Council are “intertwined” in preparing youth for future opportunities.

“Scouting has so many characteristics in building young people… and that carries all the important ingredients of character that comes into college,” he said. “Scouting (gives) this opportunity to have people of character coming in to be a part of university life.”

The campus has become a site for key Council events, such as the annual Winter Banquet for the Order of the Arrow, the premier honor society of Scouting, and training sessions for adult leaders through its University of Scouting.

Also, since 1991, MTSU has hosted Merit Badge University, inviting youth from across Tennessee to attend classes on its Murfreesboro campus and earn specialized merit badges.

MTSU’s partnership with the Scouts was modeled after a similar agreement crafted in 2014 with the cadet program of Civil Air Patrol, the volunteer civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.

—   Andrew Oppmann (Andrew.Oppmann@mtsu.edu)