MTSU, Middle Tennessee Scouts Council renew partnership
Middle Tennessee State University has renewed its longstanding partnership with the Middle Tennessee Council of Scouting America, reaffirming a collaboration that leaders say continues to help 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 for a recent campus ceremony to sign the renewal document.
The partnership, first established in 2018, allows prospective students from the council to attend events on campus and seek faculty mentors for activities and merit badges. The council serves 37 Middle Tennessee counties and Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Byrnes said more than 10,000 youth and their families participated in the council’s programs in 2025, while more than 3,700 registered volunteers served as leaders and positive role models for Scouts.
“We at MTSU welcome hundreds of young men and women to our campus every year,” Byrnes 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 young 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,” Johnson said. “This is really a hand-in-glove type partnership that I look forward to continuing for many years.”
Baker, an MTSU alumnus and Eagle Scout, reflected on how the university and 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,” Baker said. “Scouting gives this opportunity to have people of character coming in to be a part of university life.”
MTSU has become a site for key council events, including the annual Winter Banquet for the Order of the Arrow, the premier honor society of Scouting, and training sessions for adult leaders through the University of Scouting.
Since 1991, MTSU also 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 created in 2014 with the cadet program of Civil Air Patrol, the volunteer civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.
