Motlow celebrates 35 years with cake, ice cream party

By WILL STEWART Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Local Motlow students Rhonda Swindell, left, and Laura Steele enjoy cake and ice cream as they celebrate Motlow’s 35th anniversary Friday morning.

Since its opening in 1969, Motlow State Community College has been a lot of things for a lot of people. For most, however, the institution has served as an affordable foothold to bettering their lives through education.

This year, the school celebrates its 35th anniversary. A year-long birthday celebration began at the institution’s McMinnville Center Friday with a cake and ice cream social for the student body.

Motlow has its beginnings in 1967, when the Tennessee General Assembly authorized the construction of three new community colleges, one of which was to be located in Moore County, just outside Tullahoma. The college took its name from Lynchburg’s Motlow family, which donated the 187-acre site on which the school’s main campus is located.
Classes were first offered in Warren County in 1976 through the Division of Continuing Education at McMinnville State Area Vocational Technical School. In 1984, a restructuring of Motlow’s service area added the counties of Cannon, DeKalb, Van Buren and White. This move, consequently, increased demand for offerings in McMinnville.

Two years later, the General Assembly and the Warren County Commission each contributed funds to construct Motlow’s McMinnville Center. The center opened in the fall of 1988 with an enrollment of 428 students. Today, the center’s enrollment is around 650.

McMinnville center director Melody Edmonds said the local site has helped thousands earn their associate’s degrees, transfer to four-year institutions, take general-interest courses and train for careers.

“We play a big role in the community,” she said.

Edmonds noted Friday’s cake and ice cream offering was only the kick-off for Motlow’s 35th birthday celebration. A number of other events will be held throughout the year, she said.