Sharon Mabry retires after a historic 52 years

On a gray November afternoon in 1970, a young pianist named Sharon Mabry received a frantic phone call. The Austin Peay State University Music Department needed her help. The program’s popular voice professor, Jack Hurt, had died suddenly that week, and someone had to take over his classes and finish out the semester.  It was only meant to be a temporary assignment, but 52 years later, Sharon Mabry officially retired from Austin Peay, earning the designation as the longest-serving employee in University history. 

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Zeus needed 10 years to bloom for the first time. Most corpse flower plants need 8-10 years to produce their first bloom.

Austin Peay's corpse flower Zeus puts on a show.

Zeus – one of Austin Peay State University’s two corpse flower plants – delivered quite a show for its first-ever bloom. Thousands of people trekked to the Sundquist Science Complex greenhouse in early June to witness Zeus grow to more than 6 feet tall before unfurling into its burgundy magnificence – while also emitting a rancid stench of cheese, sweat, garlic, decomposing meat, feces and rotting fish. Zeus started blooming at about 4 p.m. on June 9. By the wee hours of June 10, the plant released the worst of its odor – the smell was so bad that an overnight cleaning crew called the police to report the stink. The stench reached all corners of Sundquist by sunrise.

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“We’re going to produce students with an expertise and knowledge for this growing field of industry here in Clarksville and nationally,” Self said.

APSU College of Business launches new hospitality management concentration for booming hotel/restaurant industry

Next time you’re passing through Clarksville or Nashville, look at all the hotels, restaurants and event spaces popping up, and you’ll see why tourism is now the No. 2 industry in Tennessee. According to the state’s Department of Tourism Development, “Tennessee Tourism generated $16.8 billion in domestic and international travel spending” in 2020. In the next few years, that number will only continue to grow in Clarksville, with visitors heading to concerts or basketball games at the F&M Bank arena, eating dinner at Strawberry Alley or Shelby’s Trio, or staying the night at a new hotel and convention center. With all this continued growth, Austin Peay State University’s College of Business is making sure there’s local talent to lead the hospitality industry. That’s why the college is launching a new hospitality management concentration this fall as part of its Bachelor of Science in Management degree program.

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Experience Change. Experience Community. Experience Compassion. The life you want begins at Austin Peay.

APSU 2027: Map to the University's 100th anniversary

  Last August, Austin Peay State University President Mike Licari kicked off the Fall 2021 semester by asking some pretty big questions – Who are we? Where are we going? How will we get there? Those questions launched a major, year-long project to redefine Austin Peay as “a premier public regional university” and the main focus of this project was the creation of an aggressive new strategic plan. Over the next 12 months, Austin Peay’s strategic planning committee – chaired by Dannelle Whiteside, vice president for legal affairs and organizational strategy, and Dr. Emily Lean, associate dean in the in the College of Business, with assistance from research analyst Dr. Kathrine Bailey – used community, employee and student input to develop a roadmap for the University to follow over the next five years. On June 10, the APSU Board of Trustees unanimously adopted the Experience Austin Peay 2022-2027 Strategic Plan. 

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