Early Friday morning inside Allen Arena, Lipscomb hosted the first Nashville Business Breakfast of the fall semester. Tennessee’s newest governor, Bill Haslam, was the featured speaker of the event.
Others speaking at the event were SGA president Daniel Wakefield and Lipscomb president Randy Lowry.
Amongst the numerous white collar businessmen and women were several members of the Lipscomb faculty. Walt Leaver, Jim Thomas, Tom Seals and Joe Ivey – to name a few.
Several of those in the audience were present for the first time. This was pointed out during the introduction when it was announced that the crowd at Friday’s breakfast was twice the size of any other they had seen in the past.
Wakefield officially started the event by offering an invocation. Following him was President Lowry who pointed out the audience’s only federally elected official, congressman Jim Cooper.
Lowry highlighted the accomplishments of the university over the recent months and told a very light-hearted story about his predecessor, Steve Flatt.
Turns out, when renovating Fanning over the summer, workers found several lost items behind the bookshelves in the rooms of the dormitory. One of the items was a letter written by Flatt. The letter was to a girl. A girl that, turns out, is not his wife. Lowry was quick to point out that it was not anything sinister, for Flatt had not yet met his wife.
Lowry then introduced the day’s featured speaker, Gov. Haslam. Haslam was greeted with a standing ovation. He began in normal speaking fashion with a joke.
“It’s great seeing everyone show up for something like this at the beginning of your term,” Gov. Haslam said. “But like I always say, every day that I am governor gives someone else a chance to be mad at me.”
It was not too much later until Haslam cut to the chase.
Haslam says the state is in a good spot when it comes to creating jobs. The governor also said that it was great to live in a place where we can be blessed with the natural things.”
Haslam points out that most people are concerned about Tennessee’s education. Last year, only 15 percent of high school graduates were scored to be prepared for college. Tennessee is also behind the curve.
However, Gov. Haslam was sure to mention that the state is headed in the right direction.
“Some people say our teachers are the problem,” he said. “That is not the case at all. Our teachers don’t get enough credit.”
Haslam pointed out that there is a necessary change, but that would take more than just those in the capitol building in order for it to happen.
“Cultures do not change overnight. They change when a group of people make a commitment to make things better,” Gov. Haslam said. “If all of us in this room bind together, we can make that change.”
Haslam changed pace before finishing off his speech. The governor recently took a trip to Afghanistan to visit the soldiers that are on duty, and he was overwhelmed with the number of soldiers from Tennessee that are in the Middle East.
“Getting the chance to go overseas and visit those men and women is one of those things that makes me feel like I am really blessed to be doing what I am doing,” he said. “They’re working really hard over there. They don’t have days off. They work 15 hour days, seven days a week.”
Gov. Haslam then joined Dean of the Business Department, Turney Stevens, and the publisher of the Nashville Business Journal, Kate Herman, on stage for a discussion.
Haslam touched on tax, education and advice for business owners.
“Sometimes it is as simple as volunteering,” Gov. Haslam said. “Also, you could mentor a professional educator . . . and see what you and your employees can do to further education.”
Haslam then took some of the blame on the rise of tuition in the state of Tennessee.
“It’s because of healthcare,” he said. “Something has to give. As we improve K-12 education and maintain TennCare and healthcare, higher education is the most vulnerable. We’ve had to make some really hard decisions, and we are going to have to make some more. If the healthcare budget does end up being $300 million, I don’t really know where that is going to come from, quite frankly.”
Haslam said the best way to get the state on the right track is to get involved. Namely, to get involved in the community.
“We have the opportunity to live in a great community and a great state. It’s my job and yours to get involved now.”