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The University of Tennessee

Office of the Provost

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Strategic Planning Subcommittees

Members of the campus community who would like to assist with the strategic planning process should contact the chair of the appropriate subcommittee. The subcommittee chairs also welcome feedback from interested persons.

Subcommittees, Chairs, and Foci

Financial Aid and Admissions

Chair: Richard Bayer

  • Model for achieving 25,000 undergraduates and 8,000 graduates
  • Community college access
  • Shift to need-based financial aid
  • Summer bridge programs
  • Recruiting
  • Diversity of pools (including community colleges)
  • Demographic trends
  • Lottery scholarships
  • Student Systems (IT)

Disability

Chair: Maxine Thompson Davis

  • Planning for disabled students with increased population
  • Communication of accommodations
  • Appropriate levels of staffing

Expansion of Facilities

Chair: Denise Barlow

  • Student housing to accommodate 33,000
  • Academic buildings and sites
  • How to address Cherokee campus
  • Cost estimates for capital construction
  • Non-academic buildings and rationale
  • Renovation of existing facilities (plus deferred maintenance)
  • Program and timelines for construction of new facilities and renovation of existing facilities (assuming reasonable funding)
  • Green campus priorities and sustainability measures
  • IT issues

Expansion of Student Services

Chair: Tim Rogers

  • Need for increased staffing in student services
  • Capital construction needs for student services (in coordination with Expansion of Facilities Subcommittee and Office of the Registrar)
  • Other increases required for servicing 33K

Increased Instructional Capacity

Co-chairs: Todd Diacon and Susan Martin

  • Number of faculty, lecturers, GTAs needed to increase instruction for 33,000 students
  • Approximate distribution of instructional faculty over departments
  • Questions of general education, including direction of program
  • Funding questions for basic skills courses
  • Plan for appointing faculty
  • Possible revisions to procedures
  • Governor’s chairs and recruitment
  • Instructional technology

Academic Expansion

Co-chairs: Karen Sowers and Way Kuo

  • Areas best suited to expansion to fulfill mission of flagship campus, to move toward first-rank university status
  • Justifications of same
  • Comparative data from other institutions
  • Outcome considerations
  • IT infrastructure

Continuing Education

Chair: Jan Williams

  • Directions for revenue-generating programs
  • Business model for Knoxville
  • Possible areas of expansion
  • Questions of technology
  • Interface with system distance learning initiative
  • Structure of continuing education on the campus

Alumni, Development and Communications

Co-chairs: Linda Davidson and Tom Milligan

  • Beyond the campaign (goals and activities)
  • Strategies for various constituencies
  • Structure of units on the campus
  • Interface with system offices and other units

Advising Needs

Chair: Ruth Darling

  • Efficacy of advising on campus
  • Comparative data and best practices
  • Structure of advising
  • New directions in advising
  • Mentoring (in coordination with Graduate Education Subcommittee)
  • Advising for study abroad programs
  • Advising and mentoring of faculty (in coordination with Increased Instructional Capacity Subcommittee)
  • Diversity and interculturalism

Central Academic Programs for Undergraduates

Chair: Todd Diacon

  • Academic orientation
  • Welcome week
  • General education
  • Freshman seminars
  • Undergraduate research initiatives
  • Retention, perseverance, and graduation rates
  • Goals and benchmarks

Interdisciplinary Directions

Co-chairs: Caula Beyl and Way Kuo

  • Prospects and strategies for research funding
  • Undergraduate and graduate curricular changes
  • Breaking down disciplinary silos
  • Centers and institutes
  • Examine existing programs
  • Co-teaching
  • Faculty evaluations and promotions
  • Publishing outlets

Graduate Education

Chair: Carolyn Hodges

  • How to get to 8,000, structure of graduate school, funding model for different disciplines
  • Graduate interdisciplinary groups and their facilitation
  • Funding graduate students
  • Fellowships and fundraising
  • Opportunities for professionalization
  • Postdocs vs. lecturers (in coordination with Research Productivity and Facilities Subcommittee)
  • Graduate student retention (in coordination with Campus Climate Subcommittee and Advising Needs Subcommittee)

Campus Climate

Chair: Terrell Strayhorn

  • How to establish a welcoming campus, structures and organizational questions
  • Connections between academics and student life
  • Role of student housing and student organizations
  • Co-curricular programs
  • Faculty retention
  • Student retention
  • Staff Retention
  • Diversity, interculturalism, sexual orientation, speech/behavior issues
  • UT’s relationship to greater community (in coordination with Engagement Subcommittee)

Research Productivity and Facilities

Chair: Brad Fenwick

  • Strategies for increasing research funding and timelines
  • Space allocation and research
  • Adequacy of facilities
  • Benchmarking
  • Securing accurate data for research activity
  • Strategies for federal agencies, state agencies, private funding
  • IT needs
  • Best practices
  • Service learning

Economic Development

Chair: Brad Fenwick

  • Research and economic development
  • Policies and campus restrictions on Pis
  • ORNL relations
  • Joint institutes
  • Joint faculty
  • Private incursions into academia and from academia into the private sector
  • Leaves of faculty involved in private firms
  • Questions of intellectual property and proprietary relationships with the Knoxville campus

Engagement

Co-chairs: Tom Milligan and Brad Fenwick

  • Purpose and goals of outreach
  • Links/relationships between campus organizations (e.g., Baker Center) and the community (in coordination with Economic Development Subcommittee)
  • Relationship with UT system
  • Strategy for information dispersal, community assistance, and contacts in state
  • Relationship with established outreach activities (extension, public service)

Globalization and Interculturalism

Chair: Mary Papke

  • Curricular changes
  • International and area studies strategies
  • Education abroad
  • International students
  • Events and activities around globalization
  • Interculturalism and Diversity

Feedback

The Office of the Provost and the strategic planning committee welcome input from the campus community at any point during this important process. You may send comments here.