Winter Board of Trustees meetings cement master plan, 3 new colleges

cation, Research and Service Committee met. Presentations from that day include overviews of some newer successful programs, as well as the announcement of three new colleges at UT.

While it seems like campus cannot possibly grow any more, the agenda of the 2023 Winter Board of Trustees meeting was packed full of ways for the UT Systems – including UT Knoxville – to continue expanding.

The meeting spanned over Thursday and Friday and took place in Chattanooga. Administrators from all four UT Systems campuses gathered to share insights on the health of their respective campuses and their visions for their schools’ continued success.

Thursday’s meeting began with the Finance and Administration Committee. The majority of the session was dedicated to the UT Master Plan, a detailed map of the university’s shortterm and long-term growth.

Chancellor Donde Plowman was the first speaker, and she praised UT’s record enrollment, which she credits to the school’s performance in athletics and academics. She also asked an important question that is on everyone’s mind: if UT is already experiencing tremendous growth, why keep growing?

“It’s good for the state of Tennessee, and it’s good for individuals,” Plowman said.

On the second day of the meeting, the Edu-

Erin Crisp, executive director of the Tennessee Grow Your Own Center, delivered remarks on the success of the program, which started last semester. Grow Your Own is a teaching apprenticeship program that allows students to gain hands-on experience teaching in the classroom while they work towards their fouryear degrees.

Notably, UT Provost John Zomchick announced the establishment of three new colleges at UT. One of these colleges is entirely built from the ground up, while the other two are built upon existing programs.

The first is the transformation of the School of Music into an independent College of Music. As Tennessee is a hub for the music industry, Zomchick hopes future music students will benefit from this split from the College of Arts and Sciences.

“Once a College of Music is no longer part of an administrative unit structured for more traditional academic disciplines, it will have increased visibility, a more efficient path for curricular innovation and an organizational structure specifically designed for fulfilling its unique needs,” Zomchick wrote in the proposal to UT president Randy Boyd.

The second is the evolution of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center into the Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs. This would be the first program focused on public policy to be offered at a public institution in Tennessee. Not only would this present an opportunity for students interested in public affairs, but it would further the Baker Center’s mission of shifting from a simple museum and archive into a world-renowned think-tank and research facility.

Last, the university is establishing a College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies. This is envisioned as an interdisciplinary college and an “incubator” for emerging fields of research and scholarship. While new degree programs are being developed for the college, two existing programs are shifting to the oversight of the CECS: the data science minor and the global development minor.

Zomchick expressed optimism over these new colleges.

“They will be visionary. They will be agile and nimble. By the end of the day, I believe they will raise the profile of the University of Tennessee and will serve our students and our state well,” Zomchick said.

Recordings of the meetings’ proceedings and agenda materials can be found on the Board of Trustees website.