UT president wants $142 million in system improvements

The plan comes with an initial request for $142 million in new state dollars next year for targeted spending on research, scholarships, fellowships, endowed professorships and computer infrastructure.

For $47 million more, UT figures its three undergraduate campuses at Martin, Chattanooga and Knoxville would have enough state funding to equal the average among its peer schools. Another $70 million would put them in the top third among peers.

But Petersen’s strategic plan also comes with a sizable commitment by UT. The university is preparing to launch a $1 billion fund-raising campaign next year, the first significant campaign in nearly a decade.

“I don’t expect the state to front load a lot of money to put us where we want to be way down the road,” Petersen said. “But I expect that as we contribute to (the state’s) economic development … that they need to help us to … do an even better job in the future.”

The funding request will be considered by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission in November before it is sent to the General Assembly, which convenes early next year.

Petersen said the state’s 41,500-student flagship university wants to engage lawmakers in a discussion of the university’s goals and how an enhanced UT can benefit a state in which only one of every five adults has a college degree.

“Sort of a synergy in terms of investment and payback,” Petersen said after a UT Board of Trustees meeting Friday in which the plan was outlined.

The state contributes about $400 million to UT’s $1.3 billion budget. The state provides about $6 for every $4 in student tuition.

Bob Levy, UT’s interim vice president for academic affairs, said Petersen’s new strategy plan, which calls for everything from improving “internal communications” to “maximizing resources” resulted from an intense retreat a few weeks ago among top UT executives and campus officers.

“The governor is saying that he wants certain special things to be targets of special money,” Levy said. “So we are not asking for 3 percent across the board for this, that and the other. We are asking for specific dollar amounts.”

The extra money would be used to recruit scientists and engineers, increase graduate student stipends, buy advanced equipment, establish endowed faculty chairs and create research venture funding.

The largest individual item, worth $24 million, would be for a statewide, high-capacity, broadband optical network that would connect all UT and Tennessee Board of Regents campuses with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In other action, the trustees approved a $7,000 tuition increase in UT-Knoxville’s MBA program next fall to expand the program and improve job placement services. Tuition would go to $18,000 for in-state students, still less than comparable MBA programs at the universities of Wisconsin, Texas, South Carolina and Illinois.

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