Our Goals and the Governor’s Priorities
By Provost Robert Holub
At the budget hearings in Nashville last week, Governor Phil Bredesen mentioned four priorities he has for the coming year. Each of them should be welcome news for the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee as the governor’s vision lines up very well with our priorities here at UT Knoxville.
Governor Bredesen mentioned first that he wanted to ensure that higher education was accessible to more Tennesseans, and that he would like to “rationalize funding of students” in order to give more individuals the chance to go to college. But he added that articulation agreements are a part of what he is thinking about – and that we should make sure our colleges and universities work together to serve the students of the state.
We agree and are working hard to improve access here at UT Knoxville. First, we are in the process of looking at how we can provide increased access for lower-income students. This will involve a shift of some merit-based scholarship funding to more need-based scholarships in the coming years. Our goal is to make sure more worthy students take the opportunity to attend the flagship campus. It is already true that the neediest students can attend UT Knoxville and graduate in four years debt-free through our Tennessee Pledge scholarship – which covers tuition, fees, room and board. While this program has had some success, we need to be even more vigilant in our efforts to prevent economics from being a barrier to our best and brightest students achieving their goals.
But we are also concerned about access from community colleges. At present we have good relations with some community colleges in the immediate geographical area, and we are looking to expand our purview to the entire state. We need to create a simple-to-understand process, and a more consistent method of bringing these students to our campus
To that end, I am in the process of drawing up a proposal that would implement a Student Access to Knoxville Initiative (SAKI). This initiative would encourage students who either did not gain admission to UTK as freshmen, or who chose to go to a community college, to remain and complete their Associate’s Degree. Then, through an articulation agreement with Knoxville, they would enter UTK as third-year students. Our data indicate that students who earn the Associate’s Degree are much more successful at Knoxville than those who transfer prior to the completion of the Associate’s Degree. Our goal is to create a pathway to UTK that culminates in the successful completion of a Bachelor’s Degree, thus providing students with a clear roadmap to achieving their long-term goals.
We will make this program attractive to students by accepting the TBR general educational requirements here and by providing appropriate financial support—including scholarships and other grants to students in financial need. We will also guarantee that every student successfully completing an Associate’s Degree at a TBR Community College will be admitted, and we will waive application fees to encourage their applications. We can, and should, remove any artificial barriers to students that desire the benefits of a top-quality education at a flagship institution. We consider it is our responsibility to increase access to Tennessee’s flagship institution, and SAKI is our way of taking the lead in this effort.
The Governor placed special emphasis on graduation rates. It is our job, he stated, to enroll students and to graduate them. We concur.
When I arrived in Tennessee I recognized that our graduation rates were too low. But the graduation rates were related directly to our lack of success in retaining students from the first to the second year. From 1995-2005 between 20% and 25% of our first-year students did not return for a second year. With student retention rates that low—near the bottom of the SEC—we could not possibly attain high graduation rates.
We are now on the right track. Thanks to programs at the Student Success Center and initiatives like the “Light-the-Torch” program in the Provost’s office, retention rates have climbed over the past two years to 84%, and will likely increase as we go forward.
An improvement in graduation rates will not manifest itself immediately; right now classes graduating contain cohorts that were retained at low rates in their initial years. But as we approach the close of the decade, graduation rates should increase in proportion to our student retention rates. We’re making progress in this important work, and will remain committed to doing everything possible to support student success.
The Governor also stated that he wanted to do something for our teachers colleges. Here in Knoxville, our College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences has the most successful program for training teachers in the state. Indeed, the following statement contained in an article from Tennessean.com is right on the mark:
“At least one shining star in the teacher education arena exists in Tennessee. In 1987, the teacher education program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville was extended to five years to improve the pre-service training of teachers. As a result, UT teacher candidates are required to intern for an entire year before they are recommended for a license. Teachers in Tennessee need and deserve more real-world experience before teaching. UT-Knoxville, not Teach Tennessee, should become the model.”
As the article acknowledges, and as experts in education have known for two decades, the Knoxville program produces a higher quality teacher, one better prepared for the classroom, and better able to give students the knowledge they need to succeed in our complex modern world. This, too, is important work for our institution, and we’ll continue our efforts to produce top-quality educators.
Perhaps most heartening in Bredesen’s closing remarks was the statement that he wanted to help UTK grow as a major research university. We welcome this challenge and are ready to undertake the growth needed to thrust the campus into the ranks of the very best research universities in the country.
As you know, the Chancellor has entrusted me with the task of writing a strategic plan that will aim at growth at Knoxville. The proposal to increase enrollment to 33,000 students has already been called the “33 for Tennessee” plan. But growth in numbers must be accompanied by two other goals: the increase in the quality of the institution, and the continuation of our efforts to diversify and globalize our students, our faculty and staff, and our curriculum.
We find ourselves in harmony with the goals articulated by the governor, and we are convinced that we have an unusual and exciting opportunity on the campus. We believe we have been moving the right direction with regard to student access and success, as well as to teacher training. To continue our progress we now need to produce a plan that will help us strengthen the campus and ultimately achieve the status of one of the nation’s premier institutions of higher education.
December 5, 2007
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