As we seek to increase the number of supported graduate students and improve graduate education, the Graduate School has forged an exciting partnership with the Office of Research and Engagement to provide 20 four-year graduate research assistant positions.

Course designations. Grants for faculty, staff, and students. Resources to help faculty incorporate experiential learning into their courses. These are just a few of the ways Experience Learning is transforming the way we teach and the way our students learn.

Starting this spring, small groups of faculty will begin meeting as part of our new Faculty Mentoring Program. In addition, look for a series of professional development events for associate professors seeking promotion to professor.

This past fall, we announced that our first cluster hire would be in the area of data sciences. While that’s moving forward, we’re now calling for proposals for two additional clusters.

Thanks to the great research of three Haslam College of Business student interns, we’ve found a segment of at-risk first-time freshmen who were previously falling through the cracks—and we’re implementing strategies to intervene more quickly to help them find success.

Over the next five years, we’d like to see our overall undergraduate enrollment grow by 15 percent. We’ve been growing 1 to 2 percent year over year; to meet our goal we’ll have to grow by 3 percent each year.

Planned growth of our undergraduate population is important to maintaining stable student numbers and contributing to the financial health of our university. We are working on a five-year strategic plan that will guide us in this growth.

We are working to define the Volunteer experience—that special something that makes our university the perfect fit for our students. Finding the right words will help us recruit students and instill a sense of pride among our entire Volunteer community.

This summer, we launched Advising: The Volunteer Experience, a new approach that will significantly improve our academic advising of students and help us take the next steps in boosting retention.

We’ve invested $4 million in our Graduate School to support the Tennessee Fellowship for Graduate Excellence, an effort that will help us recruit stellar graduate students.