The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Campus Advisory Board met Friday to recommend a zero percent tuition increase for the 2022–23 academic year. This is the third year in a row the board has recommended no increases for undergraduate and graduate tuition for both in-state and out-of-state students.
The recommendations were part of a $1.7 billion budget proposal that will go before the UT System Board of Trustees in June. The budget includes $421.7 million in state appropriations.
Specific appropriations include the following:
- $83 million for a new Haslam College of Business building
- $72 million to fully fund the UT–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute—a partnership that brings together UT’s graduate students and world-class faculty with ORNL scientists—eight years ahead of schedule
- A $20.2 million recurring operating increase in the outcomes-based funding formula
- $16.9 million in deferred maintenance funding for UT Knoxville, including the UT Institute of Agriculture
- $14.8 million to fund a 4 percent salary pool
- $4 million in recurring funding, with an additional $2 million in one-time start-up funding, to launch and sustain the Institute for American Civics
- $2.9 million for the College of Veterinary Medicine
- $500,000 to support minority engineering scholarships
“The host of higher education continues to go up, but with unwavering support from Governor Bill Lee and our General Assembly and continued increases in enrollment at UT there is no need to increase tuition,” said Chancellor Donde Plowman. “We greatly appreciate UT System President Randy Boyd’s continued and tireless advocacy and support as well. There has never been a better time to be a Volunteer.”
Making Life and Lives Better
Deborah Crawford, vice chancellor for research, discussed the university’s increasingly interdisciplinary approach to research as an effective way to translate science into life-changing societal benefits. Crawford outlined UT’s four crosscutting areas of focus—advanced materials and manufacturing, human health and wellness, global energy ecosystems, and artificial and collaborative intelligence—that will each impact regional and national economic growth, foster innovation in East Tennessee, and align infrastructure investments in support of a thriving multidisciplinary, translational research culture.
Recognizing Board Members
Plowman recognized outgoing board members Syreeta Vaughn, who was an inaugural member of the board; Beauvais Lyons, who is concluding a two-year term as the faculty representative; and Alexandra Szmutko, who served as the student representative.
The board welcomed new member Tomi Robb, an Equal Justice Works Legal Fellow at the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services working in housing and reentry. She received both her bachelor’s degree in political science and her law degree from UT Knoxville.
The new faculty and student representatives—Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law Joan Heminway and incoming Student Government Association President Jordan Brown, respectively—will join the board at its next meeting.
Meeting materials and the archived webcast are available on the chancellor’s website.
About the Board
The board was created in 2018 when the Tennessee General Assembly passed the UT FOCUS Act, restructuring the Board of Trustees and creating an advisory board for each campus in the UT System. The board is charged with making campus-level recommendations to the Board of Trustees on strategic planning, operating budgets, and tuition, as well as advising the chancellor. Members of the advisory board are Allen Carter of McMinnville, Alexia Poe and Tom Smith of Nashville, John Tickle of Bristol, Tennessee, and Tomi Robb of Knoxville. Beauvais Lyons is concluding his two-year term as faculty representative on the board, and third-year doctoral student Alexandra Szmutko is concluding her term as the student representative. The next advisory board meeting will be this fall.
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