UT Knoxville is striving to become a Top 25 public research university in the next 10 years. It's an ambitious goal, but one that will deliver great dividends.
Former Governor Phil Bredesen challenged us to this goal during his final term. Yet, our Top 25 quest is much more than a race to the finish. It's not about the bragging rights. It's not even about the ranking or the numbers.
It's about the journey to become a better university – for our students, for our community and for our state.
Regardless of where we end up on the ranking charts, the improvements we make will increase the quality and value of our education, further develop our strengths in research, expand our contribution to economic growth and development and strengthen the state's flagship campus for the benefit of all Tennesseans.
Matt Murray, research professor and assistant director of UT's Center for Business and Economic Research, published a report called "Education Crossroads." His research made it clear that investing in improved education has great payoffs for all of us.
"Regions with a better educated population tend to have higher levels of per capita income, lower unemployment rates, a larger labor force and lower incidence of poverty. Education matters to both workers and communities," Matt wrote. "People with more education tend to live better lifestyles. For example, they smoke less, exercise more often, have a lower incidence of diabetes and live longer. More education also translates into greater economic security for the family, including higher home ownership and personal savings rates and a higher likelihood of having private health insurance."
As you'll read in this report, exciting things are happening on campus that will help move us forward in each of these areas. Just as we'll all reap the benefits of a better UT, we all play a role in moving the university forward.
Our administrators, faculty and staff are working diligently to recruit, retain, and graduate the best and brightest undergraduate and graduate students in Tennessee and beyond. We are constantly looking for innovative ways to teach, mentor, and inspire tomorrow's leaders. We also are actively seeking grant monies that will help our faculty, staff, and students do cutting-edge research that results in products and processes that will make all of our lives better.
Despite the tough economy, we also must make our case with lawmakers and others to provide the monetary support to hire and keep top-notch faculty and provide our students with state-of-the-art facilities and technology.
As our Top 25 journey continues, we'll keep you posted about our progress.
This is an exciting time to be part of the UT Knoxville community. Thank you for all you do – and will do – to make our university the very best it can be for all of us.
Jimmy G. Cheek
Chancellor
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Her grandparents are from Sparta—that's Greece, not Tennessee—and she and her sister are the first in her family to go to college. She has degrees from two top 25 public research universities: Rutgers and the Ohio State University ("They taught us well up there," she explains, referring to the emphatic "the"). She came to the University of Tennessee in 1996, after 16 years at Kansas State University, and has been here ever since, first as a department head and then as an associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. In August, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek tapped her to head up UT Knoxville's Top 25 initiative. Her name is Mary Albrecht.
"I suspect I got this job because I tend to take big things apart, then try to make something out of all the little pieces," Albrecht says. "It's what I did as an associate dean: I deconstruct jigsaw puzzles.
As a limited-appointment associate vice chancellor in charge of the Top 25 project, Albrecht has thousands of puzzle pieces to put together during the next three years.
"Obviously, we can't become a top 25 university in three years," she says. "However, if we can put together the pieces that will allow us to steadily move up the ladder toward the top 25, we can get there. That's my job."
Initially, she'll be answering a number of questions: How do we make the university the best it can be for the state of Tennessee? What are schools in the top 25 doing that make them so successful? What were the lessons they learned, and how can we apply those lessons here? What will it cost? Where will the funds come from? There will be others, of course—many, more specific questions—but these give Albrecht a start.
During the next six months, she'll be working with Provost Susan Martin and task forces developing detailed plans for what UT Knoxville needs to do. Becoming a top 25 university is a goal for the decade, and to reach that goal, UT Knoxville has developed a strategic plan, Vol Vision 2015, which has five strategic priorities to focus on during the next five years:
• Retain and graduate a diverse body of
well-educated undergraduate students.
• Increase the number and diversity of graduate students.
• Strengthen capacity and productivity in
research, scholarship, & creative activity.
• Attract and retain stellar faculty and staff.
• Continually improve the resource base.
Fulfilling these priorities will help UT Knoxville approach its Top 25 goal. The result will be better-educated citizens and more research dollars spilling over into the economy.
"If we begin doing the things that it takes to become a top 25 school, we'll be a better institution and Tennessee will be a better state," Albrecht says. "That's the bottom line."
