Land-Grants Should Lead in Rebuilding Trust
Chancellor Donde Plowman, in a recent op-ed in the Knoxville News Sentinel, asserted that land-grant universities like UT Knoxville are best positioned to respond to declining trust in higher education.
The op-ed reflected on themes she first shared in a speech in April at The Ohio State University. Plowman was invited to the Columbus, Ohio, campus to deliver the 2024 James Patterson Lecture. The annual lecture invites leaders in higher education to speak on the challenges and opportunities before land-grant institutions.
“We have a covenant with the people we serve, deep relationships with our communities, and a sense of ownership and pride from the people of our state,” Plowman wrote in the op-ed. “This doesn’t make us immune to the criticism facing other institutions, but we can leverage these strengths to confront that criticism.”
According to Plowman, now is the time for large, public research universities to become universities that lead—and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is ready to light the way.
To read the full op-ed, click here.