Strategic Vision
Our vision is grounded in the pursuit of academic excellence, life-changing research, and the core values of leadership and service that define the Volunteer spirit.
The Inspiration
In her 2019 investiture speech, Chancellor Plowman invited the campus community to begin thinking about where the University of Tennessee was headed and how to make the most of recent successes.
“We are standing at a pivotal moment of extraordinary opportunity,” she said in her address. “What we do next is up to us.”
In the weeks and months that followed, she challenged the campus community to embrace its land-grant mission and to think about how it could meet a changing higher education landscape and evolving needs of the state.
The result was a dynamic new vision that would guide the university into the future.
The Process
The hands-on work to develop that vision started in late 2019, when Plowman appointed an ad-hoc committee to begin considering these ideas. The group produced a report in February 2020 that analyzed the university’s existing strengths and emerging opportunities.
From there, Plowman appointed two committees to lead the process of drafting the vision. An executive committee engaged the campus and broader community to bring ideas to the table and begin developing a mission, vision, and values statement. A larger visioning committee offered input and feedback in shaping the drafts.
Just weeks after the committees were appointed in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing a brief pause on their work. Committees reconvened in summer 2020 and held listening sessions to collect input from students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external stakeholders. More than 800 people contributed to the process.
After additional feedback and refinement from leadership and the campus advisory board, the new vision was presented to and unanimously approved by the UT Board of Trustees in October 2021.
The vision is grounded in the pursuit of academic excellence, life-changing research, and the core values of leadership and service that define the Volunteer spirit.