Trustees, administrators and campus leadership came together at the UT Tower in downtown Knoxville to discuss system-wide topics including campus safety, rising expenses and research funding decisions.
Audit and Compliance Committee
Committee members, UT Chancellor Donde Plowman and UTC Chancellor Lori Bruce discussed campus safety measures following swatting incidents that occurred on both campuses in August.
“We feel very fortunate, very grateful for the systems we have in place,” Plowman said. “They really paid off in that situation.”
Plowman also responded to feedback from the UT community criticizing the administration’s decision not to clear the library and send out a campus-wide alert.
“Some people asked later, ‘Why didn’t you send a text message?’ like we do for clearing,” Plowman said. “You send those when something has happened, and nothing had happened.”
Bruce expressed satisfaction with UTC’s handling of its situation, which happened four days before UT’s.
“I was extremely impressed with our police department, our students, our faculty, our staff,” Bruce said. “When you have that many law enforcement responding that rapidly to a campus, to not have a single injury that required anyone to go to the ER, to have an EMT response, is remarkable. And it’s a testament not only to the police, but how our students, and our employees, responded to that.”
The committee also reviewed hazing prevention after a hazing investigation took place in August at UTC, leading to the suspension of all Greek life on campus for approximately two weeks.
“We convened 99 plus percent of the almost 1,000 students that are participating in Greek life at UT Chattanooga in one meeting,” Bruce said. “Almost all of those students convened and went through additional reviews of policy, training and kind of had a reset of expectations on our campus.”
Chancellor Plowman commented on hazing prevention at UT, specifically highlighting newly implemented hazing prevention modules and discussions in first-year classes.
“We found that since doing that, that our number of ‘reports’ that required an investigation dropped by half,” Plowman said.
The Audit and Compliance Committee met for an executive, private session following the public meeting.
Finance and Administration Committee
On its financial side, the UT system is in a solid position, UT Treasurer Luke Lybrand said.
The system’s expenditures grew by 8.3% between June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2025, which Lybrand said is in line with inflation rates and increased services offered to rapidly growing student bodies. Within the same time period, revenue increased by 5%.
“I think we obviously need to talk about an 8.3% increase in expenses on a revenue growth of 5%,” committee Chair Bill Rhodes said. “Is that a one time issue? All of us in business know that that’s not a sustainable formula for the future.”
Lybrand assured the committee that the system was working with a healthy margin and is paying attention to operating expenses. The biggest increases to construction and progress costs were UT’s renovations of Neyland Stadium and Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The committee approved UT President Randy Boyd’s collaboration with UT to submit to the state a request for funding a program called Precision Agriculture as the committee’s annual non-formula request for state funding.
“What it really means is developing more research for efficient farming, applying more technology to efficient farming, workforce development training to improve efficiency in farming and deliver meaningful research outcomes to farmers,” UT Senior Vice President and CFO David Miller said.
The request is for a recurring $3.1 million fund for the program.
The committee also approved the acquisition of 2400 Sutherland Ave. to be used as off-campus office space for UT. The office space will house the parking services team, which will be relocated following the addition of the upcoming Neyland Entertainment District.
“As you’ve seen from our projects on campus, there is a huge domino effect as the campus grows,” Austin Oakes, associate vice president in the department of capital projects, said.
The estimated financial commitment for the initial term is $5.2 million and could reach $11.8 million with expansion.
“I just want to be very careful that we don’t get ahead of ourselves,” Rhodes said in response to expanding campuses. “There’s a lot of discussion about higher education, and the fact that admin is getting bigger than faculty at many institutions, so we need to be cognizant of that and make sure that we’re focused on the mission.”
President Boyd responded, expressing his belief that UT is correctly focusing on supporting rapid growth.
“We’re trying to be very smart in being able to invest in the places that’s going to help us continue to grow,” Boyd said.
Oakes also highlighted increased efficiency in campus projects across the system. Seventeen projects have saved 15 months in progress each, saving 20 years in project completion time and $9 million in inflation costs. Additionally, 84 projects have saved four months in progress each, saving 28 years and over $1.4 million. Forty of the projects have been led by campus staff.
The Education, Research and Service Committee meeting and the fall meeting of the Board of Trustees are scheduled for Friday morning.
The Chancellors of the University of Tennessee system at the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, Oct. 24.
