On Monday and Tuesday, the UT board of trustees met to discuss changes that will significantly impact the UT System, including plans to increase enrollment, tuition and mandatory fee increases, and amendments to the undergraduate guaranteed admission policy. 

Over the last five years, the UT System has been rapidly growing. This past year,  the UT System recorded a record-breaking number of graduates — over 13,400. By 2030, the UT System projects a 19% increase in graduates, averaging 16,000 per year. 

Newly reappointed UT System President Randy Boyd discussed UT’s accomplishments and his vision for the next six years of his term.

“We provide the workforce talent that our state needs,” Boyd said.

President Boyd’s vision for the UT System includes a robust growth in campus enrollment by the end of his term. Currently, UT Knoxville boasts a student body of more than 36,300, and the projected enrollment for fall 2030 is 41,000. 

Boyd and the board are committed to expanding not only UTK but the entire UT System. They aim to increase the current enrollment of more than 58,700 students across UTK, UT Martin, UT Chattanooga, UT Southern and UT Health Science Center to 71,000 by fall 2030. 

However, with this 17% increase in enrollment across the system and the compounding effects of inflation, UT must raise the costs of in-state undergraduate tuition and mandatory fees for the second time in the last five years.

UTK is expected to see a 2.4% increase, UTC a 3% increase, UTM a 3.5% increase, UTS a 4% increase and UTHSC a 2.9% increase in in-state undergraduate tuition and fees. 

In the last five years, the undergraduate student population has grown by 24%, and the board assures students and families that UT has made every reasonable effort to conserve and allocate funds properly to mitigate the effects of tuition increases.

These financial adjustments are necessary to accommodate better parking, housing, dining, minimum wages, salaries, infrastructure, and other courses and services required for a growing student body, ensuring that students’ experiences at UT are the best they can be.

“We’ve (also) gone through unbelievable inflation in the last couple of years,” trustee Bill Rhodes said. “It’s probably not realistic that we’re going to be able to increase salaries and pay other inflationary things without having some form of tuition and fee increases over time.”

UT is working to make tuition as affordable as possible through additional scholarship programs like UT Promise. The household income to apply for free tuition at a UT campus is $75,000 or less, and through this scholarship program, 66.7% of Tennesseeans could go to UT for free. 

“We, as a university system, take our responsibility to provide access and affordability very seriously,” Boyd said. “We work really hard to make sure that our campuses are affordable to as many students as possible.”

In addition, UT has made it a priority to ensure that the “best and brightest” Tennessee high school students attend a UT school through the new guaranteed admission policy introduced in September 2023. 

Over the last nine months, UT has promised guaranteed admission to all Tennessee high school students with a 4.0 or higher cumulative GPA and a composite ACT score of 24 or higher. UTC, UTS and UTM have a similar policy, guaranteeing admission to all in-state high school students who graduate with a 3.2 or higher GPA and a composite ACT score of 23 or higher. Also, any student who was in the top 10% of their high school class was guaranteed admission to all campuses.

However, these criteria caused significant confusion and frustration across the system. Only 30% of Tennessee high schools were able to submit class rank data of their applicants, and many schools do not even have a class ranking system.  

The newly proposed criteria removed the top 10% aspect and suggested that in-state high school graduates who had a 4.0 or higher GPA and a 24 or higher ACT score would be guaranteed admission to UTK, and students who graduated with a 4.0 or higher GPA and an 18 or higher ACT score would be guaranteed admission to UTC, UTM and UTS.

After much debate from opposing board members on Monday, they did not approve the new criteria and instead proposed that it be revisited and voted on the next day. 

The new guaranteed admission policy now includes aspects from the 2024 criteria and the proposed 2025 criteria. Starting in August, in-state high school students who graduate with a 4.0 or higher cumulative GPA or finish in the top 10% of their graduating class and have a 24 or higher ACT composite score will be guaranteed admission to UTK. 

Also, in-state high school students who graduate with a 3.2 or higher cumulative GPA or finish in the top 10% of their graduating class and have a 23 or higher ACT composite score will be guaranteed admission to UTC, UTM and UTS. 

Furthering debate within the board of trustees, on Tuesday morning, two public speakers approached the board with concerns about a percentage of the university’s endowment coming from companies that profit off of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. 

Since the start of pro-Palestine protests on UTK’s campus May 1, students and community members have been adamant about approaching UT administration, condemning them and other universities across the nation for their financial involvement with companies and entities supporting Israel.

The board did not comment on the percentage mentioned by the speakers, but in response, Rhodes gave a statement on behalf of UT. 

“The University of Tennessee endowment is funded by donations to the university — not from tuition or tax-payer dollars,” Rhodes said. “Those funds are used to enhance campus operations and the student experience. As a public institution serving a variety of different stakeholders, the university does not base investment decisions on political or social stances.”

Several changes are coming to UT within the next school year. If you are interested in watching any of the webcasts of the board meetings, you can find them here. 

Editor’s Note: This story has been edited to clarify the income requirements for the UT Promise scholarship.