The document is filled with jargon, but the meaning is clear: UT must become a top 20 research university, but needs a way to pay for it. Unfortunately, the General Assembly is unlikely to spend more on higher education, leaving the school with big goals but no way to pay for them.
Year of publication: 1980.
Since 2010, there has been much discussion of UT’s goal of becoming one of the best public research universities in the country. What has not been discussed is that we as a university have tried this before.
More than 30 years ago, then-Chancellor Jack E. Reese announced a bold plan for our university: become a top 30 public research university by 1986, and Top 20 by the end of the decade.
The plan also called for a new, central library, more enrollment in night classes and an increase in the amount of financial aid available to students.
The plan was meant to overhaul campus and prepare it for the future. UT signed off, even though it was aware of challenges. The lack of money was a major issue. With increased state support unlikely and realizing the difficulty of raising tuition even further than it had already, UT warned itself that state budget cuts were possible.
“… there is a real possibility that some activities might be deemed marginal and terminated altogether,” according to the 1980 report.
In 1989, with the state of Tennessee facing a severe budget crisis, UT’s budget was impounded halfway through the year, forcing it to lay off staff and cut programs, so it could return funds to the state.
Today, UT is working on a similar plan on becoming a Top 25 public research university, with similar caveats. While UT has made progress since it started down the path to Top 25, more work remains — in particular, paying faculty a competitive salary to attract top researchers, and finding a way to fund the university with no sign of increased funding from the state.
The decreased support from the state is “one of UT’s most pressing challenges over the next five years,” according to Vol Vision, which charts UT’s Top 25 goals for the next five years.
However, UT is not expecting any renewed help from the state. In planning the next five-year stage of the Journey to the Top 25, there is a call for finding a new source of revenue for UT, one distinct from state support and further tuition increases.
“UT will need to explore new alternatives for revenue and better engage the campus community in resource stewardship,” according to the document.
This is not to say that Top 25 is doomed or that we have not, or cannot, make substantial progress in becoming a better university. But it is time we identify the lack of state funding that is keeping us from these goals.
UT isn’t ignoring these issues though. At the June 2014 meeting of the Board of Trustees, UT System President Joe DiPietro called for a coalition of support to lobby the General Assembly to further fund education in Tennessee. Citing the flip in UT’s funding model from a state-supported enterprise to a university largely paid for by students and their families, DiPietro called for renewed support for higher education.
Facing our fiscal realities, UT has two choices: either accept the state government will not give us the money we need and set more realistic goals (top 45 isn’t too bad), or tell the state that if it wants a high-performing flagship university, then it must finally provide the funds to pay for it.
We must take seriously this call by DiPietro, and not allow an ineffective state to drag our Top 25 goals out forever.
There is a reason that the Journey to the Top 25 is being measured in five-year increments instead of having identifiable goals, such as Top 30 by 2025. But if we are serious about becoming a better school, then we must take seriously the challenges before us. While demanding more money from the state is difficult, especially when certain state legislators try to cut money for items such as diversity programs, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. The journey to the Top 25 is just that, a journey. The path may not always be clear or easy, but we should by no means allow the state to tell us where we can, and cannot, go.
McCord Pagan is a fifth-year senior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at [email protected].
