Torchbearer: Winter 1996

From Chancellor Bill Snyder: State of the Campus

I recently gave the Faculty Senate a "state of the campus" address -- my thoughts on where the University is and where it's going. My views came from listening, observing, reflecting, and talking with many people inside and outside the institution.

Simply put, the state of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is good. We have much of which to be proud:

* For the second year, UT Knoxville was selected as a top 10 "best buy" by U.S. News & World Report among the nation's universities.

* The best prepared class ever enrolled last fall. Their average ACT score was 23.6, and among them were 40 National Merit Scholars and 146 Bicentennial Scholars, whose minimum high school GPA was 3.75 and whose ACT was 31 or above.

* UT Knoxville has the highest overall graduation rate among public institutions in the state.

To be sure, we have challenges, and we are dealing with them.

We have reaffirmed our commitment to diversity. Our institutional values reflect the moral obligation to enhance diversity and the educational experiences students gain from exposure to people from different cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.

Financial pressures, caused primarily by increased funding for health care, prisons, and K-12 education, force us to allocate current resources more carefully than ever and make a consistent, aggressive case to the state for increased funding for operating expenses, capital improvements, and faculty salary increases.

We must and will continue to seek additional dollars through private giving beyond the current 21st Century Campaign. One of my "points of pride," attached to the state of the campus document given the Faculty Senate, is that our alumni and friends invest generously in UT Knoxville. Last year, you invested nearly $30 million in us. We are grateful for your confidence.

The faculty and administration are working diligently to prepare students for the global society of today and tomorrow, to exploit the opportunities provided by instructional technology, and to better understand how people learn. The face of education certainly is changing.

The goal we all share is that of making a very good university even better, and significant progress has been made in the last 25 years. Our outlook is bright, but as a futurist has written: The future is not someplace we are going but we are creating. The paths are not to be found but made.

Pointed Remarks

Some highlights from Chancellor Snyder's state of the campus address.