KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Friday morning, the University of Tennessee Advisory Board is meeting on the Knoxville campus. The board meets twice per semester in order to make recommendations to the UT System president on campus-level strategic plans as well as operating budgets. A presentation of the new Master Plan is among the agenda items.
Friday’s meeting agenda also states the board will meet at 10 a.m. in the Communications Building, where they will approve the minutes of the last meeting, revise UTK Advisory Board bylaws, revise its student representative selection process, hear the Chancellor’s update, hear the Collge of Communication and Information update and hear a campus master plan presentation.
The Master Plan workshop presentation is part of a process “to provide a vision for the dynamic physical transformation of the institution’s Knoxville- and Tullahoma-based campuses,” the Master Plan executive summary states. The plan is also meant to guide investments in the university’s built environment for the next decade, according to the Master Plan executive summary.
The executive summary also states the Master Plan includes recommendations that are coordinated with requirements set by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which oversees higher education activities within the state.
Overall, key planning drivers listed within the Master Plan executive summary include:
- Improving gateways, edges, access and first impression
- Create a safe and accessible pedestrian-friendly campus
- Ensure a sustainable strategy for parking
- Create stronger campus connections
- Improve connections to the community, downtown and the river
- Faculty condition and program alignment
- Collaboration, study and recreation space
- Instruction space – labs, maker space, and classroom quality
- Additional housing and growth for Greek Life
- Campus research growth & Interdisciplinary research space
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The UT Advisory Board is comprised of seven members: five are appointed by the Tennessee governor, one esteemed faculty member and one selected student, according to the chancellor’s website. Friday’s meeting is happening in the Scripps Convergence Lab in Room 402 of the Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.
