University of Tennessee system

The University of Tennessee was founded in Knoxville as Blount College in 1794. It became East Tennessee College in 1807, and gained university status in 1840. It was designated as the state's land-grant institution in 1869, and was renamed the "University of Tennessee" in 1879.[2]

The medical campus, the UT Health Science Center, was founded in Memphis in 1911. An adult education extension center was founded in Nashville in 1947.

In 1927, UT founded the University of Tennessee Junior College, and bought the campus of the defunct Hall-Moody Institute, a Baptist institution in the northwest Tennessee town of Martin, to use for the new college. In 1951, the school began awarding bachelor's degrees and became the University of Tennessee Martin Branch. In 1967, the campus was elevated to an autonomous four-year institution under the name of the University of Tennessee at Martin.

In 1968, the UT system was officially formed, with the Knoxville and Martin campuses as primary campuses. That same year, the Tennessee state legislature gave UT permission to establish a campus in Chattanooga, which was the largest city in Tennessee without a public university. The private University of Chattanooga determined that it could not raise enough private capital to compete with a public institution, and agreed to merge with another private school, Chattanooga City College, to form the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1969.

Also in 1968, UT announced plans to expand the Nashville extension center into a full-fledged University of Tennessee at Nashville. Rita Sanders Geier filed a desegregation lawsuit against the state. Geier contended that if UT were allowed to build a campus in Nashville, where Tennessee State University was located, it would perpetuate a dual system of higher education. As a result, the UT Nashville campus was eventually merged with TSU by court order in 1979.[3]

On December 9, 2020, UT's board of trustees unanimously voted in favor of integrating Martin Methodist College into the UT system as UT Southern. This merger is aimed at providing higher education to the residents of rural southern Middle Tennessee.[4][5] On June 27, 2021 The Tennessean reported that MMC had been fully accepted as a system campus, with the tuition to be adjusted accordingly.[6]

There are six educational units of the university system, four of which are separate universities within this statewide higher education system.

The University of Tennessee system has several other units that provide service to the state of Tennessee and to the nation.

The University of Tennessee system is governed by the Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee. After the passage of the UT FOCUS Act in 2018, the board is made up of 12 trustees. These trustees include one ex officio voting member, the Commissioner of Agriculture, 10 voting members appointed by the Governor, and a single non-voting student member appointed by the board as a whole. One of the board's committees includes a single faculty representative. Both the Student Trustee and faculty representative rotate each year between the four main campuses.[8]

The university system is administered by a president. Beginning in 1970, presidents served the University of Tennessee system. Prior to that, the president served the Knoxville flagship campus.[9] Presidents and interim presidents of the University of Tennessee system, the University of Tennessee, and its predecessor schools are as follows:[10]

• Randy Boyd, 2019–present (interim)
• Joseph A. DiPietro, named UT System President on October 23, 2010; served until November 2018
• John D. Petersen, named the system's 23rd President on July 1, 2004; resigned February 18, 2009
• John W. Shumaker, 2002–2003
• Emerson H. Fly, 2001–2002
• J. Wade Gilley, 1999–2001
• Joseph E. Johnson, 1991–1999; also served as interim president in 2003–2004[11]
• Lamar Alexander, 1988–1991
• Edward J. Boling, 1970–1988
• Andrew D. Holt, 1959–1970; President of the UT System 1968–1970
• C. E. Brehm, 1946–1959
• James Dickason Hoskins, 1934–1946
• Harcourt A. Morgan, 1919–1934
• Brown Ayres, 1904–1919
• Charles W. Dabney, 1887–1904
• Thomas William Humes, (East Tennessee University), 1865–1879; President of UT 1879–1883
• J. J. Ridley (East Tennessee University), 1860–1862
• William D. Carnes (East Tennessee University), 1858–1860
• George Cooke (East Tennessee University), 1853–1857
• W. B. Reese (East Tennessee University), 1850–1853
• Joseph Estabrook, (East Tennessee College), 1834–1840; President of East Tennessee University 1840–1850
• James H. Piper (East Tennessee College), 1833–1834
• Charles Coffin (East Tennessee College), 1827–1832
• David Sherman (East Tennessee College), 1820–1825
• Samuel Carrick, (Blount College), 1794–1807; President of East Tennessee College 1807–1809

Each of the five campuses is administered by a chancellor. Administrators on each campus report to their respective chancellors, who in turn report to the president. The only exceptions are the athletic directors of the Knoxville campus, who report directly to the president and not the Knoxville chancellor.

• Tennessee Board of Regents, the other public higher education authority in the state
• List of state universities in the United States

• Official website