A growing campus | UT Knoxville struggling to keep up with booming enrollment
UTK grew by nearly 2,000 students in the past year and the campus is struggling to keep up with everyone.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The University of Tennessee grew by 2,104 students in the past year, and university officials are struggling to keep up.
“It’s a tight squeeze,” said Chancellor Donde Plowman.
Plowman was speaking to the University of Tennessee System Board of Trustees Executive meeting.
“Our growth is going to be limited until we get the housing issue taken care of,” said Plowman.
The University of Tennessee increased from 31,701 to 33,805 students.
The university has leased a Holiday Inn Hotel to house transfer students as campus availability lacks.
Now, there is talk about the university capping enrollment. When asked, Plowman is not saying the school is capping enrollment, but they are running out of ideas.
“We have not yet said we’re not taking any more students. One of the things we did this year is if you live in a 50-mile radius we lifted the residency requirement, we didn’t want to do that so we can’t do any more with that,” said Plowman. “But, we’re getting close to the point of not having any more options but I’m not yet using the word capped.”
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