University Seeks 10,000 Student Enrollment by 2030

University of Tennessee at Martin Chancellor Yancy Freeman announced some of the university’s goals and recent achievements at the university-wide opening meeting for the 2024-25 year.

The meeting – attended by many of the university’s faculty and staff members – was held Aug. 19 in Watkins Auditorium in the Boling University Center. The annual meeting is the traditional opening of each school year for faculty and staff.

Freeman said that UT Martin has set a goal of reaching an enrollment of 10,000 students by 2030.

“Our goal encompasses undergraduate and graduate students – face-to-face, online and hybrid students – and students enrolled in one of our six regional centers,” he told those in attendance. “On the face of it, the goal to reach 10,000 students seems like it might be somewhere between improbable and impossible.

“But, what if I told you it would only take a 5.33% increase each year, from this year to 2030, for us to get to that goal? Where it seemed impossible, it is absolutely possible because we are double that now for the upcoming fall semester.”

Freeman said there are several reasons for UT Martin to work toward a 10,000-student enrollment:

• Other colleges are eliminating academic programs or closing their doors “at an alarming rate.”
• The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting decrease in enrollments at UTM led to position freezes, permanent budget cuts, overloaded teaching assignments and decreases in staff in essential areas.

“Future enrollment growth allows our campus to really thrive and maintain our prominent level of quality and credibility,” Freeman said. “Without enrollment dollars and without enrollment increases, the campus will experience crippling cuts and face some very tough decisions.”

• UTM must continue to grow and maintain its presence “as one of the primary producers of the best thinkers and the best talent in West Tennessee,” Freeman said. He added that even with all of the combined graduates from UT Martin, University of Memphis, Southwest Tennessee Community College, Jackson State Community College, Dyersburg State Community College and all of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (known as TCAT) centers in West Tennessee, the workforce demand in West Tennessee would still not be met. “Simply put, we must have more students in the pipeline,” he said.
• The previous high in UTM enrollment was 8,400. Reaching an enrollment of 10,000 students “puts us back on the trajectory of where we were going if it had not been for market forces or a global pandemic,” Freeman said.
• UT Martin offers “an exceptional educational experience for all students,” Freeman said. “Granting them access to a University of Tennessee at Martin degree is the absolute greatest gift that we have that we can offer,” he said. “Research has told us time and time again that the best equalizer – the ultimate equalizer – to better lifelong outcomes is completing a college degree.”
• With the creation of Ford’s BlueOval City electric vehicle facility in Haywood County in southwestern Tennessee, employment opportunities will abound in West Tennessee. “(BlueOval City) is going to have a workforce of almost 30,000 people,” Freeman said. “It means that people are going to join our community in record numbers. Growth is going to happen to us; we have to act, behave and prepare like we are ready for it to come.”

Freeman said the strategy for reaching enrollment goals will be “strategic and targeted.”

Destin Tucker, director of undergraduate admissions, and Dr. Joe Ostenson, interim director of global education and experience, have developed “a robust plan for increasing our international student enrollment to 5%” of the student body.

Freeman added that UT Martin will be more competitive in bringing in-state students to the campus as well as encouraging nearby out-of-state students to Martin.

“We will begin to review our fee structure for more out-of-state students,” he said. “Our out-of-state competitors are enticing Tennessee students to enroll in their institutions, and they are offering in-state tuition and supplementing what the Tennessee students are losing in the Tennessee HOPE Lottery Scholarship.

“We have to be able to compete with the out-of-state folks. We can’t risk losing our best and brightest in-state students and not compete more for those out-of-state students.”

Freeman said the growth in enrollment will necessitate a need for growth among faculty and staff.

“We will strategically invest our limited resources wisely, using the best data at our fingertips,” he said. “To that end, we have already begun examining the academic programs with the highest level of teaching overloads and the highest amount of growth.

“I have authorized the provost (Dr. Philip Acree Cavalier) to work with the deans to hire faculty positions that were previously frozen – to go back and hire positions to handle some of that enrollment growth.”

Freeman said that more funds have been invested in enrollment management and in marketing “to ensure targeted growth without compromising quality.” He added that more funds have also been invested in facilities and grounds maintenance “to ensure that UTM makes a very positive first impression.”

Freeman said that the university plans to present a proposal this fall to the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees requesting the ability to build a residence hall to meet this new growth.

Strategic plan 2025-30

Freeman announced the university’s strategic plan for 2025-30. Freeman said the current plan sets five goals using 25 total strategies.

Those goals are:

• To achieve sustainable enrollment growth by investing resources to attract and support a wide range of learners.
• To enhance out institutional reputation by cultivating a culture of delivering exceptional education and service to all UTM constituents.
• To create and enhance physical and virtual spaces that meet the evolving needs of future learners and educators.
• To reaffirm the university’s commitment to West Tennessee by strengthening existing partnerships and developing new collaborations to drive regional growth and development.
• To promote and celebrate faculty and staff excellence and student achievement for outstanding embodiment of the university mission.

“Each strategy will list a responsible party and an anticipated timeline to achievement,” he said. “We will dashboard our progress on the SharePoint site with indicators using green, yellow and red stoplights to measure our success.

“Additionally, the chancellor’s annual report will be our tool to highlight the magnificent work toward achieving our goals.”

Freeman added that the next step will be to create five subcommittees to develop strategies to meet each of the goals during the fall semester.

“After vetting some of these 25 strategies, we hope to present this plan to the UTM Advisory Board in January 2025 and then to the UT Board of Trustees in February 2025 during its meeting here at UTM.”

UTM Advisory Board meetings for the 2024-25 school year will be held Sept. 20, Jan. 24 and May 16.

UTM achievements

Freeman announced early enrollment indicators that the university had a 7.3% increase in the number of first-year students over the last year.

He added that there is a 1% increase in transfers thus far and a 7% increase in graduate students.

“Our first-year retention rate is tracking 3% above where we were last year, which is a new record for us,” he said. “Our student head count (enrollment) was 16% above where we were last year and our (full-time student equivalent) was 9.3% above where we were last year.

“These enrollment increases were realized despite the overwhelming challenges we had with FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) over the last year,” Freeman said.

The FAFSA program simplified its application form but had delays and difficulties in its distribution earlier this year.

The official enrollment number for UT Martin will be announced in September.