University of Tennessee at Knoxville |
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The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is the primary campus of the University of Tennessee System. It is located
in Knoxville, Tennessee, in Knox County. Abbreviated as "UT" or "UTK," the main campus is
often held to be synonymous with the statewide system (especially outside Tennessee).
Campus
Organization
Students
UTK's total enrollment in the fall semester of 2002 was 27,971, of which 23,829 were
full-time students and 4,142 were part-time. Undergraduates numbered 19,956 students, while graduate students made up the balance
of 8,015. UT enrolled 3,682 first-time freshmen.
Of UT's total enrollment, 23,442 students described themselves as white, with 1,964 black, 315 Hispanic, 706 Asian, 100
American Indians, and 278 other/not reported. Total minority enrollment was 14.3%. 1,166 international students enrolled at UT in
2002. Slightly more women (52.5%) attended UT than men.
Most international students came from China, India, and the Republic of Korea. 4,896 students were previously out-of-state U.S. residents, mostly from Virginia, Georgia, and Ohio. 21,909 students already resided in Tennessee,
with most previous in-state residents coming from Knox, Shelby, and
Davidson counties.
Faculty
History
The University of Tennessee was chartered on September 10, 1794 as Blount College, by an act of the legislature of the Southwest Territory meeting in the territorial capital,
Knoxville. The college was small at its inception and struggled for the next 13 years with a small student body and an even
smaller faculty. In 1807, the school was renamed East Tennessee College; however, when its
first president and only faculty member died in 1809, the school was temporarily closed. It
reopened in 1820, and in 1840 was elevated to East
Tennessee University. Following the Civil War, the State of
Tennessee made the University the beneficiary of the Morrill Act of 1862 which allocated federal land or its monetary value to the various states for the teaching of
"agricultural and mechanical" subjects and to provide military training to students. Thus, the University of Tennessee (its
designation after 1879) became a land-grant institution.
In 1968, the University underwent an administrative reorganization which left the
Knoxville campus as the flagship and headquarters of its new "university system," comprising the medical units at Memphis, a four-year college at Martin, the former private University of Chattanooga (added a year later), the Space Institute at Tullahoma, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the Agriculture Institute, and the Public Service
Institute. An additional primary campus in Nashville had
a brief existence from 1971 to 1979 before it was
ordered closed and merged with Tennessee State
University.
Sports and Clubs
Tennessee competes in the Southeastern
Conference's Eastern Division, along with Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt.
Tennessee has sports rivalries with Kentucky,
Vanderbilt and Alabama, but in recent years the University of Florida has become Tennessee's main rival on the football field.
Tennessee also has a budding rivalry with the University of Connecticut in women's basketball. These two schools have consistently had great
games against each other in the past few years, occasionally with the national championship on the line.
Traditions
- Colors: Orange and White
- Mascots: A blue tick coon hound named "Smokey"
- Nickname: Volunteers or Vols
- A long-standing rivalry with the Alabama Crimson
Tide--their football teams meet every "Third Saturday in October."
Notable Alumni
Famous former students include 11 astronauts; professional athletes Tamika
Catchings, Charlie Garner, Todd Helton, Chamique Holdsclaw, Allan Houston, Jamal Lewis, Peyton Manning, and Reggie White; professional
wrestler Kevin Nash; NPR newscaster Ann Taylor, author Cormac McCarthy; entertainers Deanna Carter, Dixie Carter, John Cullum, and
David Keith; Nobel Prize winner James Buchanan; and politicians Howard Baker, the
U.S. Ambassador to Japan and former Senate Majority Leader, Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Hussein Abu Ragheb, and six congressmen; and sportscaster Lindsey Nelson.
Notable Faculty
Dr. William Bass,
Professor Emeritus, Founder - Forensic Anthropology Center and "The Body Farm"
Other notables
Pat Summitt, women's basketball head coach and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
See Also
External Links
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