UT Chancellor Loren Crabtree sent an e-mail to students, faculty and staff last week announcing the launch of a strategic planning process. Its goal is to make UT one of our nation's top public research universities.

Crabtree charged UT Provost Robert Holub in leading the initiative and forming its committee.

Holub created a list of people whom he will ask to serve on the committee. He plans to hold the first meeting sometime in December.

The plan has three goals, Holub said. "One will be to increase access (to UT) for the citizens of Tennessee, citizens of the nation and the world. We're going to increase the size of the campus in a decade if we can achieve the adequate funding we need." The plan would increase the size of the campus by about 25 percent.

The second goal is to enhance the quality of the institution by measures of research productivity, the number of degrees, the number of Ph.D.s, the undergraduate retention rate and the graduation rate.

The third goal is an intercultural and international initiative. The plan seeks to "make diversity inclusion as well as international types of activities more pervasive on campus," Holub said. This could lead to a more diverse population on campus.

Students will be selected to serve on the larger committee, but it will be up to the subcommittees to decide if they want to invite additional students into those groups.

People will also be able to express their opinions about the direction of the plan.

"I will be establishing a mechanism for input on my Web site where anyone from the community can give input on what's going on," Holub said. "I'll try to put up information about where we are and what we're doing."

Two major challenges exist with the plan, Holub said. 

"If we're going to grow, we need more funding. If we're going to continue at the present levels, we need more funding, in order to do things better. If it isn't forthcoming, it is going to be difficult to achieve the kind of growth that we want," he said.

The second challenge is the separation of the athletics and agricultural departments from the campus. Holub expects those departments to willingly participate in the planning exercise, but noted, "When push comes to shove, they are not reporting through the campus as everyone else is, and so we have to enter into certain different kinds of negotiations that a unified campus would not have to enter into."

Crabtree expects to have the plan in place before the end of the 2008 spring semester.