University of Tennessee

By James A. Barham, PhD

The University of Tennessee (UT) was founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee achieved statehood. The student body numbers nearly 30,000 individuals, hailing from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries.

UT consists of 10 undergraduate colleges and 11 graduate colleges. The university is also affiliated with a number of distinguished research centers, including the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, the UT Anthropological Research Facility, the UT Medical Center, the UT Arboretum, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (of Manhattan Project fame). UT is especially known for its programs in business, management, marketing, and related support services.

UT’s distance-learning department—known as “Vols Online” (UT students are called “Volunteers”)—offers courses leading to around 20 undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as professional certificates.

UT is associated with three Nobel Prize laureates:

• Physiology or Medicine—Peter C. Doherty
• Economics—James M. Buchanan
• Peace—Al Gore, Jr.

Other distinguished UT-associated individuals include the following:

• Mathematicians, Morwen B. Thistlethwaite and Mladen Bestvina
• Computer scientists, Lee Giles and Jack Dongarra
• Philosophers, Richard Aquila and Mariam Thalos
• Novelists, Kurt Vonnegut and Cormac McCarthy
• Novelist and biographer, Alex Haley
• Playwright, Owen Davis
• Critic and nature writer, Joseph Wood Krutch
• Financial writer, Rachel Cruze
• Film director, Clarence Brown
• Actors—John Cullum, James Denton, Dixie Carter, David Keith, and Logan Marshall-Green
• Dramatic soprano, Cheryl Studer
• Singer, Dolly Parton
• Myrmecologist and evolutionary biologist, E.O. Wilson
• Economist, Frank Knight
• Science correspondent, John Noble Wilford
• Retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, former US Representative, and political commentator, Allen West
• Former US Senators—Estes Kefauver, Al Gore, Sr., Lamar Alexander, Howard Baker, Jim Sasser, Saxby Chambliss, Jim DeMint, and Bob Corker
• Former US Presidents—Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson

UT is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).