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In a year of up and down gyrations, UT hired a promising new, classicist president in John Shumaker, who came from the University of Louisville where, he quipped, he "worked for Rick Pitino." The offer was a generous one; UT put together a salary package worth an estimated $735,000. But he had to contend immediately with a drastic budget crunch that has the university reeling.

The UT partnership in the management of Oak Ridge National Laboratories continued to blossom, even though the university's vaunted Centers of Excellence program headed south toward underfundedsville.

Early on, the draft of a university facilities' "Master Plan" raised hackles when it included proposals for a string of lighted intramural-sports fields to replace the bucolic dairy farm across the river from clout-ridden Sequoyah Hills. But the long-range Master Plan also included welcome proposals to make the campus more pedestrian-friendly and to expand and upgrade mass transit opportunities. That came, paradoxically enough, along with the erection of an immense new parking garage at 11th Street and Cumberland Avenue, replacing a day-care center.

The university also cleverly devised a UT Foundation to wrest control over some of its pet capital building expenditures from the state's building commission. It promptly used that expedient to start a high-rise apartment tower between Clinch and White Avenues in the heart of Fort Sanders. The decision was also made—or, more properly, announced—to dispose of low-rise married-student housing properties along Sutherland Avenue and off Chapman Highway in South Knoxville, selling the units off to private developers in the next couple of years.

Oh, and the university also entered into agreement for a joint project with the government of China to establish a model Tennessee high school in the heart of Beijing. That's going a long way to get out from under the watchful eye of the state, but we can only guess that the potential for converting a group of young godless communists to the Vol way of life will be worthwhile.

In more important matters, Vol sports had, by the standards of many fans, a bit of a disappointing year. On the one hand, the UT Lady Vols had another fabulous season, although they lost in the finals to a Connecticut team that should have been playing in the WNBA. Buzz Peterson, the new men's basketball coach, had a mildly disappointing start, and the Vol football team lost to Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Miami.

Better luck next year, President Shumaker. You'll need it. Incidentally, learn to spell B-r-e-d-e-s-e-n right. It can't hurt. He's going to manage his way out of your fiscal crisis, too.

December 18, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 51
© 2002 Metro Pulse