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Lottery scholarships and the administration are pushing a steep upward growth curve

by Nick Corrigan and Barry Henderson

Shannon Dickey wants to be a marine biologist. She’s coming to the University of Tennessee this fall, although Auburn was her first choice in colleges, because of Auburn’s out-of-state tuition cost and because the new Tennessee Lottery Scholarship she won as a graduate of Lavergne High School in Rutherford County “helped pay for a good chunk of [in-state] tuition.”

“I’d say I was somewhat of an academic standout,” she said of her experience in the Nashville bedroom community where she went to high school. Her 3.75 grade point average and her ACT test score of 24 puts her near the average among UT’s incoming freshmen.

Likewise, Kalee Zeanah, a grad of Knoxville’s West High, was thinking of going to the University of Alabama, because she’d lived in that state and thought the campus “pretty,” but she’s enrolling at UT for the in-state tuition advantage and the lottery scholarship she’s been awarded. She had a 3.1 GPA at West, but posted a 27 on her ACT. “I like the ACT—that wasn’t too bad,” she says, but as a student, “I’d say I’m in the middle.”

That’s the middle of a UT freshman class that boasts the highest GPA and ACT score averages ever at the school. It’s also a latter-day high number of enrollees, 4,588 at last count last week, almost 900 more than a year ago, when the class fell below the recent average of about 3,800 new students. The 2003 dip was attributed by UT administrators to “turmoil” in the wake of the scandalous departures of two UT presidents in less than three years. Things have settled down this year with the hiring of President John Petersen, who seems so far to have stayed free of the personal and spending problems that led to his predecessors’ downfalls.

The 2004 enrollment spike was pretty predictable anyway, because a similar leap affected the University of Georgia in 1993, when that state implemented its Hope Scholarships, also based on a freshly instituted lottery. Preparations have been underway here for almost two years, since Tennesseans passed their lottery referendum.

Those preparations, says Ann Mayhew, the vice chancellor for academic affairs, have been “massive,” and have relied on a 15-member Enrollment Management Task Force, on which she has served as chair, to determine the logistical issues in such a dramatic influx and how to cope with those challenges.

Chancellor Loren Crabtree paints the picture as a first step toward steady, sustainable growth on the Knoxville campus. He expects that growth to continue at about 1 percent per year, compounded, which would bring total enrollment on campus to about 28,500 in 10 years, “maybe more than that.” The total would move up from a level in the low 20,000s that’s been maintained deliberately since a downsizing effort, brought about by increasing entry standards, in the 1980s. The graduate student part of that population, which has been hovering around 5,000—and may be lower this year as a result of continually tightening restrictions on foreign student visas imposed by the U.S. Department of State—should grow to the 5,500-6,300 range by 2014, he projects.

“It’s a seat-of-the-pants projection,” says Crabtree, who terms enrollment over the last 20 years “stagnant,” and says, “I think we’re past that.” He says the state university system’s flagship campus “needs to grow. We’re the land grant college; it’s part of our mission.”

What stuns Crabtree about the new freshmen are their scholastic achievements coming in. The average ACT score among enrollees as of July 28 is 24.9 (and over 25 for the 3,548 in-state students that make up 77 percent of the class), compared with 24.3 last year. Their average high school GPA is 3.42, compared with 3.34 last year. “That’s a quantum leap. It just never happens,” says Crabtree, who says it puts UT freshmen on a par with those at some Big Ten schools, such as the University of Minnesota or Ohio State.

“Not quite [above] them, but close,” he says. He also points out that about 850 of the incoming freshmen have GPA’s of 4.0 [A on the grading scale] or higher [A-pluses for extra credit work].

How many of the in-state students who’ve been admitted, enrolled or committed to enroll as freshmen this year are lottery scholarship recipients? Mayhew’s answer is succinct. “One hundred percent,” she says.

“It’s an enrollment moment,” says Nancy McGlasson, UT’s director of admissions, looking at the new enrollees’ scholastic standing and test scores. “It’s a really fun year,” she says. In any other year, she says, increased enrollment usually means at least a slight reduction in such scores, but this time, the reverse is true. Diversity is also apparently improving, in that African American students comprise 9.7 percent of this freshman class, as opposed to 8.8 percent in 2003 and about the same percentages in 2002 and 2001. Figures on students from Asian, Hispanic and other ethnic backgrounds have not yet been compiled. The in-state African American segment in this new class has 323 students, plus 123 from out of state, a total of 446, believed to be the largest such group ever to enter UT. The gender ratio for freshman remains constant at 52 percent female, 48 percent male, where it has been for a number of years.

Crabtree acknowledges that an important part of the challenge this class brings with it is its higher expectations for academic programs. He indicates he believes that is good for the school, even though it’s difficult to deal with instantly. “These [new] students are looking for better support services as well as academics,” he says, and the university is looking for better ways to serve the student who may not necessarily have the best high school or ACT test record but who “has a good work ethic” and wants to learn in his or her chosen field.

Mayhew says meeting those elevated expectations is an “expensive” proposition. Although neither she nor Crabtree offered cost estimates, she says she has hired 75 lecturers from all around the country on a temporary basis, with one-year contracts that may or may not be renewable. She says that the Georgia experience indicates that the second year’s enrollment should be down somewhat from this year’s. “We want 4,000 to 4,200,” she says, adding that such a number is probably a realistic guess as to next fall’s freshman enrollment.

The cost of this year’s freshman increase is being met, she says, by “re-allocating funds throughout the university to basic freshman courses.” She cites English, foreign languages, math, biology, chemistry, geology, psychology, sociology and political science among the introductory course offerings that have been beefed up.

“We got great cooperation from [existing] faculty and their departments,” Mayhew says. She says the temporary lecturers aren’t graduate teaching assistants. They all hold doctorates and have faculty status on a temporary basis. Those 75 temps comprise almost exactly the number of new full-time faculty members that would be needed to meet the demands of an anticipated 2014 enrollment of 28,500, according to Crabtree’s estimate. The present faculty level, including temporary instructors and research professors, is approximately 1,775, he says.

Admissions Director McGlasson, says the committee approach to the 2004 introduction of lottery scholarships led to such measures as the housing office’s decision to keep open dormitory space it was planning to close, including Strong Hall and part of Melrose Hall. “They were great to work with,” she says of housing officials. Jerry Adams, the assistant director of UT housing, says the office was fortunate to have units for 273 students in Strong and 191 students in Melrose that could be kept open for another year. “Right now, we have every freshman housed, he says.

On the strictly academic side, Mayhew says the shifting of funding has resulted in somewhat larger class sizes in upper level courses in some fields, but the intent and the effect has been to keep freshmen class sizes down as much as possible. As to which courses will be most affected, Mayhew says, “We don’t know yet exactly where the pressure points will be.”

Concerns of the freshmen themselves seemed minimal. Seven incoming students, all from Tennessee and all lottery scholarship recipients, who were interviewed by Metro Pulse at the end of the orientation period last month were uniformly, and probably understandably, excited about their prospects at UT.

Asked about any concerns they might have about getting the attention they need as they join such a large freshman class, the answers were optimistic.

“I like a big school,” says Shannon Dickey, the Lavergne 18-year-old with the marine biology ambition. “I’m not worried about class size. You can always seek out your professor.”

“I’m not worried,” says Knoxville’s Kalee Zeanah, who has yet to decide on a major, “Most of the learning is just studying.”

Charles Murphy, a potential business major from Anderson County, says he doesn’t expect problems getting attention any more than he did when he had a poor high school teacher. Oak Ridger Braden Avant says he doesn’t need personal attention, and class size isn’t an issue for him. “I’ll be fine,” Avant says. And Kelsy Spears, a Maryville High grad who won a majorette scholarship to go along with her lottery scholarship, says she’s “a very social person and open-minded...I’m not worried.”

Other answers ranged from “I’m not shy,” from Ellen Mantooth, a psychology major who is also from Maryville, to “Just ask,” from Ashley McElroy, a 19-year-old from Fayetteville, whose partial blindness won her a vocational rehabilitation full-tuition scholarship in addition to the lottery award. She’s thinking of studying toward a degree in veterinary medicine.

Murphy, an honors student at Anderson County High, also won a University Scholarship, “so the university actually owes me money,” he jokes. The University Scholarships, now in their first full year of awards, are up to $2,500 for students adjudged to have superior potential.

The lottery scholarships themselves provide $3,000 a year, with an extra $1,000 for students from low-income families or for students with ACT scores of 29 and above, for up to five years in school. UT’s tuition and fee total is about $4,500 a year for in-state students. There have been 35,000 lottery scholarships issued so far to freshmen and sophomores attending college in Tennessee. Each lottery scholar/student is required maintain a full class schedule of 12 or more credit hours and to post a 2.75 GPA (B-minus average) in the first year at UT and a 3.0 after that. It’s sudden death. Slip below the required mark once, and the scholarship is ended.

For that reason, especially, the university has strengthened its orientation program, and Mayhew says tutoring programs have been given more emphasis, as has an “early warning system” she says is designed to let students know at the earliest possible time that they are in academic trouble.

“We’re working on a ‘virtual academic support center’ to tell students where they can get tutoring help, advice and counseling—not just academic counseling but time-management counseling,” Mayhew says, with the students able to find out on line where they can get what they need.

“We’re trying to get the word out that they are going to have to work hard to stay eligible [for their lottery scholarships],” Mayhew says. “We’re keenly aware of the Georgia experience, with students trying to talk faculty into keeping their grades up to keep the scholarships. That’s not going to work here.”

That point was stressed over and over in orientation sessions, which began in May and ended in mid-July. “We began to prepare back in March,” says J.J. Brown, the associate dean of students who was a prior director of orientation and still has responsibility for it.

He says the staff created a couple of extra sessions and used them both this summer.

“For us, it was a record number of students and a record number of parents [in the orientation program],” he says. There were 4,180 students attending an orientation session, despite the fact that it’s not mandatory, and more than 4,000 parents in attendance.

“It helps on registration and planning for course demand,” he says, explaining that early registration allows more freshmen the chance to get the courses they want at the times they want them, and it also lets the departments determine the number of sections in each course that they will need to staff.

“People are sending us their children in much larger numbers,” Chancellor Crabtree says. “These really well-prepared students are going to demand a first-rate university,” he says, and UT is going to give it to them. The alternative would be to let the whole idea of lottery support to retain the best Tennessee high school students to get their college educations here go by the board. The discouragement that would result from such a development, economically speaking, would be felt for decades to come.

Crabtree says that’s not an option and won’t become one at the Knoxville campus.

“We’re the engine of opportunity for the state,” Crabtree says. The lottery is providing a new source of fuel—more than $120 million in its first five and a half months of selling tickets—and that source appears steady and its beneficiaries grateful.

“I came mostly because of the scholarships,” says Charles Murphy, the Anderson County honor student who’s expecting to pursue a business degree, “especially with the lottery.”

August 5, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 32 © 2004 Metro Pulse