Latest / The Mike Keith Show / The Mike Keith Show | DONDE PLOWMAN (9.18.26)

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The Mike Keith Show | DONDE PLOWMAN (9.18.26) · The Mike Keith Show

0:26
SPEAKER_02: Inside actor, I the speed.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: From Rocky Top, direct from the coaches.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: Night from the players, inside track.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: Mike Keith starts now.
0:41
SPEAKER_05: Welcome to the Mike Keith Show.
0:42
SPEAKER_05: This is the Big Interview Edition presented by Clayton Holmes.
0:46
SPEAKER_05: Our special guest is the ninth Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
0:51
SPEAKER_05: Her eighth school year is underway.
0:53
SPEAKER_05: This is Dondi Ploughman.
0:55
SPEAKER_05: Chancellor Plowman, thank you.
0:57
SPEAKER_12: Hey Mike, thanks for having me.
0:58
SPEAKER_05: Your beautiful new nursing building.
1:00
SPEAKER_12: Isn't it gorgeous?
1:01
SPEAKER_12: I wish you could see all the mannequins, all the rooms where they role play.
1:05
SPEAKER_12: It's unbelievable.
1:06
SPEAKER_05: We've got a lot of new buildings at Canada.
1:08
SPEAKER_12: We do.
1:09
SPEAKER_12: We've got like over a billion dollars worth in process, right?
1:12
SPEAKER_05: A billion dollars with a B.
1:14
SPEAKER_12: Yeah, with a B.
1:15
SPEAKER_12: We've got Boyd Hall business, we've got Wharton Chemistry, we've got the Student Success Center, um, to name a few.
1:23
SPEAKER_05: And then what's been spent like on the student union, which is still relatively new and on and on and on, and this one and on.
1:31
SPEAKER_12: All the all the things we're doing for the student union is all about making better use of the space.
1:35
SPEAKER_12: So outside, we're gonna have an amphitheater.
1:37
SPEAKER_12: Oh no, okay.
1:38
SPEAKER_12: We're gonna have a place for um food trucks to pull up.
1:40
SPEAKER_12: Just trying to use every inch of the space on campus more efficiently and to provide better services to students.
1:47
SPEAKER_12: We talk about an unparalleled student experience.
1:50
SPEAKER_12: We we are serious.
1:51
SPEAKER_05: You you don't think the the old UC was an unparalleled student experience?
1:55
SPEAKER_12: I barely remember the UC, but I was here on the faculty.
2:00
SPEAKER_12: It was beautiful.
2:00
SPEAKER_12: Yeah.
2:01
SPEAKER_05: It was it was beautiful.
2:03
SPEAKER_05: It was old when I was there.
2:04
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
2:05
SPEAKER_05: And that was last century.
2:06
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
2:06
SPEAKER_05: Reading back through, I did not know your dad was a Methodist minister.
2:11
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
2:11
SPEAKER_12: Yes, I'm a PK, preacher's kid.
2:13
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
2:14
SPEAKER_05: What I do know about the Methodist church is they move ministers frequently.
2:19
SPEAKER_05: So how many times did you move when you were children?
2:20
SPEAKER_12: I moved every four years of my life until I was 18.
2:24
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
2:24
SPEAKER_12: And that was considered a long pasture.
2:27
SPEAKER_12: Four years.
2:28
SPEAKER_12: A lot of them moved every two years.
2:30
SPEAKER_12: So I remember before my uh junior year, before my senior year, the bishop was coming to town to preach at my dad's church, and I said, Dad, I want to pull the bishop aside and tell him I don't want to move before my senior year.
2:42
SPEAKER_12: Do you have a problem with that?
2:44
SPEAKER_12: He said, No, you can say that if you want.
2:46
SPEAKER_12: Which I did.
2:47
SPEAKER_12: We didn't move.
2:48
SPEAKER_05: I'm not sure that had anything to do with it, but you know, but that's a big statement that your dad would let you do that.
2:55
SPEAKER_12: I know.
2:56
SPEAKER_05: Because the bishop in the Methodist church is I mean, he he makes the decisions about these things.
3:01
SPEAKER_12: He would in the olden days, they would call up in about April before the big meeting in May, and the bishop wants to speak to my dad.
3:11
SPEAKER_12: That meant we were moving.
3:13
SPEAKER_12: That stuff doesn't go over as well anymore.
3:15
SPEAKER_12: And they've actually they don't do it as often.
3:18
SPEAKER_12: That people are staying longer in in the pastorates.
3:21
SPEAKER_12: So But yeah.
3:22
SPEAKER_05: But for a lot of people who move a lot, yeah, they go one of two ways.
3:26
SPEAKER_05: They're either very shy because they're the new kid all the time, or they have the personality to fit in, to work through it, like like being social.
3:38
SPEAKER_05: You are the latter.
3:40
SPEAKER_12: Uh I've developed that personality, I guess.
3:43
SPEAKER_12: I mean, my sister and brother and I did not like it.
3:45
SPEAKER_12: We did not like that we had to move.
3:47
SPEAKER_12: It was easier on me because I didn't move during high school.
3:50
SPEAKER_12: Each of my brother and sister did.
3:53
SPEAKER_12: So they have a little bit more hang-ups about it, you know, I think.
3:56
SPEAKER_12: But all of us are outgoing and it it looking back on it, it wasn't that big of a deal.
4:01
SPEAKER_12: But at the time, it's hard to leave your friends in junior high, middle school, move across the state.
4:06
SPEAKER_12: No, we were just moving around Oklahoma.
4:11
SPEAKER_12: And my dad was very, very corporate in this regard.
4:14
SPEAKER_12: He said, Once we move, we don't go back and visit because that might upset the the new pastor.
4:20
SPEAKER_12: So we didn't get to share friends anymore.
4:23
SPEAKER_12: So we didn't like it.
4:25
SPEAKER_12: That's tough.
4:25
SPEAKER_12: Yeah.
4:26
SPEAKER_05: When you went to SMU as an undergrad, was being a university chancellor your goal?
4:32
SPEAKER_12: Absolutely not.
4:33
SPEAKER_12: I wanted to be Mrs.
4:34
SPEAKER_12: Kirk.
4:35
SPEAKER_12: She was this high school English teacher, my senior year.
4:37
SPEAKER_12: I was gonna teach English.
4:39
SPEAKER_12: It'll be a teacher.
4:40
SPEAKER_12: And I get there, first of all, I thought it was a Methodist school, which it was in name only.
4:45
SPEAKER_12: It's not a good they're still having issues about that too.
4:50
SPEAKER_12: And uh there were it was just rich kids.
4:54
SPEAKER_12: And I was the and they knew how to party.
4:56
SPEAKER_12: I wasn't rich, I didn't party.
4:58
SPEAKER_12: So that first year was really hard for me.
5:01
SPEAKER_12: That's why I so I'm so proud of what we're doing with our first year experience here because I was a pretty well adjusted kid, but that was hard.
5:08
SPEAKER_12: I almost transferred back to Oklahoma State.
5:11
SPEAKER_12: That would have been terrible.
5:12
SPEAKER_12: But I found some friends, and you know how it is.
5:15
SPEAKER_12: It's all about connecting.
5:16
SPEAKER_12: And we we do really good job here at that.
5:19
SPEAKER_12: It's like, why do we put on 600 events the first six weeks of school?
5:25
SPEAKER_05: So all of these student experiences are why you're so into student experience.
5:30
SPEAKER_05: Well or at least that's the start of it.
5:32
SPEAKER_12: It's why I believe in what we're doing.
5:34
SPEAKER_12: It wasn't my idea that you do this.
5:36
SPEAKER_12: But yeah, I know it makes a difference.
5:37
SPEAKER_12: I finally got connected, I got part of it, got selected to be in some group, and and then I belonged.
5:43
SPEAKER_12: It's about belonging.
5:44
SPEAKER_12: And when you're 18, I was kind of shy at the time.
5:48
SPEAKER_12: That was hard.
5:52
SPEAKER_12: Illinois, I was a little western Oklahoma girl.
5:56
SPEAKER_12: But you know, when you think about what's happening here, we have kids from Cleveland, Tennessee, with someone from New Jersey, and and they all love it.
6:05
SPEAKER_12: And that that's a really strength of what we're doing here, I think.
6:10
SPEAKER_05: When did you feel like you did want to become a chancellor of a university?
6:14
SPEAKER_12: Umce I became a dean, I really liked that job.
6:22
SPEAKER_12: I liked being able to influence things and make decisions.
6:27
SPEAKER_12: When you're the dean, you're the head of a small piece of the pie.
6:32
SPEAKER_12: But you gotta have a lot you have a lot of authority within that piece.
6:36
SPEAKER_12: And I liked that.
6:37
SPEAKER_12: And then I started had to I had a lot of experiences where I wished that the upper administration was kinda, I don't know, moving faster, move decisive.
6:52
SPEAKER_12: And I just started to think about myself that way.
6:55
SPEAKER_12: But I had a good run as the dean of the business school in Nebraska for six over six years, six and a half years.
7:01
SPEAKER_12: I loved that job, every day of it.
7:03
SPEAKER_12: And but I've loved just about every job I've ever had.
7:06
SPEAKER_12: I did not like be the next level up there, they promoted me to executive vice chancellor and provost.
7:11
SPEAKER_12: That job I didn't love.
7:13
SPEAKER_05: Too much office?
7:14
SPEAKER_12: Too much process.
7:16
SPEAKER_12: Yeah.
7:16
SPEAKER_12: It's an internally focused job.
7:19
SPEAKER_12: I was really good at fundraising.
7:22
SPEAKER_12: Uh in my job as dean, it's external relations.
7:26
SPEAKER_12: Provost job, they told me, sure, you can still do that, but actually, you know, you don't have a constituency, a base from that job to do it so much.
7:33
SPEAKER_05: What was appealing about the Tennessee job in 2019?
7:36
SPEAKER_12: Okay, this is gonna sound crazy.
7:38
SPEAKER_12: There were two things that drew me here.
7:40
SPEAKER_12: First, I've been on the faculty here before.
7:41
SPEAKER_12: So I knew that.
7:42
SPEAKER_05: 2008 through 2010.
7:44
SPEAKER_12: 2007 through thousand.
7:45
SPEAKER_12: Okay.
7:46
SPEAKER_12: I was here three years on the faculty department head.
7:49
SPEAKER_12: And I left, I honestly thought Tennessee's not gonna ever put a woman in as some big job here.
7:55
SPEAKER_12: And as soon as I left, they eventually hired a woman as who I then followed.
7:59
SPEAKER_12: But um two things.
8:02
SPEAKER_12: I thought this idea of of being a volunteer was underutilized here.
8:07
SPEAKER_12: Like that means something.
8:08
SPEAKER_12: They could be doing something with that more than they are.
8:11
SPEAKER_12: Like look being a dog or a gator, I used to say that jokingly, but I really seriously mean it.
8:17
SPEAKER_12: Being a volunteer has a lot of meaning behind it.
8:19
SPEAKER_12: I thought that's an asset we could really use to differentiate ourselves.
8:23
SPEAKER_12: And secondly, Oak Ridge National Lab.
8:26
SPEAKER_12: And I'm not a scientist, but nobody was making that connection that I could see.
8:31
SPEAKER_12: Like I never heard anyone say, I'm from the University of Tennessee in Oxford.
8:36
SPEAKER_12: And hear people go, Oh, that's where ORNL is.
8:38
SPEAKER_12: Or someone at the lab saying, I work at Oak Ridge National Lab, and someone saying, Oh, well, then you're part you must work with the University of Tennessee.
8:47
SPEAKER_12: And I thought there's some opportunity there, which we're starting to really capitalize.
8:52
SPEAKER_12: It's taken several years, but so those were two kind of strange things that drew me back.
8:57
SPEAKER_05: You get the job, yeah.
8:59
SPEAKER_05: Feels like from the outside there would be 800 things that you need to tackle and that you could get paralyzed because you don't know what comes first.
9:07
SPEAKER_05: Right.
9:08
SPEAKER_05: What did you do first that you now think that was a good move?
9:13
SPEAKER_12: Yeah.
9:13
SPEAKER_12: Well, first of all, the big attractor on the job once I interviewed was Randy.
9:17
SPEAKER_12: Randy.
9:18
SPEAKER_12: Randy boy.
9:19
SPEAKER_12: He flies his airplane, I guess.
9:21
SPEAKER_12: I he came out on his airplane to pick me up in Lincoln, Nebraska.
9:26
SPEAKER_12: He and I are on this plane together.
9:28
SPEAKER_12: I've been on private planes before, but not just two people and one sitting there interviewing you like this.
9:35
SPEAKER_12: And he and I just clicked instantly.
9:38
SPEAKER_12: I think partly with because I've been a business dean and he was a business person.
9:43
SPEAKER_12: But um he said, What would you like to try to accomplish in the first 90 days or in your first year?
9:50
SPEAKER_12: And I said to him, by the end of the year, I want to meet every single elected official in the state, the House, the Senate.
9:59
SPEAKER_12: And uh that was the that was one of my calls.
10:03
SPEAKER_12: So he liked that, of course.
10:05
SPEAKER_12: And I just felt I could hear him talking, wanting the university needed a more positive presence over there.
10:13
SPEAKER_12: He was doing a great job.
10:15
SPEAKER_12: But I came here and I started hearing all about this comp troller's study of sex week and this big to-do, and it was a negative thing.
10:25
SPEAKER_12: And so I decided, and Randy thought that was a great idea.
10:30
SPEAKER_12: Now, seven months into it, COVID hit.
10:33
SPEAKER_12: I did make the goal, but the last few I met, I'd say last six or eight, I met by phone because COVID had hit.
10:40
SPEAKER_12: So I hit it pretty hard.
10:41
SPEAKER_12: I mean, Carrie, our government relations person, Randy, got me around to meet people.
10:46
SPEAKER_12: And that was the beginning of along with Randy, of course, kind of building their confidence in this place.
10:55
SPEAKER_12: And we've got, you know, smart people, capable people whom I now know in charge.
11:07
SPEAKER_12: And things like Sex Week, run by an organization with 14 kids, are not gonna get us twisted into a pretzel.
11:15
SPEAKER_05: More coming up with the University of Tennessee's Chancellor Dundee Plowman, the big interview presented by Clayton Holmes, returns after that.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: This is the Mike Keith Show.
11:25
SPEAKER_02: It's side access, delivered by Uber Eats.
11:28
SPEAKER_10: Today's show sponsored by Pilot, official travel stop of the vault.
11:33
SPEAKER_10: See you out here by First Horizon, Big Bank Muscle, Small Bank Hustle, by Food City, the official supermarket of the Tennessee Volunteers, UC Medical, the official healthcare provider of the vault.
11:46
SPEAKER_10: Raffle Roofing, let us fix your lead, the proud official roofer of the big orange, by Farm Bureau Insurance, the official insurance of the vault, Tennessee Insurance for Tennessee Life.
11:58
SPEAKER_17: Brought to you by Food Today, it's the Ask Coach Hypo.
12:02
SPEAKER_17: Hello, and welcome to Ask Coach Heifel.
12:05
SPEAKER_17: I'm your host, Josh Hypel.
12:07
SPEAKER_17: Glenn asks, Coach, how does one join the VOL Navy?
12:11
SPEAKER_17: Great question.
12:14
SPEAKER_17: Well, Glenn, you don't necessarily need a boat.
12:17
SPEAKER_17: You need a friend with the boat.
12:19
SPEAKER_17: Always arrive with beef, fresh cut by a Food City butcher, and you'll be welcomed aboard.
12:25
SPEAKER_17: This has been at Coach Heifel.
12:27
SPEAKER_17: With me, Coach Hypel.
12:29
SPEAKER_15: Different seasons, different sports.
12:32
SPEAKER_15: Same volunteer spirit.
12:34
SPEAKER_15: For over 30 years, Fall Nation has shown up.
12:37
SPEAKER_17: Now it's time to finish strong.
12:39
SPEAKER_17: Sort aluminum, sort plastic, keep landfills clean.
12:43
SPEAKER_17: And when you see green compost bins on campus, use them.
12:48
SPEAKER_17: Because the future is zero.
12:49
SPEAKER_15: And we're just getting started.
12:51
SPEAKER_15: Sponsored by Eastman, Waste Connections, UT Sustainability, and Food City.
12:59
SPEAKER_05: Saturdays are all about the big art.
13:01
SPEAKER_05: From the roar of Neeland Stadium to the energy of the tailgate, one thing belongs on every game game menu.
13:08
SPEAKER_05: Calhoun.
13:09
SPEAKER_05: Whether you're dining in one of Calhoun's nine-area restaurant locations, taking the feast to your tailgate, or grabbing a bike from one of Calhoun's locations inside Neyland Stadium.
13:20
SPEAKER_05: Calhoun's face is easy.
13:22
SPEAKER_05: So you can focus on carrying the balls to victory.
13:25
SPEAKER_05: Calhoun.
14:02
SPEAKER_15: We're actually not a two-man team.
14:04
SPEAKER_15: Everyone is a critical part of the journey.
14:06
SPEAKER_10: Championship teams are not built by one person.
14:09
SPEAKER_10: Great companies aren't either.
14:11
SPEAKER_15: Like the balls, coaches and players need to learn to handle the pressure, including the pressure of success.
14:18
SPEAKER_05: We invest in the next generation.
14:20
SPEAKER_15: We invest in our community.
14:21
SPEAKER_05: And most importantly, we invest in our employees.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Want to change the world?
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Change it one roof at a time.
14:30
SPEAKER_17: When you travel across the great state of Tennessee, one thing you're sure to find is big orange passion.
14:35
SPEAKER_17: You see it throughout every inch of the volunteer state, just like you see First Horizon.
14:40
SPEAKER_17: Serving communities big and small, offering big bank products with small bank passion.
14:46
SPEAKER_17: What else do you need?
14:47
SPEAKER_10: Big bank muscle.
14:49
SPEAKER_10: Small bank hustle.
14:50
SPEAKER_17: That's First Horizon, the official bank of the Valls.
14:54
SPEAKER_17: Probably serving Tennesseans for over 160 years.
14:58
SPEAKER_11: Being at the Valls game saved my life.
15:02
SPEAKER_11: It was a normal day going to the game with my son, but this time it felt like a sledgehammer hit my chest.
15:08
SPEAKER_11: The UT medical team knew exactly what they needed to do and just kept me calm throughout the process.
15:15
SPEAKER_11: It was probably the most serious heart attack that you could have.
15:18
SPEAKER_11: The team took care of me, worked quickly, efficiently, and I did catch the end of the game.
15:25
SPEAKER_10: These are the stories of the region's academic health system.
15:43
SPEAKER_06: Helping families across the state find their dream homes.
15:47
SPEAKER_05: Chancellor Dandy Plowman is my guest on the big interview, presented by Clayton Holmes.
15:53
SPEAKER_05: You mentioned seven months into your tenure, COVID hits.
15:58
SPEAKER_05: Less than a year after COVID hits, the entire football, NCAA, athletic department thing hit.
16:07
SPEAKER_05: You took both very much head-on.
16:10
SPEAKER_05: Right.
16:10
SPEAKER_05: I think some people were surprised that you did that.
16:13
SPEAKER_05: And looking back now, do you feel that that period of time and how you chose to handle it really set in place who you were going to be around the university community for all to kind of understand?
16:28
SPEAKER_12: You know, that's a great question.
16:29
SPEAKER_12: And some of it I have to admit, I stumble onto.
16:33
SPEAKER_12: So for example, let's talk about COVID.
16:36
SPEAKER_12: We did establish at the outset what are our values here?
16:40
SPEAKER_12: Like how are we gonna do this?
16:41
SPEAKER_12: And we set some goals.
16:43
SPEAKER_12: We're gonna make sure students graduate on time, we're gonna stay connected to one another, and you know, we're gonna keep people safe and healthy and hopeful.
16:53
SPEAKER_12: And that guided us.
16:55
SPEAKER_12: So I don't know, where did that come from?
16:57
SPEAKER_12: I've always been someone who feels like before you make big decisions, what what is it you believe in that you're gonna bump up against?
17:04
SPEAKER_12: That helped us a lot.
17:06
SPEAKER_12: When you think about the um I suppose when you're talking about football, you're not talking about COVID stopping football, but so the issues I mean that was crazy.
17:17
SPEAKER_12: Right.
17:17
SPEAKER_12: The conference really handled that beautifully.
17:20
SPEAKER_12: Um but with the uh Jeremy Pruitt situation, one of the things it was just clear to me at the time, it seems looking back on it, that was another era.
17:31
SPEAKER_12: That was the last big case before NIL of impermissible benefits, but they were against the rules.
17:39
SPEAKER_12: And I found out personally in my office from someone and had to investigate it.
17:45
SPEAKER_12: I felt like I'm not going to just look the other way.
17:48
SPEAKER_12: And then one you know, you start pulling the thread and you find things.
17:52
SPEAKER_12: But during that time, I s set out the following notion.
17:58
SPEAKER_12: How do I want people to think I've handled this?
18:01
SPEAKER_12: I want them to think that I've been decisive.
18:05
SPEAKER_12: I wasn't afraid to do what I thought was right.
18:08
SPEAKER_12: And secondly, I want them to feel like she loves athletics.
18:14
SPEAKER_12: She wants to do it the right way.
18:17
SPEAKER_12: And so we talked about winning with integrity.
18:20
SPEAKER_12: And I think we accomplished both of those things.
18:23
SPEAKER_12: But honestly, I did not know how that was gonna go.
18:27
SPEAKER_12: I did not, I did not, I just didn't know.
18:30
SPEAKER_12: And then we were, you know, made some great hires.
18:34
SPEAKER_12: One great hire I made, which was Danny White, and everything else from there kind of led us to where we are today.
18:41
SPEAKER_05: How did you find Danny White?
18:42
SPEAKER_12: Okay, this is a true story.
18:45
SPEAKER_12: My chief of staff and I were kind of on the side talking, talking, talking, like what's gonna happen here?
18:51
SPEAKER_12: We need to be prepared, whatever.
18:52
SPEAKER_12: He did some reasons, he's a great researcher, Matthew Scoggers, now senior vice chancellor and chief of staff.
18:58
SPEAKER_12: He did some research, found this article that listed 25 top ath athletic directors in the country.
19:05
SPEAKER_12: I don't know where it came from, but I read the article.
19:08
SPEAKER_12: And there was only one of them in there that wasn't at a Power Five school, and that was Danny Wine.
19:16
SPEAKER_12: That could that could help us.
19:18
SPEAKER_12: And then the more I researched about him on my own, we hired a firm, but the firm really was largely to help us do it quietly and all that.
19:27
SPEAKER_12: And it turns out the firm knew him.
19:29
SPEAKER_12: I was really attracted to what I saw.
19:32
SPEAKER_12: And so this is a true story.
19:34
SPEAKER_12: I did not have a search committee.
19:38
SPEAKER_12: I didn't set one out.
19:40
SPEAKER_12: I guess I did have one.
19:42
SPEAKER_12: Now it was John Compton and Randy Boyd.
19:44
SPEAKER_12: So I called them during COVID and said, I think I found the guy.
19:50
SPEAKER_12: And would you get on a Zoom with me tomorrow?
19:53
SPEAKER_12: His name's Danny White.
19:54
SPEAKER_12: He's down at UCF.
19:56
SPEAKER_12: And I said I've interviewed him, I really like him.
19:59
SPEAKER_12: Here's his kind of background.
20:01
SPEAKER_12: I had made some criteria.
20:02
SPEAKER_12: Like, I'll I I want someone who's done this job before, no one in the job training.
20:06
SPEAKER_12: I want someone who's made some successful uh head coach ours.
20:12
SPEAKER_12: So no playing around with him.
20:14
SPEAKER_12: He met those two criteria.
20:16
SPEAKER_12: So I get them on a zoom after the call, they're like, we agree with you.
20:19
SPEAKER_12: I said, okay, here's the next thing.
20:21
SPEAKER_12: I want to fly down to Orlando tonight the three of us and go see him.
20:29
SPEAKER_12: And they dropped what they were doing.
20:31
SPEAKER_12: I didn't even ask what you're doing.
20:32
SPEAKER_12: He's like, can you go?
20:34
SPEAKER_12: And I don't even remember the details what plane we use, because I there was a big thing about it.
20:37
SPEAKER_12: It's like somebody'll find out.
20:40
SPEAKER_12: So I don't I don't even remember what plane we've got on, but we went down there and showed up at their house at six o'clock.
20:45
SPEAKER_12: I've since apologized to Sean about that.
20:47
SPEAKER_12: Like these three people show up at dinner time.
20:51
SPEAKER_12: And she had some sandwiches and stuff like that.
20:53
SPEAKER_12: And so we just talked to them, the two of them, and they were just building their dream home.
21:00
SPEAKER_12: So it was in many ways it seemed like an unlikely thing.
21:06
SPEAKER_12: But what I had to offer him was the opportunity to come and build something.
21:11
SPEAKER_12: And I'm a builder.
21:13
SPEAKER_12: I've always been attracted to people who want to build.
21:16
SPEAKER_12: There's two topics we feel in the world.
21:18
SPEAKER_12: People want to build something or want to go to a place that's already built.
21:21
SPEAKER_12: And he's a builder.
21:23
SPEAKER_12: And that he's the one who first coined the phrase the alignment that he saw.
21:30
SPEAKER_12: John, Randy, me.
21:31
SPEAKER_12: I'm saying no, none of that's gonna happen here.
21:34
SPEAKER_12: That was attractive to him.
21:36
SPEAKER_12: And and it it wasn't just something we were saying, it's been real.
21:40
SPEAKER_12: And at this at that time, that's really all I had to sell him.
21:43
SPEAKER_12: I've just turned us into the NCAA.
21:46
SPEAKER_12: You know, we don't have a football coach, it's late in the recruiting season.
21:51
SPEAKER_12: And he he said yes.
21:53
SPEAKER_12: We move fast, and I'm just to this day thrilled by that heart.
22:00
SPEAKER_05: He's on your leadership council.
22:01
SPEAKER_05: Yes, he is.
22:02
SPEAKER_05: And for what people in the leadership council do, he doesn't necessarily fit because he's the athletic director, and yet you have him there for his ideas, for his brain.
22:14
SPEAKER_05: And in how you've gone about acquiring professors.
22:18
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
22:19
SPEAKER_05: Danny White gave you some thought on that.
22:22
SPEAKER_05: Explain that.
22:23
SPEAKER_12: So we were we decided uh a little over a year ago to do to go out.
22:28
SPEAKER_12: We've been setting aside money.
22:30
SPEAKER_12: We want to move this university to the next level with our academic stature.
22:34
SPEAKER_12: And so we wanted to go higher.
22:35
SPEAKER_12: I was calling a rock star faculty.
22:38
SPEAKER_12: So we were brainstorming it at a retreat or something.
22:40
SPEAKER_12: How are we gonna recruit them?
22:42
SPEAKER_12: Like we wanna I'm saying, hey, there's gotta be people at these elite private schools that are tired of all the politics.
22:47
SPEAKER_12: Let's go after them.
22:49
SPEAKER_12: People say, How are we gonna recruit him?
22:50
SPEAKER_12: What would be Danny's the one who said treat him like a head coach?
22:55
SPEAKER_12: Head coaches bring people with them.
22:57
SPEAKER_12: These people probably have doctoral students or you know, labs or whatever.
23:02
SPEAKER_12: And he said, send the jet.
23:04
SPEAKER_12: And we did it.
23:06
SPEAKER_12: That's a jet we share with athletics.
23:08
SPEAKER_12: That does not happen in most places.
23:11
SPEAKER_05: That's how you win when people are competing for five stars.
23:15
SPEAKER_05: That's what I'm saying.
23:16
SPEAKER_12: Yeah.
23:17
SPEAKER_12: So you it was it's been a collaborative effort.
23:20
SPEAKER_12: It it our f so this was part one.
23:22
SPEAKER_12: We hired eight this year.
23:23
SPEAKER_12: We haven't hired eight people of this stature.
23:26
SPEAKER_12: We've never hired eight at one time.
23:28
SPEAKER_12: You might you might go hired one every so often.
23:33
SPEAKER_12: This university has mostly hired faculty by hiring them right out of their graduate programs and then growing their own.
23:39
SPEAKER_12: So this is sort of a big change.
23:41
SPEAKER_12: Going and finding our first ones are for Brown, Duke, Penn, Texas ANAL.
23:47
SPEAKER_12: I really love that one.
23:48
SPEAKER_12: Uh you know, a lot of really great schools.
23:52
SPEAKER_12: And we're just we're gonna keep it going.
23:54
SPEAKER_12: Success breeds success.
23:56
SPEAKER_12: So yeah, Danny's a very big part of decisions that people will be shocked.
24:01
SPEAKER_12: It has nothing to do with athletics.
24:03
SPEAKER_12: Oftentimes he's he's got innovative ideas about things that have nothing to do with athletics.
24:09
SPEAKER_12: Or he questions things, or people will question him.
24:12
SPEAKER_12: He makes a real contribution, and it was important to me that his title be vice chancellor and director of athletics.
24:20
SPEAKER_12: I've been at places where the director of athletics either didn't come to those meetings or would kind of sit at the other end of the table and you know, read something.
24:29
SPEAKER_12: Danny's a full-fledged participant and it's wonderful.
24:32
SPEAKER_05: Chancellor Donnie Plowman, our guest on the big interview presented by Clayton Holmes.
24:36
SPEAKER_05: We've got more coming up right after this.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: This is your home for coaches and players.
24:43
SPEAKER_18: One-on-one from Rocky Top.
24:45
SPEAKER_18: This is your ball network.
25:01
SPEAKER_05: There have been challenges for the University of Tennessee under Dundee Ploughman, the Chancellor.
25:07
SPEAKER_05: Another one upcoming, but it's a good challenge.
25:09
SPEAKER_05: Welcome back to the Mike Keith Show, the big interview.
25:12
SPEAKER_05: Chancellor Plowman is our guest.
25:14
SPEAKER_05: Campaign underway.
25:16
SPEAKER_05: It takes a volunteer, is what it's titled$3.5 billion to be raised by 2030.
25:23
SPEAKER_05: Now, 60% of that has been raised since 2020.
25:28
SPEAKER_05: So it's not 3.5 billion.
25:30
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
25:30
SPEAKER_05: But still, to finish that out, this is the push.
25:34
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
25:35
SPEAKER_05: Why that number?
25:36
SPEAKER_12: Why now?
25:37
SPEAKER_12: So, first of all, that's the way this business works, advancement.
25:40
SPEAKER_12: They never announce a number until they feel really good and confident they're going to get there.
25:46
SPEAKER_12: If you look at the number, it has to do with the things we're trying to achieve and what's achievable for us.
25:52
SPEAKER_12: And I'll tell you, if you look at the momentum in our fundraising over the last three years, it's unbelievable.
25:58
SPEAKER_12: Two years ago, we broke a record of 300 million, never raised that in a single year, ever, historically.
26:04
SPEAKER_12: Last year we broke 400, and this year 580 million.
26:08
SPEAKER_12: So we're on a roll.
26:09
SPEAKER_12: People are seeing what's happening at Tennessee and they want to be part of it.
26:13
SPEAKER_05: Why is this university on such a roll that there is that sort of enthusiasm that you could have that kind of goal and feel like it's very attainable?
26:23
SPEAKER_12: You know, success is can contagious and everyone wants to be part of a winner.
26:29
SPEAKER_12: Like you want to be part of something that's winning.
26:33
SPEAKER_12: And we're winning at so many things.
26:36
SPEAKER_12: And you take something like I can go to any state in the United States, show up with my orange on, and someone will come up to me and say, My daughter's desperately trying to get into the University of Tennessee.
26:48
SPEAKER_12: Does she have a chance?
26:49
SPEAKER_12: My grandson applied there.
26:51
SPEAKER_12: Five of his friends from his school in Northern Virginia want to come there.
26:54
SPEAKER_12: We're we're recruiting out of Memphis like we've never recruited.
26:57
SPEAKER_12: And I think it's we're hot.
26:59
SPEAKER_12: We're a kind of a thing.
27:02
SPEAKER_12: Uh in the world of in enrollment and uh uh college admissions.
27:08
SPEAKER_12: We are a university that's growing.
27:10
SPEAKER_12: We're a state whose demographic is going to keep we're gonna have a slight decline.
27:15
SPEAKER_12: States around us are serious.
27:17
SPEAKER_12: In 2041, that's the number they're using.
27:20
SPEAKER_12: This state's age group, that demographic will have grown by 16%.
27:25
SPEAKER_12: Everyone around us is either in low single digits or negative.
27:30
SPEAKER_12: So I'm always saying, guess where they're gonna come to recruit students from here.
27:34
SPEAKER_12: But we're we're sort of on fire right now.
27:36
SPEAKER_12: And I think people see what's happening.
27:39
SPEAKER_12: I I say this all the time.
27:40
SPEAKER_12: People ask me, why do you care about athletics so much?
27:43
SPEAKER_12: Forty over 40 million people viewed us in some a sporting event on TV last year.
27:49
SPEAKER_12: Parents look at that and go, you know, I want my kids somewhere like that.
27:53
SPEAKER_12: And there's a recent article that was out, I can't remember, I think it might have been USA Today, one of the big newspapers about another one about the movement South.
28:02
SPEAKER_12: Parents want a student experience.
28:04
SPEAKER_12: They they want an academic program, they want a major that leads to a job, but they want an experience for their for their children.
28:12
SPEAKER_12: They want to come somewhere that has big athletics, they want to come somewhere where my kid can grow up and engage and belong in healthy things.
28:20
SPEAKER_12: If you think about, we we now have this tradition called Tennessee Saturday night, which is the first Saturday night they're here before classes start.
28:28
SPEAKER_12: This year we had 10,000 kids in the union.
28:31
SPEAKER_12: 10 10,000 playing the most wholesome games, throwing axes at something else, and you know, just i enjoying one another, getting to know one another.
28:42
SPEAKER_12: That's what parents want.
28:44
SPEAKER_12: So you there's a narrative out there that goes nobody values college education anymore.
28:49
SPEAKER_12: That's really not true.
28:52
SPEAKER_12: And it's certainly not true in the segment that you know we're looking at.
28:56
SPEAKER_12: And so we're working really hard to deliver on what is a student experience.
29:01
SPEAKER_12: What does that mean?
29:02
SPEAKER_12: What do what do we want students to gain while they're here in that space?
29:08
SPEAKER_05: So the student experience thing is very interesting to me because when I went to school here, there was nothing to do on campus.
29:15
SPEAKER_05: You you went to ball games.
29:16
SPEAKER_05: No.
29:17
SPEAKER_05: There was nothing.
29:17
SPEAKER_05: I mean, outside of the Greek area and the inner murals um and going to ball games, there was really nothing to do on campus.
29:25
SPEAKER_05: You went to the strip.
29:27
SPEAKER_05: Well, now the University of Tennessee experience is on the campus.
29:32
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
29:32
SPEAKER_05: What's done that?
29:34
SPEAKER_05: What's made the University of Tennessee experience for a student be on the campus of the University of Tennessee?
29:41
SPEAKER_12: So think about this.
29:43
SPEAKER_12: I mentioned earlier we do we don't do orientation, we do six weeks of welcome.
29:49
SPEAKER_12: And I said we have 600 events.
29:52
SPEAKER_12: Every night there are so many different things to do.
29:55
SPEAKER_12: We've got over 500 student organizations.
29:58
SPEAKER_12: And a student can start an organization.
30:00
SPEAKER_12: Like Frank, the vice chancellor for student life, loves to talk about the uh there's a quilting organization.
30:06
SPEAKER_12: There is a barbecue organization.
30:08
SPEAKER_12: A bunch of guys started a group to teach each other how to barbecue.
30:13
SPEAKER_12: You name it, you can start it, you can do it.
30:14
SPEAKER_12: And we really try to foster that and make it super easy.
30:18
SPEAKER_12: And in students, the dorms now, we've invested wisely.
30:22
SPEAKER_12: We partner with private industry in a building these gorgeous dorms.
30:26
SPEAKER_12: And students want to live there and they're they make friends there, they can study there.
30:32
SPEAKER_12: It's it it's a it's an attractive place for people to be.
30:36
SPEAKER_12: And it's college is about building relationships that are gonna last for a lifetime and learning how to do that.
30:44
SPEAKER_12: And so we try to make that easy for for students.
30:48
SPEAKER_05: Torch night.
30:49
SPEAKER_12: It's the night or two, depending on the way the calendar falls, before classes start.
30:53
SPEAKER_12: This year we had I wanna say 10,000 students in there.
30:59
SPEAKER_12: We had 7,200 new freshmen, we had about 2,100 um transfers, and the rest of them were graduate students.
31:09
SPEAKER_12: For the first time ever, we involved graduate students.
31:11
SPEAKER_12: And like, first of all, it's a big giant pep rally.
31:13
SPEAKER_12: That's the first 30 minutes.
31:15
SPEAKER_12: Josh Heibel gets out there.
31:16
SPEAKER_05: I heard he was amazing.
31:17
SPEAKER_12: Oh my gosh, he's up there with the microphone going crazy, jumping around saying, Tomorrow is the first day of class, you are beginning the most transformational experience you'll have in your lifetime.
31:29
SPEAKER_12: He's talking to him like that, and they're just like, Oh, it's a head football coach, oh and and and the place is just hyped up, literally.
31:37
SPEAKER_12: Um and so after the pepperelli part is over and different teams come up there and throw away free t-shirts, everybody loves that, and all of our student athletes are amazing.
31:47
SPEAKER_12: Then we begin the more serious part, and it can it's supposed to be we're passing the torch of preparation.
31:54
SPEAKER_12: See the sophomore class passes it to the freshman class.
31:57
SPEAKER_12: So all those students have not really a torch, not even a candle, a glove stick.
32:02
SPEAKER_12: Um, and at a certain point we tell them, okay, reach down underneath your chair.
32:07
SPEAKER_12: There's a bag and there's a sealed envelope in there.
32:11
SPEAKER_12: I'm gonna give away the secret, probably get in trouble for this, but at a certain point we say you can open the envelope.
32:19
SPEAKER_12: And there is a castle from your hat for graduation.
32:26
SPEAKER_12: You're going to wear that in four years.
32:28
SPEAKER_12: And meanwhile, we want you to keep it in front of you.
32:32
SPEAKER_12: And now you're gonna stand and take the volunteer creed.
32:35
SPEAKER_12: Everyone stands up and then they light their glow sticks.
32:38
SPEAKER_12: And there's a part of that creed that I love the pledge, where they say something like, I promise in moments big and small to lead, to serve, and to light the way for others.
32:53
SPEAKER_12: You heard 10,000 voices saying, I take goosebumps every time I think it's amazing.
32:59
SPEAKER_12: And then the night before commencement, four years later, they take the creed again.
33:05
SPEAKER_12: Wherever to wherever I'm going, to graduate school or the community I'm moving to, I promise, in moments big and small, to step forward to we deserve like luthers.
33:15
SPEAKER_12: That's what it used to be a volunteer.
33:17
SPEAKER_12: So it's at the heart of what we're doing, and we're not kidding about it.
33:20
SPEAKER_12: It's serious, and they go by that tor- Why do you think the torch bearer is where everybody wants to have their picture made?
33:26
SPEAKER_12: They all quote it all the time.
33:28
SPEAKER_12: And we do so many things, like they all know what their top five strengths are, and they're they have strengths coaches who help them with that.
33:36
SPEAKER_12: It's it's a whole package, and that's truly what differentiates us from any other place in the country.
33:44
SPEAKER_05: A back you up of the stat.
33:45
SPEAKER_05: And you got here 54% of incoming students graduated in four years.
33:50
SPEAKER_05: Now it's up to 71%.
33:53
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
33:54
SPEAKER_05: That's a real I mean that's something you've got to be proud of.
33:57
SPEAKER_12: I am so proud of that.
33:58
SPEAKER_12: And we've worked really hard at it.
34:00
SPEAKER_12: The um six-year graduation rate is the one the industry uses.
34:04
SPEAKER_12: It takes longer to get it there, but we're so proud of that.
34:08
SPEAKER_12: Because parents want their kids to get out in four years.
34:10
SPEAKER_12: Sure.
34:10
SPEAKER_12: So we're we're 25%.
34:12
SPEAKER_12: I mean, only 25% don't graduate in four years.
34:15
SPEAKER_12: Our goal is to keep moving all of that.
34:18
SPEAKER_12: Like we've already surpassed our our 2030 goal for this.
34:22
SPEAKER_12: We were hoping to get to 70%, and I think actually we're higher than 71%.
34:27
SPEAKER_12: But, you know, it it's an effort, and we put enormous resources and efforts into that first year experience.
34:34
SPEAKER_12: They all have a success team, three adults, a strengths coach, an advisor, somebody from one stop who makes sure they've paid all their bills, and then a peer mentor who travels with them the whole first year.
34:47
SPEAKER_12: There's nobody doing that in the country.
34:50
SPEAKER_05: Tondi Plowman is the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
34:54
SPEAKER_05: She will continue with us on the big interview, the Mike Keith Show, presented by Blayton Holmes.
34:59
SPEAKER_10: You're one-on-one with Mike Keith, sponsored by Food City, the official supermarket of the Tennessee Volunteers.
35:06
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35:12
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35:20
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35:21
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35:27
SPEAKER_10: And by UT Medical, the official healthcare provider of the vault.
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37:04
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37:09
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37:12
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37:14
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39:20
SPEAKER_05: Joined by the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Dundee Plowman, talking about a lot of different things going on at the University of Tennessee right now.
39:28
SPEAKER_05: There are so many.
39:31
SPEAKER_05: Student engagement, student experience, one of the pillars.
39:35
SPEAKER_05: Right.
39:35
SPEAKER_05: Athletics, another of the pillars.
39:37
SPEAKER_05: Correct.
39:37
SPEAKER_05: Research.
39:38
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
39:39
SPEAKER_05: You talk a lot about research, and in reading some articles, it's interesting to me how the feeling is research affects every student positively at the University of Tennessee, even if they're not involved in something specifically research-based.
39:57
SPEAKER_05: Why is research so important to the university as a whole?
40:01
SPEAKER_12: So the way we're approaching research here is a little bit different than a lot of places.
40:05
SPEAKER_12: So for example, we're prioritizing research that matters to Tennessee and to the nation.
40:13
SPEAKER_12: And it matters to Tennessee because it helps create jobs.
40:16
SPEAKER_12: So we are very and it plays to our strengths.
40:19
SPEAKER_12: Nuclear engineering, AI, we've we're developing a lot of strengths in that.
40:24
SPEAKER_12: Automobile futures, supply chain management.
40:28
SPEAKER_12: Those are areas that are we dominate in.
40:32
SPEAKER_12: And for students, it makes a difference because the the research is this seems abstract, but it's helping create jobs in the economy.
40:39
SPEAKER_12: And so we are really our research office is called the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development.
40:48
SPEAKER_12: The innovation economic development part is really important.
40:51
SPEAKER_12: And so we do encourage students to get involved in undergraduate research.
40:54
SPEAKER_12: It's a great experience for them to talk about with an interview for a job anywhere.
41:00
SPEAKER_12: But indirectly, and I'm glad that you mentioned that because that's been that's a hard part of the sales pitch here.
41:07
SPEAKER_12: Why should the average citizen taxpayer care about research?
41:11
SPEAKER_12: That seems sort of, you know, academic.
41:15
SPEAKER_12: But the truth is the way we're approaching it, it affects everyone.
41:20
SPEAKER_12: And it's and I saw a list recently of all the innovations that came from universities over the last several decades.
41:31
SPEAKER_12: Everything.
41:32
SPEAKER_12: From your TV to your microwave to the everything.
41:36
SPEAKER_12: Just about and so it's played a huge role in our society and but but it's a hard thing to talk about.
41:44
SPEAKER_12: So I'm trying really hard to translate the importance of research into things that matter for people who live in the state.
41:52
SPEAKER_12: And I'll give you an example.
41:54
SPEAKER_12: Probably our strongest research department in terms of federal dollars we get is the Department of Nuclear Engineering.
42:00
SPEAKER_12: It's the oldest PhD program, the largest in nuclear engineering.
42:04
SPEAKER_12: But they also this last year put together curriculum on nuclear energy for K through two.
42:12
SPEAKER_12: Not K through 12, but K through two.
42:15
SPEAKER_12: So we need young people to understand about energy and why nuclear energy is an important source for us in the future.
42:26
SPEAKER_12: It's going to be turn the lights on and all that stuff.
42:30
SPEAKER_12: And so then you have a department that is like our biggest research horses and rock stars.
42:37
SPEAKER_12: But at the same time, some of their faculty are helping translate to kids in elementary school.
42:44
SPEAKER_12: What is nuclear energy?
42:46
SPEAKER_12: Why is that important?
42:48
SPEAKER_12: What is how does the world work better with nuclear energy?
42:51
SPEAKER_12: I'm really proud of that.
42:52
SPEAKER_12: That's unusual.
42:54
SPEAKER_05: Are we closer to maximizing the relationship with Oak Ridge as you had hoped when you came seven plus years ago?
43:03
SPEAKER_12: So much so.
43:03
SPEAKER_12: And I'm not it's that's not because of anything I did.
43:07
SPEAKER_12: Um as I got here, Randy Boyd also saw that.
43:11
SPEAKER_12: And we he had constructed this idea of something it's called UTory.
43:16
SPEAKER_12: University of Tennessee Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, long name.
43:21
SPEAKER_12: So we call it UTory.
43:22
SPEAKER_12: And it's kind of this joint relationship between the lab and UT Oxville.
43:28
SPEAKER_12: And um it's a place where people who work at the lab can work together with our faculty and go after research grants that just as an ORNL scientist you can't go after.
43:39
SPEAKER_12: All of their funding comes from the Department of Energy generally.
43:42
SPEAKER_12: And so it's been really successful.
43:44
SPEAKER_12: And I I think we're we're working together in ways.
43:47
SPEAKER_12: I mean, the director of the lab tells me this, people out of the lab in ways we've never done before.
43:52
SPEAKER_12: And it's like I I texted Stephen last night while I was watching a football game, the director of the lab and I said, Hey, what about so and so?
43:58
SPEAKER_12: He goes, Can I call you?
43:59
SPEAKER_12: I mean That never happened.
44:02
SPEAKER_12: And so the UT Battel is the board that manages the lab.
44:08
SPEAKER_12: I sit on that board.
44:09
SPEAKER_12: The president co-chairs it along with someone, the CEO of Battel, and they switch back and forth each year.
44:16
SPEAKER_12: So we're very involved with the lab.
44:18
SPEAKER_12: That's been true for a long time, but the working relationship is much better now than it has been in a long, long time.
44:24
SPEAKER_05: Student population wise, how much bigger can the university get?
44:28
SPEAKER_12: We're going to grow through online digital learning.
44:33
SPEAKER_12: That's the the next major mechanism.
44:35
SPEAKER_12: Our freshman class is going to stay about where it's at, 7,200.
44:39
SPEAKER_12: Or it's 72, I think 03 this year or 50, something like that.
44:43
SPEAKER_12: And that's the number.
44:45
SPEAKER_12: All right.
44:45
SPEAKER_12: What's happening now is we're growing with transfer students.
44:49
SPEAKER_12: People are realizing, hey, you know what?
44:51
SPEAKER_12: I can't get in the freshman year.
44:54
SPEAKER_12: I can do the work, prove myself, and come in that line.
44:57
SPEAKER_12: We huge increase in.
44:59
SPEAKER_12: And that's okay with us.
45:01
SPEAKER_12: Like we just don't want the pressure on the freshman year.
45:04
SPEAKER_12: Sure.
45:04
SPEAKER_12: Because we it's such a part of how we distinguish ourselves.
45:08
SPEAKER_12: And we're sort of at the max of, I think the right you like your customer service.
45:12
SPEAKER_12: Yes.
45:13
SPEAKER_12: That's it.
45:13
SPEAKER_05: And and the experience part of it.
45:15
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
45:16
SPEAKER_05: That's the group that you can handle.
45:17
SPEAKER_05: That's the number you can handle to publicly get it.
45:20
SPEAKER_12: Yeah.
45:20
SPEAKER_12: And but we're going to see keep growing.
45:22
SPEAKER_12: And digital is a great opportunity for us.
45:25
SPEAKER_12: We, you know, we're partnering with Arizona State University.
45:28
SPEAKER_12: That's a new thing.
45:30
SPEAKER_12: We're three years into it, but that's been a wonderful partnership.
45:33
SPEAKER_12: And and those numbers are starting to take off.
45:36
SPEAKER_12: We have over 800 students enrolled completely online as undergraduates this year.
45:42
SPEAKER_12: Wow.
45:42
SPEAKER_12: And our goal was a thousand, so we're a hair behind, but we think we'll have that by spring.
45:47
SPEAKER_12: And those are 830 students that would not have come here.
45:51
SPEAKER_12: These are working adults who have something like 30 hours of credit and no degree.
45:57
SPEAKER_12: We want to help them get that finished because a better life and a better job for them.
46:02
SPEAKER_12: So that's part of our land grant mission.
46:04
SPEAKER_12: And I'm really proud of that.
46:05
SPEAKER_12: And I'm really thrilled that the faculty, it's our faculty are designing the courses, teaching the courses.
46:12
SPEAKER_12: It's the same curriculum.
46:14
SPEAKER_12: It's not like some fly by night private operation that's, you know, it's the same quality.
46:20
SPEAKER_12: And we're, I'm really, I'm really committed to that and proud of the faculty for participating.
46:26
SPEAKER_12: Because they could have looked at that and said, well, these aren't even our students, but it's an important part of our mission.
46:31
SPEAKER_05: When we come back, questions from UT students for Chancellor Donde Plowman.
46:36
SPEAKER_05: That's up next on the big interview presented by Clayton Holmes.
46:40
SPEAKER_02: Getting you ready for the game, the Mike Geek Show, delivered by Green Fit indoor Ball Network.
46:51
SPEAKER_06: The Friday big interview is brought to you by Clayton Holmes, Oakwood Homes, and Love Homes of Tennessee, helping families across the state find their dream homes.
47:02
SPEAKER_05: Chancellor Donnie Ploughman has been kind enough to take time with us on the Mike Keith show.
47:07
SPEAKER_05: This is the big interview presented by Clayton Holmes.
47:09
SPEAKER_05: One of the things that I like doing on this show is we get to work with a lot of students.
47:15
SPEAKER_05: They do a great job for us, and we're hoping they get sort of that real world experience, learn what to do, learn what not to do.
47:22
SPEAKER_05: And we ask them and said, would you submit some questions for the chancellor?
47:26
SPEAKER_05: All right, here's question one.
47:28
SPEAKER_05: If you had one full day to experience UT as a student, how would you spend it?
47:33
SPEAKER_12: Okay, I'd like to wake up in Torchbearer Hall.
47:36
SPEAKER_05: The new dorm.
47:38
SPEAKER_12: Experience the new dorm, preferably ninth floor, great views.
47:41
SPEAKER_12: I'd like to see what it's like to get up from there, go to class.
47:48
SPEAKER_12: I would like to test myself on how often I stop for ice cream.
47:51
SPEAKER_12: I think that would be important.
47:53
SPEAKER_12: So that's what I'd like to spend my first day just like a normal student, but wake up in one of those new dorms, and that would be the one.
47:58
SPEAKER_05: Question two, what separates UT from every other SEC school?
48:03
SPEAKER_12: We are the volunteers, and it means something to be a volunteer.
48:07
SPEAKER_12: I believe that.
48:08
SPEAKER_12: It takes a volunteer.
48:09
SPEAKER_12: Volunteer means something.
48:10
SPEAKER_12: It means service, it means leadership, it means lighting the way for others.
48:14
SPEAKER_12: That's just inherent to who we are.
48:16
SPEAKER_05: Balls help balls.
48:18
SPEAKER_12: Yeah, that's right.
48:19
SPEAKER_05: Uh, amongst the chaos in college athletics, you've been a vocal part of recent SEC committee meetings.
48:26
SPEAKER_05: How are you maining maintaining the volunteer standard within a changing era in sports?
48:33
SPEAKER_12: I hope I am maintaining it.
48:35
SPEAKER_12: I don't know, lighting the way for others.
48:37
SPEAKER_12: This is a hard time.
48:39
SPEAKER_12: We have to have rules.
48:41
SPEAKER_12: The most recent stuff has been about can the conference have rules?
48:46
SPEAKER_12: NCAA has rules, but they kind of don't follow them themselves or they uh kind of erratically implement them or use them.
48:54
SPEAKER_12: So we need rules.
48:56
SPEAKER_12: And that's really, I think, what the focus has been right now.
48:59
SPEAKER_05: What student resource center do you think has improved the most since you began here?
49:04
SPEAKER_12: Well, uh I'll tell you this.
49:06
SPEAKER_12: We set up, we stood up the year after I got here, this division of student success.
49:12
SPEAKER_12: And it has just taken off.
49:14
SPEAKER_12: And they're responsible for those retention numbers.
49:16
SPEAKER_12: They're responsible for the graduation rates.
49:19
SPEAKER_12: Um, I I give them a lot of credit because they were a startup.
49:22
SPEAKER_12: And what that means is we hired some leadership and we pulled people in from here.
49:27
SPEAKER_12: It's not like we just went and hired a bunch of people.
49:29
SPEAKER_12: It's like, okay, you were working in orientation, now you're part of this.
49:32
SPEAKER_12: You were working as an advisor, you're part of this.
49:35
SPEAKER_12: And um I'm just thrilled with what they've done.
49:38
SPEAKER_12: So many things.
49:40
SPEAKER_05: What value does UT bring to a student's experience that other universities do not?
49:47
SPEAKER_12: So easy to answer that in so many different ways.
49:51
SPEAKER_12: But the the biggest thing that we're doing is the everything we do around student success.
49:56
SPEAKER_12: So one of the things, like by the sophomore year, what we're telling students that they're enrolling in something called the Vol Edge, which is okay, starting as a sophomore, you need to start thinking about getting a job.
50:06
SPEAKER_12: So, what does that mean?
50:08
SPEAKER_12: Well, there's three things we know that really help you in the job market.
50:11
SPEAKER_12: They're all student engagement.
50:13
SPEAKER_12: You need to study abroad or get an internship like you're providing here, or do an undergraduate student research project, and then be able to talk about that.
50:23
SPEAKER_12: So come back from your study abroad in London and say to an employer, I studied abroad, and these are the things I learned about leading people when you don't understand your surroundings.
50:33
SPEAKER_12: And that's why that's a, for example, that's a quality that I think I would bring to this job that you're interviewing me for.
50:39
SPEAKER_12: Like help them talk about what they learned there or what they learned in their undergraduate research project, or working for Mike Keith.
50:47
SPEAKER_12: When I worked for Mike Keith, he pushed me on things I never thought about before.
50:52
SPEAKER_12: And that makes me confident that in your office, in your as an employer, I could do the same for you.
50:58
SPEAKER_12: You know, like getting that sense of confidence.
51:00
SPEAKER_12: And that distinguishes our whole approach to student success.
51:04
SPEAKER_05: Last question.
51:06
SPEAKER_05: It takes a volunteer, the fundraising campaign that is now underway.
51:11
SPEAKER_05: Why, if someone asks you, why should somebody give money to that?
51:18
SPEAKER_12: Here's what I want to prephrase, rephrase your good, rephrase it.
51:21
SPEAKER_12: Why should someone invest the University of Tennessee?
51:25
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
51:25
SPEAKER_12: It's not a gift.
51:26
SPEAKER_12: It's an investment.
51:27
SPEAKER_12: You're investing in the future of the citizens of Tennessee.
51:31
SPEAKER_12: You're investing in the future leaders of the state, and you're investing in the university so that it can make a difference for the state and the nation, honestly.
51:42
SPEAKER_12: So that's a big distinction we're making.
51:44
SPEAKER_12: It's not a gift, it's not philanthropy so much as it is an investment.
51:47
SPEAKER_12: And I've learned that from Dean Jimmy Hasman, and I really appreciate that.
51:51
SPEAKER_05: So uh you're very good at your job, and apparently you're better at mine than I am.
51:55
SPEAKER_05: So there, you ask a better question.
51:56
SPEAKER_05: I enjoy talking with you.
51:58
SPEAKER_05: Hey, thank you for and for all that you do for the University of Tennessee, our students, and obviously our alumni fans everywhere.
52:05
SPEAKER_05: Right back at you.
52:06
SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
52:06
SPEAKER_05: Chancellor Donde Ploughman with us on the Mike Keith Show, the big interview presented by Clayton Holmes.
52:12
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.com.
52:26
SPEAKER_02: We are the Fall Network.