KNOXVILLE –- The University of Tennessee has opened a new Visitors Center for prospective students and their families at the west corner of the Knoxville campus. The center will provide a convenient location to accommodate the more than 15,000 people who visit campus each year.
“As the state’s flagship university, UT offers tremendous opportunities to its students. This new center will help us showcase our campus and our programs to prospective students,” Chancellor Loren Crabtree said. “It’s a well placed, comfortable spot for visitors to begin their exploration of campus.”
The center -– housed in the facility of the former University Club — complements the Undergraduate Admissions office operation located on Circle Park, in the heart of campus. The new Visitors Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
“The Center will make it much easier for families to come to campus. The location is easily accessible — a simple three turns off the interstate — and there’s ample parking,” Undergraduate Admissions Director Nancy McGlasson said.
All information sessions and bus and walking tours will originate from the center. Each year, more than 12,000 students apply for admission to UT.
“This new facility will allow us to provide additional services — and more personalized services — to students as they consider UT,” McGlasson said.
The new location has allowed the office to expand and enhance its Campus Visit Program, which combines an information session led by admissions staff with a bus-and-walking tour of campus for prospective students and their families. With the opening of the new center, 12 to 15 programs are being offered weekly, up from nine or 10. Each tour group is smaller and more personalized.
“Now that we offer more sessions, our next step is to look at customizing our sessions to cater to the special needs of transfer students, first-generation college students and others,” McGlasson said.
The Admissions office also has launched Campus Connections, a new program in which prospective students can meet with faculty, staff and students to learn more about campus and their planned academic majors. Campus Connections sessions also will focus on incoming students undecided about their majors, as well as those with a particular major in mind; students who want career planning help; and students in pre-professional programs, including medicine, law and pharmacy.
For more information about campus visits, see http://admissions.utk.edu/undergraduate/visit.shtml
Long-term plans call for the Visitors Center to also provide general campus information for all people visiting UT.
A visitors center was identified as a key need more than five years ago in the Campus Master Plan.
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Contact:
Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu