Tech Tomorrow

Progress Updates

Progress since start of Tech Tomorrow (NOTE: All goals set prior to pandemic.)

Goal	2018-2019 Baseline	2024-2025 Current	+/-
12,000 total headcount enrollment	10,186	10,511	+325
22% non-White enrollment	16.00%	20.90%	+4.90%
82% freshmen-to-sophomore retention rate	75.00%	78.20%	+3.20%
50% 4-year graduation rate	34.60%	41.20%	+6.60%
60% 6-year graduation rate	55.20%	57.70%	+2.50%
$40M annually in sponsored research	$20.23M	$46.05*	+$25.82M

* Sponsored research current is 2023-2024; 2024-2025 amount available late summer 2025

Progress on non-metric goals.  The 2025 Goals included three goals that did not have a numeric goal attached to them: 

• Growth of online programs,
• Strengthen career development, and
• Be recognized as the champion and center of excellence regarding the future of rural Tennessee communities.

Growth of online programs.  When Tech Tomorrow was adopted, Tech had 13 online programs. As of 2024, the University now has 19 online programs. These numbers exclude individual concentrations to programs added as an online option. To support this goal, the University invested in a new position at the associate provost level in the Division of Academic Affairs to oversee online education and has expanded infrastructure in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning through the expanded numbers of instructional designers and educational technology software. In 2023-2024, Academic Affairs committed $300,000 of faculty, department, and college support through the launch of the Faculty Academy for Course and Program Development (FACPD). The purpose was to infuse faculty development with best practices in instructional design support to assist faculty, departments, and colleges, with rapid course and program development and delivery to ensure course quality and optimal student engagement. The call for proposals sought to diversity and innovate with online course and program design that best supported student engagement and retention. Thirty faculty were accepted to the Academy and the impact was 16 undergraduate and 15 graduate projects completed with five of those immediately impacting online programs/certificates.

Strengthen career development.  Since the adoption of Tech Tomorrow, the University reorganized its former Office of Career Services into the Center for Career Development. With a broader student-centered focus than its previous structure allowed, the Center works to help students in all areas of career development:

• Helping students find a major that fits with their skills, interests and values
• Identifying a student’s potential career paths
• Strengthening a student’s career readiness through Tech’s Career Readiness Certification programs, which are based on the National Association of Colleges and Employers Career Competencies and George Kuh’s high impact practices. They are designed to help students identify where their skills are being developed and how to better communicate those skills to employers.

The Center is working towards the goal of providing all Tech students with a career plan, and the Career Readiness Certification programs are integral to achieving this goal. This initiative is also part of the University’s upcoming Quality Enhancement Program (QEP).

Be recognized as the champion and center of excellence regarding the future of rural Tennessee communities.  Tech Tomorrow called for the development of “a grand challenge to address a significant problem and contribute to impactful interdisciplinary solutions” (Strategic Goal 1.A.iii). A group of faculty members, staff and students investigated possible paths forward and determined that a broad initiative to help rural communities would be beneficial to the university, to the regional communities around Tech, and to the State of Tennessee. The initiative, named “Rural Reimagined” was launched in 2019.  Since its inception, the program has:

• Received more than $36 million in research funding around rural issues,
• Helped 70 rural counties in the state (including eight counties designated as “distressed” by the Appalachian Regional Commission),
• Conducted 900 projects in these counties,
• Assisted more than 700 small businesses and entrepreneurs, and
• Helped create or retain 800 jobs.

The University also has established a Center for Rural Innovation, which routinely receives $1 million from the State of Tennessee in the state’s annual budget, along with an additional $1.5 million to $2 million annually in sponsored federal research projects. The goal of the Center is to foster rural economic development by providing technical assistance and conducting applied research with outcomes that seek to increase the resiliency and economic outlook of Tennessee's rural and distressed communities. This U.S.  Economic Development Administration University Center program’s inputs and outputs seek to create outcomes that increase prosperity throughout rural Tennessee by addressing energy, critical infrastructure, mobility, poverty, small business development, and more. The Center partners and collaborates with public and private entities at the local, regional, state and national levels.  Moreover, the Center partners with key state entities including the Departments of Agriculture, Economic and Community Development, Human Services, and Tourist Development to deploy strategic programs designed to enhance the quality of life in Tennessee's rural communities.