Objectives Related to the Self-Study
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) takes great pride in its intercollegiate athletics program. An institutional commitment to integrity ensures that this program makes essential contributions to the educational development of student athletes, to the overall goals of the University, and to a sense of community in the wider Chattanooga area. During the 2010-2011 academic year, UTC will conduct an enthusiastic and thorough self-study of its intercollegiate athletics program. The self-study process will serve as a consciousness-raising exercise that will help the University educate the campus and the wider community about the important contributions made by its athletics team. Not only will this process usefully spotlight strengths of the program that need to be maintained, but it will also identify areas in which improvements will be necessary. Perhaps most generally, the self-study will serve as an institution-wide opportunity to affirm the positive role of intercollegiate athletics at UTC. These outcomes will require the accomplishment of the following more specific goals:
- To make the campus and wider community aware of the operations of the UTC athletics programs by involving them in the self-study processes.
- To conduct a detailed and careful review of the UTC athletics program by identifying strengths and weaknesses in three areas of assessment: 1.) governance and commitment to rules compliance, 2.) academic integrity, and 3.) gender and diversity and student-athlete well-being.
- To develop plans for improving the UTC athletics program that address concerns identified during the self-study.
- To ensure that activities of the UTC athletics program are optimally integrated into the mission of the university.
Cycle 2 Institutional Plans for Improvement
This self-study will maintain the UTC tradition of using the self-study process to better understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of its intercollegiate athletics program. The previous “Cycle 2” self study occurred during 2001-2003. The Athletics Certification Peer Review Team site visit occurred June 9-13, 2003. They did not identify any issues during their visit. The Committee on Athletics Certification did not impose any corrective actions, conditions for certification, or strategies for improvement for the University. UTC was certified on September 30, 2004.
