Wed
Aug 9 2006
06:59 pm
Faculty Club update
By: R. Neal

We heard there was discussion on local talk radio today that U.T. is planning to sell football game-day RV parking spots on the Faculty Club property for $20,000 a pop. There was also talk of a dock facility for the Vol Navy. Does anybody out there know anything about this?

One person noted to us that none of this would necessarily interfere with the current Faculty Club operations. (Which makes us wonder, could these types of uses help subsidize the Faculty Club?)

So, is the master plan becoming clearer? Could it also have anything to do with this? Whatever is really going on, that property is seven acres or so of some of the most prime real estate in Knoxville.

Developing...

Topics:
infostat's picture

RV Parking & UT Gardens

Submitted by infostat on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 7:32am.

I can't add anything but more gossip to the mill, but one of my neighbors is a veterinary surgical resident at UT. Recently he was telling me about the grievous parking enforcements at the vet school. On nights before games, the lot has to be cleared by 6:00 p.m. for the RV's. If one of the doctors, techs, or students gets caught up in say something trivial like surgery and misses the deadline, they get a stiff fine and/or the RV sobs just block them in and are complete pricks when the unfortunate vet staff wants to leave. Anyway, during this conversation, he told me that they are hearing growing rumors that UT plans to raze the UT
Gardens next door to the Vet school in order to allow for more RV parking. Again, this is unsubstantiated, but this is the second time I've heard about property on Neyland being coverted for RV parking.

CBT's picture

Someone doesn't have their

Submitted by CBT (not verified) on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 8:25am.

Someone doesn't have their facts straight.

UT Athletic Dept already has the new RV lot laid out. From the letter I received about my football parking, which included info on the new RV lot, it's somewhere up behind the waste treatment plant on Neyland Drive, near the Women's Soccer Complex. As I understand it, it has full hook ups, dump station, etc. What they were trying to do is 1. provide a nice place for the thousands of fans who come to games in RV's, 2. avoid some of the problems with parking RV's in other places (like the Ag Campus) and (I'm sure) 3. make a little money in the process.

The Faculty Club would not be a good place for the Vol Navy. It's too far from the stadium. The Vol Navy has docks at and around the Boat House (former Tennessee Grill) and on down at Calhoun's. All within walking distance of the stadium, which is a large part of the attraction.

All UT has said is that the Faculty Club is losing lots of money (not hard to believe) and they would like to put a nice campus welcome center there. As for UT Athletics, it built it's own welcome center for recruits, player families, etc. (with donor money) underneath the north stands a few years back (Wolff-Kaplan Center). It's next to the Vols locker room.

Fall practice has started, my tickets will be here next week, my away game plans are in the works...it's almost Football Time in Tennessee!

CBT's picture

The UT Athletics Department

Submitted by CBT (not verified) on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 11:10am.

The UT Athletics Department takes nothing from academics. In fact, it enhances academics. UTAD raises it's own money seperate from University funding, it allows academics to access tickets and parking to raise money and directly contributes about $1M per year to academics (more than 7 figures, so I guess it's real money). You'll also note that major athletic contributors (notably Haslam, Stokely, Goodfriend and others) also give major donations to academics (some in the 7 figure range). At UT and other major state universities (Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, the list is long), athletics is a major aspect of campus life. It's also brings a substantial financial impact to the local communities (of course, this includes Knoxville).

Once again, the Athletic Department is the whipping boy for all things wrong at UT. As far as I know there is nothing to support the notion that the Athletic Department has its sights on the Faculty Club. I believe all I've heard is that it's the University who wants it for other uses, namely some sort of welcome center. I don't know if that's a good idea or not. With the substantial undertaking to renovate Neyland Stadium and a new basketball practice facility, among other ongoing projects, my guess is Mike Hamilton has enough on his plate. GO VOLS!

R. Neal's picture

I realize you are responding

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 11:19am.

I realize you are responding to Metulj's comment, but a) I don't think anybody is accusing the UTAD of anything, just asking some questions about something heard on local talk radio, and b) it sounds like the UTAD and all those generous donors could afford to throw the Faculty Club and all those pointy-headed professors a bone. I realize they couldn't draw out a double fake reverse screen option play if their lives depended on it, but they are sort of ostensibly the reason for UT, no?

CBT's picture

No, no, no...we've got Coach

Submitted by CBT (not verified) on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 11:35am.

No, no, no...we've got Coach Cut back. I hear he's an expert on those double fake reverse screen options. Seriously, I hope he's able to get a little more out of the offense. Lord knows we need it.

As pointed out, seems to me the UTAD and it's major donors do throw quite a few bones over to the academic folks.

tennesseevaluesauthority's picture

CBT says: "The UT Athletics

Submitted by tennesseevalues... on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 11:38am.

CBT says: "The UT Athletics Department takes nothing from academics."

All well and good, except it's a tad wrong-- as noted by Michael Silence last year on his post about UTAD asking for a loan of a little less than $1.5 million to cover the paychecks of all the former basketball saviors on their payroll.

Not really anything to do, per se, with whatever is going on at the Faculty Club. It sure would be nice every now and then if someone was trying to defend the reputation of UT they were defending something other than the athletic department.

Number9's picture

If the Athletics Program

Submitted by Number9 on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 12:32pm.

If the Athletics Program farts, people jump. I am now at another university that is much more well respected academically than UT and people here really see the academic side of UT as being some sort of inconvenience for the marketing side of UT. There was a "Well, the department you were with at UT is a great department, but it must have been awful when UT's notorious budget cutting happens and they also see fit to build a welcome center for Football parents.

Two words.

Jim Haslam.

Hayduke's picture

I would think that a

Submitted by Hayduke on Fri, 2006/08/25 - 5:51pm.

I would think that a top-ranked football program would be an embarrassment to a university.  Other than a few mega-schools with much larger enrollment than UT, are there schools with really good academic and athletic reputations?  Seems like an either/or situation, or in UT's case, neither/nor. 

Maybe that's UT's market position.  No university actually states their goal as "middle-of-the-road school for moderately intelligent residents who couldn't swing an out-of-state scholarship," they just build a big stadium.

Rachel's picture

middle-of-the-road school

Submitted by Rachel on Fri, 2006/08/25 - 10:23pm.

middle-of-the-road school for moderately intelligent residents who couldn't swing an out-of-state scholarship

Well, hey, for various reasons I've got three degrees from the damn place.  I'm the first to admit its academic flaws, but I admit to being a bit insulted by your characterization of its students.

Oren Incandenza's picture

RV Park

Submitted by Oren Incandenza on Thu, 2006/08/10 - 9:47am.

Here's a link to the UT RV Park plans:

(link...)

This doesn't necessarily mean that there's no interest in using the University Club space for RV parking or something else entirely, but this is the RV Park plan that's operating in plain sight anyway. 

CBT's picture

Don't know if many folks

Submitted by CBT (not verified) on Fri, 2006/08/25 - 5:04pm.

Don't know if many folks will see this, but the story in today's (online, paper tomorrow?) KNS proves a point I was trying to make about athletics helping academics. This lady is giving $10M (yes, million) dollars. And, why?

"Although I am not a graduate of UT, I became very interested in the university when I began coming to football games," Lawson said in a statement. "After we sold our first business, we started looking for areas to give back to the community, and education became my passion. I'm always looking for ways to influence young women to pursue their dreams."

bizgrrl's picture

CBT, really, "athletics

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sat, 2006/08/26 - 6:52am.

CBT, really, "athletics helping academics"? Just barely.

The article goes on:

$2.5 million for the design and construction of the new basketball practice facility in Knoxville

$1 million will be donated for ongoing renovations at Neyland Stadium

$750,000 for a pedestrian mall,

$500,000 to create the Brenda Lawson Women's Success Program Endowment and

$250,000 for the UT-Chattanooga Chancellors Excellence Endowment

Not a heck of a lot for academics. Also, considering it is under a "faculty" topic, not a penny for them. The other $5 million was "previously executed" and they don't elaborate as to how.

Lawson's name is already on one athletic department building in Knoxville

Academics, they don't need no stinking academics.

Hayduke's picture

Didn't mean to imply that

Submitted by Hayduke on Sat, 2006/08/26 - 9:15am.

Didn't mean to imply that everyone who goes there is part of the target audience.  I know a fair number of awfully sharp folks who teach there or were graduated from there, but they are the exception.

JustJohnny's picture

Close the campus roads and parking lots....

Submitted by JustJohnny on Sat, 2006/08/26 - 10:30am.

....to everyone. Create friendly green spaces, in place of the roads, with hybrid-trams, running e85 + batteries, going from the hill to the ag campus. Non of those "bio-fuel" buses that are only 10% bio.

Let the city/county/state/UTAD build whatever it wants to build (off campus) to accommodate those on Hajj. Heck, they could even double the trams on home game weekends; those weekends, by the way, start immediately after that latest game.

I, for one, get very tired of dodging cars, RV's and trucks --and sometimes buses. I'm not sure if it is the surge of new teenagers driving around campus or if it is the pending invasion that has people rattled and driving the way they do; traffic rules are widely ignored on campus. The ONLY thing that seems to be enforced is the parking rule. But hey, who's complaining? I walk.

Uh oh. I'm completely off from the orig post. Sorry.

redmondkr's picture

No offense CBT, but having

Submitted by redmondkr on Fri, 2006/08/25 - 5:43pm.

No offense CBT, but having it in print at the KNS and $1.69 will get you a cuppa coffee - nothing fancy, of course.

* 

A large white onion, if eaten slowly, will remove the scent of vanilla ice cream from your breath. - Archie Campbell

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