KNOXVILLE, Tenn — Drivers on Papermill Drive may notice a Holiday Inn hotel on the road. It looks like any average hotel on the outside. But inside there are University of Tennessee students living and studying. The hotel is part of UT's plan to help students find housing in a year of record enrollment.
There is a huge “Power T” made of balloons in the lobby, a resident assistant at the front desk, and a campus shuttle bus waiting for students at the front door. It has all the makings of a dorm on the UT campus even though it’s around 6 miles away. This year, 130 UT transfer students are living there.
UT said 6,785 first-year students enrolled this year, an increase of around 14% over the last year's class. That class was previously the largest on record. The student body is also bigger than ever before.
Anthony White, UT’s executive director of housing, said it was the best option. He said there was a lack of student housing on campus, and the hotel was a solution that guaranteed students could continue studying in Knoxville without worrying about where they would live.
“We were looking for ways that we could provide housing for students who were potentially having problems finding things in the market, given the price or just the availability of housing," he said.
UT Chancellor Donde Plowman said the university is welcoming its largest class on record this semester. The record-breaking year may be worth celebrating, but it comes with new problems. There is not enough housing on the main campus for everyone who wants to live there.
“I’m thrilled that we have this problem that was created by the fact we overperformed on our strategic enrollment goals,” Plowman said.
The chancellor said that moving forward, the university has a plan to expand housing by building two new dorms and renovating or replacing older dorms. But even that won’t be enough. So, the university is looking across the Tennessee River to the south waterfront.
“We hope to be able to purchase property over there," she said. "But we will do it in a way that keeps the neighborhoods feeling good about our presence there.”
Plowman said the campus will be connected by a long-anticipated pedestrian bridge. It's a part of the university's master plan.
“The city is very excited and I’m really thrilled to be partnering with the city and it will be an economic driver on that side as well," said Plowman.
For now, the goal for the “hotel-turned-dorm” is to replicate life on Rocky Top for the new Vols who make up the university’s record-breaking student body. But looking to the future, UT hopes more students will be able to find housing on its campus, and in Knoxville.
“They are UT students like everyone else,” said White.