Featured Image: Construction on UT Martin’s Browning Hall on Sep. 3, 2026. (Pacer Photo / Evangeline Wilson)
Students have hit the ground running to start off the semester, and so has construction around campus. The University of Tennessee at Martin has over five different construction projects currently in progress, with two of the biggest being the demolition of Browning Hall and the building of the new TEST Hub.
The future of student housing
The housing transition has been a pressing issue among students since the announcement of the demolition of Browning Hall. Ryan Martin, director of housing at UT Martin, and Gina McClure, assistant vice chancellor of Student and Residential Life, have an inside scoop on the updates and plans for the area.
“We are on track to get new demolition within Browning [Hall] finished and new housing put up in place in fall of 2028,” Martin said.
The new housing construction will prioritize first-year students, while Conner Community and Arnold Pryor Place will remain priorities for returning students. The difference between the new building’s layout and the layout of Browning and Ellington Halls, however, lies in the pod system that will allow students to experience a brand-new style of housing that has never been seen at UT Martin.
The space will provide various openings of one, two or three bedroom units with standard utilities, including amenities such as a kitchen, living area and a bathroom.
With the construction has come varying opinions from students regarding the housing adjustments. However, years of planning have gone into the project, and it acknowledges the concerns of students.
“We have looked at enrollment numbers and trends to make sure we have enough bed spaces for everyone,” said Martin. “In October specifically of last year, we were able to get a good look at this when housing applications went out. We actually gathered 6 months’ worth of returning applications in 4 hours, so over 1,000 applications. From here, only about 47% of those applicants actually ended up wanting to stick with their housing assignment.”
McClure chimed in on the topic of misconceptions with a perspective of her own, specifically regarding the amount of space available on campus to house students.
“We had a waiting list of about 450 students, and we melted through all of that. It just takes time because a lot of factors come in whether decisions are made to move housing assignments on campus, live off campus, and so forth. There is ultimately a process,” McClure said.
The TEST Hub expands engineering opportunities
Located directly behind the Student Recreation Center, construction has begun on the newest addition to the engineering department, the Tennessee Entrepreneurial Science and Technology Hub, or TEST Hub. Funded by the Tennessee General Assembly for construction back in 2022, this building is coming to life and making significant progress in its construction stage almost four years later.
Benita Evans is the administrative assistant within the department of engineering. She has been at UT Martin for 10 years and has seen the project come from conception to reality.
“We are very excited because it gives more opportunities to our students, and it opens the entire campus up to not only those who are at UTM, but also at Dyersburg, McKenzie, and places like that who are taking TCAT classes,” said Evans
With the new facility expected to open in early 2027, the building will serve both students of UT Martin and those beyond the Martin community, providing a space for experiential learning for students interested in engineering and related science and technology pathways.
