Featured Image: Advisory Board Chairman Arthur Sparks and UT Martin Chancellor Yancy Freeman during the Advisory Board meeting at the Boling University Center on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Pacer Photo / Chloe Kent)

The UT Martin Advisory Board held its first meeting of calendar year at the Boling University Center on Jan. 23, featuring discussions about enrollment, athletics and the election of a new chairperson.  

Senior Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Services Petra McPhearson presented an overview of the year-end of the 2025 fiscal year. During her presentation, McPhearson talked about the implementation of the DASH system at the beginning of last year as well as the learning curves that have come with it.  

“One of the things that we learned, and we are still trying to grapple with, is finding a better way to manage the budgeting aspect of it and updating changes,” McPhearson said.  

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Services Destin Tucker, PhD., presented an update on enrollment and retention.  

“I am pleased to report that we exceeded our [enrollment] goal for spring 2026,” Tucker said.  

The goal for spring enrollment in 2026 was 7,506 students, which includes both undergraduate and graduate students. The total number of students enrolled for the spring semester is 7,602. These numbers can fluctuate a small amount as the official numbers have not yet been released.  

UT Martin has introduced different initiatives to preserve their retention rate and increase it. One of which, includes offering bridge grants to first-year students from fall 2024 who have lost their merit scholarships. The bridge grant would award them $250 for the fall 2025 semester with the promise that if the student brings their GPA to at least a 2.75, their merit scholarship would be regained automatically. With this, 15 students were able to regain their merit scholarships during the spring 2026 semester.  

“We are at or above the average, even with our aspirational peers,” Tucker said regarding UT Martin retention rates in comparison to universities of the same size.  

The fall 2026 enrollment goal is 8,487 students.   

Vice Chancellor and Athletics Director Kurt McGuffin gave an update on athletics and how UT Martin athletes are doing academically. 

The average GPA of all student athletes in the fall 2025 semester was 3.39, with 94 student athletes having a perfect 4.0.  

“This is about 500 student athletes, managers and student assistants that we calculate this GPA on,” McGuffin said. “…so almost 20% of all [athletics] students got a 4.0 last fall.” 

The average GPA of a student athlete at UT Martin has had a .34-point increase since fall 2018. McGuffin believes this increase can be attributed to hiring more academic advisers for athletes, along with changing how athletics handled advising.  

A student athlete can now be expected to meet with their adviser more often, having the students work with tutors and making sure they are on track.  

Along with student athlete progress, McGuffin shared that there is a search for a new Commissioner for the Ohio Valley Conference after Beth DeBauche’s resignation. Debauche was named the OVC Commissioner in 2009 and was also the first woman Commissioner for the OVC.  

McGuffin also spoke on recent changes to the football and basketball transfer portals. 

“It’s been very hard for every football staff, and our staff, because we have more mid-year transfers coming into UT Martin for football than we’ve ever had,” said McGuffin. “We’ve doubled it, maybe even tripled it from our normal years.”  

Football student athletes had from Jan. 1 to Jan. 16 to enter the transfer portal. This has led UT Martin to spend more money on recruiting during January due to the reduced amount of time they have. Currently, there are around 10,000 football student athletes that are in the transfer portal with 6,000 that have gone unsigned.  With basketball, the transfer portal went from having a 30-day window to a 15-day window.  

The last thing McGuffin presented on was projects at the different athletics facilities that are in progress and/or have been completed.  

The incomplete projects include the pool area that is in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center, which closed in 2023. Athletics hopes to convert the pool area into an indoor turf space as soon as they raise the money for it. The turf space would be used for sports such as baseball, softball and soccer. It could also open the opportunity of UT Martin hosting indoor tournaments for those sports.  

Chief of Staff Jake Bynum presented UT Martin’s strategic plan update that included five goals for the 2026 year: achieve sustainable enrollment growth, enhance institutional reputation, create and enhance physical and virtual spaces, strengthen commitment to West Tennessee and celebrate and promote excellence.  

Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Jeffery Bibbee, PhD. and Director Allen Sterbinsky, Ph.D., announced the launch of the J. Houston & Debbie Gordon Center for Rural Innovation. The center hopes to have potential reach to multiple states, including Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois.  

The center will bring innovation and opportunity to small rural towns by placing student interns to work and develop these towns as needed. As of right now, there are 17 applicants for the internships with the budget to place eight. These interns will be paid $12 an hour for 120 hours, the minimum amount of hours needed to complete a three-credit hour course.  

Nearing the end of the meeting, Sparks announced that they will be nominating a new Chairperson, as this was his last meeting. Weakley County resident Hal Bynum was unanimously nominated and voted in as the new Chairman.  

Chancellor Yancy Freeman also spoke about plans for renovations on the Hall-Moody Administration Building, the Business Administration Building and Browning Residence Hall.  

While Browning Hall and the Business Administration Building are set to be demolished during the summer of 2026, Hall-Moody plans to reopen in some areas of the building in March, allowing some staff to move back into the building after its close for renovations a few years ago.  

The meeting closed with remarks from Chancellor Freeman, where he welcomed new committee member Jennifer Hampton.  

“It is a pleasure and an honor to have you here, joining us, so thank you for saying yes,” Freeman said.  

The next Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for May 15, 2026.