New faces and new places coming to Tennessee Tech’s campus as President Dr. Phil Oldham opens the new semester with department kickoffs Tuesday.
Oldham said Tech not only focuses on growing the number of incoming freshmen, but the number of transfers and graduate students. Oldham said there has been more luck with graduates, but attracting transfers is still a work in progress.
“We’ll bring in probably 600 or 700 transfer students this year,” Oldham said. “I’d like to see that increase substantially. I think we’ve got a lot to offer, but we’ve got some work to do still.”
Oldham said Tech is working closely with some of the school’s community college partners to attract more transfer students.
Oldham said there will be some changes made to Tech’s campus this fall, as ground breaking expected on several new projects. Oldham said one of these is the JJ Oakley Innovation Center and residence hall. Oldham said the 400 bed residence hall will be located near the Ashraf Islam Engineering Building on Willow Avenue.
“It’s going to be a beautiful facility,” Oldham said. “It’s designed now, and we’re scheduled to break ground on construction probably later this fall.”
Oldham said construction will also begin soon on an advanced construction and manufacturing engineering building. Oldham said the design is now finalized, and it will be located south of the new Ashraf Islam Engineering Building.
“That’s another great addition to the College of Engineering on campus, particularly for the hands on type of projects for students,” Oldham said. “So we’re looking forward to that as well.”
Oldham said those are the two biggest projects planned for this fall, but an old project is continuing this semester too. Oldham said the expansion on Tech’s football stadium is now out of the ground, but it will begin to take shape in the coming months.
