CARVER SELECTED TO REPRESENT TENNESSEE’S FOUR-YEAR INSTITUTIONS
CARVER SELECTED TO REPRESENT TENNESSEE’S FOUR-YEAR INSTITUTIONS
MARTIN, Tenn. – The Tennessee Higher Education Commission selected Dr. Keith Carver,
chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Martin, to serve as the four-year implementation
lead on Tennessee’s Complete College America state team.
Carver, who is entering his 20 th year of service within the University of Tennessee System,
joined six other team members, including a representative of Tennessee’s two-year institutions,
at Complete College America’s Summer Action Summit on July 13-14 to kick off the national
campaign.
Teams from 36 participating states plus the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium from California
met to discuss national and state-specific policies with regard to higher education and the
increase of college completion rates.
According to completecollege.org, only 41 percent of full-time students at four-year flagship
schools and 19 percent of full-time students at four-year non-flagship schools complete
requirements for a bachelor’s degree within four years. These numbers rise to 75 percent and 48
percent, respectively, when students are given six years to complete their degrees. The Complete
College Act strives not only to increase the number of Americans who finish their college
degrees, but also to increase the number who finish within the intended four-year period.
UT Martin has already implemented the Soar in Four academic plan, approved by the UT Board
of Trustees in June 2016, which encourages students to complete 15 credit hours per semester
and complete their undergraduate degrees in four years. The tuition model also funded the
creation of a new Office of Career Planning and Development, which helps students narrow their
career goals and connect with potential internships and employers before graduation.
This model, combined with the efforts of the Complete College America teams, aims to help
Gov. Bill Haslam’s higher education initiatives including the Tennessee STRONG Act and the
Drive to 55 campaign.
For more information on Complete College America, visit completecollege.org.
