UT Receives Lackluster Response to Candidate Survey

Dr. Joe DiPietro is president of the University of Tennessee system and wants UT alumni to become a powerful lobbying force. Image courtesy UT

“Vote Orange” is a new election slogan coming from the University of Tennessee. But according to a recent candidate survey, it’s hard to tell whose interests align with UT’s top officials. Only a third of General Assembly candidates bothered to answer the survey.

The questionnaire attempts to pin down lawmakers on increasing funding for higher education, maintaining lottery-funded scholarships and keeping guns off campus.

It was a first year for the survey. The results – as incomplete as they are – have been distributed to tens of thousands of alumni around the state, says UT President Joe DiPietro.

“Perhaps in the future, General Assembly members will participate in greater numbers, particularly if we have alumni who have conversations with their elected officials to gain a better perspective perhaps about why they didn’t participate.”

As part of a new strategic plan, UT is trying to turn its alumni into lobbyists who will influence their own lawmakers to back the university’s position on issues. DiPietro says higher education is a realm of government where many Republican and Democratic ideals overlap.

Here are the results to the UT candidate survey.