Proposed Outsourcing Resolution from The

Proposed Outsourcing Resolution from the

UTC Faculty Senate

WHEREAS, the Haslam administration has examined potential benefits to the State of Tennessee by outsourcing the management and operations of many state-owned facilities, including college and university buildings; and,

WHEREAS, President Joe DiPietro has repeatedly stated his objective to make decisions regarding outsourcing that are appropriately chosen to meet the needs of the various units of the University of Tennessee; and,

WHEREAS, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has been well-served over recent years through the hiring of regular, full-time employees to provide these services; and,

WHEREAS, outsourcing management jobs of public facilities to a for-profit employer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will potentially put all facility workers’ job security and state benefits at risk; and,

WHEREAS, there has been no evidence provided to support the benefits to campus life or any significant cost savings of further outsource of facility and management services; and,

WHEREAS,the first goal of UTC’s strategic plan is to “transform lives through learning experiences” and outsourcing of UTC’s facilities has the potential to detrimentally impact student engagement in research* at the undergraduate and graduate levels as it would be nearly impossible to capture all of the potential research within a contract; and,

WHEREAS, UTChas the opportunity to opt-out of the privatization plan; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the UTC Faculty Senate opposes the outsourcing of facilities, supports President DiPietro’s position that outsourcing of services at the various University of Tennessee campuses be decided by the University community rather than by a central State authority, and encourages all members of the University community who are concerned about this issue to contact their legislators to voice their concern.

*For example, outsourcing could impact UTC’s multidisciplinary Urban Science and Technology InitiativeIn the last year, THEC CEACSE awarded $100k to conduct research within the area of smart buildings. This research worked closely with facility personnel and staff as well as gave unprecedented access to data, blueprints, and the building themselves. The research involved the deployment of sensors within EMCS which served as a proof-of-concept demonstration of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and internet-of-things (IoT) within an existing building to determine its energy consumption.