The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees has approved the elevation of the School of Nursing to the UTC College of Nursing — pending final approval from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission — marking a significant academic milestone for a program that has prepared nurses for the region for more than five decades.
“It is rare to have the opportunity to establish a college,” UTC Chancellor Lori Bruce said. “Elevating nursing to the college level brings visibility to an enterprise that has been delivering for this region for more than 50 years.
“When you have nearly 1,000 students preparing for nursing careers, alumni practicing across the state, and a reputation for excellence, the title matters. Being a college gives weight to the work and helps us attract more people into a profession that Tennessee critically needs.”
Bruce thanked UT System President Randy Boyd, the UT Board of Trustees, and legislative leaders—including members of the Hamilton County legislative delegation—for their continued support.
“Their leadership and investment make it possible for us to scale a program that directly serves Tennesseans when they are at their most vulnerable,” she said. “When someone in a hospital or clinic is at their most vulnerable moment, the nurse at their bedside may have come from UTC.”
UTC’s nursing portfolio spans the workforce continuum: the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and accelerated BSN programs; RN-to-BSN (Gateway); the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) with nurse practitioner concentrations in adult gerontology acute care, psychiatric mental health and family practice; and the nationally recognized nurse anesthesia program—which has been preparing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists since 1972 and reports a 100% employment rate for graduates. Nursing also offers a DNP in Nursing Administration Systems for those seeking leadership roles and a post-master’s DNP for advanced practice registered nurses who wish to earn the doctoral degree.
When it is officially launched, the College of Nursing will become UTC’s fifth academic college, joining the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies—where the School of Nursing is currently housed; the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Engineering and Computer Science; and the Gary W. Rollins College of Business.
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Jerold Hale said the change formalizes what already exists.
“Elevating the School of Nursing to a college is recognition of its excellence,” Hale said. “As we expand the nursing programs, this will help us continue to recruit and attract outstanding faculty members and students to the programs.”
Hale said the administrative transition will be straightforward because the School of Nursing already functions with the size and budget structure typical of a college.
The transition comes as UTC builds the new Dorothy and Jim Kennedy Health Sciences Building at the corner of Palmetto and East 3rd streets. The 90,000-square-foot facility—scheduled to open for classroom work in fall 2027—will enable a 152% enrollment increase. The nursing program currently accepts approximately 50% of applicants and turns down eligible students due to space and class size limitations.
The new facility will accommodate more than 400 students daily and feature eight classrooms, five task training spaces, eight standardized patient actor exam rooms, a specialized space for labor and delivery experiences, and a simulated intensive care unit (ICU) and emergency room. A dedicated hall of patient care rooms—similar to those in acute care facilities—will feature a simulated nurse’s station and a medication room.
UTC is also expanding its physical reach through initiatives like MobileMOC, a mobile health outreach clinic delivering preventative care and interprofessional training to rural counties in Southeast Tennessee. The MobileMOC initiative is funded through a $2.6 million grant and extends UTC’s nursing impact beyond campus while serving older adults and caregivers in underserved communities.
Dr. Chris Smith, director of the School of Nursing, will be the inaugural dean of the new college.
“Being a college will heighten our visibility, not only in Chattanooga and southeast Tennessee—but across the state, the southeast region and the country as well,” Smith said. “While we already have more applicants than we can handle at our current enrollment, this will inform a lot of potential students in the area that, yes, this is a great College of Nursing—one I want to be a part of.”
Smith said the elevation aligns with UTC’s commitment to grow enrollment in high-need fields.
Bruce stressed the workforce dimension. She noted that the Tennessee Hospital Association projects significant nursing shortages over the next decade.
“The Kennedy Health Sciences Building increases the number of people we can train on campus. MobileMOC increases the number of people we can serve off campus. Transitioning nursing to a college brings those efforts under a banner that signals scale, stability and commitment to meeting the state’s workforce needs,” she said.
The UTC nursing program enrolls nearly 1,000 students across the undergraduate, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthesia and doctoral levels, and has earned national recognition for academic excellence and workforce readiness.
Among its achievements and accolades:
- In 2023, Nurse.org named UTC’s BSN program the No. 1 BSN program in Tennessee.
- The school maintains a five-year average National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) pass rate of 97%, fulfilling the requirement for licensure as a registered nurse, and reports a 100% employment rate for its nursing graduates.
- Along with traditional and accelerated BSN programs, the nursing school offers DNP degrees and post-graduate certificate programs in multiple nurse practitioner concentrations.
For more than 50 years, UTC’s nursing program has evolved with regional need. Launched in two rooms of Race Hall in 1973 and later relocated to Brock Hall, Guerry Center and the Metro Annex, the program has grown into a major producer of nurses for Chattanooga’s health care corridor.
Over 70% of BSN graduates remain in the greater Chattanooga area after licensure, and 83% of Family Nurse Practitioner graduates stay in Tennessee.
“The new College of Nursing brings a level of recognition that this program deserves,” Bruce said. “This is about honoring the decades of care our graduates have already provided and expanding the pipeline for the years ahead.”