Tech Launches New Office To Value Students

Tennessee Tech has launched the Office of Access, Belonging, and Community Outreach to help create a campus where students and staff feel respected and valued.

Senior Executive for Access and Community Outreach Dr. Robert Owens said students who feel that they belong on campus and are valued tend to have more educational success. Owens said the office will help current students feel at home while also recruiting future students.

“We want any student from anywhere regardless of what they look like or where they come from to be able to to come to Tennessee Tech if they choose Tennessee Tech and be successful,” Owens said. “We want to do our part to make sure we are authentic in that.”

Owens said the office will make efforts to increase diversity scholarships, travel abroad opportunities, and new and creative ways to connect the campus to the community. Owens said the office will not only help the students but also help the university retain faculty.

“We want to make sure that we retain some of the good faculty that have chosen to come here and teach and to do research,” Owens said. “We don’t want faculty leaving because they have had bad experiences at the university or don’t feel a part of the university faculty and culture.”

Owens said the university is living by the tagline “UBLong”.

“It’s a great message to be lived out for the current campus and employee body is to tell folks you belong and we actually mean it,” Owens said. “We are figuring out ways to prove that out.”

Owens said the office will work alongside other services the university already offers like the Accessible Education Center,  the Mental Health and Wellness Counseling Center, Intercultural Affairs, and other areas that serve pockets of students to connect them to the university. Owens said he is as excited as he has ever been at Tennessee Tech to be the one leading the way for a new opportunity for Tech.