The president of the University of Tennessee System said Friday it was preparing for the best and worst when it comes to on-campus classes, financial impact and football season this fall.
"It’s not my decision, it’s not [UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman's] decision, it’s the SEC’s decision," Randy Boyd said of the football season. "They haven’t made a decision yet, like everybody else in the world, we’re trying to look a data trying to determine what the future holds."
Boyd told a virtual meeting of the Board of Trustees the university system was "looking at multiple different scenarios at which we can play football at UT."
Plowman said she is in weekly contact with the SEC commissioner and leaders of other SEC schools and campuses. She said the league's athletic directors sometimes speak daily.
As recently as last week, the university athletic department said it was preparing for fall sports, including football, to "proceed as scheduled."
The loss of fall football and its associated economic boon would increase the financial strain on the Knoxville campus and the university system.
Boyd also said Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon had "pointedly" made clear to him the financial impact cancellation would have on the local community.
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Since the pandemic began, Boyd said the university system has refunded $40 million to students, much of it from dining and housing services. Students at UT Knoxville have been taking exclusively online classes since mid-March. Commencement ceremonies have been postponed.
Boyd said the system increased its available online course hours from 60,000 to 560,000 in just two weeks as the crisis began.
"All across the state our faculty have stepped up, they’ve all had challenges, they’ve all overcome those challenges," he said.
But students said transition did not come without difficulty.
"I wouldn’t call it smooth," junior Emma Kate Hall laughed. "It definitely wasn’t as rocky as for me as I think it could have been."
Friday marks the end of spring semester classes, for which Hall said she is grateful.
"It’s far more challenging than I expected it to be for sure," she said.
Plowman and Boyd raised the possibility of fall classes taking place in an online, in-person hybrid to maintain social distancing measures. Boyd said each UT system campus is developing its own re-opening plans.
As director-elect of student services at UT Knoxville, Hall said she hopes classes and campus activities return to a more normal state come Fall.
"I really do want to get out of my apartment and I want to see other people," she said. "But if me staying in my apartment for another three months means I get football season, I will happily lock my door."