The one-of-a-kind relationship between the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory could become even deeper with a project to develop temporary student housing in the Secret City, bringing students closer than ever to the laboratory.
UT System President Randy Boyd announced the project as part of his major goals and objectives for 2025. The temporary housing will be for students to bridge the physical gap between the flagship campus near downtown Knoxville and ORNL.
"We have all of these great students driving from Knoxville to Oak Ridge to do work at the lab. Many of them, that's their only place to work," Boyd said during his presentation to the Board of Trustees on Feb. 28. "Wouldn't it be great if they had a common place to live two miles, five miles from the lab?"
UT has around 130 students working at the lab now, Boyd said, and he hopes that number will increase to around 500 students within the next three to five years. The temporary housing facility would help to ease the travel burden for those students.
UT System's Vice President for National Labs Jeff Smith is working with the city of Oak Ridge on the facility to "help support and pull together our students," Boyd said.
UT is in the "exploratory stages" of the project, according to UT System spokesperson Melissa Tindell, with details including the location and funding sources either not yet finalized or examined. UT will have more to share as the project develops, and with Boyd including the project in his 2025 objectives, that should be soon.
University of Tennessee, city of Oak Ridge develop student housing
The development is primarily a private partnership between the UT System and JMT architect Tim Elliott, who is helping Oak Ridge design a new downtown area off Wilson Street.
The discussions about student housing began when Elliott toured multiple Oak Ridge sites and learned about the city's housing challenges and its close connection to UT, said Oak Ridge City Manager Randy Hemann.
"The development of a mixed-use downtown area with this type of housing will bring vitality to the area and create other opportunities for growth and redevelopment," Hemann told Knox News in an email. "It also will help strengthen the partnership between ORNL and the city as they become a supportive participant in the creation of this downtown area."
Elliott was not immediately available to answer questions related to the development. The Oak Ridge Land Bank, which owns the 6.5-acre lot on Wilson Street targeted for development, selected JMT as the designer and developer last July.
"The Wilson Street project will build on the success of the Main Street shopping center and Lofts projects, which have helped reenergize the central city," Hemann said.
The UT System is one of fewer than 10 U.S. universities with a management role for a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, and it's a big one. ORNL is the largest multiprogram science and technology lab in the nation, and UT is its largest research partner.
UT-Battelle, a partnership between the university and Battelle Memorial Institute, has been the management contractor at ORNL since 2000. The lab has more than 7,000 employees and an annual budget of around $2.6 billion.
More than 200 UT faculty are jointly appointed at the lab, and the two institutions operate multiple joint research facilities.
The pair also created the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute in 2021 to meet a national need for STEM talent. The institute selected two research teams last year to receive $20 million and add 10 new UT faculty, 10 new ORNL scientists and 25 UT doctoral students for each team by 2030.
Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Email: [email protected]. Signal: @danieldassow.24.
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