The University of Tennessee’s Great Idea: Use Scarce Campus Space for a Hotel for Sports Fans

[Yet another letter to the editor that the Knoxville News Sentinel didn’t publish, this one sent 7 March 2023.]

The News Sentinel has reported on various occasions that the University of Tennessee is very short of student housing and has had to scramble for some years to find enough of it.

Recently the News Sentinel reported that UT is planning to build a hotel on the campus, i.e., on what one would assume would be prime real estate for student housing. The people who would stay in the hotel are said to be those attending [football] games at Neyland Stadium. There is no word on who will get the revenues from the hotel, i.e., UT at large or the athletic program.

Here we go again: the academic mission of the university is being subverted in favor of sports. The university is supposed to make itself attractive to new students by making sure that they have a safe and comfortable place to stay while they attend school. If housing becomes too difficult to find, or if most students find they need cars to get to school when parking is so expensive and limited at UT, the more promising students may decide that the hassle is not worth it and go elsewhere for their education.

Besides that, in the usual UT fashion the hotel will undoubtedly cater to big donors and important alumni and to government and business officials whose favor the university wants to curry. One wonders how many of these folks’ stays will be comp’d on the basis of their value to UT. It will probably be difficult for ordinary people to get a room at the hotel, even during the off-season.

The prime beneficiaries will thus be, as usual, the fat cats and the haves who could easily afford to stay at hotels distant from the campus. UT is choosing a commercial enterprise over supporting students.