Prompted by budget cuts in 1996 and 1997, the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for Planning and Budgeting (formed in response to a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recommendation that there be greater participation in university planning) issued a report calling for the establishment of two committees, one of which would examine and evaluate all academic programs of the institution and the other of which would examine and evaluate all nonacademic elements of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Chancellor Bill Snyder appointed both committees.
The charge to the Non-Academic Program Evaluation Committee was to examine all offices and organizations and to recommend elements that should be enhanced and elements that should be discontinued or combined with other entities. NAPEC began its consideration with the chancellor’s office, recommending termination of the University Historian’s Office, the Ombuds Office, the Sculpture Tour, and the Tennessee Folk History Project. Members of the committee were Jerry Askew (associate vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs), Robert Carraway (student), Denise Dipuccio (romance and Asian languages), David Dobbs (mathematics), Fred Grimm (chemistry), Susan Martin (classics), Kula Misra (geological sciences), Kathy Morgan (Employee Relations Council), Rick Randles (Chancellor’s Advisory Committee), Jane Redmond (Minority Affairs), Marva Rudolph (Diversity Resources and Educational Services), and Mike Sherrell (Physical Plant).