Several years prior to the turn of the century, UT began its conversion of systems to be compliant with the requirement that date fields not be two digits (assuming that the first two numbers would be 19). In early spring 1997, Tennessee higher education systems received one-time grants from the State to update their computer systems, and UT Knoxville received just more than $6 million for the purpose.
All hardware and software systems maintained centrally were systematically checked, and replacements or modifications were made as necessary. A special web information page was developed to provide students, faculty, and staff information about how to prepare their personal computers and any personal software. BANNER 2000 was purchased to solve problems with student databases, but its implementation was delayed because of the number of changes required to have it operate within the UT Knoxville environment. Existing systems were modified instead to accept the new dates.