In March 2003 Governor Phil Bredesen announced a 9 percent reduction in state funding for UT, amounting to $38 million for the UT system as a whole. The cut for UT Knoxville was $15 million. The cuts were in addition to cuts prior to July 1 to offset a $780 million deficit in the state budget. At UT Knoxville, cuts included two low-enrollment programs, the PhD in biomedical science and a BS in business and marketing education.
Earlier that year, in January 2003, Provost Loren Crabtree thought that a budget cut would not affect UT. In June a UT press release suggested that 287 jobs would be eliminated and 228 fewer sections would be taught. Crabtree quickly held a press conference to clarify that only 3 employees whose jobs were eliminated had yet to be transferred to other positions and that the 228 sections were proposed additions to the existing panoply of classes. UT took various actions, among them passing along credit card service fees to the person charging academic fees on the card and raising tuition 15 percent.