Interim President Jan Simek issued a webcast on March 24 in which he confirmed that Governor Bredesen’s budget for 2010–11 would use the federal stimulus package to assist higher education during a time of crisis. He announced that the governor’s budget called for reestablishing the 2008 budget levels for UT and that the stimulus funding would provide a two-year cushion for planning how to accommodate an additional decrease in funding. He also indicated that some of the stimulus funds would be used for things such as energy-saving devices to decrease the fixed costs of the institution when the stimulus funding was no longer available.
The budget enabled UT Knoxville to retain all lecturers, instructors, and GTAs for the next two years.