Student Affairs officials submitted a proposal to the campus master plan committee in November 2000 requesting that the master plan include intramural fields, tennis courts, and softball fields on the Cherokee Farm. The request was bolstered by information that UT was far below its peers in provision of recreational fields and outdoor space. The 2001 update of the UT Master Plan included the fields as part of a larger development, which would have included dormitories for graduate and international students. In 2007 President John Petersen changed the management of the Cherokee Farm to a system-level responsibility and appointed a task force to plan a technology-oriented research park, which eliminated the intramural and athletic fields.