UPS Tusculum Partnership

Note: Registration for this Gateway class is April 5; orientation is April 12. Classes start April 19. Call the Knoxville Professional Studies Office at 1-800-729-0116 for more information.

In March , Tusculum College and UPS began what people in both organizations hope will be a longterm partnership to offer quality higher education to UPS employees at the company's center in Knoxville. Here Lisa Bowers, director of enrollment management for Professional Studies - Southeast Tennessee (second from left), with Tim Long, Jerry Foster, Katie Gray and Pattie Williams, all of UPS.

Sometime this April, United Parcel Service employees will, at the end of the work day, park their brown trucks, turn off their computers, put away their truck keys and go to school in the same place they go to work—at the company’s office on Callahan Road in Knoxville.

"The whole premise of our degree programs is that we make classes convenient for students who have work and family responsibilities," says Lisa Bowers, director of enrollment management. "We are looking forward to the opportunity to further the education of UPS employees where they work."

For the company, the partnership is both an outreach and sound business practice. "We really want to serve the community," says Tim Long, human resources supervisor in Knoxville. “And having college programs on site is an incentive to our employees. Education benefits both the employees and the company."

"Supporting education is a natural for UPS," adds Jerry Foster, district workforce planning manager. "We are excited about this partnership with Tusculum College."

The first programs offered at the UPS site will be a Gateway program, directed toward students with fewer than 60 credit-hours of college work, and the Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management.

The company hopes that in the near future, the College will expand its offerings to include a school-to-work program in which high school students work for the company and attend college classes in the evening.

Including United Parcel Service, five corporations have opened their doors to the Tusculum College Professional Studies Program in the last four years: Bowater in Calhoun, Avery Dennison in Cumberland County, and Blount County’s Denso Manufacturing and Breed Technologies.

"We began involvement on site within companies five years ago at the Watts Bar nuclear plant," says Jerry Kidd, associate vice-president for graduate and professional studies, Southeast Tennessee. "One of the issues that is very important to our students is location. But just as important is how our programs are perceived by employers and the business community at large. When corporations invite us in to their own facilities, they are saying, 'we have examined your program and believe it will be of benefit to our employees.' That's a tremendous vote of confidence in our efforts."

While the company and the College are still gauging interest, the first class is slated to begin in mid-March. "We have enough interest in both the Bachelor’s program and the Gateway program to start a class," says Bowers. "Which one begins first depends on how quickly formal applications and acceptances are processed."

If demand within the company is first satisfied, UPS has plans to allow students from nearby businesses to attend classes in its facilities as well. In the meantime, Knoxville area students have access to higher education at sites throughout East Tennessee, including the Knoxville Center on Executive Park Drive.

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