In his third State of the University address on Feb. 28, UT President Joe DiPietro announced the University’s plan to tackle the opioid crisis in Tennessee.
“It’s exactly the kind of challenge that land-grant, research universities are made to take on,” DiPietro said during his speech before a crowd of UT leaders, government officials and dignitaries. “And it’s a problem of such complexity and consequence, it will require all we can do to overcome it.”
DiPietro highlighted successes of the past year in each of the University’s three mission pillars—education, research and outreach.
“While we count our contacts, research dollars and graduation rates, statistics don’t tell the human story of what those numbers achieve: better opportunities, better jobs, better lives,” DiPietro said. “A better Tennessee for all Tennesseans.”
From conducting research on opioid addiction to proposing public policy and developing preventive education to treatment protocols in the opioid crisis, UT experts are working to solve one of the state’s challenging problems.
Further, DiPietro said, the strength of the University is an indicator of the strength of the state.
“The stronger the state of this University, the stronger the state of Tennessee. Because everywhere you look, UT.”
The archived webcast of the event is at https://tennessee.edu/state-of-ut/.
Tags: Communication, State of the University
