After Opposition, U. of Tennessee Campuses Opt Not to Privatize Facilities Services

Erik Schelzig/AP Images

The University of Tennessee system’s campuses announced on Tuesday that they would not outsource their facilities jobs, as the state’s governor, Bill Haslam, proposed doing more than two years ago. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that the announcements — by the system’s Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Martin campuses, as well as the Health Science Center — occurred just before campus leaders were slated to present their decisions to the system’s governing board.

Outsourcing facilities services was projected to save each campus millions of dollars, but faculty and staff members countered that the arrangement could put employees in a precarious situation under new management. The Knoxville campus’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution opposing outsourcing this month, citing unpublicized costs and a “loss of connections to academic programs arising from collaboration with facilities employees.”

In 2015, Governor Haslam proposed outsourcing much of the state’s facilities-services work — including that of public colleges — to the same outside firm. The Health Science Center said on Tuesday that it would move work that has already been outsourced to the state’s contract, but it would not do so for all facilities-services work.

The push for outsourcing has gripped several universities and systems hoping to save money in recent years. In 2012, Texas A&M University outsourced its building management to a private firm, and reported big savings years later.

Andy Thomason oversees breaking-news coverage. Send him a tip at andy.thomason@chronicle.com. And follow him on Twitter @arthomason.