TENNAIR 2026

Effective academic program review is often assumed to rest primarily on the quality of program level responses. However, experience suggests that the success of program review is largely shaped long before programs begin writing, by the administrative structures, tools, timelines, and guidance that frame the process. When intentionally designed, this infrastructure can reduce rework and confusion, improve consistency and clarity across submissions, and better support data informed reflection and continuous improvement.

This session offers an administrator centered perspective common to institutional research, assessment, and planning roles, exploring how responsibilities shift when administrators act as translators of external expectations, designers of coherent review systems, and coaches supporting faculty and program leaders. Using examples aligned with Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) expectations, the presenter will share practical strategies such as guided self-study templates, standardized site visit itineraries, clear review timelines, and observer roles to build institutional capacity. These approaches have contributed to stronger narratives, fewer clarification cycles, and clearer links between review findings, decision making, and improvement planning.

The session also addresses the emerging use of artificial intelligence as an administrative support strategy within program review workflows. Rather than replacing professional judgment or program ownership, AI is positioned as a tool for improving clarity, identifying cross cutting themes, and generating reflective prompts, with clear guardrails emphasizing transparency and human review.

Participants will reflect on pain points in their own program review processes, consider where assumptions or inconsistent guidance create unnecessary burden, and identify administrative adjustments that could strengthen existing systems. Attendees will leave with transferable, scalable strategies that can be adapted across institution types to support more meaningful program review, without overhauling current models.

In this third installment of our ongoing data governance series, we provide an updated look at how the University of Tennessee, Knoxville continues to mature its approach through coordinated strategy, functional engagement, and technical modernization.

This session will offer an overview of the institutional strategy guiding data governance, including efforts to support shared decision-making and accountability across the university. We then explore the functional work that supports data governance in practice, highlighting initiatives to engage campus partners and promote data literacy and discovery. Finally, we spotlight recent technical progress focused on improving efficiency, streamlining business processes, and strengthening data quality and trust through more robust validation and automation.

Together, these updates share practical insights and lessons learned, reflecting on what it takes to sustain momentum as data governance evolves, not as a one-time project or policy, but as a collaborative, ongoing effort embedded in institutional practice.

Please join staff from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission for a deep dive into a comprehensive analysis of the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) program. TELS is a set of 13 distinct financial aid programs that provide support for students to pursue college, funded from the state’s education lottery revenue. However, recent revenue projections from the State Funding Board point to a persistent and growing gap between available funds from the lottery and the growing demand for TELS programs. Recognizing those challenges, THEC has undertaken an agency-wide analysis of TELS to determine how the programs have evolved over time, who is supported by each program, and the overall impact the program has on postsecondary outcomes in the state. Participants in this session can expect to learn about: 1) the full suite of TELS programs 2) the student population served by each program, their outcomes, and how these dynamics have changed over time; and 3) how THEC is measuring the scope and impact of all TELS programs.