A Message from the Engineering Diversity Programs Director
Greetings!
It is a pleasure to serve as director for the Office of Diversity Programs (ODP) for the College of Engineering (COE) at 
the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK). UTK COE has played an active role and been successful through the years in recruiting, retaining, educating and graduating African American, Hispanic and Native American engineering students. With the implementation of strategic initiatives, COE has been very effective through targeted recruiting, scholarship opportunities, and pre-college enrichment activities for incoming 7th thru 12th grade students. The development of initiatives has enabled the college to build and sustain a nationally prominent diversity engineering program. In particular, the COE is currently ranked among the top 50 universities in the nation graduating African American engineering students and has been ranked among the 50 universities since 1978.
The objective of the ODP is to provide recruitment and retention initiatives for underrepresented students pursuing degrees in engineering at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Today, the program offers academic counseling, scholarships, tutoring, mentoring, industry tours and corporate networking opportunities.
UTK is part of the Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (TLSAMP),a National Science Foundation funded program designed to increase the enrollment and graduation rates of underrepresented ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Lastly, UTK along with 152 universities serves within a nationwide program with the National Graduate Degrees for Minorities (GEM) Consortium. The National GEM Consortium's primary focus is to administer and award fellowships with paid internships to highly qualified under-represented students who wish to pursue graduate studies in engineering or science.
If you are interested and would like to know more about the ODP, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Travis Griffin, Director
Office of Diversity Programs
204 Estabrook Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-2360
Phone: (865) 974-1956
Fax: (865) 974-0669
E-mail: travisg@utk.edu