The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees has voted to acquire the assets of Martin Methodist College and establish a new UT campus in Pulaski, Tennessee, to be known as UT Southern.
Effective July 1, the addition of UT Southern will represent the fourth undergraduate college within the UT System, and the first new campus since UT Chattanooga joined more than 50 years ago.
UT Southern will be the only four-year and graduate institution of higher education between Sewanee in the east and Freed-Hardeman in the west, serving a southern Middle Tennessee region of 13 counties near the Alabama border.
The Board voted to appoint Mark La Branche, president of Martin Methodist College since July 1, 2017, as the inaugural chancellor of UT Southern. Prior to joining Martin Methodist, La Branche served as the president of Louisburg College in North Carolina, where he oversaw the school’s 22 percent increase in enrollment, 58 percent increase in graduates, and a five-year, $18 million fund-raising campaign that exceeded its goals by 20 percent.
