UT President Randy Boyd unveils new mural in West Tennessee
FRUITVALE, Tenn. — University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd is on his “Everywhere You Look” tour, and Tuesday he made his stops here in West Tennessee.
“Everywhere you look across the state of Tennessee, everywhere you look in West Tennessee, there’s a University of Tennessee presence,” Boyd said.
On August 3, Boyd began a journey to visit more than 50 counties over the next three months to celebrate UT’s impact across the state.
Tuesday morning, Boyd spoke with alumni and staff at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, the oldest AgResearch center in the UT system.
“My number one job as the president is to serve my team and my state, and the only way you can do that is to listen to them and find out what it is that they need,” Boyd said.
Boyd is the first UT president to visit all of the campuses, extension offices, and AgResearch centers. He says the tour brings the opportunity to meet everyone across the UT system and appreciate all the work they are doing.
To get the word out, a mural reading “Everywhere You Look, UT” is being painted across buildings, barns, and homes across the state.
“We’ve done 17 out of the 18 murals, but we still have another 80 to go,” Boyd said. “We’ve got to put one in all 95 counties, so we’ve got a lot of murals left to do, a lot of touring across the state left to do.”
Boyd and alumi gathered in Fruitvale to present a 45-foot mural, visible to an estimated 500 travelers a day.
And, this mural is special to Boyd’s family.
“The Boyds originally came to Tennessee in Crockett County in 1832. A few generations later, my great great uncle built JL Boyd’s general store, so I personally want to make sure that our family store also had one of our murals, so we’re here to celebrate that today here in Fruitvale,” Boyd said.
With the new school year here, Boyd hopes to continue to improve the UT system.
“Safety and their health is the first priority, but also we want to make sure that they continue to be academically successful,” Boyd said. “Last year we had record enrollment, we had record retention rates, we had record graduation rates, and we expect this year to be more of the same.”
Tuesday afternoon, Boyd continued the tour at the Haywood County Solar Farm. The 5-megawatt West Tennessee solar farm is one of the largest solar-generating facilities in the southeast.
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