Interim President of the University of Tennessee system, Randy Boyd, visited the Times Free Press on December 18, 2018. Randy Boyd has a lot to accomplish during the next 24 months on the job as the University of Tennessee system’s interim president, and he says he has committed to it with a “sense of urgency.”
Though he said he doesn’t seem himself as a candidate for the permanent position, he does consider his new role as a way to accomplish the same goals he had as a governor candidate.
“It was always about my mission, and my mission was about the Drive to 55, advancing education in our state, and about helping people in our rural communities. And not being governor just means that I had to find a different means to the end, the end remains the same,” he told the Times Free Press on Tuesday. “As interim president of UT, I can probably do more for the things I am passionate about than in the other role.”
Boyd, a Tennessee alumnus, lost to Bill Lee in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary and was later named interim president unanimously by the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees in September.
Boyd has committed to six major priorities, among them being the search to find his successor, he said, which means he won’t seek out the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Lamar Alexander in 2020.