However, at the backing of the newly seated director Colonel John C. Mauer, the Tennessee State Board of Vocational Education soon took over governance of the school, providing three associate degree programs in engineering technology to 45 students on the first day of classes, September 23, 1974.STIK received its initial accreditation from the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in 1977, under the leadership of the first school president, Wayne Jones, and six years later, on July 1, 1983, STIK became a member of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, thereby transferring governance of the school to the Tennessee Board of Regents.In 1986 the campus was moved to its current location, on a 445-acre (1.80 km2) plot in west Knox County near Pellissippi Parkway.In 1988, however, the school's mission was broadened to include that of a technical community college, adding numerous university-parallel associate degree programs, changing its name to Pellissippi State Technical Community College, and absorbing the space occupied by Roane State.[3] Pellissippi (also spelled "Pelisipi") appears on early maps as the name of the Clinch River.