With only two billionaires among University of Tennessee system alumni, one UT trustee says it could take up to 30 years to replace public support with private fundraising.

“It is clear that we have not had the funds that our peer groups have had in respect to higher education,” said Charles Wharton, a UT trustee and foundation member who spoke Tuesday to the system’s fundraising officials. “Others are more optimistic than I am.”

UT Foundation board members met in Knoxville Tuesday to review endowment performance and discuss fundraising needs. The foundation raises money for the UT system campuses, including UTC. However, most gifts given to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are managed through the University of Chattanooga Foundation, the primary fundraiser for UTC.

The UC Foundation is governed by a separate board and was not discussed during the UT Foundation meeting.

A UT Foundation Study Committee, formed last year to investigate best practices in fundraising at schools such as the University of North Carolina, the University of Virginia and the University of Texas, found that schools with large endowments have wealthier alumni than UT, Mr. Wharton said.

For example, the University of Texas has 27 billionaires among its alumni, he said.

University system officials would not identify the two UT alumni billionaires.

UT officials also said there are not enough fundraising staffers to reach out to existing alumni. Many of UT’s peer institutions have fundraising staffs that are two or three times the size of UT’s, they said.

“We aren’t able to make all the sales calls we need to make,” Mr. Wharton said. “We have in place a foundation and staff that is not adequate to meet the future needs of UT. We are not reaching out to our alumni as we should.”

Jim Haslam, chairman of the UT Foundation, agreed and said UT is reliant on fundraising success.

“If the fundraising future of the foundation is not great, the future of the institution is not great,” he said.

Henry Nemcik, president of the UT Foundation and vice president for development at UT, has called for a doubling of fundraising staff. But UT trustees are divided on the best way to increase the staff.

This month, UT Board Vice Chairman Jim Murphy said the UT Foundation should consider using a portion of money donated to aid in fundraising costs.

Mr. Wharton told the UT Foundation Board on Tuesday that he disagrees with that method.

“As a donor, I am interested in supporting certain functions more than administrative things,” he said. “I want to assure people that not a penny of your gift will be used for operating fees.”

Instead, he said the UT Foundation should look at placing new gifts into a short-term investment vehicle and use interest from the funds to support operations.

Mr. Wharton said the study found that many university endowments charge a small fee — under 1 percent — for administrative costs. Right now, UT doesn’t take anything from its endowment earnings for operations, he said.

Fundraising support comes from the education and general funds, Mr. Nemcik said.

In other business, Charles M. Peccolo, UT treasurer, reported that the UT endowment was performing better than expected and was up 4.9 percent since January.

Mr. Peccolo told the UT Foundation that he has expected a negative return of 30 percent at the end of the fiscal year, but said the endowment was on track to be only 18 percent in the negative.