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Contact Information

Email: lrieding@utk.edu
Phone: 865-974-8701
Web:

Patrick ButlerPatrick Butler, former senior vice president of the Washington Post, will speak at a luncheon and a workshop, both sponsored by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

The luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Foundry. Cost is $15 per person and space is limited. RSVP to Carrera Harris at (865) 974-0931 or bakercenter@utk.edu by April 17.

The workshop will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at the Baker Center. It is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information contact Amy Gibson at agibson1@utk.edu or (865) 974-3816.

At the luncheon, Butler — who is a member of the Baker Center Civility Task Force — will discuss “Civility in Public Policy and the Media.” He will highlight some of the Baker Center’s initiatives on this subject, including a booklet on civility standards, a program to train future leaders in the civility of governance and a series of public forums. Butler will show excepts from a new film about civility created by the Baker Center that documents the vision of civility as articulated by Gov. Phil Bredesen; Tom Griscom, editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press; John Seigenthaler, co-founder of USA Today and founder of the First Amendment Center; and other members of the Civility Task Force. The film also includes a panel discussion that includes Sens. Bob Dole and Tom Daschle and features three case studies of civility.

The workshop will begin with a keynote address by Butler, followed by the film. In the second part of the workshop, the audience will engage in a discussion facilitated by Baker Scholars to identify the barriers to civil dialogue in four policy areas — energy, environment, education and health care policy.

Standards of civility from the booklet, “Civility in Government, Principles and Exemplars” will be available to all participants and will provide a framework for the goals of the workshop. The booklet is a product of the Civility Task Force, which is a partnership of the Baker Center, the Tennessee Business Roundtable, the Freedom Forum and the Bipartisan Policy Center. Comprising of leaders from business, nonprofits, academia, the press and government, the task force strives to promote constructive discussion on critical issues by encouraging those with differing points of view to respect each other’s opinions.

Butler retired in December 2008 as senior vice president of the Washington Post Co., where for 18 years he was responsible for public policy, new business development and special corporate projects. As founder and president of Newsweek Productions, he supervised production of 200 hours of nonfiction television programming, including “Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History,” a PBS special that won the Emmy Award for Best Documentary of 2003. Butler continues as a consultant to the Post, and he is also a senior fellow at the Newseum and Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C., and a senior adviser to the National Endowment for Democracy’s Center for International Media Assistance, the Podesta Group and Wydown Management Co. He is chairman of the Maryland Public Television Foundation, the corporate advisory board of SOME (So Others Might Eat) and the Dean’s Advisory Council of the American University School of Communication.

Butler has acted as special assistant to the Senate Minority Leader; consultant and press secretary to the Senate Majority Leader; consultant to the White House chief of staff; and speechwriter for President Gerald Ford. He chaired the impeachment task force for U.S. Rep. Lawrence J. Hogan, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, during its impeachment proceeding against President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Butler is a graduate of UT Knoxville; earned a master’s degree from American University; holds a certificate in finance and accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; and is a Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Contact:

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is working to raise mental health awareness with the VolAware Street Fair. The fair will take place Tuesday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the University Center Plaza.

VolAware is UT’s mental health awareness, wellness and suicide prevention campaign. The fair will give students and the community the chance to meet mental health professionals and learn about services on campus and in the community. Students also can take part in activities like mental health “Jeopardy!” and a bean-bag toss, and express their inner child by playing on large inflatable toys and finger-painting.

Other events include:

– Mental Health Screenings from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Room 216 in the UC
– Chair massages from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the UC Plaza
– QPR training (suicide prevention) from 10 a.m. to
11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room 221 in the UC
– WUTK remote broadcast from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on
the UC Plaza
– Salsa dance lessons from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the UC Plaza
– Rape Aggression Defense demonstrations from 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the UC Plaza
– Yoga classes from noon to 12:30 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. in the UC Crest Room

The VolAware Street Fair is hosted by the UT Counseling Center and the Safety, Environment and Education (SEE) Center, and UT students and staff are involved in planning the event.

There are a variety of resources available on campus for students, faculty and staff as part of VolAware.
The Counseling Center offers free and confidential counseling for individuals, couples and groups. The Dean of Students Office acts as a clearinghouse for students to connect with services on campus, and a case manager is available to help students. The university has provided faculty and staff with a protocol to help distressed students. Faculty, staff and students can call 974-HELP to report concerns about someone else.
For more information, visit http://volaware.utk.edu/.
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Contact:

Elizabeth Davis, UT media relations, (865) 974-5179, elizabeth.davis@tennessee.edu

VolAware Street Fair includes a day of games and activities such as mental health "Jeopardy!" and the inner child play center and booths staffed by mental health, wellness and professional development organizations, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., tomorrow on the University Center Plaza. There also will be QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) training sessions, mental health screenings, a yoga class, Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) demonstrations and a workshop on "What Can I Do with a Major in the Helping Professions?"

The VolAware Street Fair is hosted by the UT Counseling Center and the Safety, Environment and Education (SEE) Center. UT faculty, staff and students helped plan the events. Head football coach Phillip Fulmer appeared on advertisements for the event on WBIR. Fulmer is the national spokesman for The Jason Foundation, a youth suicide prevention organization based in Hendersonville.

There are a variety of resources available on campus for students, faculty and staff as part of VolAware.

The Counseling Center offers free and confidential counseling for individuals, couples and groups. The Dean of Students Office acts as a clearinghouse for students to connect with services on campus, and a case manager is available to help students. The university has provided faculty and staff with a protocol to help distressed students. Faculty, staff and students can call 974-HELP to report concerns about someone else.

For more information and a full schedule of events, go to http://volaware.utk.edu/.

The event, hosted by the UT Counseling Center and the Safety, Environment and Education (SEE) Center and sponsored by WBIR, will include opening ceremonies, a movie, a training program for suicide prevention, booths on wellness created by campus groups and an awareness fair.

“Mental health awareness is a key issue on college campuses because it impacts everyone. Not attending to our mental health can interfere with our academic, work and personal lives. Attending to our mental health contributes to our overall wellness and increases our ability to function. We hope VolAware will provide the kind of awareness needed to encourage students to seek help when their lives become overwhelming,” said Connie Briscoe, assistant director of the UT Counseling Center.

UT faculty and staff and an advisory group of students helped plan the events. Head football coach Phillip Fulmer appeared on advertisements for the event on WBIR. Fulmer is the national spokesman for The Jason Foundation, a youth suicide prevention organization based in Hendersonville.

VolAware begins Monday, Oct. 8. Here is a schedule of events:

• “Mental Health and Wellness in Your World” booth contest at 6:15 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

• QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer), a training program used in suicide prevention and education, from 6:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. QPR participants do not have to register in advance. QPR provides the skills to effectively and directly ask people if they are suicidal, persuade them to get help and refer them to the appropriate professional.

• Opening ceremonies at 8 p.m. in the UC Auditorium with a welcome from the Knox County and Knoxville mayors’ offices, the UT administration and student leaders.

• The movie “Reign Over Me” immediately following the opening ceremonies. Adam Sandler plays a man who lost his family in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and is trying to cope with his grief. Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith and Liv Tyler also star in the movie released earlier this year.

VolAware events continue Tuesday, Oct. 9, with an awareness fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the UC Plaza.

An inner child play center, inflatables, mental health “Jeopardy!” contests and booths staffed by representatives from wellness, mental health and professional development organizations will be available all day.

Here is a schedule of events during the fair:

• QPR training from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• WUTK live broadcast from 10 a.m. to noon
• Mental health screenings from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• HABIT Therapy Dogs from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Rape Aggression Defense class demonstrations from 11:30 a.m. to noon
• Yoga class from noon to 1 p.m.
• Multicultural dancing lessons from noon to 1:30 p.m.
• “What Can I Do with a Major in Helping Professions?” booth from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
• Rape Aggression Defense class demonstrations from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• QPR training from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Click here for more information.

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Contacts:

Elizabeth Davis, UT media relations, (865) 974-5179, elizabeth.davis@tennessee.edu

Connie Briscoe, (865) 974-2196, briscoe@utk.edu

The theme for the booths is “Mental Health and Wellness in Your World.” The booths will be judged and prizes awarded to winners on Oct. 8, the first day of VolAware.

Groups should be limited to four to six people and can be a mixture of students, faculty and staff or all students and all faculty and staff.

The deadline to sign up for the competition is Oct. 1. To register, participants should go to the UT Counseling Center’s Web site at http://www.utk.edu/counselingcenter, click on the VolAware logo and then click on Booth Contest under VolAware 2007.

Teams can begin to set up their booths at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 in the University Center Ballroom. The judging will begin at 6:15 p.m., and the winners will be announced at the evening’s kickoff event at 8 p.m. in the UC Auditorium.

The booths should promote wellness, mental health awareness and suicide prevention and demonstrate how cultural influences impact mental health and wellness. For example, a booth could display examples of wellness on campus or in other countries or cultures. Another booth could discuss the mental health issues of certain segments in the population such as athletes, freshmen or veterinarians.

Booths will be judged on creativity, content, relevance to the main theme and the cultural component, degree of interactivity and teamwork. Participants need to be present during the judging to discuss the booth and its subject matter.

VolAware is hosted by the UT Counseling Center and the Safety, Environment and Education (SEE) Center and sponsored by WBIR, UT Dining Services, UT Book and Supply Store, Cornerstone of Recovery and the QPR Institute.

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Contacts:

Elizabeth Davis, UT media relations, (865) 974-5179, elizabeth.davis@tennessee.edu

Connie Briscoe, UT Counseling Center, (865) 974-2196, briscoe@utk.edu