The café, sponsored by Sysco Foods, operates from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursdays in the UT Visitors Center, 2712 Neyland Drive. Each luncheon typically consists of an intermezzo or small appetizer, salad or soup, entrée, and dessert. Advance tickets will be sold for the luncheons, and capacity is eighty diners. Cost will be $12, and the faculty-staff discount does not apply. For tickets and reservations, see Marcia Johnson in the Jessie Harris Building, Room 110, call 865-974-6645, or e-mail rhtm@utk.edu.

The southern French menu is:

Appetizer: Roquefort, Saint Albray, quince paste, and grapes. (Roquefort is the oldest and most renowned of the blue cheeses. Saint Albray is French soft-ripened cheese, and quince is a golden round fruit.)

Salad: Duck confit mesclun (cured and poached duck served shredded with leafy greens, candied walnuts, and warm sherry chardonnay vinaigrette).

Main course: Chicken Provencal (chicken stew with emphasis on tomatoes and garlic).

Dessert: Pots de crème (loose French custard).

Lunch dates and themes for the remainder of the semester are:

• March 21, Northern France
• April 4, Sushi
• April 11, Japanese Cookery
• April 18, Spain
• April 25, Japanese/French Fusion
• May 2, Spanish/Italian Fusion

The luncheons are produced through a collaboration of HRT 445 (the Advanced Food Production and Service Management class), the UT Culinary Institute, and the Pellissippi Culinary Institute.

Students enrolled in the UT course will work as general managers, dining room attendants, assistant kitchen managers, dining room managers, and dining room service employees. They will be responsible for the execution of the dining experience, managing staff, menu planning, food preparation, cooking, cost analysis, service during meal time, marketing of the event, and customer satisfaction activities.

Pellissippi State students will do most of the food preparation and will assist with dining room responsibilities.

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C O N T A C T :

Marcia Johnson (for tickets): (865-974-6645, rhtm@utk.edu)

Christine Copelan (ccopela7@utk.edu)

The reception begins at 7:00 p.m., followed by the 8:00 p.m. screening. A question-and-answer session with film writer and director Elvin Ross will follow at 9:00 p.m. To RSVP, contact Beth Gladden at 865-974-9008 or bgladden@utk.edu.

For more information on the movie, visit its website.

You can post your own shout-out to your favorite faculty member on the Faculty Shout Out Page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WukyFSfaAnw

Post your own shout-outs on the Faculty Shout Out Page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYJvvpERDYU

There are several advantages to taking summer courses, including smaller classes, a more relaxed campus, and a more focused learning environment. Students can use HOPE Scholarship funds to pay for summer courses.

Also, summer school students often find summer jobs or internships, gaining valuable professional experience and some spending money while taking classes. Be sure to explore the resources offered by Career Services at career.utk.edu.

For more information, visit the summer school website.

They are among the 199 finalists announced Friday by the Truman Scholarship Foundation. About sixty Truman Scholarship winners will be announced in April after all finalists are interviewed by review panels.

Eric Dixon

Dixon, of Knoxville, will graduate in December with a quadruple major in philosophy, economics, sociology, and global studies. His interests include issues facing central and southern Appalachia, growing the green economy, and service-learning initiatives. He is vice president of the Honors Council, is involved with the Roosevelt Institute and SPEAK (Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville), and is helping lead a campaign to encourage UT to invest responsibly. He has served in the Student Government Association and has worked for The Daily Beacon. He currently does sustainability policy from a behavioral perspective at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dixon is a Baker Scholar and an active member of the Chancellor’s Honors community.

Lindsay Lee

Lee, of Oak Ridge, is a junior studying mathematics, Spanish, and Portuguese. She is the founder and president of Campus Disability Advocates, a group that promotes equality for students with disabilities. She is co-chair of the Academic Affairs Committee in the Student Government Association, and she is currently running for president of the organization. She writes regular columns in The Daily Beacon. Her research involves modeling the population dynamics of managed feral cat colonies. Lee aspires to a public health career where she will work to reduce health care disparities between socioeconomic classes. She is also a Haslam Scholar and an active member of the Chancellor’s Honors community.

The Truman Scholarship Foundation received 629 applications this year. The finalists were chosen based on “outstanding leadership potential, exceptional academic achievement, and (commitment) to careers in government or elsewhere in public service.”

Truman scholars receive priority admissions and supplemental financial aid at premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school guidance, and special internship opportunities with the federal government.

For more information about the Truman Scholarship program, visit www.truman.gov.

For more information about applying for the Truman Scholarship and other prestigious national scholarships, contact UT’s Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships at onsf@utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

August E. “Augie” Grant, the J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism at the University of South Carolina, will deliver the keynote address. He will speak on “Convergence and Disruption: The New Research Paradigms.”

The symposium will be held in the Communications Building Auditorium (Room 321), with the poster session located in the foyer outside the auditorium. A lunch will be held in the Scripps Convergence Lab (Communications Building Room 402). Tickets to the lunch are $10. All other events during the symposium are free and open to the public.

“The theme of this year’s symposium highlights the changes that are leading to the transformation and convergence of the fields of communication and information,” said CCI Dean Mike Wirth.

“Our keynoter, Augie Grant, is an internationally known expert on media convergence and technology. His talk will set the tone for what promises to be an exciting day of paper presentations, posters, and discourse,” Wirth said.

The symposium begins at 9:00 a.m. with a continental breakfast in the CCI lobby, followed by Grant’s keynote address at 9:30 a.m.

Research paper presentations will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the auditorium on the topic of “New Roles for Media in Society,” and the poster session begins at 11:30 a.m. in the lobby.

Lunch begins at 12:15 p.m. in the Scripps Convergence Lab. The next paper presentation session begins at 1:45 p.m. in the auditorium on the topic of “Media’s Role in Society.”

The final paper presentation session begins at 2:45 p.m. in the auditorium on the topic of “Science Communication,” and the closing comments and awards ceremony are set for 3:30 p.m. Awards will be given to the best paper by undergraduate students, the best paper by master’s students, the best collaborative paper by faculty and doctoral students, and the best poster.

For more information about the symposium program, call 865-974-6651 or visit the symposium website.

CONTACT:

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, charles.primm@tennessee.edu)

You can post your own shout-out to your favorite faculty member on the Faculty Shout Out Page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B24fEYVWwo

Dwight Teeter Jr.

When Dwight Teeter was a cub reporter in Waterloo, Iowa, back in the late 1950s, he was threatened with a libel suit.

His newspaper arranged for him to talk to a lawyer, but the lawyer admitted he didn’t know much about libel law. He asked Teeter, who hadn’t been out of college long at that point, if he knew of a good textbook they could consult.

“I realized that I hadn’t had a good book on communication law during my undergraduate days at Berkeley. So I thought, Maybe I’ll write one,” he said.

A couple of newspaper jobs and a PR job later, Teeter found himself at the University of Wisconsin, working on his doctorate. It was there that his mentor, the late Professor Harold L. Nelson, asked him to co-author a book called Law of Mass Communications.  That book is now its thirteenth edition.

“Dwight is an outstanding teacher and a highly published, internationally known expert in the area of mass communication law and history,” said Mike Wirth, dean of the College of Communication and Information.

Teeter came to UT in 1991 as dean of the college. He served in that position until 2002 and then returned to the faculty to teach mass communication law and history.

Although journalism students often think communications law is a tough subject, Teeter said he stresses that it’s built on simple rules, like “don’t invade privacy” and “don’t steal copyrighted material.”

Teeter said his Wisconsin mentor, Nelson, was his greatest inspiration.

“In the summer of 1954, Harold Nelson had been hired to teach journalism and advise the student paper at a Texas university,” Teeter recalled. “This was soon after the US Supreme Court had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education, desegregating public schools. A student reporter learned about a box of folders in Admissions marked ‘Negro: Do Not Admit.’ The student asked, ‘Should we publish this story?’  Nelson said yes, knowing that it might land him in hot water with the administration.”

Teeter said Nelson lost his job in Texas but was soon hired by the University of California at Berkeley—where he and Teeter first met—and later by the University of Wisconsin, where they met up again.

“It just goes to show,” Teeter said.  “If you do what is right, things usually work out.”

Peiling Wang

Peiling Wang loves a good challenge. That explains her penchant for ice skating, skiing, and surfing.

She recalls being one of the two novices in an in-line skating class. The instructor proceeded as if everyone knew what they were doing. Wang fell multiple times and had to seek medical care.

Wang said the experience taught her a lot about learning—and teaching.

An information science professor who primarily teaches graduate classes, Wang said her students arrive with varying backgrounds. Some are new to the field; some have extensive work experience.

“I believe in a learner-centered approach, so I see my role as creating a supportive environment for my students to learn and personalize professional growth,” she said.

Wirth said Wang “has distinguished herself as an outstanding teacher and first-rate scholar. She is an internationally known expert in web information retrieval, data mining,  knowledge discovery, and human-computer interaction.”

Wang has devoted herself to developing the School of Information’s new ePortfolio requirement for graduate students. An alternative to a thesis or exam, it requires students to set goals, collect evidence of learning, and reflect on learning outcomes and professional growth—and then document their learning and competencies in a web e-Portfolio.

Wang also worked with the Provost’s office to analyze academic data to develop utrack, a monitoring system that will help students stay on track to graduation.

Wang said her gusto for life and learning—and getting back up after being down—was born out of a difficult youth in China. Because of the Cultural Revolution, her formal education was interrupted when she was a sixth grader and she was sent to a collective farm to work for eight years. She later went to a university and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, a field that was chosen for her. After earning a master’s degree in information science—the field she loves—she came to America in the late 1980s to pursue her doctorate at the University of Maryland.

“Despite all the difficulties, I have never been happier than I am now,” Wang said in a speech she was asked to give at her commencement ceremony in Maryland. “I cannot find the words to express my appreciation to this great country, where I have the opportunity to hope and to strive for the best I can be…. In my homeland, there is a saying. Translated into English, it means ‘One should never forget her teachers.’”

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

He’ll be discussing its applications at the Science Forum on March 1.

The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to discuss their research and the general public to learn about science through a conversational presentation.

The weekly presentations begin at noon on Fridays in Room C-D of Thompson-Boling Arena. Attendees can bring lunch or purchase it at the arena. Each presentation is forty minutes long and is followed by a question-and-answer session. Science Forum presentations are free and open to the public.

Electron microscopes, similar to optical microscopes, are used to reveal the structure of small objects. Electron microscopes make use of the properties of electrons to magnify small objects for study instead of using light, as in optical microscopes.

“Electron microscopes have been around since the early 1930s. But only in the last thirteen years has the technology matured to the point that we can study materials literally atom by atom,” Idrobo said.

Idrobo uses electron microscopy to study, at the atomic scale, the chemical bonding and optical properties of graphene. Graphene is a pure-carbon substance similar to graphite, but lighter. These properties can be applied in the production of novel electronic devices and more efficient energy-related materials.

Future Science Forums will feature:

• March 8: Dr. Paul Campbell Erwin, professor and head of the Department of Public Health, presenting “John Snow and Cholera: The Foundation for Modern Disease Investigation.”
• March 15: Kevin Hoyt, director of UT Forest Resources AgResearch and Education Center, presenting “The Proposed UT AgResearch Gas and Oil Well Research Project.”
• April 5: William T. Bogart, president of Maryville College and professor of economics there, discussing “Cargo Cult Economic Policy: Urban Development and Green Energy.”
• April 12: Stephanie K. Drumheller-Horton, instructor of earth and planetary sciences, presenting “Crocodylian Bite Marks in the Fossil Record.”
• April 19: Devon M. Burr, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences, discussing “The Moon That Would Be A Planet: Saturn’s Giant Titan.”
• April 26: Joan Markel, curator of Civil War exhibits at the McClung Museum, presenting “Digging into Our Civil War Past.”

The Science Forum is sponsored by the UT Office of Research. For more information about the Science Forum, visit the Office of Research website.

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C O N T A C T :

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

Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)

Special event parking is available after 4:00 p.m. in the G10 garage next to the arena, the Andy Holt Tower garage across the street, and many other faculty/staff lots on the main campus and just north across Cumberland Ave in Fort Sanders.

To avoid traffic congestion in the heart of campus, concertgoers can park on the agriculture campus and ride a shuttle to the arena. Shuttle service will begin at 6:00 p.m. and continue until the show starts, and will resume at the end of the concert. The parking fee is $10 on campus and includes shuttle service to and from the agriculture campus.

Members of the campus community should be aware that a surge in traffic is expected that afternoon and will continue until the start of the concert. University students and employees leaving campus Friday afternoon are encouraged to avoid Lake Loudoun Blvd. and use either Joe Johnson Drive or Cumberland Ave. to exit campus.

Concertgoers are not allowed to bring backpacks or large bags into the arena. Video cameras or unauthorized recording devices will not be allowed into the concert.

For more information, call the arena management office at 974-0953.

The talk, titled “Archetypes: Character Structure, Film Analysis, and Screenwriting Theory,” is sponsored by the English Department and the Cinema Studies Program.

Myers will discuss the use of archetypes, or universal character types found in cultures throughout the world, in classic Hollywood films such as Casablanca, The Apartment, Star Wars, and The Silence of the Lambs.

The presentation is free and open to the public, and should be of special interest to aspiring screenwriters, analysts of film narrative, and anyone interested in American movies. A reception will follow in the Mary Greer Room in Hodges Library.

Myers also will lead an informal discussion on screenwriting and Hollywood from noon to 1:00 p.m. on March 1 in McClung Tower 1210-11.

Since selling his script for the film K-9 in 1987, Myers has written nearly thirty projects for every major Hollywood studio and broadcast network. Besides K-9 (with Jim Belushi), his movie credits include Alaska and Trojan War (with Jennifer Love Hewitt).

Also a screenwriting teacher, Myers won an Outstanding Instructor Award from the University of California, Los Angeles, he currently teaches at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and he hosts a screenwriting blog at www.gointothestory.com. To read more about Myers’s discussions with Hollywood script readers and what they look for in a script, visit his blog,

CONTACT:

Chuck Maland (cmaland@utk.edu)

This year’s theme is “Inspiring Ideas.”

Daily stories in Tennessee Today will profile faculty members who inspire their students through innovative teaching, an encouraging demeanor, passion for their subject, and contagious enthusiasm.

Videos will feature students talking about the faculty members who have meant the most to them. Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek and Provost Susan Martin also have some words of thanks for the faculty members who inspired them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDRTm5bmQ7A

In preparation for the week, you can post your own shout-out to your favorite faculty member on the Faculty Shout Out Page.

Here’s a look at some of the special events planned for this week:

Monday, February 25

• Lunch workshop—Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center will present “Threshold Concepts: Moving Students through the Conceptual Bottlenecks,” a free workshop about helping students move from academic confusion to the “light bulb” moments of understanding. Noon to 1:30 p.m. University Center Ballroom. Lunch is included. RSVP to tenntlc@utk.edu.
• Distinguished Faculty Reception—The invitation-only reception sponsored by Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek will be held from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. in the rotunda of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

Tuesday, February 26

• Men’s basketball game—The Vols play Florida at 9:00 p.m. in Thompson-Boling Arena. Faculty will be saluted during the game. Faculty and staff can purchase tickets for $7. Visit the UT Ticket Office, call 865-656-1200, or order online using promotional code VOLS4UTK.

Wednesday, February 27

• Clarence Brown Theatre presents A Raisin in the Sun—Faculty can use their 50 percent discount to purchase tickets by visiting the box office with their staff ID. Faculty who attend tonight’s 7:30 p.m. performance will be recognized during intermission and will be entered into a drawing for two-ticket season passes. For more information call 974-5161 or see clarencebrowntheatre.com.

Thursday, February 28

• Ready for the World Café—Faculty members dining at the café today will have the chance to win Rocky Top Institute items and café tickets. Today’s northern Italian menu includes a porcini mushroom polenta cake, veal Milanese, artichoke salad, tiramisu, and focaccia. The café, sponsored by Sysco Foods, is a joint effort of HRT 445, the UT Culinary Institute, and Pellissippi Culinary Institute. It begins at 11:30 a.m. in the UT Visitors Center, 2712 Neyland Drive. Tickets are $12. Too purchase them, see Marcia Johnson in the Jessie Harris Building, Room 110, call 865-974-6645, or e-mail rhtm@utk.edu.
• Women’s basketball game—The Lady Vols play Texas A&M at 7:00 p.m. in Thompson-Boling Arena. Faculty will be saluted during the game. Faculty and staff can purchase tickets for $7. Visit the UT Ticket Office, call 865-656-1200, or order online, using promotional code VOLS4UTK.

All Week

• Free drinks from Dining Services—Faculty and staff members who show their UT Dining Services Faculty/Staff Rewards Card will receive a free 22-ounce fountain drink or small coffee. No purchase is necessary. The offer is good at Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Einstein’s, McAlister’s Deli, Arena Dining, Smokey’s, Rocky Top locations, Subway, Mabel’s, and all of the other national brand locations that Dining Services manages on campus.
• Faculty books display—Books written by UT faculty will be displayed throughout the week in the Dixie Marie Wooten Commons West of Hodges Library, near the Melrose entrance.
• UT Bookstore discount—The bookstore will offer a 20 percent discount to faculty and staff with their UT ID. The discount will not include textbooks, special orders, select trade books, clearance merchandise, and minimal select general merchandise (such as the “We Back Pat” shirts).

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

In recognition of Faculty Appreciation Week, February 25 to March 1, faculty members attending this week’s Ready for the World Café will have the chance to win Rocky Top Institute items and café tickets.

The café, sponsored by Sysco Foods, operates from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursdays in the UT Visitors Center, 2712 Neyland Drive. Each luncheon typically consists of an intermezzo or small appetizer, salad or soup, entrée, and dessert. Advance tickets will be sold for the luncheons, and capacity is eighty diners. Cost will be $12, and the faculty-staff discount does not apply. For tickets and reservations, see Marcia Johnson in the Jessie Harris Building, Room 110, call 865-974-6645, or e-mail rhtm@utk.edu.

The northern Italian menu is:

Appetizer: Insalata di carciofi (artichoke salad)

First course: Porcini mushroom polenta cake with sausage ragu, garnished with white truffle oil, parmesan cheese, and basil

Second course: Veal Milanese (thinly pounded veal, crusted with bread crumbs and fried) with lemon-seasoned arugula and cherry tomatoes

Dessert: Tiramisu (layered dessert with emphasis on coffee, chocolate, and mascarpone cheese)

Lunch dates and themes for the remainder of the semester are:

• March 7, Southern France
• March 21, Northern France
• April 4, Sushi
• April 11, Japanese Cookery
• April 18, Spain
• April 25, Japanese/French Fusion
• May 2, Spanish/Italian Fusion

The luncheons are produced through a collaboration of HRT 445 (the Advanced Food Production and Service Management class), the UT Culinary Institute, and the Pellissippi Culinary Institute.

Students enrolled in the UT course will work as general managers, dining room attendants, assistant kitchen managers, dining room managers, and dining room service employees. They will be responsible for the execution of the dining experience, managing staff, menu planning, food preparation, cooking, cost analysis, service during meal time, marketing of the event, and customer satisfaction activities.

Pellissippi State students will do most of the food preparation and will assist with dining room responsibilities.

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C O N T A C T :

Marcia Johnson (for tickets): (865-974-6645, rhtm@utk.edu)

Christine Copelan (ccopela7@utk.edu)

Vol Compliments is a Facebook page that posts nice and encouraging notes about students and others in the UT community. Here is how it works: Anyone can send his or her compliments in a message to the page administrators, who then post it anonymously to the page’s timeline, tagging the person complimented.

“The anonymity of the Internet is so often used to spread hate and ignorance, and this page aims to combat that,” said the page’s administrators.

The concept for the page came from Queen’s University in Ontario, and the page’s administrators adapted the idea to fit UT.

“We felt like it was really something that could benefit UT, and the page has really taken off,” they said.

Vol Compliments will continue to spread positive messages across UT as long as students are willing to share it.

“We hope, most of all, that this page can be used as a medium for UT students to spread positive thoughts and love to their peers. We hope that students continue to use the page to compliment other students for a very long time,” said the page’s administrators.

The race will begin at 9:00 a.m. in Circle Park. Registration is available on the day of the race from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. The UT Graduate Student Senate is sponsoring the event.

The UT Graduate Student Senate has hosted the race since 1992. Proceeds from the event will help the libraries buy electronic resources, books, equipment, and other critical items for students.

The Knoxville Track Club will manage the finish line and compile race results. An awards ceremony will follow.

For more information, visit the UT Libraries website.

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CONTACT:

UT Graduate Student Senate (865-974-2377, gss@utk.edu)

Representatives from Zipcar are on campus today with information on how to sign up and get started. They can be found on the Pedestrian Walkway until 1:00 p.m. and then at Presidential Courtyard from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m.

Two Zipcars are parked on campus, a Ford Focus and a Honda Civic. The cars are parked near Presidential Courtyard at the intersection of 20th Street and Andy Holt Avenue. Discounted hourly rates for faculty, staff, and students start at $7.50 per hour and $69 per day.

To join Zipcar, visit the website. Once you’re a member, reserve a self-service, on-demand car online or on your phone for as short as an hour or as long as four days. Let yourself into the car with your unique Zipcard. (The keys are already in the car.) Just make sure to return the car at the end of your reservation.

Zipcards take about three to five business days to receive through the mail, though Zipcar representatives on campus have a limited number of Zipcards for those who can’t wait to get started. Zipcars will be available to reserve this evening.

Faculty and staff may sign up for the student fee of of $35 per year, though Zipcar is currently waiving the fee for the first year thanks to a grant form the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization. To join, visit the website.

Amanda McRoy, center, is the campus’s Peace Corps recruiter.

Want to learn more about the Peace Corps? There will be ample opportunities starting Saturday as UT celebrates Peace Corps Week.

A key event will be a panel discussion on Wednesday, February 27, featuring returned volunteers talking about their experiences.

“UT is a major player in the Peace Corps, producing many volunteers. This is the organization’s fifty-second anniversary and we’ve planned a variety of events to get information out and encourage students to think about volunteering at some point in their lives,” said Amanda McRoy, campus recruiter.

UT has housed a Peace Corps office since 2008, and McRoy has been the campus recruiter since 2012. The Peace Corps chose to fund the office in the Center for International Education because UT provides many Peace Corps volunteers.

There are twenty-two UT Knoxville alumni now serving in the Peace Corps, and 514 alumni are current or former Peace Corps volunteers. UT Knoxville is the top school in Tennessee—as well as the seventh undergraduate school in the Southeast and ninetieth undergraduate school in the nation—for producing Peace Corps volunteers.

McRoy, now working on her master’s degree in speech pathology at UT after earning a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, joined the Peace Corps in 2009. She was sent to Cameroon, a republic in Central Africa, where she worked with community groups on basic health education. During her two years there, McRoy’s involvement with the community expanded to other projects such as creating a savings program, forming a medicinal plant group, and promoting the use of soy as a protein supplement.

Applicants interested in the Peace Corps typically need to have a bachelor’s degree and should expect to be abroad for about twenty-seven months. Applicants chosen for the Peace Corps are given a living allowance that “enables them to live in a manner similar to the people in their community” and are paid $7,425 for a readjustment allowance upon completion of their service. Transportation, dental care, and health care are covered by Peace Corps.

McRoy said people interested in the Peace Corps who complete applications by February 28 are guaranteed to be considered for departure before April 2014.

Information about the Peace Corps will be available at a table that will be set up from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Monday through Wednesday, February 25 through February 27, in Humanities Plaza.

Here are the activities planned for Peace Corps Week:

Saturday, February 23—From 9:00 a.m. to noon. Peace Corps alumni, applicants, and anyone interested in learning more about the Peace Corps are invited to work with the SEEED Project at 1617 Dandridge Avenue in downtown Knoxville. While enjoying some networking time, the group will clean up a fence line and do prep work for an edible forest to be planted.

Monday, February 25—Returned Peace Corps volunteers, current applicants, and nominees will gather for an invitation-only social event from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the International House. The event will provide a chance for people who are going through the process to talk to volunteers who have served.

Wednesday, February 27—A panel discussion from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the International House will feature returned Peace Corps volunteers. This event is free and open to the public.

Thursday, February 28—McRoy will meet with anyone interested in learning more about the Peace Corps at the weekly coffee hour, which be held from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. at the Starbucks in Hodges Library.

Saturday, March 2—Peace Corps alumni, applicants, and anyone interested in learning more about the Peace Corps are invited to help out at Second Harvest food bank from 9:00 a.m. to noon. This is another event where networking will coincide with volunteer work.

To learn more about the Peace Corps, visit the website, or contact Amanda McRoy at 865-974-3177 or utkpeacecorps@gmail.com.

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C O N T A C T :

Amanda McRoy (865-974-3177 or utkpeacecorps@gmail.com)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

Entrances to all university buildings are designated as smoke free, and smoking is prohibited within twenty-five feet of all doorways, windows, and ventilation systems to avoid infiltration of smoke into buildings.

Smoking also is prohibited inside all buildings owned or operated by the university, including parking garages, indoor and open-air athletic facilities, performance halls, residence halls, classrooms, laboratories, and administrative offices.

University employees or students who are found to have violated this policy may face disciplinary action.

For more information, read the full policy here.

Rogero will deliver the keynote address and also will be presented with the 2013 College of Communication and Information Diversity Award.

Alice R. Bowling Wirth, a lecturer in the college’s School of Communication Studies and director of the college’s Diversity Student Leaders Society (DSLS), said the banquet is DSLS’s major fundraiser for the year.

“The banquet provides an inspirational diversity experience for everyone who attends in addition to raising funds to support the college’s diversity and inclusion program,” Wirth said. “Our goal is to provide an open and accepting community for CCI students, to provide underrepresented students with support, mentoring, and programs to help them stay in college, and to help students be more marketable in the global workforce.”

Rogero was elected mayor of Knoxville in 2011. She is the first woman to hold the office. Her official biography says she “believes Knoxville’s strength comes from the diversity of its people” and the region’s natural resources.

Prior to joining the City of Knoxville, Rogero held leadership positions in organizations such as UT’s Community Partnership Center, Knoxville’s Promise—The Alliance for Youth, Dolly Parton’s nonprofit Dollywood Foundation, and the Coal Employment Project.

Rogero is a 1992 graduate of Leadership Knoxville and a 1994 graduate of Community Leadership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Furman University and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from UT.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Rogero placed her college studies on hold in the 1970s to work with labor leader Cesar Chavez to help farm workers improve their living and working conditions.

In addition to the keynote speech, the program will include creative diversity presentations, music, and dancing. A limited number of tickets are still available. To check on ticket availability, contact Beth Cole at 865-974-1540 or bethcole@utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, primmc@utk.edu)