Please ensure that compressed gas cylinders (including lecture bottles) are included in the chemical inventory; knowing which labs have compressed gas cylinders is very important to the fire department for emergency response. If there are no substantial changes from the last annual inventory, or if the only change is to the building or room number, contact EHS at 974-5084. Departments are asked not to delete previous inventories.

The annual inventory provides departments with an opportunity to inspect chemicals and take action on any that are abandoned or unwanted, have faded/missing/illegible labels, and/or are deteriorating. Chemicals with bulging lids, cracked containers, past expiration date, or that have lost purity and are no longer usable and should be discarded.

Directors and department heads are asked to share message to those who work with hazardous chemicals so that they can meet the deadline. To assist labs in updating their inventories, email reports will be sent to the lab managers of all inventory records in the database, and will include a Microsoft Excel file of their existing inventory data in the database.

An Excel template is available that provides detailed instructions on completing the chemical inventories. This format uploads directly to the database, and labs are strongly encouraged to use it in submitting inventory data. However, if a lab has inventory data in a different file format, EHS will work with the lab to find an acceptable format. Generally, importing data from other formats is more time consuming for all parties due to the detailed database format requirements which involve extensive back-and-forth communication to get accurate information into the database.

To submit inventories or for further assistance, contact Pam Koontz at pjkoontz@utk.edu or 974-5084. For more information visit http://web.utk.edu/~ehss.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddJCtjSTaHY

Freedman’s lecture is titled “A Phantom Spanish Archive: The Past Slips Through Our Fingers,” and is presented by UT’s Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

A reception will follow in the Black Cultural Center lobby. Both events are free and open to the public. Public parking will be available at the University Center parking garage.

The lecture will explore the contents and significance of recently discovered documents from the Spanish monastery of Bellpuig de les Avellanes, founded in the twelfth century. In 1835 the government of Spain shut down the monastery, prompting its religious community to hide its archives.

In 2002, the archives were rediscovered in a trunk inside the false ceiling of a nearby parish church, revealing priceless primary source documents related to the religious community and its relations with the secular world.

“We are thrilled that Professor Freedman will deliver our Riggsby Lecture this year,” said Heather Hirschfeld, director of the Marco Institute. “Dr. Freedman is an exceptional scholar whose areas of expertise extend in many directions. His presentation should be of great interest to a wide audience, because the survival or loss of medieval documents influences or determines the ways we reconstruct the past.”

Freedman is a specialist in medieval social history, the history of Spain, comparative studies of the peasantry, trade in luxury products, and the history of cuisine. His books include Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia, Images of the Medieval Peasant and Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. Freedman also is the editor of several collections, including Food: The History of Taste, Last Things: Death and the Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (with Caroline Walker Bynum) and Forms of Servitude in Northern and Central Europe (with Monique Bourin).

The Marco Institute’s annual Riggsby Lecture is made possible by a grant from Stuart and Kate Riggsby. Stuart Riggsby was formerly dean of UT’s College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information on the Marco Institute, visit http://web.utk.edu/~marco/index.html.

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C O N T A C T :

Vera Pantanizopoulos-Broux (865-974-1859, marco@utk.edu)

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

The team, representing more than 200 students and nine academic programs, excelled in several of the decathlon events held during the last ten days, including capturing third in engineering, fifth in architecture, and third in the use of energy-efficient appliances. The UT team also tied for first place in the cornerstone area of the competition, the Energy Balance Contest. Living Light garnered perfect marks by achieving a net-zero energy balance throughout the competition, as the home produced enough solar energy to maintain all of the house’s needs.

University of Maryland won the overall competition.

“We are incredibly proud of our Living Light students and faculty. They represented our university quite well with great professionalism, enthusiasm, and extensive knowledge of sustainable design and building,” Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said. “We look forward to welcoming them home and supporting their efforts to use the house as a mobile classroom across the state.”

More than two years of work went into qualifying, planning, designing, and building the home, inspired by Appalachia’s cantilever barns. The team developed significant sponsors and involvement of alumni and business and industry throughout the project.

The Living Light project began with students and faculty in the College of Architecture and Design and was led by faculty members Edgar Stach, Richard Kelso, James Rose, and Barbara Klinkhammer of the college, along with Deb Shmerler in the School of Art, Leon Tolbert in electrical engineering, and Stan Johnson and Bill Miller in mechanical engineering.

Upon its return to Knoxville, the Living Light house will transform into a mobile classroom and laboratory as a part of Living Light’s Tennessee Tour. A joint effort of the UT College of Architecture and Design and the UT Institute of Agriculture Office of Extension, the house will travel around the state and beyond as a teaching tool for K-12 students and industry professionals to learn about cutting-edge sustainable science, technology, and design.

This year’s event will focus on little-known perks and benefits available to UT employees. The event ends at 3:00 p.m.

The fall festival brings together employees from all corners of the Knoxville area and relies on the help of many on- and off-campus volunteers. Many local companies have contributed door prizes, games, and more to this year’s festival. The Office of Finance and Administration is providing a catered lunch, with many university groups and organizations chipping in for prizes and entertainment. One of the most popular events of the festival each year is bingo, which again will feature celebrity callers from around campus and some great prizes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nOeIy2aJVs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytBSI04ax28

Throughout my career, I have always made it a point that my life and my basketball program were an open book.

With that in mind, I have something I’d like to share with my Tennessee families – the university, boosters and fans of Lady Vol basketball.

Once last season concluded, I addressed some ongoing concerns regarding my health. After consulting with my local physicians, I decided to visit the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Earlier this summer, the doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed me with early onset dementia (“Alzheimer’s Type”) at the age of 59.

I plan to continue to be your coach. Obviously, I realize I may have some limitations with this condition since there will be some good days and some bad days.

For that reason I will be relying on my outstanding coaching staff like never before. We have always collaborated on every facet of Lady Vol basketball; and now you will see Holly Warlick, Dean Lockwood and Mickie DeMoss taking on more responsibility as their duties will change significantly.

I love being your coach, and the privilege to go to work every day with our outstanding Lady Vol basketball student-athletes. I appreciate the complete support of UT Chancellor Dr. Jimmy Cheek and UT Athletics Director Joan Cronan to continue coaching at the University of Tennessee as long as the good Lord is willing.

I’ve been honest and shared my health concerns with you and now we’ll move forward to the business at hand…coaching a great group of Lady Vols. For the time being, I hope you will respect my privacy regarding this matter.

Thank you.

Go Lady Vols!

– Pat Summitt

Residence hall check-in begins Saturday at 8:00 a.m. for women and 2:00 p.m. for men. For information about housing, visit the University Housing website.

University staff will be on hand to answer questions for students and families. Volunteers from the community also will be available to help unload cars.

For Saturday and Sunday, students moving in to the residence halls can utilize temporary parking areas around each hall and any staff lot. For directions to each residence hall, click here.

Use caution while driving on campus and in surrounding areas. In addition to increased foot and motor traffic as families move their students in to residence halls, ongoing construction and improvement projects have affected some popular traffic routes.

Motorists approaching campus on Neyland Drive from downtown Knoxville will see reduced speeds and adjusted lanes as work continues on the Henley Street Bridge.

For more information on construction and improvement projects, click here. For help finding campus buildings, visit the campus maps page.

From new academic buildings to improved services, the UT community will be a part of opening many new and renovated facilities over this new academic year.

Whether driving, bicycling, or walking, please be careful around construction sites and be sure to use the marked detours for pedestrians and motorists around the construction sites.

The Apartment Residence Hall got a small facelift this summer, including a new lounge area.

Students moving in this weekend will see the results of a busy summer for UT Housing. Residents of Hess Hall will be unpacking into renovated student rooms, marking the final piece in a multi-phase renovation of the large hall. The Apartment Residence Hall also got a smaller facelift, with fresh paint and newly waxed apartment floors and a new first-floor multipurpose lounge. The renovated Hess Hall student rooms are also newly furnished, and Gibbs and Humes halls received upgrades to security camera systems. Reese, North Carrick, and South Carrick halls will get the new digital equipment this fall.

The final touches are being put on the new Student Health Center, along Volunteer Boulevard near Fraternity Park. Set to open next semester, it represents a significant expansion of space over the current clinic. It will include the Counseling Center and house programs for a wide range of wellness and student care.

The new Student Health Center will open its doors in the spring.

Also this spring, the Min Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building officially marks its place on the Hill, concluding more than three years of construction. The state-of-the-art facility sits at the corner of Middle Drive and Cumberland Avenue. The 150,000-square-foot, $37.5 million project is funded by the state and alumnus Min Kao, the founder of Garmin Ltd. It will house classrooms, laboratories, and a 2,500-square-foot auditorium. Middle Way Drive, the lower road that loops around the Hill, is closed from Perkins Hall to Cumberland Avenue to accommodate the project.

Demolition also began this month on the old Engineering Annex building below the stadium and next to the G-10 garage. The John Tickle Engineering Building, named for the UT donor and alumnus, will house the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering.

Just behind the Rock, contractors are hard at work on the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center. This new home for the School of Music and special community asset opens in 2013.

Morgan Hill, the site of the new Sorority Village, is now getting its first set of long-awaited chapter houses. The first houses just beginning construction are Delta Zeta, Alpha Delta Pi, Sigma Kappa, Kappa Delta, Alpha Omicron Pi, Phi Mu, and Alpha Chi Omega. Construction on the Kappa Kappa Gamma and Delta Delta Delta houses will begin soon. The site will eventually feature thirteen houses and a meeting space for Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Members of the Lambda Chi Alpha and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity houses also will have newly renovated headquarters in about a month. Construction has also started on the Kappa Alpha fraternity house on Caledonia Avenue, northwest of the Presidential residence halls.

Large-scale progress is also being made on the site of what will be soon be the new Student Recreation Fields on Sutherland Avenue, just a couple miles from campus. Demolition of the Sutherland and Golf Range apartment complexes on this forty-acre site began in early August. The goal is to have the first student intramural games played on the fields next fall.

Chamique Holdsclaw Drive will be closed for another year for the addition of the Football Training Facility. It will be a part of the complex that is Brenda Lawson Athletic Center and Neyland-Thompson Sports Center.

Also on that side of campus, the new streetlights have been installed as part of a large-scale beautification project of the Lake Loudoun streetscape. Throughout this and next semester, the primary thoroughfare into campus will get new sidewalks and retaining walls, street medians, and planters and new landscaping.

Across the Joe Johnson Bridge on the agriculture campus, students will find the final stages of construction on the Brehm Animal Sciences and Food Science and Technology buildings, which parallel the commuter lot. Watch for bus stops to change during the spring semester. College of Veterinary Medicine students will notice the beginnings of construction on a new Large Animal Hospital and the final phase of construction on a new greenhouse near the entrance to their commuter lot.

Welcome Leader Brandi Panter

She was one of only four students at UT from her high school graduating class.

“I felt very isolated on campus,” she said. “I didn’t like that feeling.”

The experience is one Panter, now 21 and a senior, doesn’t want other students to go through. She is one of 170 upperclassmen who are part of the new “Welcome Leaders” program. They’ll help the expected 4,200 incoming freshmen navigate the joys and frustrations of higher education.

“I just really wanted to be part of something that would make students feel welcomed and give them someone they can talk to from a peer standpoint and from an experience standpoint,” Panter said.

The Welcome Leaders initiative was birthed out of the Office of Student Activities this year.

Director Ashleigh Moyer said the university measured itself against the top 25 institutions in the nation and found that those schools had similar programs. Engaging and involving students early in their academic career is a critical element of student retention, a key part of UT’s mission to become a Top 25 university.

Students Zac Brown and Brandi Panter prepare training packets for other upperclassmen in the Welcome Leaders program.

The Welcome Leaders program “is also a mentoring opportunity between new students and our upperclassmen,” Moyer said. “We believe in helping a large institution feel smaller.”

Each Welcome Leader will have twenty to thirty students during Welcome Week and will show freshmen around and help them in finding faculty and locating services.

Many of the Welcome Leaders already have set up Facebook pages and are answering freshmen’s questions even before they arrive on campus.

After the first week, the upperclassmen will stay in touch with freshmen throughout the year.

Moyer said the goal is to grow the Welcome Leaders program in 2012, and her office is already recruiting participants.

For more information, contact the UT Office of Student Activities at 865-974-5455.