The book, Low Impact Development: Opportunities for the PlanET Region, was prepared for the City of Knoxville and the Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) Consortium, a regional planning initiative supported by a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It addresses Anderson, Blount, Loudon, Knox and Union Counties.

For three years, faculty and graduate students of the UT College of Architecture and Design conducted research and created design solutions in collaboration with PlanET. The publication encourages communities to embrace low-impact development in watershed planning, community design, and site development. This means addressing stormwater issues at their source by reintroducing natural hydrologic functions and biological processes into developed landscapes. The Knoxville County Metropolitan Planning Commission funded publication of the research.

View the publication online.

“In East Tennessee, water is a resource that defines the landscape and sustains the region economically, socially, and environmentally,” said Brad Collett, an associate professor of landscape architecture and plant sciences. He co-authored the publication with lecturer Valerie Friedmann and program alumna Wyn Miller. “Precipitation, streams, rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater are all part of an interconnected system. As the East Tennessee population grows, the health of the region’s water resources, such as that for drinking, industry, recreation, and tourism, will face increasing challenges.”

The health of water resources is threatened by the amount and quality of the stormwater runoff in urban and rural watersheds, each of which is affected by prevailing development patterns, activities on developed properties, and existing infrastructure, Collett said.

Through the impact avoidance, minimization, and management methods outlined in the publication, East Tennessee communities can learn how to promote and protect the health of the region’s shared water resources. The research demonstrates water management solutions for existing and new development in rural, urban, and residential areas.

“By implementing ‘green’ stormwater infrastructure, developed landscapes can perform as part of the solution to water resource challenges and help communities meet new stormwater management regulations by reducing, cleaning, retaining, and infiltrating runoff,” Collett said.

Low-impact development practices also present an opportunity for stormwater management systems to become an aesthetically pleasing part of a landscape instead of a buried function. According to Collett, developers around the country are reaping savings by using similar approaches.

The research was made possible through the coursework of landscape architecture graduate students. They investigated and designed for regional growth through grayfield redevelopment and low-impact alternatives to managing stormwater runoff and re-introducing natural water cycle processes on developed sites in Knoxville’s First Creek/White’s Creek Watershed. Several of the projects received awards in 2012 from the American Society of Landscape Architects Tennessee Chapter.

The UT Landscape Architecture Program is the only accredited landscape architecture program in Tennessee. It is a partnership between the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The program’s commitment to PlanET is valued at $1 million, an estimate based on students’ time, facilities, and faculty resources dedicated to the project through six graduate-level studio courses.

To learn more about PlanET and UT’s involvement, visit PlanET’s website. Information about the UT Landscape Architecture is available on its website.

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CONTACT:

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

The college is one of nine Habitat partners in East Tennessee to be nominated for the award and one of sixteen partners to be recognized overall. Award winners will be announced at the Governor’s Housing Summit Oct.7 and 8 in Nashville.

Tennessee’s Best is an annual statewide award program sponsored by the Tennessee Housing Development Agency. The Excellence in Partnership Award recognizes the achievement of organizations working together to promote or expand access to affordable housing.

Since 2003, the UT College of Business Administration has partnered with Knoxville Habitat in building eleven affordable homes for families in Knox County.

“In the last twenty-eight years, Habitat has partnered with many individuals, corporations, and faith groups to build affordable homes,” said Kelle Shultz, president/CEO of Knoxville Habitat. “But the partnership with the UT College of Business Administration is special because of its innovative nature and the opportunity to involve so many UT students and faculty in our work.”

The partnership began in 2003 when a UT Master of Business Administration student suggested that the Tennessee Organization of MBAs (TOMBA) sponsor a home as part of its philanthropic mission, said Michael C. Ehrhardt, the Paul and Beverly Castagna Professor of Investments in the UT Department of Finance. Ehrhardt has been involved in builds with students for the past eleven years.

“With enormous dedication and hard work, TOMBA successfully raised all the necessary funding and recruited all the needed volunteers to build all eleven homes,” Ehrhardt said. “Volunteers have included faculty, staff, students, athletic teams, fraternities, sororities, and other student organizations across the Knoxville campus.”

More than 800 individuals have likely volunteered over the last decade, Ehrhardt said.

“A substantial number of volunteers had never seen the realities of the low-income marketplace,” he said. “By the end of the build, I could see the changes in their demeanor, attitude, and perspective. It’s powerful to watch this transformation.”

In addition to eleven builds, Knoxville Habitat developed a second partnership with the UT full-time MBA program and Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Through the MBA program’s Innovation in Practice course, a team of MBA students worked with Habitat to maximize revenues from its retail store.

“The students’ recommendations provided an implementable set of guidelines for the store and will enable us to generate significantly more revenue in the next two years,” Shultz said.

She added that she was grateful for the support UT has given Habitat.

“The relationship with UT is much more than just building homes; it’s about people making a difference in the lives of others,” she said.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

Mike Ehrhardt (865-603-3210, ehrhardt@utk.edu)

Cindy Raines (865-974-3993, craines1@utk.edu)

After exceeding last year’s goal of $605,000 by $15,000, the campaign challenges UT employees to band together and raise $610,000 by November 1.

The goal is set based on the amount of donations received the previous year and several other factors such as faculty and staff pay raises.

The campaign focuses on giving to social or health-related charities that directly benefit Tennessee or Knoxville. Campus Chest partners with United Way of Greater Knoxville and Community Shares, but employees can donate to any charitable organization that meets the requirements listed at campuschest.utk.edu.

Many UT employees have specific agencies they support for personal reasons, said Brian Browning, director of administrative and support services for finance and administration. Others choose to donate to United Way or Community Shares so their money can be used wherever it is needed. A full 100 percent of each donation to Campus Chest goes directly to the organization of the employee’s choice.

Employees can choose to make donations through payroll deduction, cash, or check. Next year, an online payment option may be available.

“We’re always trying to improve,” Browning said.

For more information, visit campuschest.utk.edu.

CONTACT:

Ashley Payne (865-974- 3061, ashleypayne@utk.edu)

Tricia Hepner, associate professor of anthropology and co-director of the college’s new Disasters, Displacement, and Human Rights program, will present “Anthropology as a Tool for Improving the Human Condition.”

Now in its twenty-fourth season, the Pregame Showcase—sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences—gives fans the chance to hear from esteemed UT faculty prior to each gridiron matchup. This week’s showcase will be held at 10:21 a.m. in the Carolyn P. Brown University Center Ballroom (Room 213).

Free and open to the public, the showcase will feature a thirty-minute presentation and a fifteen-minute question-and-answer session followed by a brief reception. Door prizes will be awarded.

Through the new DDHR program, faculty and students are developing collaborative methods to analyze crises, from coal ash spills and refugee flows to mass grave excavations and postwar reconstruction. Hepner will talk about some of the work she’s done, as well as some of the work done by her colleagues and students.

“Anthropology is a very diverse discipline, encompassing human biology and culture in the past and present,” Hepner said. “DDHR unites cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology to generate new insights into pressing global problems.”

In addition to teaching and co-directing the DDHR program, Hepner is vice chair of the college’s Africana Studies program. She authored the book Soldiers, Martyrs, Traitors and Exiles: Political Conflict in Eritrea and the Diaspora, co-edited two books and wrote several journal articles and book chapters.

Here’s the lineup for the rest of the season:

October 5—”Tick Tock: Sleep Across the Lifespan and the Role of the Internal Clock.” Theresa Lee, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a biopsychologist who has researched the importance of sleep and the internal clock, will talk about research that explains how sleep patterns vary across a lifetime and what is “normal.”

October 19—”Haunted Bangkok: Angry Spirits, Buddhist Power, and Popular Media in Thailand.” Rachelle Scott, associate professor of religious studies, will talk about the role of ghosts and other supernatural beings in Theravada Buddhism and how these stories continue to impart ethical lessons to Buddhists across Asia and around the world.

November 9—”Making the Cuts: Austerity Policies and Their Social Implications.” Jon Shefner, head of the Department of Sociology, will look at the effects of spending cuts, tax hikes, and other measures governments use to reduce their budget deficits during adverse economic conditions.

November 23—”Simulations of Solutions: Solving Problems Through Scientific Computing.” Steven Wise, associate professor of mathematics, will discuss the evolution of scientific computing and look at the challenges that lie ahead, including how we might—and might not—be able to solve some of our biggest problems with the help of computers.

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CONTACT:

Lynn Champion (865-974-2992, champion@utk.edu)

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

Free and open to the public, the panel discussion begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at Baker Center.

The panel discussion will be led by Glenn Reynolds, law professor and creator of Instapundit.com. He will provide an overview of the Fourth Amendment and then launch into the discussion about privacy and transparency.

Other panelists are:

• Suzi Allard, associate professor of information sciences, who will discuss the impact on her field of information science.
• Michael W. Berry, professor of electrical engineering and computer science and director of the Center for Intelligent Systems and Machine Learning, who will discuss data mining.
• Brandon Prins, professor of political science, who will discuss these issues from a global and national security perspective.

From 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Baker Center Ambassadors will take a copy of the Constitution to the Pedestrian Walkway and invite students to sign it. They also will have a copy in the center’s rotunda that students can sign from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. They will be handing out pocket-size copies of the Constitution.

C O N T A C T :

Nissa Dahlin-Brown (865-974-8681, nissa@utk.edu)

It’s been sixty-four years since two all-new academic facilities greeted students for a new school year.

“We are so proud to open the Haslam Music Center and the Tickle Engineering Building to our students,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “Construction is a wonderful sign of progress and we still have plenty of progress underway.”

The Natalie L. Haslam Music Center has 123,000 square feet of space for instruction, rehearsals, performances, and offices. The $40 million building is the new home of the university’s School of Music.

The John D. Tickle Engineering Building provides a new pedestrian footbridge that improves access to The Hill from Neyland Drive. The 114,000-square-foot, $23.2 million facility houses the departments of civil and environmental engineering and industrial and systems engineering.

Games will be played soon at the new RecSports Complex on Sutherland Avenue west of campus. Intramural teams begin organizing at the start of the semester, with games to begin soon thereafter. A special ribbon cutting will mark the complex opening on August 30.

Along with these large milestones, several large-scale building and road projects will continue through the academic year:

• The largest single project—the new Student Union—is on schedule with the first phase set to finish in 2015. Students will soon enjoy a new book and technology store, dining facilities, and additional programming and office space. On the east side of the construction site, Phillip Fulmer Way from Cumberland Avenue to Middle Drive will continue to be one lane southbound until completion of the first phase.
• Construction continues on the Fred D. Brown Residence Hall, the university’s first new residence hall in more than forty years, which will house 700 men and women when it opens in fall 2014. One lane of Andy Holt Avenue at Melrose Place is closed until construction is complete.
• Ten houses in Sorority Village are now occupied and an eleventh house will be occupied during the fall semester. Two additional houses are still under construction. The Sorority Village Center administrative building also is open. Located atop Morgan Hill on the west side of campus, the area provides housing and meeting space for many of the university’s sororities.
• Renovations to the old student health building, now known as Temple Hall, will be completed in the next few months. Temple Hall will house teaching, research, and office space for the College of Nursing.
• The Lake Loudoun streetscape project is also set to wrap up by early fall. New sidewalks, brick retaining walls, and new landscaping on both sides of the street will welcome visitors to campus from Neyland Drive and the nearby Tennessee River.
• Most parking spots around the Andy Holt Tower will be reopened as part of the repair of the building’s brick façade. The repair work will halt for the fall semester, and then resume in December.

For more information on campus traffic and construction, visit the Cone Zone.

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CONTACT:

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

Bira is eighteen months old and Tica is seventeen months old. The university purchased the dogs from Iron Heart High Performance Working Dogs in Shawnee, Kansas.

“This is a new and exciting venture for the UT Police Department,” said Chief Troy Lane. “We realize that our university is a very public and easily recognizable institution. With recent national incidents that have occurred, the UT Police Department wants to add as many tools as possible to continue to keep our community safe.”

The dogs have been trained to detect several types of explosives and will be used at many special events on campus.

The police department recently sent two officers, Sergeant Cedric Roach and Corporal Mary Cameron, for several weeks of training with their two new canine partners.

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CONTACT:

Sgt. Cedric Roach (865-974-1094, croach@utk.edu)

Students in the communications track of the UT-Project GRAD Summer Institute

The weeklong residential program, taught by UT faculty, invited 130 rising juniors and seniors to experience what it was like to live, eat, and attend classes on a college campus. Students chose one of several tracks: honors, which included advanced science and the study of cancer genetic markers; communications, which included learning how to develop websites; and STEM, which can be applied to engineering problems.

Students also took courses in core subjects, including mathematics, English, and college research skills. Additionally, they did service projects and volunteered at the Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development (SEEED), Knox Area Rescue Ministries, the Phyllis Wheatley Center, and the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

To be eligible for the 2013 UT residential institute, all 130 students had to have completed the Pellissippi State Summer Institute in June 2011 or 2012.

This is the summer institute’s twelfth year at UT. The Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) program was designed to increase high school graduation rates and postsecondary education in center city schools.

“This year’s Summer Institute was nothing short of fantastic,” said Steven Waller, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sports Studies, and one of the Summer Institute’s co-directors. “We had the privilege of working with a number of very bright students, many whom will be UT students in the days to come. The students were challenged by the rigor of the Summer Institute, and many left with a clearer understanding of what it takes to get admitted into a university like UT and the work ethic that is required to graduate.”

Students who were in the honors track of the summer institute

If the students complete two Summer Institutes and meet other requirements of the Project GRAD program, they will qualify to receive a $4,000 scholarship to attend an accredited two-year or four-year college of their choice.

The Project GRAD Summer Institute is a collaboration between Project GRAD Knoxville and UT. It is operated out of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, and is housed in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies.

In addition to Waller, the other program co-director is Shawn Spurgeon, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling.

Cameron Rios and Christine Garcia, ninth grade participants, design solar ovens for CURENT Engineering Design in 2012.

The program takes place from June 23 to 28 on the UT campus.

During eVOL9, students will live in a residence hall, engage in hands-on engineering fundamentals activities, receive ACT math preparation, compete in engineering challenges, and tour an engineering industrial plant. Throughout the program, students team up to apply what they’ve learned and work on an engineering design project.

The college’s Engineering Diversity Programs Office offers the summer engineering program to provide an introduction to engineering, showcase the applications of math and science, and help students learn what engineers do in the real world. Since it began in 2000, the program—formerly called Introduction of Sophomores to Engineering Principles (INSTEP)—has hosted 230 middle school students. It has grown from twenty-three participants in 2000 to thirty-two in 2013.

The Battelle Tennessee Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Innovation Network is sponsoring the program. Battelle is a global research and development organization committed to science and technology for the greater good. The company partners with the UT to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

For more information, visit the College of Engineering website.

One Stop will make students’ business transactions with UT easier by bringing most enrollment, registration, financial aid, and payment services into one location staffed by counselors and equipped with the latest technology.

One Stop can be accessed by phone at 974-1111 or online at onestop.utk.edu.

Students also may stop by One Stop’s center on the ground floor of John C. Hodges Library, which will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. There, students will check in at a computer kiosk. They’ll receive help completing their transactions online or meet one-on-one with a well-trained customer representative. If there is a wait, students can grab a snack, study, or visit a library lounge until they get an e-mail telling them it’s their turn. Display screens in the area also will let students know how many people are ahead of them in the service line.

One Stop director Darren Curry

“One Stop is definitely a big idea for UT that will enhance the student experience. Through this new model, we will be able to provide the type of customer service people expect at a Top 25 university,” said Darren Curry, director of One Stop.

The offices of the registrar, bursar, and financial aid and scholarships will remain open to support the center and also perform other functions, including more extensive financial aid counseling, classroom scheduling, Banner management, graduation application processing, academic calendar development, central cashiering, and federal and state scholarships and grants processing. Faculty and staff will continue using the offices of the registrar, bursar, and financial aid and scholarships for most of their business.

To learn more about One Stop, watch this video.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. and will be held at the museum, 1327 Circle Park Drive.

The birthday celebration marks the fiftieth anniversary of the museum’s official dedication on June 1, 1963.

The celebration’s activities incorporate the museum’s permanent and temporary exhibits. They include the opportunity to use prehistoric tools, create an Egyptian Pharaoh’s headdress, play “pin the tooth on the dinosaur,” and identify birds. Prizes will be given to McClung Museum explorers who complete activities during the event.

A photo booth will allow visitors to take memorable photos with friends and family members. Free museum memberships and door prizes will be given away throughout the afternoon and refreshments will be provided courtesy of Aramark.

The McClung Museum is open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free, and free parking is available in front of the museum on Circle Park Drive.

For more information, visit the McClung Museum’s website.

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CONTACT:

Christina Selk (865-974-2143, cselk@utk.edu)

Catherine Shteynberg (865-974-6921, cshteynb@utk.edu)

The public can now enjoy those photos too, courtesy of the UT Libraries. The library staff has transformed them into an online digital collection. “The Panoramic Images of Elgin P. Kintner, M.D.” may be viewed at the library’s website.

The collection is a collaboration between UT Libraries and Kintner’s daughter Beccie King. Recognizing the value of her father’s images and wishing to see them recreated as her father envisioned them, King had the negatives scanned and digitally stitched to form seamless panoramas. She then donated the finished panoramas along with a large collection of her father’s stand-alone photographs to UT Libraries.

Kintner, who was the first full-time pathologist at Blount Memorial Hospital, died in May 2008 at the age of ninety.

“He saw those mountains every day on his way to and from the hospital and thought how beautiful they are,” King said. “But he realized you can’t get to know the mountains unless you get into the mountains. With that realization he started hiking. He set a goal for himself of hiking all the maintained trails in the park, and then all the unmaintained trails. He accomplished that goal and more.”

King noted that her father cherished being able to take panoramic photos of unobstructed views from the fire towers. Many of them no longer exist.

“The fire towers on Blanket Mountain, Bunker Hill, High Rocks, Rich Mountain, and Spruce Mountain — those historic structures are gone,” said Ken Wise, a UT librarian and the author of several hiking guides to the Smokies. “That makes Dr. Kintner’s panoramic views an even more treasured collection.”

Wise, along with UT librarian Anne Bridges, is co-director of UT Libraries’ Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project.

“We love these photos,” Bridges said. “As soon as Beccie showed us the images, we saw their potential. We’re so grateful to her for letting us add them to the Smokies collection.”

For fifteen years, the Great Smoky Mountains Project has been collecting and preserving books, articles, photographs, manuscripts, maps, business records, diaries, and other written and visual materials to create the definitive collection on the Smokies. Selected collections are made available online for use by scholars and researchers around the world. Those online collections now include a photographic record of the Smokies covering more than 125 years.

Click here to view the UT Libraries’ digital collections.

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CONTACT:

Martha Rudolph (865-974-4273, mrudolp2@utk.edu)

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

The article also highlights their upcoming visit to the UT Libraries. The HABIT dogs remain one of the campus’s more popular finals week activities. The animals will be visiting several locations across campus that week.

Established in 1986, HABIT is a volunteer project including people from the community, representatives from the College of Veterinary Medicine, and private practice veterinarians.

Read the Cesar’s Way article here.

To learn more about HABIT, visit the website.

UT’s College of Nursing is joining forces the Student Health Center and UT Medical Center (UTMC) for HealthBeat 2013, a free health fair for UT students, faculty, staff, retirees, and their families.

HealthBeat 2013 will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on April 3 in the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center Ballroom. Parking is available for a fee in Volunteer Hall across Cumberland Avenue.

A variety of screenings and tests will be provided, and exhibition booths will be set up with representatives from various health care organizations and UT departments. Prize drawings will happen hourly and free reusable bags will be given to the first 300 participants. MEDIC will also be hosting a blood drive starting at 9:00 a.m.

Some of the available information will cover

• Nutrition and weight management
• Diabetes
• Breast health
• Heart health and stroke risk
• General health

Doctors and pharmacists will also be available to answer general medical and medication questions.

Free screenings include

• Carotid artery screening for stroke prevention
• Skin cancer/age progression screening
• Bone density screening
• Body mass index screening
• Vision screening
• Allergy testing (starting at 9:00 a.m.)
• Blood typing

Insurance is not required for any of the screenings or tests. Small fees will apply only to those screenings that require lab work:

• A1C—This test measures blood glucose average for the past three months. $20
• Prostate Specific Antigen screening (men only)—This test measures the amount of PSA released into your blood by the prostate gland. $20
• Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH)—This test serves as a tool to measure thyroid levels in the body and can help diagnose thyroid disease. $20
• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel—This test measures protein, potassium, sodium, glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and albuminum, among several other components. $20
• C-Reactive Protein (CRP)—This test measures inflammation of the heart and can help assess your risk for heart disease. $20
• Lipid Panel (fasting required except water and black coffee)—This test measures your total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, ratio, and glucose. $20
• Complete Blood Count (CBC)—This test measures your red and white blood cell count. $15
• Vitamin D screening—This test measures the level of vitamin D in your body. For accurate results, do not take supplements for forty-eight hours prior to screening. $25

All forms of payment including credit cards, cash and checks are accepted. Checks can be made payable to UTMC. Results will be mailed to the participant within ten business days.

Fasting for eight to ten hours is required for the lipid panel. Water and black coffee are allowed, and drinking plenty of fluids the day before is advised. Prescriptions should be taken as prescribed. Diabetics should consult with their physician before fasting.

Some of the UT departments and programs will have representatives and/or booths at the fair: Center for Physical Activity and Health; Book and Supply Store; Student Health Center; Police Department; Counseling Center; and the Safety, Environment and Education Center.

Other participating organizations include Knox County Health Department, Tennessee Donors Registry, Smart Trips, American Diabetes Association, MEDIC, Mental Health Association and Cooperative Appalachian Marrow Program.

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CONTACT:

Mary Sue Hodges (865-974-7596, mhodges4@utk.edu)

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

UT’s Engineering Research Center, CURENT, has collaborated with Knox County Schools for a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach event called Family Engineering Night at Sequoyah Elementary School from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 6.

The event is expected to draw more than 200 K-5 students and their families to take part in 10 hands-on engineering activity exhibits provided by CURENT. Activities include solar cars, bridge design and homemade prosthetic hands. Farragut High School’s Robotics Team also will be exhibiting student-designed robots.

Family Engineering Night was organized by Andrea Allen, K-12 science instructional coach for Knox County Schools; Principal Alisha Hinton and Science Lab Instructor Erin McCollum from Sequoyah School; and Research Assistant Professor Chien-fei Chen and Adam Hardebeck, communications specialist, from CURENT.

Events such as Family Engineering Night help fulfill CURENT’s educational outreach initiatives to spark student interest in STEM fields from an early age and assist in the creation of a new generation of engineers from more diverse backgrounds.

The Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks (CURENT), headquartered on the UT campus, is a collaboration between academia, industry, and national laboratories. The center has been jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy with $18.5 million for five years.

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C O N T A C T :

Adam Hardebeck (865-974-9707, ahardebe@utk.edu)

These are a few of the diverse topics being explored by this year’s class of Baker Scholars.

Each year, UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy solicits applications and selects a group of high-achieving juniors to be Baker Scholars. These students are given exclusive access to guest lecturers ranging from international ambassadors to Supreme Court justices. They help drive Baker Center programming and assist with conferences featuring top-ranked experts in the fields of political science, energy and environment, global security, historical/archival studies, and the media.

The Baker Center recently appointed William Park, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, as its first director of undergraduate programs.

“As we continue to improve and grow our student engagement programs such as the Baker Scholars, we felt that our students would be better served if they had a faculty member to help them find a mentor and to make sure they kept their research on track,” said Matt Murray, interim director of the Baker Center. “Some students only have about five months to complete a project, so time management and a refined project focus are critical to their success. Dr. Park was a mentor to two previous Baker Scholars, and he had been highly recommended by the students to fill this post.

“Dr. Park is also working on developing short courses on research methods and he hopes to collaborate with other campus departments with students who also need this help,” Murray said.

In his part-time role with the Baker Center, Park will coordinate the academic affairs of the Baker Scholars Program, the Baker Ambassadors, and the Baker Center Living and Learning Community. In addition to helping Baker Scholars in developing their project ideas and identifying faculty mentors, he will help them pursue opportunities to enrich their experience, such as workshops, internships, and study abroad.

Park’s research and teaching interests focus on natural resource and environmental policy. He has won teaching and advising awards at the university level and taught seminars in the Chancellor’s Honors program.

Here’s a look at the newest class of Baker Scholars and the public policy projects they’ve chosen. Scholars who successfully complete their projects earn a Baker Scholar medallion.

• Lisa Dicker, a junior in political science from Tullahoma, Tennessee. Her project will look at China’s one-child policy.
• Mackenzie Higgins, a senior in global studies and Spanish from Indianapolis. Her project focuses on educational reform.
• Kristin Kennedy, a junior in history and political science from Knoxville, Tenn. Her project will be on the juvenile justice system.
• Taylor Odle, a junior in the College Scholars Program, studying leadership and organizational development, from Springfield, Tennessee. His project will look at secondary school civic engagement programs.
• Kelsey Parkman, a junior in political science from Knoxville. Her project focuses on early childhood development programs in the Third World.
• Chase Pritchett, a junior in economics from Brentwood, Tennessee. His project is on teacher quality and student achievement.
• Jeremy Williams, a senior in political science from Memphis. His project looks at healthcare reform.
• Caleb Williford, a senior in logistics from Hixson, Tennessee. His project looks at weight limit regulations.

Applications are available online and new scholars are accepted each fall.

Click here to learn more about the Baker Center and the Baker Scholars program.

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C O N T A C T :

Nissa Dahlin-Brown (865-974-8681, nissa@utk.edu)