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.

–

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.

–

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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

C O N T A C T :

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

Simerly began serving in her new role on Tuesday. She was promoted from her position as lieutenant and has been managing the Community Relations Unit.

Lane selected Simerly for the job following a search. He reorganized the administrative positions of the department after a review its central functions.

“We are fortunate to have Emily assume this leadership position,” Lane said. “Her years of experience will help guide the department in the right direction. With her impressive qualifications and high praise from colleagues, I am convinced that she will continue to have a positive impact on the department.”

Simerly now oversees the department’s budget, payroll, recruiting, public information, community relations, records, and crime analysis and investigations.

Simerly joined the University of Tennessee Police Department in 1994. She has worked in all areas of the department, including patrol, investigations, and community relations.

She has a bachelor’s degree is sociology with a concentration in criminal justice from UT. She has been honored by the national Rape Aggression Defense organization and has received numerous awards from the department and other organizations.

“Faculty members are the engine that drives the success of the college and its programs,” said Theresa Lee, dean. “Once a year, we gather to thank our faculty, to celebrate their contributions and accomplishments, and to publicly recognize a few individuals who represent the collective excellence of our entire faculty.”

Hap McSween was named the 2013 College Marshal, the highest college honor bestowed upon a faculty member. McSween is a Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He received the J. Lawrence Smith Medal from the National Academy of Sciences this year for his pioneering studies of meteorites and his work on the geological history of Mars. As College Marshal, McSween will represent the college in the spring and fall commencements.

John Koontz, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, received the Lorayne W. Lester Award, established to recognize faculty and staff who have demonstrated outstanding service to the college and its various constituencies.

Joseph R. Miles, assistant professor of psychology, received the Diversity Leadership Award for supporting the college’s and university’s commitment to diversity.

Stuart Riggsby, former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor emeritus of microbiology, was awarded the Outstanding Service Award. Riggsby retired in 2005 but has continued to advance the mission and goals of the college.

Here’s a list of the other honors presented:

James R. and Nell W. Cunningham Outstanding Teaching Awards (honor tenured faculty for classroom teaching)

• Mary Papke, professor of English
• Randall L. Small, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology

Excellence in Teaching Awards

• Salvador Bartera, classics lecturer
• Jerzy Dydak, professor of mathematics
• Tricia Redeker Hepner, associate professor of anthropology
• William A. Jennings, political science lecturer
• Elisabeth E. Schussler, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology

Faculty Advising Awards

• Charles R. Collins, associate professor of mathematics
• Casey Sams, associate professor of theatre

Interdepartmental Collaboration in Scholarship and Research Award (highlights successful teamwork among faculty across disciplines and specialties)

• Matthew A. Cooper, assistant professor of psychology
• Jim C. Hall, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology
• Rebecca A. Prosser, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology

Faculty Academic Outreach Award (recognizes faculty who have extended their scholarship and creative activity to directly benefit the community beyond the university).

• Kristina C. Gordon, professor of psychology
• Marilyn Kallet, professor of English
• Christine Shepardson, associate professor of religious studies

Senior Faculty Research and Creative Achievement Award

• David G. Anderson, professor of anthropology
• Gregory L. Stuart, professor of psychology

Junior Faculty Research and Creative Achievement Award

• Jon P. Camden, assistant professor of chemistry
• Aimée T. Classen, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology

The College of Arts and Sciences comprises twenty-one academic departments and schools, seven centers and institutes, and thirteen interdisciplinary programs. The college’s academic programs are served by more than 600 faculty members.

—

C O N T A C T :

Lynn Champion (865-974-5332, champion@utk.edu)

This month’s tour will focus on the Ancient Egypt exhibit. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the foyer at the museum on the Knoxville campus. It is part of a monthly series of free stroller tours that will allow parents and caregivers to interact with one another and museum staff without the worry of disrupting other visitors.

All tours will be led by museum educators and will take place in a different gallery each month, exposing guests to a variety of the McClung’s exhibitions and collections. The tours will last about thirty minutes with fifteen minutes of time for questions.

Next month’s tour date is Monday, January 28. The event is designed as a hands-on discussion and show-and-tell. Participants will see artifacts from the McClung’s permanent and education collections up close and learn about the various objects housed at the museum.

The tours are free and open to the public but are first come, first served and require registration. Click here for more information or to register, or contact Abby Naunheimer at 865-974-2144 or anaunhei@utk.edu.

The museum is located at 1327 Circle Park Drive. Free two-hour museum parking passes are available from the parking information building at the entrance to Circle Park Drive. The grassy area in Circle Park in front of the museum offers a great place for rest and play before or after tours.

Photography is welcome in most museum galleries. Restrooms are equipped with a changing station. A service elevator is available for those with strollers to go downstairs. Food and drinks are not allowed in the galleries.

The museum’s exhibits include archaeology, ancient Egypt, decorative arts, the battle of Fort Sanders, geology, and fossils. Admission is free.

For more information about the McClung Museum and its collections and exhibits, visit the McClung Museum website.

–

CONTACT:

Abby Naunheimer (865-974-2144, anaunhei@utk.edu)

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

These fun and sometimes bizarre good-luck and bad-luck scenarios are part of a probability game created by two UT units to teach youngsters about workplace safety. An app based on the game is one of twenty finalists in a national competition vying to win the People’s Choice Award and its $3,000 prize.

Community members are invited to vote and help the UT Construction Industry Research and Policy Center and the UT Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering win the challenge, which is sponsored by the US Department of Labor.

Voting begins today and ends January 4, 2013. To learn more about UT’s entry or to vote, visit http://tinyurl.com/cwkzt3b.

The competition, “The Worker Safety and Health App Challenge,” aims to demonstrate the importance of knowing about workplace safety and health and to help young people understand their rights in the workplace.

The UT contest entry, “Working Safely is No Accident,” was designed as a tool that will educate young workers ages 13 to 24. The UT team created a website featuring an interactive game in which users evaluate the probabilities of interesting events. Through the game, users come to understand that probabilities are influenced by many factors. They also learn that the chances of a workplace accident can be reduced by knowing workplace safety regulations and following common safety practices.

To play the probability game, visit http://tiny.utk.edu/gqynO.

To learn more about the contest, visit http://tinyurl.com/d87536j.

–

CONTACT:

Ed Taylor (865-974-8117, etaylo19@utk.edu)

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

Nurses snapped into disaster response mode, evacuating 20 babies—carrying them down dark staircases and ensuring breathing tubes remained intact—through a fierce storm and into ambulances.

The unique skills needed in such situations are exactly what the Global Disaster Nursing Program in the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, teaches. The one-of-a-kind program aims to meet the challenge of educating twenty-first century nurses for leadership in disaster response, recovery and humanitarian relief.

“When disaster strikes, nurses are on the front lines managing resources, communicating information, and directing others in caring for people’s psychological and physical well-being,” said Susan Speraw, program director. “However, disaster-specific management and practice skills are rarely taught in the nursing curriculum.”

Launched in July 2005, UT’s program prepares nurse leaders, managers and advanced practice nurses to plan for mass casualty disasters, effectively manage logistics of an event in progress, work cooperatively with government officials and responders and provide direct patient care to victims of trauma or catastrophic events. Students can receive a master’s, doctorate (PhD or Doctor of Nursing Practice) or post-master’s certificate with a concentration in global disaster nursing.

“Given the increasing numbers of disasters globally, the requirement for higher education that addresses readiness expertise remains,” said Sharon Stanley, chief nurse of the American Red Cross, who responded to Hurricane Sandy’s devastation. “While volunteers can be trained with classes and/or short course preparation, the leaders who will continue to forge pathways ahead for community resiliency need advanced skill that can only be gained in formal education programs combined with real time experience.”

The UT program is needed now more than ever. Statistics predict disasters to become more common, according to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disaster.

“Nurses play a key role in addressing the health care needs of those impacted by a disaster,” said Laurel Cassidy, mental health officer with Doctors without Borders and graduate of the program. “My education supported my research and practice in the field, built on what I knew and provided me with the opportunity to develop my own nursing scholarship and expertise.”

Speraw saw the need for the program following the 9/11 Commission Report in which the need for nurses—although in the middle of the action—was overlooked and a need for a uniform language in disaster situations was emphasized.

“We developed an interdisciplinary curriculum in which nurses learn about topics such as earthquakes, law, architecture, tropical medicine and infectious disease,” said Speraw. “Students solve real problems in collaboration with other disciplines, which is what they will be doing in disaster situations.”

The program emphasizes global issues and development of care delivery competence in challenging environments. Students do field work, go abroad or work with an agency that responds to humanitarian needs in under-resourced areas.

“Emerging generations know they will be spending their productive years in a globalized world,” said Frederick Burkle, Jr. of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. “Global nursing programs like UT’s provide essential real-world competencies that complement the vision of the future these students eagerly seek.”

For information, call Susan Speraw at 865-974-7586 or visit nursing.utk.edu.

—-

C O N T A C T:

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

Susan Speraw (865-974-7586, ssperaw@utk.edu)

UT will establish the Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence through a $200,000 grant given to the Tennessee Department of Health through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tennessee was one of five states to receive grants. The other four are Florida, Oregon, Colorado, and Minnesota.

Three UT entities are partners on the grant: Paul Erwin, director of the Department of Public Health in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences; Sharon Thompson, director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Security and Preparedness; and Faith Critzer, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology. The last two are on the UT Institute of Agriculture campus.

John Dunn is deputy state epidemiologist and principal investigator on the award.

“This research grant is important to the university because it positions us to work closely with a stellar state health department in efforts to protect the public’s health through specific work force development activities,” Erwin said.

–

CONTACT:

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

Paul Erwin (865-974-5252, perwin@utk.edu)

He will begin work in June 2013. The position was created to enhance the campus culture and direct all diversity efforts.

“We are pleased that Rickey will be joining us. He has a strong background in achieving the goals that we have for enhancing our learning environment,” Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said. “Diversity, civility, and community are core campus values. They create a more robust academic environment. They make our university a more welcoming—and more interesting—place for all of us.”

Hall will report to the chancellor and work closely with administrators, related commissions and organizations, and other members of the campus community. He will help recruit and retain diverse faculty and staff and increase the enrollment and retention of diverse students.

“I am humbled and deeply honored to be appointed the founding vice chancellor for diversity,” he said. “There are many good diversity initiatives under way at the university, and I think I can help move those forward. I look forward to working with the campus community on inclusive excellence and making diversity truly an educational benefit.”

Hall has been at the University of Minnesota since 1998 and in his current position since 2007. Prior to that he served as the university’s associate to the vice president for equity and diversity. He established the Office of Multicultural Service at the university’s School of Public Health in 2002 and served as its director for four years. He simultaneously served as director of recruitment for the School of Public Health for two years. He directed the Minority Student Program of the university’s Morris campus for four years.

From 1995 to 1998, he was the director of student diversity programs and services at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

Hall serves as a regional coordinator for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Commission on Access, Diversity, and Excellence.

He will complete his Doctor of Education in organizational leadership at the University of Minnesota next year. He has a master’s degree in higher education and a bachelor’s degree in American studies, both from the University of Iowa.

—

C O N T A C T :

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

Twenty-five-year-old Douglas Oeser holds all these titles.

Oeser is one of UT’s student veterans. He served the US Army in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008 and again from 2009 to 2010 after working for a while following high school.

“I had this drive, this need, to want to do something more with my life. I left for training four days after signing the contract,” said Oeser. “It was a big spur-of-the-moment thing, but it all worked out.”

When Oeser returned to the United States, he had thirty days to prepare himself for UT, and got to Knoxville two days before classes started.

“I didn’t know where classes were—I didn’t know where the University Center was!”

Oeser recalled that the transition from soldier to student wasn’t easy.

“Everyone in class with me was very warm and welcoming, but there was also that struggle of how people saw their world and how starkly different it was from what I’d been through.”

But Oeser adapted and received a bachelor’s degree in social psychology in 2012. He is currently working on his master’s degree in sociology.

When he is not in class, Oeser is working as a student assistant in the Office of Veterans Affairs and serving as the president of Veterans at UTK, a campus organization led by student veterans that helps incoming veterans ease into their new role as students.

“We set up meetings at restaurants, so student veterans can meet others that may have similar experiences. We also serve as the collective voice from the student veteran community, saying, ‘These are the things we are having struggles with’ and helping UT respond to them.”

At the end of the day, Oeser comes home to his four-year-old son, David.

“We’re always together,” said Oeser. “I have this drive to be something better…I want to be something he’s proud of.”

Oeser’s life may be busy, but he believes that everything he does is worthwhile.

“It’s been a struggle trying to balance everything out, but it’s been a lot of fun.”

—

C O N T A C T :

Regina Lewellyn (865-974-1500, rcoving1@utk.edu)

But it will be at least another year or two before the economy shows significant growth, according to the forecast in the fall 2012 Business and Economic Outlook, released today.

The study, prepared by the UT Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER), predicts the trajectory of the state and national economies by examining several economic and fiscal factors.

“Growth will improve as 2013 unfolds, while 2014 promises to yield much stronger growth for most measures of economic activity,” said Matt Murray, CBER associate director and the report’s author.

Slower European economic growth has negatively affected exports from the United States, according to the report. The upcoming presidential elections and the looming fiscal cliff also stalled the recovery by adding to policy and market uncertainty.

“Despite some sore spots, there are also encouraging signs,” Murray said, noting that in spite of the increased lifespan of modern cars, consumers have purchased more of them in recent quarters. Housing prices, construction, and investment also have been going up.

“Automobiles and housing are two sectors that typically lead the economy out of the recession,” he said. “As these sectors continue to improve in the quarters ahead, so will overall economic growth, especially as the economy moves through 2013.”

Inflation and gas prices have been going down, which is “good news for consumers and those on fixed incomes,” Murray said. “But the decrease in inflation is bad news for those who have earnings or retirement income that is linked to inflation.”

Tennessee economy

There is some progress for Tennessee. This year, the state’s unemployment rate will likely average 8.2 percent, compared to 9.2 percent in 2011, according to the report. Tennessee’s unemployment rate mirrors the nation’s with only small differences.

Other findings:

• Tennessee’s nonfarm employment is expected to increase 1.6 percent this year, compared to 1.4 percent for the nation.
• The strongest growth will take place in natural resources, and mining along with construction, which will be buoyed by an improving outlook in the housing sector.
• Manufacturing will enjoy its second consecutive year of employment gains this year, the first time such back-to-back gains have been seen since the 1990s. Job growth in this area will likely be 2.7 percent, well ahead of the 1.6 percent pace for nonfarm employment.
• Wage and salary income growth will slow in 2013, but other sources of income—including proprietors’ income and rent, interest, and dividend income—will all improve.

State revenue performance

Sales tax collections in Tennessee have continued to grow although revenue performance has weakened along with the overall economy, according to the report.

Taxable sales had a mixed performance in the first half of the year, growing at 9.3 percent in the first quarter and slowing to 5.8 percent in the second quarter on a year-over-year basis.

Sales tax revenue in September was up only 2.8 percent over the previous year, and collections for the month were still below pre-recession levels. This suggests a weak third quarter showing for sales tax collections.

Taxable sales will likely be up 5.9 percent this year and next due to strong growth in a variety of sales classifications, including automobile dealers. Quarterly seasonally-adjusted growth rates will rebound starting in the fourth quarter of the year and remain strong through 2013.

“The anticipated rebound in the housing market will be instrumental in sustaining sales growth in 2013 and 2014,” Murray said.

To read the entire report, visit http://cber.bus.utk.edu/tefs/fall12.pdf.

–

CONTACT:

Matt Murray (865-974-6084 or 865-974-0931, mmurray1@utk.edu)

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