The director of the Center for Clean Products, Wilt was instrumental in developing North America’s first and only third-party environmental toy standard, UL 172.

Wilt said other standards address hazards— such as choking— but nothing in North America addresses toxicity. Yet, the U.S. has seen at least forty-five toxic toy recalls between 2008 and 2011, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

She worked for three years to lead an expert advisory committee in developing the scientific and social underpinnings of certification standards.

Wilt said manufacturers can demonstrate environmental leadership and a commitment to safeguarding children’s health by pursuing the voluntary certification. The standard recognizes companies which use safer chemicals and healthier, more environmentally-preferable materials in toys.

“This standard is an important step in promoting greener, healthier toys for children,” she said. “Through restricting content such as heavy metals, known carcinogens, and other human health hazards, while encouraging practices like socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing with sustainably sourced materials, this standard will enable parents, grandparents, and other toy buyers to make toy purchases they feel confident about.”

Back in high school, Riley got involved with her school’s Haiti Club and traveled there twice. When she came to UT, Riley—now a senior in Global Studies—was already involved with the Haiti Outreach Program in Knoxville, but wanted to do something more to get the campus community involved.

In October 2009, she organized “Fierce and Fancy,” an event where people donated old formal dresses for a fashion show and silent auction to raise money for a Haitian community.

The Haiti Outreach Program and the UT Haiti Club will host the third annual Fierce and Fancy Formals fashion show and dress sale at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Tickets are on sale at fierceandfancy.eventbrite.com. Advance purchase tickets are $8 for students and $10 for the public. Tickets will be $12 at the door.

All proceeds go to help the village of Boucan Carre, where the majority of the people have limited or no access to things like clean water, basic health care, hot meals, electricity, and even shoes.

The event raised $10,000 each of the first two years. Riley hopes the effort raises $15,000 this year.

“Basically, the people there are in great need, and as someone who has grown up decently privileged, I want to do whatever I can to help out.”

Morgan Baltz, a senior studying chemical and biomolecular engineering, has the big idea of engineering better medicine.

On Wednesday, the Rock was moved about 275 feet diagonally across the street, from its old location south of Volunteer Boulevard, near the intersection of Pat Head Summitt Street, to its new location, north of Volunteer Boulevard, near the intersection of Pat Head Summitt Street, near the Music Building. The move was necessary because construction of the new 109,242-square-foot Student Health Center, set to begin this fall and take 18 months, would have left little space for the Rock, which students and others often paint multiple times per day.

Preparations to move the Rock were made during the past couple of weeks. Then, on Wednesday, workers used a massive crane to hoist the 97.5-ton hunk of Knox dolomite out the ground so it could be transported it to its new location. The move — which included a harrowing ride via a flatbed truck backing down Pat Head Summitt Street and straddling an asphalt-filled trench in the middle of the road — took all day.

In fact, as workers removed the Rock, they determined that the largest available truck in Knox County was simply not large enough to hold it, and a specialized heavy-hauling flatbed was brought in from LaFollette, Tenn. The Rock was finally settled into a freshly-dug pit in its new location at about 9 p.m., in the midst of a strong thunderstorm.

Dozens of students, faculty, staff, alumni and others watched throughout the day, applauding as the gigantic Rock was successfully uprooted and lifted by the crane.

Hundreds who couldn’t make it to the scene got frequent updates via UT Knoxville’s official Twitter feed, http://www.twitter.com/UTKnoxville, as well as updates and photos via the campus’ Facebook page.

When campus administrators determined that moving the Rock was the only option, student leaders were consulted and helped choose a place to relocate the Rock.

Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Jeff Maples said he thought the Rock’s new home is a good choice.

“The new location will enhance our plan to extend the pedestrian walkway, add green space and develop a gathering place for students in an ‘arts quad’ concept,” he said.

Betsey Creekmore, associate vice chancellor for space and facilities, said the Rock was discovered in 1966 during a campus expansion in the area now known as Fiji Island. UT administrators and construction officials decided to preserve the rock rather than destroying it. The huge boulder was pushed by bulldozer to the place where it sat until yesterday.

Creekmore said she enlisted the help of Bill Dunne, professor of earth and planetary science and associate dean of the College of Engineering, who took a small sample of the Rock for analysis in December 2007.

Dunne’s analysis determined the Rock is Knox dolomite — a common type of local rock that is 500 million years old. Further, his analysis confirmed the move because it indicated the Rock had been upended; its sediment layers were running vertically rather than horizontally.

“I think we’re all excited that the Rock’s move was a success — that the Rock survived intact and that it looks so ‘at home’ in its new location. The Rock has been — and will continue to be — a great UT tradition,” Maples said.

A celebration of the Rock is being planned for Aug. 18, during Welcome Week. More details will be announced as plans are finalized.

Share your photos and stories about the Rock at http://www.utk.edu/therock/.

For Joseph DiPietro, UT vice president for agriculture, being a good steward of the environment comes naturally.

“In environmental sciences, it’s natural for us to be active in conserving our resources,” he said. “The philosophy is right on with what we teach here and is relevant with what we’re facing today.”

DiPietro is encouraging others on the Agriculture campus to jump on board with the Switch your Thinking campaign, and he’s leading by example.

The Switch Your Thinking initiative is an effort by the UT Knoxville community to cut energy consumption by 10 percent during the 2009 fiscal year. It’s an ambitious goal, but such a cut in energy use could save the university more than $1 million.

Noticing a lack of weather-stripping on the exterior doors of Morgan Hall on the Agriculture campus, DiPietro contacted the facilities services department to see what could be done.

“You could see daylight coming through the doors,” DiPietro said. “We just needed to get the foyer doors functioning better in general. People were propping them open, but even when closed, we were losing a lot of heated and cooled air.”

Like many older university buildings, Morgan Hall is less energy efficient than newer buildings, such as the recently opened James A. Haslam II Business Building.

DiPietro encourages his colleagues to submit maintenance requests for doors or windows that aren’t properly sealed, or other areas where faculty and staff see room for improvement.

“We’re all heightening our awareness,” DiPietro said. “I’d just as soon be inundated with requests for maintenance and improvements. I want people to know that they can request the expertise of facilities services to help with these matters.”

DiPietro and his wife, Deborah, an environmental educator, keep the conservation efforts going at home. Although he jokes that their constant recycling is just an excuse to keep his old pickup truck, DiPietro’s commitment goes beyond hauling an occasional load to the nearest recycling center. The DiPietros make a point of composting kitchen scraps for use in their gardens, limiting their contribution to local landfills. They’ve installed tankless water heaters and a 95 percent-efficient furnace in their 30-year-old home.

DiPietro said switching his thinking at home led him to switching his thinking at work. Being a member of the Agriculture campus didn’t hurt, either.

“Switch Your Thinking has given us the opportunity to take a look at the things around us,” he says. “We have people on this campus who have dedicated their careers to getting the most out of the resources around us, such as conserving water usage in irrigation systems. This is right up our alley.”

Have you switched your thinking? Tell us what you do to save money and energy at UT and send your suggestions to the chancellor. To learn more about the ways you can Switch Your Thinking and read about more stories about campus efficiency, visit http://utk.edu/features/switch.

Workdays, however, Tenopir is an internationally recognized scholar on the digital age and the evolving ways people find and process information. She is recognized as a leader in the online information industry.

Since 1983, she has published a monthly column on digital information in "Library Journal." "Online" magazine named her one of the top nine "leaders of the online industry." A study done by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia and published in the Autumn 2006 edition of Library and Information Science Research named Tenopir as the most research-productive library and information science faculty member in the U.S.

"I look at the outcomes of all of this information. The pace of acceleration has been much greater since 1995 and the flourishing of the Web, especially in medicine, engineering, sciences and social sciences," she explained.

She expects improvements in hand-held digital devices to speed up this trend. Today’s enormous flood of information, however, has to be well organized, vetted and filtered before it becomes useful.

"Ultimately, it’s all about human needs," she said. "Information has to be understood to become knowledge. Then it can lead to wisdom."

Change, flexibility, freshness are obvious hallmarks of digital publishing. "My career is always interesting, and it continues to get more interesting. It’s a moving target," she said. "There are new things all the time, and the ways people use information never stops changing."

"Lots of folks want to design better scholarly communications vehicles," she said. "The challenge is to find out the ways scientists and other scholars actually use the information. Then we can figure out how to improve the design of journals and delivery of services."

Tenopir said that in studying the digital age, it’s also interesting to study what hasn’t changed. "Scholars still do about one-third of their reading in print journals," she said. "So paper hasn’t gone away. It’s still often more convenient."

Carol and her husband, Gerald Lundeen, emeritus professor of Library and Information Studies at the University of Hawaii, have a son, Andrew, 23, who recently graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore.

For inspiration about his field, he can just look across the dining room table at his wife, Marilyn, who has an artificial heart valve.

"It’s made of pyrolytic carbon, a form of carbon made by decomposing methane gas at high temperatures," he said.

Pharr himself has an artificial lens in one of his eyes – also a product of materials science.

Two things motivate him most: scientific curiosity and those moments when he knows he’s helped a student.

Pharr, who’s been at UT for 20 years, also works hard to recruit students into the materials science program. The field used to be known as metallurgy. That was before the advent of so many new engineered materials.

"Until I got to Rice as an undergraduate, I didn’t even know about materials science," he said. "Even now, beginning engineering students at UT often haven’t heard of materials science," he added. "That’s why we try to get them interested when they first get here or even while they’re still in high school if possible."

In addition to his teaching and research duties and his role as department head in the UT Materials Science and Engineering Department, Pharr holds a joint faculty appointment with nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which is managed by UT in partnership with Battelle. It is more than an honorary appointment: with it comes access to top research tools and the role of deputy director of the Joint Institute for Advanced Materials (JIAM), scheduled for construction on UT’s new Cherokee Farm campus.

He said the UT-ORNL partnership is of great benefit.

"Materials science is a strength that really distinguishes ORNL from other labs," he said.

Pharr and his wife Marilyn Walker Pharr, a graduate of the UT College of Communications, have two sons: Matthew, 22, who is now working on a doctorate in mechanics at Harvard; and Adam, 19, a civil engineering major at Stanford. The Pharrs have strong ties to East Tennessee. Marilyn’s family has farmed in the Maryville area since 1790.

It all began 25 years ago with the chance to visit the Central American country. It’s the type of opportunity she now promotes for undergraduate and graduate students, area schoolteachers and the occasional tourist interested in learning.

Horn and her team search for evidence of the ways human history has affected tropical landscapes over the centuries. In particular they study pre-Columbian agriculture in the Americas, looking at how and when indigenous cultures cleared forests and cultivated corn and other crops. Often, that requires collecting lake sediment—hard work using simple tools.

"What I’m really interested in is disentangling climate change in the past from what humans were doing," she says. "That can give us important clues about the future."

Her selection as a Chancellor’s Professor—UT Knoxville’s highest permanent academic honor—is rooted in her enthusiastic teaching and more than 25 years of outstanding research.

The work is seldom glamorous. She recalls one particularly strenuous trip into the mountains of the Dominican Republic.

"We did a careful inventory, but brought the wrong size wrench," she said. "There was no way to call and just order the right tool so we spent countless hours over the next three or four days actually filing down the wrench until it fit the equipment."

Her ingenuity and hard work have paid off. She’s become fluent in Spanish, which in turn has helped her establish a solid network of contacts throughout Latin America.

"I’ve basically created a world of teaching and research that plays to what I like to do," she says.

At UT, she commits considerable energy to the National Science Foundation-funded GK-12 Earth Project, which sends graduate students to work with area schoolteachers.

"We’re trying to give teachers a view of science they probably otherwise wouldn’t get," she says.

Horn and her husband, Roger, have two college age children: Kevin, who studies art, music and environmental science at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., and Carolyn, who studies engineering and German at Rose-Hulman Institute in Terre Haute, Ind.

For more information on the Chancellor’s Professors program, visit http://chancellor.utk.edu/professors/.

As a prodigious researcher and the founding director of UT Knoxville’s Children’s Mental Health Services Research Center in the College of Social Work, Glisson gained national recognition for helping human service organizations deliver effective treatment to this often underserved population.

"People don’t realize the number of kids who are at risk," said Glisson, a Distinguished Professor in the School of Social Work. "It’s a critical problem. Each year in Tennessee alone, more than 60,000 kids are referred to juvenile courts statewide."

His early work in mental health led him to search for answers to significant questions about how to remove bureaucratic barriers to treating children effectively. As a member of the team that worked to implement the nation’s first federal "right to treatment" guidelines in Alabama’s state mental health system in the early 1970s, he learned firsthand how service organizations created barriers to effective service.

"It was clear to me that the bureaucracy and red tape was debilitating to effective outcomes," Glisson stated.

Glisson’s enthusiasm for research is infectious.

"I’m especially committed to research that has practical implications for improving systems. What’s exciting to me is finding ways that help organizations achieve the best outcomes for the resources they spend."

He passes his enthusiasm for research on to his students, who learn about his research in his classes and work on his studies as research assistants.

"Students like being able to talk to you about the specifics of the studies and get the inside scoop on how things were done and on what you found."

Glisson and his colleagues at the center are committed to the education, research and service mission of the university.

"It’s all intertwined very tightly," he explained. "Everything we do here links service to the community, teaching and research."

Glisson’s family includes his wife, Joyce L. Feld, a health psychologist, and his two children, Matthew and Erin. Matthew is a junior in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and Erin is a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh.

She started out to be a classical pianist and still plays the 1931 piano given to her by her grandfather, who ran an Italian bakery in the working class "Hill" district of Pittsburgh.

She also excelled in a completely different field – competitive rifle shooting – which was one of the few sports available to high school girls in Pittsburgh in those days. Eventually, she won a spot on the Olympic demonstration team and still holds several national shooting records.

But the experience also taught her that female athletes were not taken seriously. "We proved that women could compete," says DeSensi, a professor of exercise, sport and leisure studies in UT Knoxville’s College of Education, Health and Human Services and associate dean of the Graduate School. "But we didn’t get to go to Mexico City like the rest of the Olympians in 1968. We had to mail in our scores."

She soon noticed that it wasn’t just women who were underestimated. "I became concerned with social justice issues all around sport – opportunities to participate, regardless of race, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, politics," she explains.

During her graduate studies, she found a way to combine her love of sports with the deeper questions she was asking.

"I always regarded sports a bit differently," she acknowledges. "It’s essential to see the person on the other team as a human being. We’re each giving something to each other."

While writing her dissertation, she researched attitudes among the Pittsburgh Penguins. Her underlying question of the athletes: "When do you see your opponent as a human?"

The Penguins coach answered the question in his own way. One day he asked DeSensi, "Want to see a fight?"

"I said ‘no,’ but he made a sign and they all immediately broke out into a fight right there in practice. And they really went at it."

DeSensi knew as early as elementary school that she wanted to teach. "Students keep me energized," she says. "Their thirst for knowledge and their ‘ah-ha’ moments are wonderful."

She also loves to challenge conventional thinking.

"The question of ethics and humanness in sport to me is, can we respect our opponent as another struggling human being who is striving for excellence along with me?"

Meeting that goal will take effort and a watchful eye from every member of the campus community.

Ken Wise, an associate professor in the libraries, saw an area with room for improvement and made a suggestion for change. His action was prompted by a friend in the energy efficiency field pointing out that some of the light fixtures in Hodges were not the most efficient possible.

"The building is 25 years old, and technology has improved," said Wise.

He informed Facilities Services about his concerns, which led UT Knoxville to commit more than $200,000 to update the lighting system throughout Hodges Library.

Terry Ledford, senior project manager in facilities services, says the lights in Hodges were already being updated, at least in part. Ledford notes that whenever a light bulb burns out on campus, it is replaced with the most energy efficient alternative. It’s a process that reflects the high priority on energy conservation, and it’s been in place for a number of years.

The library project, for which facilities services is donating the cost of labor, will consist of replacing the older bulbs and the ballasts – the part of the fixture that controls the flow of electricity – with modern electronic versions right away.

This will not only save energy used in the light itself, said Ledford, but because the lights will operate at a greatly reduced temperature from their predecessors, the new controls will also lead to a major savings in cooling costs.

Once completed, the project will save more than $40,000 annually, meaning the project will pay for itself in less than five years.

Faculty and staff can submit their ideas for saving energy by e-mailing environment@utk.edu. By moving UT Knoxville closer to the Switch Your Thinking goal of 10 percent energy reduction, you help reduce the impact of budget cuts while contributing to a better environment for everyone.

Kudos!
Congratulations to the faculty and staff of Henson Hall, who were recently spotted with lights off in their offices during the daytime to take advantage of natural light from outdoors.

Remember these four simple steps to Switch Your Thinking:

• Turn off your lights when you’ll be out of the room more than an hour.
• Turn off your computer when you won’t be using it for an hour or more.
• Plug electrical devices into a power strip and turn the strip off at the end of the day.
• If you have an AC unit that you control, turn it off when you’ll be gone for extended periods.

Do you have a great idea for campus efficiency? Is your department switching its thinking in a new way? Have you seen someone on campus doing their part? Let us know at tennesseetoday@utk.edu. We’ll look for some of the best ideas and share them in future editions of Tennessee Today!

And, just to ensure you’re not fooled, Creekmore also provides the "real" stories.

Myth: UT’s colors of orange and white were chosen by a color-blind student.

Truth: Many years ago, when students voted to make orange and white UT’s official colors, they chose a hue much more yellow-orange than it is today. It was described in records as the color in the center of the American Daisy that grew in profusion on The Hill. Over the years, a myth developed that a color-blind student was responsible for choosing the color since it was really more yellow than orange. Since then, UT’s orange has been adjusted to a deeper hue that shows up better on TV. Today, our official orange is known as "Pantone Matching System 151."

Myth: Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta is named for UT alumnus and astronaut, Henry "Hank" Hartsfield.

Truth: The airport is named for William B. Hartsfield, a former Mayor of Atlanta.

Myth: UT Sororities do not have houses because a wealthy donor made administrators promise never to allow them.

Truth: Over the years, several colorful myths have evolved. One is that Sophronia Strong (for whom Strong Hall is named) gave UT a million dollars on the condition that sororities not be allowed to have houses. Another is that sorority houses couldn’t be built because of a law declaring any house where 10 or more women lived to be a brothel. In fact, neither is true.

In 1930, Dean James D. Hoskins wrote in the Orange and White publication that university administrators had decided sororities shouldn’t be allowed to have houses for several reasons, including the burden of upkeep and the fear that houses would promote more expensive social activities. The decision to build a Panhellenic Building in the early 1960s was, according to President Emeritus Joseph Johnson, an administrative one. Sorority houses will be built in the planned Sorority Village development planned for Morgan Hill.

Myth: Secret tunnels link The Hill to other parts of the campus.

Truth: Steam tunnels do run throughout the campus, but they do not provide secret passageways. Most have sections so small that service workers have to crawl through them; none of the tunnels is large enough for anyone to walk its entire length.

In a bid process, Parker Executive Search was chosen on Feb. 27 to assist with the chancellor search. The firm has been used by UT before, including the most recent provost search.

On March 3, the committee met with a representative of Parker Executive Search to discuss the search.

"The firm will be helping us administratively with the search," said Hap McSween, search committee chairman, "but their main job is in developing candidates."

In leadership searches at this level, McSween said, many candidates come from search firm referrals in addition to responses to advertisements.

"The type of person we want already has a good job," he said. "This type of candidate responds best when approached on a personal level and given additional information that may help them decide to compete for the position."

Formerly known as Baker Parker and Associates, the firm’s Web site says Parker Executive Search executes their "proven expertise in the search process to ensure the client’s successful identification and recruitment of the most highly qualified senior executives."

Advertisements have been placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education and Diverse Issues in Higher Education. To view these ads, see the search Web site: http://chancellor.utk.edu/search/.

"We have received responses from those ads, and we expect the search firm will develop additional applications," McSween said.

The search committee represents many of the university’s stakeholder groups.

"We have representatives from the city of Knoxville, the national UT alumni association, the UT Board of Trustees, as well as students, faculty and staff," McSween said. "I’ve been impressed by how hard they’ve worked already on the search."

Committee members are listed on the search Web site.

The search committee plans to accept applications until the middle of July. The committee then will begin investigating applicants’ credentials and references and draw up a list of primary candidates to visit the campus in September.

The on-campus interview process will include open forums so the campus community can meet the candidates, pose questions and offer reactions to the committee. These forums will be held only during a full academic semester to ensure that any member of the campus community can participate. The forums will be video streamed live and also archived to ensure the widest participation.

"We want to provide the maximum access possible for the campus community to meet the candidates, and vice versa," McSween said.

Community feedback on the candidates is very important to the process, he said.

"Everyone who interacts with them will have the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions with the committee, and we will consider them all before making our recommendation to President Petersen," McSween said.

Last week, university faculty, staff, students, law enforcement officials and administrators met with community business leaders, elected officials, Knoxville Police Department officers, representatives of area hospitals and Fort Sanders Historic Neighborhood Association members. This special task force emphasized the need for safety and improvements to neighborhood environmental factors that contribute to crime.

UT and Knoxville police have increased their presence in the Fort Sanders area. Police units patrol there 24 hours a day, and both departments have added officers and patrol cars. The number of nighttime and weekend patrols has also increased, and plans are under way to further enhance coverage during the day.

UT Police have developed a special problems unit designed to focus additional manpower on areas of concern. This unit has dedicated much of its resources to Fort Sanders.

Communications are also very important. Participation in the UT ALERT text messaging system has increased – more than 15,500 students, faculty and staff are now enrolled. UT ALERT was activated after a recent criminal incident, for a weather-related delay and to expedite evacuation of the Humanities Building following a bomb threat. If you have not enrolled in this free service, I encourage you to do so at https://www.utk.edu/utalert/.

We’ve begun improving crime awareness through our "Taking PrecaUTions" campaign, with a special emphasis on activities in Fort Sanders. We’ll continue to build on those efforts.

Residents of the area can also contribute to their personal safety by remaining aware of their surroundings at all times, pledging to never walk alone at night and always staying in well-lit areas and on pedestrian paths. I encourage you to take advantage of resources provided by the campus such as the T:Link after hours and to always contact UTPD with any safety concern or to report a potential problem. A list of safety resources and additional information is available at http://safety.utk.edu/.

The task force is developing recommendations on

• Expanding the network of 100 campus emergency "blue" phones linked to the police
• Improving lighting throughout the neighborhood in thoroughfares used by students and visitors
• Cleaning up the area to remove potential problems and deter crime
• Organizing students, community members and others to volunteer in regular clean-up efforts to enhance pride and ownership of the neighborhood
• Evaluating the T bus services to assist the growing needs of the Fort Sanders neighborhood

We are committed to sharing information and working together to make sure we’re doing all we can to make a safer environment. By working together, we can create the best environment possible to study, learn, live and work together.

It stands to reason that people who lack any one of life’s three basic survival requirements-food, clothing, and shelter-are probably going to have a hard time getting the healthcare they need, Kollar explains.

Thanks to service-minded people like Kollar, getting quality healthcare services to Knoxville’s homeless population is a little less difficult than it might be otherwise.

She works one day per week at the People’s Clinic in Knoxville’s warehouse district. Established in 1998 by Knoxville Inner-City Churches United for People (KICCUP) and operated by the Volunteer Ministry Center, the free clinic has provided medical and dental care and mental health services to thousands of patients.

Kollar began providing medical services there in 2000. In true volunteer fashion, others have joined her in taking healthcare to the streets.

"I bring students and sometimes other faculty members to see patients," says Kollar, who coordinates the family nurse practitioner concentration in the College of Nursing.

The more volunteers, the better-the demand for services at the People’s Clinic has increased by 40 percent since TennCare reform nearly two years ago. "A lot of our patients have a hard time accessing healthcare," Kollar says.

Often, the conditions that contribute to people becoming homeless-disabilities like mental illness, for example-also leave them unable to navigate the healthcare bureaucracy. As a result, homeless people frequently fall through the holes in society’s safety net when it comes to healthcare.

Ginny Weatherstone, executive director of the Volunteer Ministry Center, says Kollar has a wonderful ability to put those people at ease and make them feel welcome in the clinic.

"Mary’s gift is being able to meet street people where they are-street people who are addicts or prostitutes, people who are mentally ill-and help them reach a better place," she says.

A registered nurse, Kollar treats acute problems like colds and lice and manages conditions like allergies and asthma. Besides the ailments frequently seen at any healthcare clinic, foot problems are especially common among the People’s Clinic patients. As she says, "They are on their feet a lot, walking."

One man told her he had walked from Chattanooga to Knoxville, a distance of about 110 miles.

For those who live on the street, stability in any aspect of life is rare. But with her gift of time and her calm, soft-spoken manner, Kollar provides a stable, consistent presence in coordinating and providing healthcare services to the street-dwellers of Knoxville.

Hap McSween recently sat down with Tennessee Today to discuss the chancellor search process.

The search committee charged with helping to find the next Chancellor for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, held its first meeting Thursday and outlined plans for a broad and inclusive process that will include extensive campus community involvement and input.

Harry "Hap" McSween, chair of the 21-member committee said the group will work diligently to identify a leader with great vision for the campus.

"We are committed to an aggressive timetable for this search and would like to have candidates on campus to interview as soon as possible. However, the quality of the candidates is more important than the timeline, and we are dedicated to doing this quickly but even more dedicated to doing it well," McSween said.

A distinguished professor of planetary sciences and acting department head, McSween has served the university for more than 30 years.

He explained that in the search for Chancellor, the top candidates must have more than managerial experience.

"They will have the ability to inspire and lead our campus toward greater academic excellence and public service," he said.

The committee will work to recommend top candidates for consideration by President John Petersen. Petersen will select the final candidate from those recommended and present that individual to the Board of Trustees for final approval.

The search process will include open forums so the campus community can meet the candidates, pose questions and offer suggestions. These forums will be held only during a full academic semester to ensure that any member of the campus community can participate.

To find the best candidate possible, UT will employ a search firm to help us with this national search and to widely advertise the position.

"We’re looking for candidates who can recognize the remarkable strides this university has made in its academic reputation and scholarship and who have the leadership ability to continue that upward trajectory," McSween said.

The appointment of the committee was the first step in ensuring a successful outcome, he said. The 21-member search committee has a broad representation, he said, and reflects the many constituencies of the campus and community. It includes faculty, staff, students, Board of Trustee members and Knoxville community members.

"We have become accustomed to great leadership at UT Knoxville, and we expect that tradition to continue. We acknowledge that there are both opportunities and challenges in conducting this search, and the committee looks forward to working with the entire campus community to recommend the best leadership possible for our campus," said McSween.

For updates about the search, visit http://chancellor.utk.edu/search/. To share your views with members of the search committee, send an e-mail to chancellor-search@utk.edu.

Continue to read Tennessee Today online at www.utk.edu/tntoday/ and Tuesdays in The Daily Beacon. To subscribe to the Tennessee Today daily e-mails, visit www.utk.edu/tntoday/email/.

Any UT employee can be nominated by colleagues or by customers. In addition to the nomination, the committee considers job performance, work behavior, initiative and relationships with associates and customers in selecting a recipient.

A Send Roses recipient is named each month and is given a framed certificate, three roses, a gift certificate for the UT Book and Supply Store and a reserved parking spot of their choice on campus for one month.

Congratulations to last semester’s Send Roses recipients!

July – Nancy Austin
Nancy is the "rhythm and heart and melody" of the Food Science and Technology Department, according to one co-worker, and has an unfaltering "can do" attitude.

August – Jacki German
Jacki, in Family and Consumer Sciences, is known for going above and beyond, with a smile and an encouraging word for everyone she encounters, every day.

September – Terry Baker
Terry, who does preventive maintenance for Facilities Services, lights up the lives of those around him with his good spirits and bright smile.

November – Nakesha Roberts
Nakesha works in the Advising Center for Education, Health and Human Sciences and always has a positive upbeat attitude. Those around her are drawn to her "spiritual warmth and mothering nature."

December – Sherry Matthews
Sherry, who works for the vice chancellor for student affairs, is usually going in several different directions but always stops to help others with a smile and positive attitude.

If you would like to nominate someone for the Send Roses Award, visit http://bigorangerecognition.utk.edu/rose.html for more information.

But for more than a hundred campus employees, staying away from the office isn’t an option. These men and women are still on campus to maintain UT’s 217 buildings, keep them safe and secure, and provide many other key services that must continue regardless of the time of year.

"We rely upon these employees to keep the campus running, no matter what," said Denise Barlow, vice chancellor for finance and administration. "The campus is a city within the city, and as such, we have to keep a certain level of services operating every day of the year." With a campus of 556 acres, many miles of streets, and its own electrical and heating systems, managing this city within a city is no small task.

Staff from the UT Police Department, Facilities Services, Dining and Housing Services and several other services stay on the job.

"We try to keep the libraries open almost all the time as a service to students trying to study," Barlow said, adding that they also try to open the University Center, the Bursar’s Office and the Student Health Services Clinic and have housing employees available to fix any problems that occur in university housing.

"The need for safety and security on campus never stops," said UT Police Chief August Washington. He says patrols are adjusted during scheduled closings and bad weather due to the reduced amount of traffic on campus, "always with an eye toward maximizing safety and security."

Jeff Maples, senior associate vice chancellor for finance and administration, said Facilities Services employees on call during holiday closings include grounds crews and a maintenance team. "If a tree limb falls across a sidewalk or breaks a window in one of our buildings, we need people on hand to take care of the problem before it escalates," he said.

Dining and housing are other essential services, Maples said. Many students living on campus, especially students from other countries, don’t have other housing options during holiday closings.

Not every employee in these divisions is expected to report for duty during holiday closings.

"Each area has its own protocol for getting a core group of their people to campus during these special times," Maples said, adding that employees are good at working with their supervisors to make sure the critical needs of the university are served, while also giving each other a chance to spend quality time with their own families.

"Our employees understand that by coming to work during holidays, they’re making a sacrifice," Barlow said, "but it’s one that helps ensure the safety of our campus community year-round."

Today, Hodges Library at UT is bustling with people working on laptops, collaborating on digital projects and getting help for their computers.

And they are doing all these activities in what now looks like a hip hangout with brightly painted walls, upholstered booth seats and more space to spread out.

Welcome to The Commons.

The Commons on the second floor of Hodges Library is a one-stop service area operated in collaboration with the Office of Information Technology (OIT). It was renovated and expanded this summer and fall for the second time since opening in fall 2005.

The Commons has revolutionized the use of the library.

Barbara Dewey, dean of UT Libraries, says The Commons is "one of the largest such service-intensive facilities in research universities today."

Open 24 hours a day when classes are in session, The Commons has increased the number of students using the library by nearly 50 percent and increased circulation by almost 80 percent.

Since The Commons reopened this fall, the staff have attended to more than 2,400 people at the help desk, and more than 1,700 people have asked for computer consulting.

The renovations include reconfigured space and more appealing lighting, décor, carpet and furniture. It reopened this fall, and a grand opening is being planned for January.

The renovation did not add new services, but it was the first time the space had seen major changes since the library was built in 1987.

Teresa Walker, the IT services librarian, works in The Commons. She says one of the greatest benefits is the convenience that comes from working with OIT.

"Several library resources use NetID for authentication. Having the OIT HelpDesk here to reset passwords and troubleshoot NetID problems means that users can accomplish everything they come to do without having to go to another location on campus," Walker said.

The Commons offers library information and referral services, practice presentation room with training and support, SMART board, videoconferencing, writing lab, stat lab, OIT HelpDesk, computer lab, laptop check out, after-hours book retrieval, and digital media services.

There are 134 computers available in The Commons, and you can check online before you go to see how many are in use. You can even get help from The Commons without going there by sending an instant message. To see how, go to http://www.lib.utk.edu/refs/askusnow/. For more information about The Commons, go to http://commons.utk.edu/.