We are making a few administrative changes to continue our focus on becoming a Top 25 public research university and to prepare us for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools re-accreditation review in 2015.

Albrecht

Mary Albrecht, associate vice chancellor, has been overseeing the Top 25 initiative and the SACS process since August 2010. Mary will begin working on SACS full-time as her full attention is needed to meet several of the university’s reporting and assessment deadlines. Site visits will occur in 2015.

Shivers

Melissa Shivers, assistant vice chancellor for student life, will begin leading our Top 25 effort for the university and report directly to me on the initiative. She will monitor our progress and keep people engaged and informed about our work to improve undergraduate and graduate education, research and engagement, faculty and staff priorities, and goals for enhancing infrastructure and resources.

We have made great progress in the last three years and we appreciate Mary’s diligence and commitment to our goals. We will continue to benefit from her knowledge and close attention to detail.

Melissa will be adding the Top 25 role to her Student Life responsibilities. Her new title will be assistant vice chancellor for student life and strategic initiatives. She is an enthusiastic leader with a great passion for our students and for helping the university reach its full potential.

It has been three years since UT received then-Governor Phil Bredesen’s challenge to become a Top 25 public research university. Since then, UT System President Joe DiPietro, the UT Board of Trustees, Governor Bill Haslam, and the legislature have supported the effort in many ways.

“We never said it was going to be easy. But we did say that we would pursue our goal with abandon,” Cheek told the board. See a video of his presentation to the board below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuFJ_Qak7jc

US News and World Report ranked UT at forty-sixth among all public universities in 2013, the same position it held for 2012. UT has moved six positions since 2010.

Click to enlarge.

Cheek said many people ask why the metrics of the Top 25 initiative are not the same as US News uses to compile its rankings. A chart with all twelve metrics is pictured at right. 

“US News focuses solely on undergraduate education. Our goals for this university are broader and include research and graduate education which are core to making us a better university overall,” Cheek said. “They are also critical to the state’s economy, job growth, and are needed for a more educated workforce.”

Cheek said the emphasis in the first two years of implementation has been on improving undergraduate education.

“We’ve made the most progress in this area and the changes we’re making are significantly improving the experience for our students,” he explained.

UT’s graduation rate is now 63 percent and Cheek said he expects to improve that metric to 66 percent by next year. Retention—the percentage of freshman who return for their second year—has improved to 85 percent.

Several changes have contributed to the improvements. These include changing the drop policy to limit students’ ability to drop no more than four classes after the no-penalty deadline during their undergraduate years.

A significant amount of effort has been focused on eliminating bottlenecks students encounter when registering for high-demand, required courses. Twenty new lecturers were hired this fall to teach additional course sections, and new technology is being used to monitor registration in real time to help avoid overflows and improve classroom scheduling.

“We have added nineteen full-time advisors and have expanded our tutoring staff and locations. We’ve added a new tutoring location in Hess Hall and will soon add seven more tutors to the Student Success Center office in the Commons in Hodges Library,” Cheek said.

In June, the board approved a new 15-4 tuition model that will take effect for undergraduate students who enter next fall. The model requires students to pay for 15 credit hours each semester—the number they must take in order to graduate in four years—regardless of how many they take.

“We think it will be a game changer. It will give us more resources to reinvest in undergraduate programs, and it will give students a financial incentive to graduate in four years,” Cheek said.

The new UTracK system will pilot this spring and go live this fall. The system pairs students’ academic plans with registration to ensure they are taking the classes they need to keep them on track with earning a degree.

Graduate Education

Graduate enrollment is down across the nation, and UT is following that trend. The university lost some ground in the number of degrees awarded at the master’s and doctorate levels.

The graduate admissions process has been greatly improved, and $12 million has been committed over the next five years to expand the number of fellowships. Seventy-five new fellowships have been added in the last three years. New interdisciplinary doctorates and two new degree programs—a Doctor of Nursing Practice and a Doctor of Social Work—have been added to UT’s offerings.

“The only way to produce more degrees is to recruit more students,” Cheek said. “The best way to do that is to offer more competitive stipends to attract the best students.”

Research

Cheek explained that research is “the core of what we do and what distinguishes us from all the other universities in the state.”

Both federal and total research expenditures have improved and many changes have made UT more competitive.

“As energy challenges for our nation continue to grow, we are working even more closely with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to find solutions. We have also expanded our relationship with Y-12 National Security Complex and it now involves every college on campus—from Communications to Vet Med to Architecture,” the chancellor said.

The Office of Research is working very closely with development to create new relationships and to broaden our existing partnerships. Several new centers have been created to foster collaboration and multi-disciplinary work, including the UT Humanities Center and the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education. A new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center called CURENT has been a great addition to the campus.

Nine of the ten UT/ORNL Governor’s Chairs have built their research enterprises at UT. Three new researchers have helped expand capabilities in nuclear safety, nuclear radiation, and environmental biotechnology.

Research is a primary consideration in our building plans and “core facility” plans, which help bring more large-scale technology and equipment to laboratories through cost-sharing arrangements.

Cheek emphasized the need to build and expand partnerships with agencies and corporations, such as TVA, ORNL, and Eastman Chemical.

“More corporate engagement is key to taking our research to market,” he said. “We have talented faculty and have only scratched the surface on how we can expand our research base.”

Faculty and Staff

The average faculty salary has improved through the last two years of raises.

“Being able to provide merit raises to our best performers has made a big difference,” Cheek noted.

The faculty-to-student ratio remains unchanged. More than $5 million has been raised to provide faculty awards to high-achieving professors. These funds help create the first two endowed chairs in social work and the first one in architecture.

A career path is now in place for lecturers who are critical to delivering core courses.

Cheek said that faculty and staff pay will continue to be a high priority, and a career path for full professors is on the horizon.

Infrastructure and Resources

Our per-student expenditure metric has improved and our endowment has increased, Cheek explained, but so have others schools, so the gap that measures us against our peer average has widened.

“Development is focused on more scholarships, fellowship, faculty funding, and what our colleges need to be Top 25 programs,” Cheek said.

The Campaign for Tennessee ended in 2011, UT experienced record fundraising in fiscal year 2012, and 2013 is projected to be even better. Engaging alumni in the campus and our goals is critical to the journey, he added.

Cheek said UT buildings should be those of a Top 25 university.

“Some are and some aren’t, but we are working on that,” he said. “We have opened several state-of-the-art buildings. And thanks to the Governor and the legislature, more buildings will be coming on line in the future.”

More than $20 million has been invested in deferred maintenance and to improve energy efficiency throughout campus.

A Final Note

Metrics are vital to tracking progress, but other great changes can’t be measured.

“But there are also changes you can’t summarize in a graph. There has been an incredible culture change all across our campus,” Cheek said. “Our campus community believes in our potential and departments across campus are all talking about how to make their program a Top 25 operation.”

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, Karen.simsen@tennessee.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.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The Regal Scholars program, in its third year, provides $2,500 annual scholarships for up to forty Knox County students at UT—ten freshmen, ten sophomores, ten juniors, and ten seniors.

From left to right: Regal Scholarship recipients Nicole Galante and Cameron Hensley; Greg Dunn, President and COO of Regal Entertainment Group; Amy Miles, CEO and director of Regal Entertainment Group; and scholarship recipients Kwaku Yeboah, Danny Vo, and Angela Kirkpatrick.

To be eligible for the Regal Scholars program, students must be either admitted to attend or currently enrolled at UT, and they must meet the same income guidelines as those for the need-based Tennessee Pledge Scholarship. Regal Scholars are awarded on an annual basis, and this is the third year that Regal has donated $100,000 to support the scholarship program.

“We are grateful for the partnership with Regal Entertainment Group,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “One of our primary goals is increasing access for all students who want to be Volunteers. Generosity from our great supporters like Regal makes that possible.”

The scholarship program is just one of several gifts that Regal Entertainment Group and its foundation made as part of the Campaign for Tennessee, which concluded in 2011.

“This is one of my favorite things at Regal that we do,” said Amy Miles, UT alumna and CEO of Regal Entertainment Group. “As part of the corporate culture at Regal, it is important for us to give back to the communities in which we live and work. We are extremely proud partners of UT and it’s all because we care so much about this university and its value to our community.”

Regal’s other gifts to the university include:

• College of Business Administration—A gift to establish the endowed Regal Entertainment Group Distinguished Professorship and a gift to support the CBA Technology Fund, which helps maintain state-of-the-art computers, software, and other technology in classrooms in the James A. Haslam II Business Building. A second-floor team room in the building was named the Regal Entertainment Group Team Room to recognize the gift.
• Athletics—The Regal Soccer Stadium, named in honor of Regal Entertainment Group’s legacy of support for UT Athletics, was dedicated in 2008. The $7.5 million facility was paid for by private donations. An additional gift by Regal Entertainment Group will help build a new state-of-the-art football training center adjacent to the Brenda Lawson Athletic Center and Haslam Field. Regal also is a leadership donor to the Football Training Center and Lindsey Nelson Stadium renovations.

Headquartered in Knoxville, Regal Entertainment Group is the largest and most geographically diverse theater circuit in the United States, operating 6,621 screens in 524 locations in 37 states and the District of Columbia.

To learn more about applying for the Regal Scholars program, as well as other UT scholarships, visit the university’s financial aid website. The site lists criteria and important deadlines and for scholarship awards. Students applying to UT for admission for fall 2013 are encouraged to visit their high school guidance counselor for information on the Regal Scholars and other scholarship programs.

Regal Scholars for the 2012–13 academic year are:

Brandon Brackman
Christopher Bright
Cassandra Cardwell
Molly Chaffin
Laurel Christian
Toni Cloninger
Jarrod Drury
Hayden Eidemiller
Jordan Ellison
Keith Ferrell
Nicole Galante
Cameron Hensley
Chasity Hobby
Chelsey Holloway
Grayson Hunley
Carter Jersey
Ember Kao
Angela Kirkpatrick
Mitch Kleiber
Michael Lamacchia
Morgan McPheeters
Nancy Murray
Samantha Myers
Nezar Omari
Tyler Parker
Neha Patel
Savannah Pressley
Milton Proctor
John Ridley
Lauren Ridley
Alexis Riggs
Merry Sheffer
Beverly Simpson
Abby Story
Jessica Swihart
Danny Vo
Danielle Watson
David Wells
Kwaku Yeboah
Priyanka Zaveri

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C O N T A C T :

Ashley Cole (865-974-3011, acole7@utk.edu)

Fellows are Professor David Anderson, Professor Emeritus Robert Daverman, Professor Suzanne Lenhart, and Professor Stefan Richter.

The American Mathematical Society Fellows program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement communication, and utilization of mathematics.

“We are proud of our professors and the work they do inside and outside the classroom,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “Their contributions to research and teaching are invaluable and they are instrumental in making UT a great university.”

Among the goals of the program are to create an enlarged class of mathematicians recognized by their peers as distinguished for their contributions to the profession and to honor excellence.

The inaugural class of 1119 fellows represents more than 600 institutions worldwide.

UT’s members specialize in diverse areas:

• Anderson’s research area is in algebra with a focus on commutative ring theory factorization in integral domains and zero-divisor graphs.
• Daverman’s research area is in geometric topology with a focus in the topology of finite dimensional manifolds and decomposition theory.
• Lenhart’s research area is in differential equations with focuses in partial differential equations, systems, optimal control, applied modeling, disease, population and natural resource modeling.
• Richter’s research areas include operator theory and complex analysis with a focus in invariant subspaces of multiplication operators on spaces of analytic functions.

The AMS is the world’s largest and most influential society dedicated to mathematical research, scholarship, and education. Recent advances in mathematics include solutions to age-old problems and key applications useful for society.

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member AMS fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The forty-acre complex will open early in the spring semester. The two-year construction project is on track to wrap up in mid-January, just in time to host the full gamut of intramurals and student activities. More than 10,000 students participate in UT’s sport clubs and intramural programs each year.

Funded solely through student activity fees, the new complex will significantly improve intramural programming and provide much more flexibility and convenience in scheduling of games and practices for sport clubs.

Most games are now played on the 2.5-acre RecSports field, while others are scheduled off campus due to space limitations.

The new complex will have an open-air seating pavilion and a central building which will serve as a field and equipment house, three sand volleyball courts, two softball fields, and eight multi-purpose fields that can be used for flag football, lacrosse, soccer, and other sports. The complex also will have plenty of parking and terraced seating for spectators on several fields.

Student Life Vice Chancellor Tim Rogers said that having natural and artificial turf will provide more flexibility to play intramurals and tournaments year round when inclement weather hits.

“This has been a great need for a long time. We are pleased that our students will soon get to enjoy the new complex,” Rogers said.

RecSports Director Rex Pringle anticipates the new complex will spark additional growth in the number of student teams, particularly in flag football, soccer, softball, and sand volleyball.

The pavilion, the central building, and the utility/maintenance building are now being built and artificial turf is being installed. The complex connects to the city’s Third Creek Greenway and is just three miles from campus by car or by way of the greenway.

The university will provide transportation from campus to the site to accommodate game schedules.

Rogers said the university has worked with students for more than twelve years on how best to address the need for field space. More than twenty-five sites were evaluated before the site was chosen in 2009. Because the campus is bordered by downtown Knoxville, Cumberland Avenue, and Fort Sanders along with the Tennessee River, railroads, and major interstates, it was difficult to find a large parcel of flat land near the campus.

On Monday, October 29, construction fencing will go up around Temple Court, Aconda Court, and the building at 812 Volunteer Boulevard. The small Staff Lot 12 in this area will be closed. The area known as “the pit,” including the Smokey’s entrance, also will be inaccessible.

Demolition of the three buildings will begin in mid-December.

Agglutinate sample. Image courtesy of David McKay.

Three years ago University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers helped to discover water on the surface of the moon. Now, they are piecing together the origin of that water: solar wind.

A new study published in this month’s Nature Geoscience confirms solar wind as a source for water embedded in the lunar surface.

Solar wind is the continuous flow of charged particles from the sun. Scientists have speculated it to be responsible for water on the surface of the moon.

Last year Larry Taylor, distinguished professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, confirmed comets as the source for water inside the moon. This year, Yang Liu, research assistant professor, and Taylor have confirmed solar wind as the source for water on the outside—by depositing positively charged hydrogen atoms, or protons, onto its surface, allowing it to combine with the moon’s oxygen to create water.

“When those protons hit the lunar surface with enough force, they break apart oxygen bonds in soil materials to join together and form water,” said Liu. “This does not happen on Earth because our atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from being bombarded by these protons, but the moon lacks this protection.”

The researchers used lunar samples from three Apollo missions, including one brought back by Neil Armstrong, analyzing something called an agglutinate. An agglutinate, which resembles “dirty Swiss cheese,” is a unique product of space weathering in the lunar regolith, the crushed materials on the moon’s surface. The agglutinate was chosen because it consisted of products suspected to contain hydrogen. The researchers used infrared spectroscopy to confirm the presence of hydroxyl (OH). Then they used secondary ion mass spectrometry to obtain the amount of hydroxyl and the origins of the hydrogen.

The researchers discovered that most of the water in the agglutinates came from solar wind. Confirming the solar-wind- induced hydroxyl emphasizes the possibility of finding water on the surface of other similar airless bodies.

“This means water likely exists on Mercury and on the asteroids such as Vesta or Eros further within our solar system,” said Liu. “These planetary bodies have very different environments, but all have potential to produce water. The finding also implies solar-wind contributes to water ice in lunar poles.”

The research also identifies the largest reservoir for water on the lunar surface since regolith, and thus the corresponding hydroxyl is very widespread. This gives the moon the potential to serve as a habitat and gas station in the sky.

“The hydroxyl in such a volumetrically large reservoir is a valuable resource,” said Taylor. “With the cost of $25,000 for taking one pint of water to the moon, water has the potential to be used as rocket fuel as liquid hydrogen or oxygen.”

Liu and Taylor collaborated with researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan on this study.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The Early Learning Center playground, before renovations.

They also appear to use their imagination more, according to the report.

The study, which examined changes in physical activity levels and patterns in young children exposed to both traditional and natural playgrounds, is among the first of its kind in the United States, according to Dawn Coe, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies.

“Natural playgrounds have been popping up around the country but there was nothing conclusive on if they work,” she said. “Now, we know.”

For the study, Coe observed children at UT’s Early Learning Center. She began in June 2011 by observing the children while the center still had traditional wood and plastic equipment. She logged how often they used the slides and other apparatus, studied the intensity of their activity, and how much time they spent in a porch area to get shade from the sun.

The Early Learning Center staff then began renovations of the playground and over several months added a gazebo and slides that were built into a hill. They planted dwarf trees, built a creek, and landscaped it with rocks and flowers. They also added logs and tree stumps. They turned it into what Coe called a “natural playscape.”

The Early Learning Center playground, after renovations.

Coe, working with Cary Springer, a statistician with the Office of Information Technology, returned for follow-up observations this year and found significant differences between usage of the traditional and natural playground.

The children more than doubled the time they spent playing, from jumping off the logs to watering the plants around the creek. They were engaging in more aerobic and bone- and muscle-strengthening activities.

“This utilized motor skills, too,” Coe said.

She also found that the children were less sedentary and used the porch area less after the renovation.

Coe is preparing a manuscript of the study to submit for publication.

“Natural playscapes appear to be a viable alternative to traditional playgrounds for school and community settings,” Coe said. “Future studies should look at these changes long-term as well as the nature of the children’s play.”

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CONTACT:

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

The projects draw upon lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident.

The two awards are part of the DOE’s 2012 Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP) Integrated Research Programs (IRP).

A proposal by Kurt Sickafus, head of the Department of Material Science and Engineering, was awarded $3.5 million to improve the nuclear fuel cladding in light water reactors. Cladding refers to the metallic tube that protects the fuel in a nuclear reactor from the surrounding coolant such as water.

“Currently, the alloys in the cladding when at high temperatures can oxidize, releasing hydrogen gas which can cause an explosion similar to the one we saw in Japan,” Sickafus said.

The UT-based team aims to protect the zirconium alloy cladding by depositing thin layers of durable ceramic coatings on top of it. This design promises to prohibit the oxidation of nuclear fuel cladding, which in turn will minimize the possibility of nuclear reactor accidents.

Collaborating institutions are Pennsylvania State University; University of Colorado, Boulder; University of Michigan; Westinghouse Electric Company; Los Alamos National Laboratory; University of Manchester; University of Oxford; University of Sheffield; and University of Huddersfield.

The university will also collaborate with project lead Georgia Tech and 10 other institutions on a $5.9 million NEUP IRP award project to develop a novel concept of a high-power light water reactor with inherent safety features that will advance its safety level beyond that of advanced passive systems. The UT group is led by Wesley Hines, head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, and Belle Upadhyaya, nuclear engineering professor. The novel design incorporates lessons learned from events induced by the natural disaster in Fukushima by eliminating potential accident initiators.

“Some of the features include the reactor being fully passive, meaning that an operator action or electronic feedback will not be necessary to shut down the reactor safely in the event of an emergency,” said Hines. “Also, the entire nuclear reactor area will be seismically isolated so that it is protected against any earthquakes of magnitude seen in history.”

The NEUP programs support multifaceted projects to develop breakthroughs for the U.S. nuclear energy industry. Universities lead the three-year projects, working in collaboration with the nuclear industry, national laboratories, and international partners.

For more information on the specific awards, visit www.neup.gov.

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C O N T A C T :

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

Kim Cowart (865-974-0686, kcowart@utk.edu)

Kurt Sickafus

A UT-based team has received a $3.5 million grant from US Department of Energy for a proposal to improve the currently used nuclear fuel cladding. Kurt Sickafus, head of the Department of Material Science and Engineering, will lead a team of eleven international institutions to engineer ceramic coatings that will prohibit the oxidation of nuclear fuel cladding. Cladding refers to the metallic tube that protects the fuel in a nuclear reactor from the surrounding coolant such as water.

For more information, visit the College of Engineering website.

The Fulbright Program is a prestigious international exchange initiative that awards about 1,100 grants to American scholars each year. Funded by the US government, Fulbright Scholars are chosen based on their leadership and academic merits and their abilities to teach, conduct research, and contribute to solutions for shared international concerns.

Michelle Commander, assistant professor of English, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research at the University of Ghana, Legon for this academic year. She will teach courses on literature of the black diaspora, conduct follow-up ethnographic research, and write her book manuscript, Afro-Atlantic Speculative Fictions: Flight, Mythmaking, and the African Fantastic.

David Fox, professor of architecture, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach at Krakow Polytechnic in Krakow, Poland, and conduct research. His term will begin in January 2013 for the spring semester. Fox will be teaching drawing and design classes. Fox specializes in affordable housing design, urban residential development, freehand drawing and perception, and architectural photography.

Sarah Lowe, professor of art, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to conduct research at the University of Oslo in Norway for this academic year. Lowe will work with Intermedia, a research center at the university exploring the boundaries of digital environments in communication, interaction and learning. She plans to use her research on a project with the Eastern Band of Cherokee in Cherokee, North Carolina, in which a mobile application is being used to educate Cherokee students.

Sam Swan, professor of journalism and electronic media and director of internationalization and outreach in the College of Communication and Information, has been awarded a Senior Fulbright Specialist grant to teach at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. Swan will conduct workshops on television news for the month of December. Swan has worked at the University of Zagreb for the past ten years conducting television journalism training programs and is the leading media trainer throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has given approximately 310,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research; exchange ideas; and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. The Fulbright US Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education.

For more information, visit fulbright.state.gov.

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C O N T A C T :

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

New glass-enclosed group study rooms that allow natural light have been built around the Commons’ perimeter. Service desks, computer tables, and booth-style seating are already in place. Library and OIT staff will begin installing computers and printers later this week.

The Commons have been undergoing renovations since early summer. Renovating an entire floor of Hodges Library has entailed a complex choreography of temporary relocations of services and staff offices. Library staff recently reoccupied the updated circulation/media/reserve service desk and office area just inside the Melrose Place entrance. This freed up space outside Starbucks’ new west-facing entrance for the upcoming installation of expanded café seating.

When students return from fall break, they should see the progress. Some improvements are already apparent. Entrances to Commons North and Commons South have been widened, and a series of service desks are clearly visible across the entire expanse, north to south, of the second floor of Hodges.

One need only peek over the construction barrier into Commons North to see the zigzag computer tables and a serpentine arrangement of easy chairs. Commons South boasts new mediascape furniture that that will allow students to walk up, plug in their own laptops, and confer on group projects.

The centralization of service desks means students will be able to check out all equipment—laptops, scanners, video cameras, headphones, voice recorders and more—from one convenient location in Commons South. The studio, now centrally located in Commons South, will offer more recording and video studios.

Commons North will provide dedicated spaces for the Student Success Center, the Writing Center, Stat Lab, and the Math Tutorial Center.

Dennis Lee

Facilities Services has formed two special teams to enhance its ability to serve the campus community.

Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor for Facilities Services, said the teams were created as a result of the department’s reorganization plan, which took a closer look at how Facilities Services can best fulfill the needs and mission of the campus.

Irvin said the teams—the STAR Team and the Rapid Response Team—will address the campus’s immediate and ever-changing needs by supplying a cadre of skilled workers.

The Special Team to Assist Research (STAR) Team will quickly convert needed laboratory space for new and existing faculty. The campus is working to address significant deficiencies in laboratory space. The six-member team will help fill those immediate needs for renovation and equipment installation.

The Rapid Response Team, led by Dennis Lee, who began his career at UT in the transfer and hauling department thirty-seven years ago, will support key campus initiatives such as the moving of offices, opening new buildings, hanging banners, or the special preparatory work involved in an academic accreditation visits, Irvin said.

“Our goal is to provide a level of service that should be expected at a Top 25 public research university,” Irvin said. “Our department plays a critical role in supporting these efforts by maintaining and improving our key facilities and buildings.”

Derek Bailey

Derek Bailey is the general superintendent of the STAR Team. He understands the unique needs of researchers. His work history includes stints working in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology and the parasitology lab in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Bailey said the teams also will work on proactive and predictive maintenance programs to improve campus infrastructure over time.

“I’m very excited to be a part of this new and innovative role that Facilities Services will play in the future of the university,” Bailey said.

UT ranked 46th among all public universities, and 101st among all national universities, the same as last year. The undergraduate business program’s specialty in supply chain management/logistics is ranked 7th nationally and 5th among public universities, also the same as last year. The overall business program is ranked 27th among public universities, and UT’s undergraduate engineering program is ranked 36th among public universities.

Last year, UT tied with nine other universities in the rankings. This year, UT tied with four: Iowa State University, the University of California-Riverside, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Oklahoma.

The university keeps close tabs on lists such as US News‘ annual rankings as it continues its journey toward being a Top 25 public research university. The Top 25 initiative includes efforts to make strides in recruiting and retaining excellent students, hiring world-class faculty and staff, and strengthening capacity and productivity in research and scholarship.

Areas where UT has improved in US News‘ ranking criteria since last year include the overall graduation rate, reduced class sizes, more faculty resources and financial resources, and the percentage of college freshmen who are in the top ten percent of their high school graduating classes.

“We are pleased with our ranking,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “We believe we are doing the right things to move our university forward. We have made progress in all the measures we have set for ourselves; moving up in the rankings is a slow process because it’s a very competitive environment.”

US News and World Report ranks universities based on academic reputation, graduation and retention rates, student selectivity, resources, and alumni giving. The list includes 281 American colleges and universities offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

For more information on the rankings, visit the US News website.

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simsen@tennessee.edu)

A public celebration is planned to formally open the center at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 5, at the McClung Museum in Circle Park. The event will feature Princeton University philosophy professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, who will present “The Life of Honor.” A public reception will follow in the museum. The event is free and open to the public.

Appiah is a renowned philosopher, cultural theorist and novelist. He was born in London, England but raised in Ghana and focuses on political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind and African intellectual history. He earned a doctorate from Cambridge University and is currently the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University.

Formed by the College of Arts and Sciences last spring, the University of Tennessee Humanities Center aims to deepen and enrich research in the subjects like philosophy, history, languages, art, music, law, and linguistics, among other humanities subjects. The center now has four faculty and four graduate student fellows. Their work aims to explore the human endeavor and preserve our cultural heritage.

“The humanities, like the food which nourishes our bodies, sustain and deepen our understanding of our place in this complex universe,” said Thomas Heffernan, the Kenneth Curry Professor in the Humanities and director of the center. “The humanities are central to our development as sentient human beings. Can anyone imagine Jefferson penning the American Declaration of Independence without his deep and continuous life-long study of the humanities or the Abrahamic religions without the millennial-long study of the sacred scriptures manuscripts?”

The center is part of the broader university goal of becoming a Top 25 public research university. Humanities disciplines are core requirements in UT’s curriculum and are central to any well-rounded education by developing critical thinking, creativity, and intellectual curiosity, along with an understanding, appreciation, and civic responsibility for our culture, he added.

Event visitor parking is available at the Circle Park. A two-hour parking permit may be obtained at the Campus Information Center in front of Circle Park Drive.

The University of Tennessee Humanities Center is grateful for support from the Haines Morris Endowment, Ready for the World, and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Appiah is the author of several books including The Ethics of Identity, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, Experiment in Ethics, and The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. He has also written three novels and reviews regularly for the New York Review of Books. He is past-president of the PEN American Center, the world’s oldest international literary and human rights organization, and the American Philosophical Association. In 2010, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the top 100 global thinkers and in 2012, President Obama presented him with a National Humanities Medal.

For more information about the center, visit the website.

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C O N T A C T :

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

Daniel Simberloff, the Gore-Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has won the 2012 Ramon Margalef Award for Ecology. The award is presented annually by the Government of Catalonia, an autonomous region in northeast Spain, “to recognize an exceptional scientific career or discovery in the field of ecological science.”

Simberloff, who in May became UT’s third faculty member in history to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, is being honored for “his contributions to the observation and theoretical analysis of the structure and dynamics of ecological communities, and for the application of these studies to conservation biology.”

Ecologists worldwide are considered for the prize named for Margalef, one of Spain’s most distinguished scientists and a founding father of modern ecology. The prize includes a cash award of about $100,000 and a sculpture memorializing Margalef.

“That a committee of leading ecologists should choose me for this honor is highly gratifying. The previous prizewinners are all stars of ecology whose work I’ve long admired,” said Simberloff, who returned to UT this week after a year-long development leave in France where he lectured, helped conduct a workshop, and wrote a book and several manuscripts.

“My scientific accomplishments all result from having always been surrounded by excellent graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and interactive colleagues,” Simberloff said. “I’ve learned far more from them than they have from me over the years, and I cannot emphasize enough how important and exciting it is to be surrounded by good scientists doing interesting research and willing to give instant feedback on one’s own ideas.”

Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said he’s elated that Simberloff has received the Margalef Award.

“To earn this award, on top of his recent election to the National Academy of Sciences, underscores the groundbreaking work Dr. Simberloff does to help us understand our world and preserve our environment,” Cheek said. “Our students and our campus community are fortunate to have faculty of Dr. Simberloff’s caliber. Their teaching and research raise the profile of UT and its impact on the world and fuel our journey to becoming a Top 25 public research university.”

Theresa Lee, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said Simberloff is a key contributor in an outstanding department and has been instrumental in attracting superb junior faculty.

“His research has established him as a world leader in the study of invasive species. This honor is richly deserved,” she said.

Gary McCracken, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, said Simberloff has distinguished himself, not only as a scientist, but also as an exemplary teacher and colleague.

“He has been a wonderful mentor for graduate students, post-docs, and junior faculty. He has been a major force in building the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology into the great department that it is, having served on and chaired on a large number of faculty search committees and with long service on graduate admissions,” McCracken said. “Some may think of great scientists as unapproachable or in their ‘bubble.’ That is decidedly not Dan. He is always available with wise and humorous counsel, and for the last fifteen years he has been a fabulous citizen at UT and within our department.”

Although the Margalef Award was officially announced today, Simberloff learned of the honor three weeks ago while in France. Since he was planning to travel to Barcelona the next day to deliver his daughter to a summer study abroad program, the Margalef committee arranged to meet him at the government palace where he was congratulated by Catalan President Artus Mas.

Simberloff will return to Barcelona in October to receive the award at a ceremony at the Catalan government palace.

Simberloff, who earned his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at Harvard University, came to UT in 1997 from Florida State University to accept the Gore-Hunger Chair founded by former Vice President Al Gore Jr. in honor of his late sister, Nancy Gore Hunger. Simberloff founded and directs the Institute for Biological Invasions, and he is the editor of the new Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions, an 800-page tome that documents invasions worldwide.

Simberloff’s work, frequently cited in textbooks, is studied by most undergraduate ecology students.

As a researcher, he is noted for rigorously testing and sometimes discarding his own theories, thereby strengthening the scientific basis for ecology. His early research on insects on small islands in Florida had assessed the theory of island biogeography, which proposed that the number of species found on an undisturbed island was determined by a balance between ongoing immigration and extinction. This research, conducted with Harvard’s EO Wilson, won the prestigious Mercer Award in 1971. However, in 1976 Simberloff published further research on this system that contradicted this widely accepted theory, showing that most species that disappeared from the island had never really established ongoing populations beyond the first few individuals that arrived there, and that longstanding populations rarely became extinct.

Simberloff was elected as a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.

Past winners of the Margalef Award are Paul Dayton, a marine benthic biologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California; Sir John Lawton, a British scientist who was knighted for his contributions to ecological sciences; Harold Mooney, biology professor at Stanford University whose work prompted universities worldwide to create departments dedicated to ecological research; Daniel Pauly, director of the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia and the world’s leading authority on human impacts on global fisheries; Paul Ehrlich, a biology professor at Stanford University who is an expert on human overpopulation and its environmental impacts; Simon Levin, a biology professor at Princeton University who specializes in the use of mathematical modeling and empirical studies to understand ecosystems and biological diversity; and Juan Carlos Castilla of Chile, a pioneer of South American marine ecology.

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C O N T A C T :

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

UCOR (URS |CH2M Oak Ridge LLC), the DOE’s cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Reservation, is donating $250,000 toward the fellowship. The first recipient of the faculty fellow award is Jason Hayward, an assistant professor in the college’s Department of Nuclear Engineering. Hayward is a top recipient of external research awards in the department, which is the ninth-ranked graduate program in the nation, according to US News and World Report.

Pictured, left to right: UCOR's Bob Smith, Leo Sain, Cathy Hickey, Veronica O'Hearn and Ken Rueter with Jason Hayward in Hayward's lab.

Leo Sain, UCOR’s president and project manager, announced the fellowship on Friday, June 29, at the East Tennessee Economic Council meeting in Oak Ridge.

“Faculty like Dr. Hayward make valuable contributions to the world with their research and provide an outstanding educational experience for our talented students,” Cheek said. “The generosity of friends, alumni and businesses like UCOR enable us to recognize outstanding young faculty and keep them at UT. The energy and enthusiasm of faculty like Dr. Hayward propel us toward becoming a Top 25 university.”

Funding to recruit and retain top faculty is part of the chancellor’s roadmap to achieve Top 25 status. Through the Chancellor’s Faculty Challenge, his office will fund interest income immediately on all new gifts and five-year pledges that donors intend to establish over a period of time in support of faculty. By providing immediate endowment income to be used for salary support, the chancellor is enabling academic units like the College of Engineering to have an immediate impact in recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty. The challenge officially began July 1, 2011, and so far $2.8 million has been raised.

“Dr. Hayward is one of our most successful young faculty members,” said Wayne Davis, dean of College of Engineering. “Not only has he received funding to support his research and students, he is also an excellent advisor and mentor. He is a perfect example of why the faculty challenge is such an important investment in the future of the university. We are fortunate that UCOR’s leaders understand the leveraging power of a named endowed faculty fellow in helping us to recognize outstanding faculty and increase our visibility.”

Since arriving in 2008, Hayward has been awarded more than $7 million in research funding. With these funds, his group has focused on research in areas of detector science and development of gamma ray and neutron imaging for applications in nuclear security, neutron scattering science, and medical imaging.

Because of his successful research related to the detection and identification of nuclear materials and its applications to nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards, the world will continue to become safer in a more economical way, Davis said.

Hayward holds a joint faculty position with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan in 2007.

UCOR established this fellowship because it is committed to doing its part to ensure continued excellence in education in the nuclear field.

“By establishing this endowed faculty award at UT, we hope to give students the opportunity to study under the best professors in nuclear education in the College of Engineering,” Sain said. “Quality education in the nuclear field is absolutely critical to the pipeline of future nuclear workers for UCOR and companies similar to ours.”

UCOR is a partnership between URS, a worldwide leader in environmental work, and CH2M HILL, the United States’ largest environmental company. UCOR is committed to the long-term success of cleanup operations at the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation and also performs work at other DOE Oak Ridge Reservation sites. For more information about UCOR, visit www.ucor.com.

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C O N T A C T :

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

The transition to in-house custodial services is set to be complete by July 1, 2013, with the hiring of approximately 120 employees. Currently about half of the cleaning crews work for outside contractors and the rest are university employees.

Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor of facilities services, said this “insourcing” of labor can be a bit more expensive, but the benefits are numerous.

“There is an extra cost, but it’s more than offset by increased service, better cleaning, and more responsiveness to the needs of the university,” Irvin said. In-house cleaning crews can be used for special events, back-to-school functions, and other activities in a way that was not always available with outsourced crews, he said.

In addition to greater flexibility, Irvin said, there is the pride of working directly for the university and the ability to be the “eyes and ears” for potential repair items and deferred maintenance needs.

“Bringing these employees onto the UT payroll also provides them with better wages, benefits, and continuing education opportunities,” Irvin said. “As we move toward our goal of being a Top 25 university, one of our commitments is to help improve employee compensation wherever we can, and this helps us do that.”

The “insourcing” move was a recommendation from a task force that looked at the university’s peer institutions and discovered that very few of the nation’s top universities continue to outsource these services.

With the new employees coming onboard, the university now can implement the “total cleaning” concept in campus buildings, Irvin said. This is an effort to keep restrooms and common areas cleaner and provide deeper levels of cleaning services in private offices by being more responsive to workers’ schedules on a building-by-building basis.

Total cleaning already is in place in the Min Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building and in the UT Conference Center, Irvin said, and the response has been positive. All campus buildings are set to transition to the total cleaning concept by July 2013.

For more information on the university’s custodial services, call 865-974-2054.