It is hard to believe that the semester is half over and fall break is almost here!
UTC will celebrate Homecoming Week “Back to the Scenic City” on October 24th through the 31st. The festivities will kick-off with a Homecoming Spirit Run on Saturday, October 24th. There are several events throughout the week, including a movie night on Monday, October 26th, Field Games on Tuesday, Lip Sync on Wednesday, a Step Show and a Golf Tournament on Friday and, of course, the Homecoming game against the Western Carolina Catamounts at 2 p.m. on Saturday the 31st. For more information about Homecoming celebrations, please visit http://www.utc.edu/homecoming/. Go Mocs!
On October 28th, UTC will celebrate a groundbreaking for the West Campus Housing Complex – our new 600 bed residence hall and parking garage that will be located on the corner of Vine and Houston Streets. We anticipate that this project will be completed and the residence hall will be ready to occupy by fall 2018. This project, once completed, will animate the west side of our campus, connect UTC with downtown Chattanooga and breathe fresh energy into the Vine Street corridor.
We currently have two searches underway for senior administrative staff members: Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications. The search committee for the Dean of CECS, which is chaired by Dean Jeff Elwell, conducted on-campus interviews for four candidates between September 20th and October 7th. Information regarding the outcome of the search is expected by early November.
The second search, for a Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, is being chaired by Vice Chancellor Bryan Rowland. Zoom interviews are being conducted for twelve candidates this week and next. On campus interviews of selected candidates are planned for first two weeks November. Information regarding open sessions for faculty and staff to meet the candidates will be sent out via UTCINFO.
On Thursday, October 1st, I attended a Chattanooga Downtown Rotary Club meeting where UTC Assistant Professor of Finance Hunter Holzhauer and UTC students Nic Bullard, Isabella Loza, Donald Marsh, Yelena Lyashevskiy, Evan Jones and Anthony Inklebarger presented about the Student Management Learning Experience (SMILE) Fund. The SMILE Fund is a $250,000 equity fund managed entirely by students – the funding for which is provided by the UC Foundation’s Endowment Committee chaired by John Foy. To date, the SMILE fund is beating the benchmark set by the program. What a wonderful example of learning by doing.