Chancellor’s Update

Welcome to our new students, faculty and staff.  And welcome back to returning students and those faculty and staff who were able to get away this summer.  We look forward to a great year at UTC!

As part of our welcome back celebration, UTC held the second annual Mocs Games on Friday, August 7^th on Heritage Plaza.  Faculty and staff battled for the Mocs Games’ trophy by competing in games such as Ladder Ball, Rubber Duck Pond, Horseshoes, Pin the C on Scrappy, Cornhole and more.  The winner of this prestigious award is still being calculated, but a video of the event is available at http://youtu.be/3CqCl-hc5Dk.

Yesterday we held a formal signing ceremony for a Dual Admission Agreement with Chattanooga State Community College.  This provides a clear path for students to move from Chatt State to UTC and should lead to increases in the number of transfer students.

Tomorrow we welcome back our students with Convocation.  This will be a spirited, welcoming event for the Class of 2019 and their parents and families.  Convocation begins at 9:00 a.m. in McKenzie Arena and I encourage all faculty and staff to attend and welcome our newest Mocs.

Our first football game against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, will take place on Saturday, September 5^th starting at 6 p.m.  Let’s pack Finley Stadium to cheer on our Mocs!  Mocs Football is currently ranked #8 in the country – our highest preseason ranking ever.  UTC lead the conference in attendance last year, let’s make it another great year.

Finally, on January 5th of this year, UTC adopted an interim policy on sexual misconduct and relationship violence.  As of today, this interim policy has been replaced by the final version: UTC’s Policy on Sexual Misconduct, Relationship Violence and Stalking which can be found here: http://www.utc.edu/sexual-misconduct.  In addition, many of you have received a letter from me about your reporting obligations with regard to incidents of sexual misconduct, relationship violence and stalking involving our students.  I encourage you to complete the online training that will be offered on this topic.  It is imperative that we continue to work together as a community to create a safer and more inclusive campus for our students and ourselves.

Thank you for all that you do! GO MOCS!