Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had the opportunity to relax, recharge, and spend quality time with family and friends over the holiday break.  We look forward to an exciting spring semester when classes resume on Monday, Jan. 8.

Operation Move-In begins tomorrow (Jan. 5).  Check out the Winter Welcome Week calendar for events greeting returning and new Mocs.

For those of you new to campus, welcome to UTC!  During the academic year, I like to share news of University happenings with a C-Note on the first and third Thursday of the month.

Creating the Mocs Experience

Last week, we announced the appointment of Dr. Artanya Wesley as Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, starting Feb. 5.  Dr. Wesley comes to UTC from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she served as vice chancellor for student affairs since 2019.  Her career in higher education has given her the knowledge and expertise to hit the ground running.

Watching our Marching Mocs march across the TV screen as part of the London New Year’s Day Parade was fantastic.  Kudos to Randall Coleman and the music department for bringing the Mocs to the international stage.

A big round of applause to senior Caroline Colvin, pursuing bachelor’s degrees in communication and Spanish, on placing seventh in the highly competitive Hearst Hearst Journalism Awards Feature Writing Competition for her Rising Rock feature titled “The Road to the Medal.” Caroline, head editor of Rising Rock and editor-in-chief of the University Echo, is UTC’s first-ever winner in the Hearst Foundation writing competition.

Congratulations to the athletics department for having eight of its 13 programs beat the national average for Graduation Success Rate based on information recently released by the NCAA.  Our Mocs posted an 88% overall GSR for the most recent cohort, and six programs scored a perfect 100% GSR: women’s basketball, men’s cross country, soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and volleyball.  A big “Go Mocs” shout out to our outstanding student-athletes, coaches, staff and the Academic Enhancement Center team!

I have great news to share about six students who attended the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature mock government competition.  Two students won statewide TISL positions: junior criminal justice major Susanne Cooper was elected Speaker Pro Tem of the House and graduate student Hunter Fowler, pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree, was appointed a Supreme Court justice.  A pair of political science and public service majors, sophomores Taylor Nelson and Carmen Witt, won Carlisle Awards—the most prestigious honor given to outstanding student legislators.  Senior child and family studies major Ashley Ogletree and freshman political science major Elias Griffin received Outstanding Lobbyist Awards.  Congratulations to all and their TISL advisor, Dr. Chris Acuff!

The UTC chapter of the Society of Physics Students has won an Outstanding Chapter Award from the SPS National Office. This is the first time the chapter has been recognized for its excellence as a top-tier student-led physical sciences organization—a designation given to fewer than 10% of all SPS chapters.

Cultivating a Culture of Innovation

UTC has become the first academic institution connected to the EPB Quantum Network℠ powered by Qubitekk via a node within a quantum technology laboratory in the Multidisciplinary Research Building.  In late 2022, EPB and Qubitekk jointly launched the nation’s first industry-led, commercially available quantum network for running equipment and applications in an established fiber optic environment.

Dr. Joanne Romagni, Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, has decided to leave that position and return to the faculty as a professor in the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science.  Deputy Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mann will serve as UTC Vice Chancellor for Research for a period of two years.

Operating with Excellence

Search committee orientation is a critical component of UTC’s hiring process.  What was previously conducted via Zoom has transitioned to a new and refreshed self-paced asynchronous online training module that can easily be accessed in K@TE through the Faculty and Exempt Staff Search Committee Orientation link.  For more information, click here.

Congratulations to Executive Associate Athletics Director for Compliance and Administration and Senior Woman Administrator Laura Herron on being selected for the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame’s Betty Probasco Female Lifetime Achievement Award.  Laura will be honored during March ceremonies in which former Mocs men’s basketball head coach Ron Shumate and former men’s basketball student-athlete Johnny Taylor will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Go Mocs!

Leveraging Our Special Place as Chattanooga’s University

UTC was honored, and I was personally humbled, by our selection as the recipient of the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga’s “Community Impact Award,” which celebrates an organization or individual who has demonstrated a sustainable impact that elevates the community’s standard of living and contributes to the overall quality of life.  Congratulations to Associate Professor Sarah Einstein and Assistant Professor Steve Davenport for spearheading UTC’s efforts.

Kudos to the Gary W. Rollins College of Business and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for bringing Inventanooga to campus before the holidays.  Inventanooga was a pitch competition in which middle and high school students pitched their solutions, inventions and business plans that addressed real-world problems in front of a panel of judges within the entrepreneurial field.  What a terrific way to introduce future students to UTC!

The University will be closed on Monday, Jan. 15, for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.  UTC will host its 11th annual MLK Day celebration on Friday, Jan. 19, at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium Walker Theatre, a discussion and Q&A with Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, chairperson of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.