Go Mocs!  Congratulations to Southern Conference Coach of the Year Shawn Poppie and the Mocs women’s basketball team on winning the SoCon championship and earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament.  The Mocs, making their 17th NCAA Tournament appearance, will travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, to take on North Carolina State University at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday (March 23).  The game will be televised on ESPNU. 

Mocs on the Mat.  A big “GO MOCS” to Mocs wrestlers Brayden Palmer (125 pounds) and Isaiah Powe (141 pounds) who are in the NCAA Championships, which begin this morning (March 21) at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.  Palmer and Powe both punched their tickets to the national tournament after winning individual titles at the 2024 Southern Conference Wrestling Championships.

I Love UTC Week.  Get ready to show your Mocs pride during I Love UTC Week 2024.  I Love UTC Week, a spring tradition taking place April 1-7, is an excellent opportunity to wear your best blue and gold attire and celebrate all week.  Activities will include UTC Family Feud, an Employee Giving Campaign, a kickball tournament, swag swaps and more.  You can click here for the events calendar and details.

Blue and Gold Spring Preview.  This Saturday (March 23), the Undergraduate Admissions Office will host its largest campus recruitment event of the year, the annual Blue and Gold Preview Day for prospective students and their families.  Approximately 1,500 people registered for the event, which includes a campus tour, an academic department expo, a student organization showcase, a student services fair, a residence hall open house, workshops and information sessions.  We are all ambassadors of UTC, and on-campus events are a great way to give high school students, transfers, graduate students and their families a feel for the campus and to meet the people who are UTC.

ChattState to UTC.  Kudos to staff and faculty members who talked to over 200 prospective students during Tuesday’s Power C Tour event at Chattanooga State Community College.  Last year, a UTC/ChattState signing agreement took place to reiterate our commitment to ensuring a smooth transfer of Chattanooga State students to UTC to complete their bachelor’s degree programs.

UTC Around the World.  Congratulations to Center for Global Education Director Takeo Suzuki on his selection as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for the Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Program to India.  The Fulbright International Education Administrators Seminars present fully funded opportunities for U.S. higher education administrators to participate in intensive two-week seminars abroad, gaining insights into India’s higher education systems.  Dr. Suzuki can leverage this engagement abroad to establish research, exchange relationships and connect with potential international students.

SMILE Fund Success.  A UTC SMILE Fund student group won the CFA Greater Tennessee Research Challenge for the eighth consecutive year.  The 2024 team, comprised of seniors Blade Kisler and Ava Kelton and sophomores TJ Lowe and Ryan Rinker, beat out student groups from 10 other universities.  The SMILE Fund mentors are Ray Ryan and Robert L. Maclellan/UC Foundation Associate Professor of Finance Hunter Holzhauer.

UTAA Award Nominations.  It is time for nominations for the University of Tennessee Alumni Association’s Outstanding Teacher and Public Service Awards, which recognize two outstanding full-time faculty members and one public service recipient (faculty or staff).  Please submit your nominations using the following links: UTAA Outstanding Teacher Award and UTAA Public Service Award.  Nominations are due by March 31.