Chancellor’s Update

Welcome back!  The start of the 2022-2023 academic year is quickly approaching; ready or not, it is coming.  I hope everyone has had the opportunity to take a break during the summer.

Welcome to all our new students, faculty and staff.  We are excited to have new members joining our Mocs Family.

The C-Note is my attempt to update the campus and highlight a few of the wonderful things happening.  It is distributed by e-mail the first and third Thursdays of each month throughout the academic year.

A big shout out to everyone engaged in orientation 2022, especially our incredible student orientation leaders.  I heard so many positive comments from new students and their parents about how beautiful our campus looks – thank you to our grounds crew – and the friendly, helpful people at UTC.  The admissions and orientation staff were rock stars, and many faculty and staff across campus volunteered to direct people to locations across campus and answer questions.  Our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) stepped up and participated as well.  Great work everyone!

Tyler Forrest, vice chancellor for finance and administration, has left UTC to assume the president position at Tennessee Wesleyan University.  A national search for his replacement is underway.  Vicki Farnsworth is serving in a dual role as vice chancellor and chief information officer and interim vice chancellor for finance and administration.  In addition, she is chairing the search for a permanent VCFA.  Thank you, Vicki!

Earlier this summer, the Division of Communications and Marketing launched a  Campus Updates page on the utc.edu website and initiated a new UTC Campus Weekly e-newsletter that is distributed to the campus every Tuesday morning. These new communications tools have significantly reduced the number of mass emails distributed to campus through the UTCNEWS and UTCINFO email accounts.

Several UTC faculty, staff and students received noteworthy honors during the summer months, including:

• A collaboration among Charlie Mix and Nyssa Hunt (Interdisciplinary Geospatial Technology Lab), Andrew Bailey (Health and Human Performance) and Gregory Heath (Master of Public Health) titled “People, Planet, & Profits: The triple bottom line of outdoor recreation, conservation, and public health for the Chattanooga, Tennessee region” placed second in an international map gallery competition.
• Senior custodian Carla Mason and management professor Frank Butler were honored with President’s Awards, the highest accolade an employee can receive from the UT System. Carla won in the “Excel in All We Do”  Frank is the Frank W. McDonald professor and UC Foundation professor of management in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business and was selected in the “Bold and Impactful” category.
• Fang Yu Hu, assistant professor of History and Katherine Kinnear, senior lecturer in Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science, received 2022 Outstanding Teacher awards from the UT Alumni Association, which recognizes faculty members for excellence in the classroom. Meredith Perry, assistant vice chancellor for research, was the UTAA Public Service Award recipient.
• Associate professor of Physical Therapy June Hanks was selected as a 2022 honoree of the Women of Distinction of Greater Chattanooga.
• For a third consecutive year, members of the SMILE Fund—Gary W. Rollins College of Business students Justin Martin, Kim Hoang Do and Jackson Howard—were victorious in the nationwide Channelchek Research Report College Challenge.

If you have not already volunteered for Operation Move In, I encourage you to do so; it is a fantastic opportunity to assist in welcoming our incoming first-year college students, transfer students and their families to UTC.

Go Mocs!