Chancellor’s Update

Welcome to our new Mocs who are moving in this week.  Our entire campus is looking forward to an exciting, fun academic year.

Thank you to everyone involved with Operation Move In.  It is gratifying to see so many volunteers supporting our housing and residential life staff while they get our new students moved into campus housing.  Many of the students and their families were surprised at the many volunteers out to welcome students.  I spent Wednesday around Decosimo and was impressed with the way student and community organizations, faculty, and staff stepped up to help.

For first-time Mocs—including freshmen students, transfer students and new graduate students—Friday’s Convocation at McKenzie Arena is for you.  Come meet Scrappy, the Marching Mocs, our cheerleaders and a few of our campus leaders.  I hope to see you there.

For those of you learning your way around UTC, our online interactive map allows users to receive walking or driving directions to campus destinations and points of interest around town.  It is accessible from utc.edu on mobile devices and laptops by clicking on the map at the bottom of the homepage.

Students, a big part of the UTC experience is interacting with others, participating in events and making new friends.  Welcome Week is a terrific time for new Mocs to get involved on campus and in the community.  I encourage you to visit MocSync to learn more about clubs and groups on campus and to find out about upcoming events.  Getting involved in activities and developing personal connections are essential in building career skills.  Please take advantage of these opportunities.

Congratulations to Vice Chancellor for Communications and Marketing Cassie Mathes, Vice Provost Matt Matthews and Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Abeer Mustafa on being accepted into the next cohort of the UT System Executive Leadership Institute.  This program is intentionally focused on succession planning at the executive level with intensive educational and experiential components over an extended period of development.

Campus renovations continued over the summer.  Hunter Hall looks fantastic; just check out the before-and-after photos!  The Campus Drive project, which completes a vision to connect McCallie Avenue to Mocs Alumni Drive, is a redesign for pedestrian traffic that improves access to numerous buildings and parking lots along a central pedestrian spine.  It is beautiful!

What an exciting time for UTC football!  The Mocs were picked to win the Southern Conference title in voting by league coaches and media, and they are nationally ranked at 12th in the first Stats Perform FCS Top 25 poll of the campaign.  The season kicks off Saturday night, September 3, vs. Wofford at Finley Stadium.  You can find ticket information on the gomocs.com site.

We are all looking forward to a great 2022-2023 school year.  Go Mocs!