Welcome back to a new semester, a new year, and a new decade! I hope you had a restful and joyful holiday break. With the new semester brings new opportunities for us to engage with students and faculty who are visiting campus this spring. Thank you to college faculty, staff, and graduate students who are recruiting our future Vols.
This spring also brings the long-awaited Apocalypse semester. What began with the Visions of the End exhibit in the McClung Museum grew into a semester themed with lectures, courses, events, exhibits, and other exciting opportunities for us to discover the breadth and depth of the Apocalypse. Read more about this exciting semester!
Next month, we welcome scholars from across the country to “In a Speculative Light: The Arts of James Baldwin and Beauford Delaney,” an NEH-funded symposium hosted by the UT Humanities Center. The two-day symposium is open to all UT faculty, staff, and students. I hope you take the opportunity to learn something new about Baldwin and Delaney and their impact on art. Read more about the symposium.
Also, on the horizon is Research Day, Sat., April 4. A partnership between the Offices of Undergraduate Admissions and Undergraduate Research, Research Day will host up to 500 high-achieving high school students and provide an opportunity to discover what a Research I university has to offer. I hope you take advantage of this opportunity to showcase the amazing undergraduate research happening in our college.
Next Tuesday, January 28, Chancellor Plowman will host an open forum for the budget allocation model. Steering committee co-chairs Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor David Manderscheid and Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Chris Cimino will co-host representatives from other universities who will share their experiences implementing similar budget models. The forum will take place from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Student Union, Room 180.
Chancellor Plowman will also resume her drop-in office hours Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Student Union, Room 180.
Finally, I would like to give a special shout-out to our development team who raised more money in the first six months of this fiscal year than they have in any past full year of fundraising efforts. Due to their dedication, our students, faculty, and academic departments have more support for scholarships, endowments, and other projects. Thank you for your hard work and constant commitment to supporting our college.
I appreciate everyone’s dedication to our college and look forward to another great semester. Go Vols!
Sincerely,
Dean Theresa Lee
College of Arts & Sciences