Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
It’s autumn in East Tennessee, and, despite the unseasonal temperatures and drought, our campus is beginning to slowly show signs of fall as the trees turn from green to red, orange, and yellow. Of course, we’ve already seen one of these fall colors – orange – as the UT Vols have had one of the best footballs seasons I’ve experienced since arriving on campus five years ago. It’s a great time to be a Tennessee Vol!
As I mentioned in the August issue of Dialogue, we welcomed another group of bright and talented students to the UT campus this year. The Class of 2020 is the largest in at least 30 years and provides a great opportunity for those of us in the College of Arts and Sciences to deliver foundational instruction and guidance to this group of students. I hope you have seen the talent in your classrooms, labs, and interactions with students.
And speaking of 2020, VolVision 2020 is the university-wide strategic plan adopted at the spring Board of Trustees meeting. As you know, we are hosting listening sessions to get feedback on our college strategic plan. These started last week and have been well-attended. We have several more planned until the end of the month when members of the strategic planning committee will meet to discuss what they heard in the listening sessions and how we will map out specific actions needed to achieve our strategic goals at the college level. I encourage you to attend a session and contribute your voice to the conversation about the future of our college.
Finally, I wanted to thank you for a great start to the 2016-17 academic year. As always, I welcome your thoughts about the college or any information you’d like to see in the next issue of Dialogue. Please email me at artscidean@utk.edu.
Thank you for your commitment to the College of Arts and Sciences.
Sincerely,
Theresa M. Lee, Dean