The University of Tennessee at Martin Faculty and Staff Newsletter | June 17, 2019

addendaUT unveils Sharon mural at Robinson & Belew Inc.

(top) Chancellor Keith Carver and UT System Interim President Randy Boyd are shown in front of the new mural painted on the side of a grain bin at Robinson & Belew Inc. in Sharon. (above) Members of the Robinson and Fowler families are pictured in front of the new mural.

A 65-foot-tall grain bin serves as the latest canvas for the University of Tennessee System’s 46-feet-high by 66-feet-wide mural aimed at educating Tennesseans on the significant impact the university has across the state.

The “Everywhere You Look, UT” mural was celebrated June 7 in Sharon. The grain bin is owned by Robinson & Belew Inc., a family-run business founded in 1950 that ships corn, soybeans and wheat around the world.

“I thought this was something that we could do to help UT and help UT Martin and just give back a little bit,” said Keith Fowler, president of Robinson & Belew Inc., who, along with his wife Linda Robinson Fowler, is a 1985 graduate of UT Martin.

As the company's history

goes, Bob Robinson established a small business selling strawberries and coal near the railroad tracks in Sharon, Tennessee, during the first half of the 20th century. He used the railroad to ship sweet potato slips throughout the United States. In 1950, he purchased the Sharon Feed Mill with his partner and brother-in-law, A.L. Belew, and Robinson & Belew Grain was born. Robinson’s son, Robert Dean “R.D.” Robinson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from UT Martin in 1961, expanded the business even further.

The Robinson family boasts three generations of UT Martin ties beginning with R.D. and including his sister, Betty Robinson Eddings (’72); his wife, Dianne Palmer Robinson (‘71); the Fowlers, and two of

the Fowlers’ three children: Chris in 2012 and Rachel in 2015. R.D. and Dianne Robinson recently established the R.D. and Dianne Robinson

Agriculture Scholarship for students attending UT Martin. Fowler’s father, Larry Fowler, also graduated from UT in 1960 and his mother, Mary Fowler, worked at the UT Martin bookstore for 33 years.

“UT Martin means a lot to me and my family, and it plays a vital role in our community,” Fowler said. So, when (the University of Tennessee) asked (to paint the mural), I thought it was something we definitely wanted to be a part of to help promote UT and UT Martin.”

UT System Interim President Randy Boyd said during his time leading UT, he’s learned how the university serves Tennesseans across the state.

“I realized everywhere you look, there’s UT,” Boyd said. “Having murals all across the state will help reinforce the message. People will see the

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murals and then realize, ‘You know, they’re right. Everywhere you look, I do see UT.’”

The mural site is about 500 feet from US-45E with unobstructed visibility from the highway. Information compiled by the Tennessee Department of Transportation estimates annual average daily traffic counts total 5,385—thus, it’s possible the mural will be seen by as many as 1.9 million people a year.

Chancellor Keith Carver said the mural will be a powerful statement of the Fowler family’s belief in the university and its impact across Tennessee to all who pass.

“Oftentimes when we think about higher education, we think about a campus or we think about a building, but having it in a rural area, in an agrarian community, on the side of a huge grain bin, it’s just a reminder that UT is not just on a campus, but it’s in the communities, it’s in our farms, it’s helping transportation,” Carver said.

The Robinson and Belew grain bin is the second installment of the UT System statewide marketing campaign. In August 2018, the first mural was painted on a water tower in the heart of downtown Knoxville on a property owned by Boyd.

The UT System continues to look for high-traffic, high-visibility properties for future mural campaigns. Preferred locations include Tennessee interstates, highways and waterways, or nestled in the center of town. For more information and to submit ideas for other locations, please visit everywhere.tennessee.edu/murals/campaign.

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Dr. Mahmoud Haddad, professor of finance, was featured in an “Ask the Experts” column by WalletHub.com discussing the best credit cards for college students. The question-and-answer feature can be found online.

Karen Elmore (no photo available) and Karen White (above, left), both with the Paul Meek Library, are finishing work on a project telling the story of the Weakley County Training School from 1944-1966 for the Neighborhood Story Project through Humanities Tennessee. Dr. Lynn Alexander, dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, is chair of Humanities Tennessee this year. Tara Tansil-Gentry (above right), Department of Health and Human Performance, has also assisted with the project.

Dr. Robert Nanney, chair of the Department of Communications, attended “Teachapalooza IX: Front-Edge Teaching Tools for College Journalism Educators” held June 7-9 at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. Topics included using statistics to tell stories, fighting “truth decay,” and the increasing use of videos to tell stories across all platforms.

The UT Martin Ripley Center hosted a professional development workshop for seventh and eighth-grade science teachers June 4-5 in Ripley. The workshop, organized by the UT Martin STEM Center for Teaching and Learning, is the first STEM Center workshop hosted in Ripley. It was also the first middle or high school workshop in four years to have perfect attendance. Dr. Jason Alexander, associate professor of physics, led 20 teachers through activities to help

students understand, observe and model energy, motion, light and the expansion of the universe. Teachers in attendance represented the Benton, Carroll, Dyer, Fayette, Lauderdale, McNairy, Obion, Tipton and Weakley County school systems as well as Dyersburg, Lakeland and Milan city schools. The U.S. Department of Education provided major funding through the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant, and the Tennessee Valley Authority provided additional funding.

The Office of University Relations recently received three gold awards and one bronze award from the Tennessee Collegiate Public Relations Association for various projects completed in 2018.

UT Martin won gold awards in the social media, print advertisement and admissions viewbook catagories and a bronze award for sports photography.

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Dr. Bill Waterman, associate professor of music, accompanied the UT Martin tuba/euphonium studio to play at the 2019 International Tuba Euphonium Conference held May 27-29 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. This is the second time in five years the studio has been invited to perform for the international organization. UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga and UT Martin students combined their talents during this year’s performance to build unity across similar programs at all three campuses. Pictured are (front row, l-r) Waterman and UT Martin students Jacob Luker, Alyssa Burrous, JT Waterford, (back row) Brady Robinson, Cameron Pemberton Daniel Scott, and Kaitlyn Kyle.

Several UT Martin faculty and staff members attended the 2019 UT Conference for Women in Leadership held June 5 in Murfreesboro. Agenia Clark, president and CEO of the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee, and Dr. Victoria Niederhauser, dean of the College of Nursing at UT Knoxville, served as keynote speakers. Pictured are (l-r) Jordan Gardner, WestStar; Joyanne Gansereit, Ned Ray McWherter Institute; Shannon Deal, Student Health and Counseling; Virginia Grimes, WestStar; Cindy West, dean, College of Education, Health and Behavioral Sciences; Katie Mantooth, Office of Career Planning and Development; and Dr. Julie Hill, chair, Department of Music.

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UT Martin’s WestStar Leadership Program will graduate members of its 2019 class June 25 at Madison Downs Venue in Jackson. A reception will begin at 5:15 p.m. followed by dinner and a graduation ceremony.

The program is in its 30th year and has 828 graduates to date, most of whom are from West Tennessee. The 2019 class includes 30 participants who were competitively selected to learn new leadership skills and develop strategies for assisting communities in solving problems and maximizing potential.

The public is welcome to purchase tickets to attend the graduation reception, ceremony and dinner. Tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased from the WestStar Office in room 321 of the Hall-Moody Administration Building on the UT Martin main campus.

WestStar graduation set

for June 25

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Several faculty and staff members from the University of Tennessee at Martin attended the WestStar Leadership Program’s African American Leadership Conference held May 7 in Jackson. The 2019 event featured Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover, president of Tennessee State University in Nashville, as keynote speaker. Pictured are (front row, l-r) Jordan Gardner, WestStar Leadership Program; Ruby Black, Department of Nursing (retired); Brittany Henderson, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs; Debra Craig, Department of Educational Studies; John’Na Webster, Office of Student Health and Counseling; Yalanda Parr, Ripley Center; Deborah Boyd, Office of Business Services; Dr. Annie Jones, Office of Career Planning and Development; Virginia Grimes, WestStar Leadership Program; (back row) Dr. Andre Temple, UT Institute of Public Service; Dr. Charley Deal, Office of Research, Outreach and Economic Development; Petra McPhearson, Division of Finance and Administration; Diedra Walker, Office of Undergraduate Admissions; Persempathy Harrell, Healthy Start Program; Dr. Andy Lewter, Division of Student Affairs; Jason Holloway, Ripley Center; and Renee Anderson, an employee at Second Glance Consignment in Union City.

The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees will consider a record fifth year of low tuition increases when it meets June 21.

In preparation of that meeting and to meet new legislative guidelines, the university released the proposed tuition increases for UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga and UT Martin on June 4 and requested feedback from students and the public. The proposed increases range from 2 to 2.5 percent, which are within the range set by the

UT releases proposed tuition and fee increasesTennessee Higher Education Commission.

UT began self-limiting tuition increases in 2015, and these are the first five consecutive years of undergraduate tuition increases of 3 percent or less in 51 years.

“The University of Tennessee continues to do all that it can to make sure that higher education is accessible for all Tennesseans,” said UT System Interim President Randy Boyd. “From keeping our tuition low to establishing UT Promise, we

want to help ease the financial burden for our students and their families.”

UT Martin has proposed a 2.5 percent increase, which is $236 more from fiscal year 2018-2019 to fiscal year 2019-2020. The proposed increase will cover the growth in costs of providing programs to its students.

Earlier this year UT unveiled the UT Promise scholarship, which will start during the fall of 2020. It is a last-dollar scholarship program that will

guarantee free tuition and fees for students with a family household income of under $50,000 after other financial aid is received (such as Pell Grants, HOPE Scholarship or other institutional scholarships) and other criteria are met.

Proposal and comment forms can be found at trustees.tennessee.edu/tuition-and-fee-proposals. Feedback from students, parents and the public is requested.

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UT Transparency InitiativeUT Interim President Randy Boyd’s UT Transparency Initiative seeks to make commonly-requested information available to the public for all UT campuses. This information, including entries for UT Martin, can be found at tennessee.edu/transparency.

Thirteen UT Martin graduates accepted to veterinary school

VET SCHOOL PREPARATION – Dr. Danny Walker, associate professor of animal science, is shown teaching a course at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Walker, a licensed veterinarian, is one of the primary faculty members in the UT Martin veterinary science program.

Thirteen members of UT Martin’s spring 2019 graduating class have been accepted into veterinary schools across the region, according to Dr. Jason Roberts, professor of animal science.

Samantha Drury, of Ashland City; Kamryn Gitchell, of Ripley; Erin Keenan, of Greenbrier; and Olivia Trasolini, of Newbern, will all begin classes at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville this fall. Brady Brown, of Lawrenceburg; Hannah Haynes, of Gallatin; and Caylin Potter, of Glendale Height, Illinois, are all incoming students at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Marissa Howard, of Rives, and Megan Thomas, of Adamsville, will both begin at the Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine; and Amanda Harrell, of Smyrna, is enrolling at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. Meera Patel, of Arlington, will become UT Martin’s first student to attend the Louisiana State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Katelynn Hacker, of Atoka, was accepted into Lincoln Memorial University, and Savanna Metheny, of Weston, West Virginia, was accepted to both Virginia Tech and

Mississippi State University’s colleges of veterinary medicine, although both have decided to defer and reapply next year.

The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine recently announced that Brown received one of 12 Bardsley Scholarships for the class of 2023. Bardsley Scholarship applications are reviewed by a panel and evaluated for both academic and extracurricular activities

as well as leadership potential. Recipients must maintain a 3.5 grade point average during their time in the college of veterinary medicine.

“UT Martin’s veterinary science program prepares students for veterinary school with a good balance of classroom preparation and experiential learning opportunities. The students have many opportunities to apply concepts learned in the classroom

while working with veterinary professionals in a clinical setting on the UT Martin teaching and demonstration farm,” said Roberts. “We are fortunate to have both veterinarians and veterinary technicians with years of private practice experience who are now teaching these students to excel. The yearly success rate of students being accepted to veterinary school speaks to the quality of the preparation at UT Martin.”

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Six UT Martin students compete in Miss Tennessee Volunteer Scholarship Pageant this week

Six students from the University of Tennessee at Martin will compete in the Miss Tennessee Volunteer Scholarship Pageant at 8 p.m., June 22, at the Carl Perkins Civic Center in Jackson. Preliminary competitions will begin June 19 and run through June 21. The entire competition will be broadcast live on EPlusTV6 and eplustv6.com at 8 p.m. each evening.

Amanda Mayo, a senior geoscience major currently living in Union City, will represent the university as Miss UT Martin. Her platform is “Stand for STEM – Promoting Earth Science Education in the

Classroom.” Mayo, originally from Atlanta, Georgia, was named Miss UT Martin 2019 during the combined Miss UT Martin/Miss Tennessee Soybean Festival Scholarship Pageant in November 2018.

Kerri Arnold, a junior interdisciplinary studies major from Holladay, will compete as Miss Scenic City, a title based in Hamilton County. She is using her platform to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Kailey Duffy, a junior nursing major also from Holladay, will compete as Miss Greater Weakley County. Duffy’s platform promotes “U Fit N” in support of personal fitness and

wellness. She attends classes at the UT Martin Parsons Center.

Sable Estes, a senior family and consumer sciences major from Trenton, will compete as Miss Northwest Tennessee, a title based in Obion County. Her platform promotes “All Help Matters.”

Morgan Martin, a spring 2019 UT Martin alumna from Springville, is preparing to begin classes at the Union University College of Pharmacy this fall. She graduated from UT Martin with a degree in health and human performance and is using her platform to promote “Operation Stand Down.” Martin will compete as Miss

Mid-South, a title based in Tipton County.

Madison Sisco, a sophomore communications major from Mercer, will compete as Miss Heritage, a title based in Gibson County. Her platform promotes Alzheimer’s awareness.

The winner of the Miss Tennessee Volunteer title will work as Gov. Bill Lee’s official representative for character education and spend the next year traveling the state to visit with schoolchildren and community members on his behalf.

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addendaPublished weekly during the academic year and biweekly during the summer by UT Martin, Martin, TN 38238

Randy Boyd – Interim President, University of Tennessee System • Dr. Keith Carver Jr. – Chancellor • Erin Chesnut – Addenda Editor UT Martin is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA employer. E05-0425-00-001-19

•June 18 – Transfer and Adult Orientation session; Boling University Center; 9 a.m.•June 19 – Last day to send most print jobs to Skyhawk Printing for 2019 fiscal year•June 20 – Last day to send small print jobs (fewer than 200 copies) to Skyhawk Printing for 2019 fiscal year •June 20 – Skyhawk Club Golf Tournament; Persimmon Hills Golf Course in Sharon; 11 a.m.•June 21 – SOAR session; Boling University Center; 8:30

June Calendara.m.•June 21 – Last day to purchase in-stock items from the Computer Store for fiscal year 2019•June 24-28 – Computer Store closed for year-end inventory•June 24-28 – Skyhawk Printing closed for year-end inventory•June 24-27 – Kid College in Parsons; 8:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. daily•June 24-28 – Kid College in Selmer; 8:30-11:45 a.m. daily

You Tell Me•Question – What is an audit course, who can take them, and how do they work?

•Answer – According to the 2018-19 UT Martin catalog (pages 71 and 523), “Students may audit courses subject to the approval of the adviser and of the instructor whose class is visited. Instructors have the authority to drop a student who is auditing if the student does not satisfy the requirements as outlined by the instructor when permission is granted to audit a course. Auditors may take part in lab or fieldwork only by permission of the instructor, consistent with departmental policy.”

Submit your questions anonymously to the Suggestion Box link at www.utm.edu/suggestionbox.

UT Board of Trustees to meet June 21 in KnoxvilleThe University of Tennessee

Board of Trustees will meet June 21 in Knoxville.

The meeting of the full board will begin at 1 p.m. EDT/noon CDT in the UT Conference Center, 600 Henley Street, Knoxville. Public parking is available in nearby commercial lots. The meeting will be webcast live and archived for later viewing; a link to the webcast will be available at tennessee.edu.

Two board committees are scheduled to meet prior to the meeting of the full board. All meetings will be in the UT Conference Center. Committee meetings, which will be webcast, are scheduled as follows:

8 a.m. – Education, Research and Service Committee

10:15 a.m. – Finance and Administration Committee

All meeting times are approximate. If a meeting ends earlier or later than expected, the next meeting will begin following a short break.

Agenda items for the trustees to consider include:

•Strategic plan refresh, 2019-

2025•Report of the Task Force on

Effective Administration and Management

•Fiscal year 2019-2020 operating budget with salary plan, student tuition, fees, and room and board rates

•UT Chattanooga out-of-state undergraduate tuition proposal

•UT Chattanooga proposed increase in differential tuition for the College of Nursing

•Procedures governing compensation increases during FY 2019-20

•Report on campus processes for determining programs to be funded by the student programs and services fee

•Unifying the UT Institute of Agriculture with UT Knoxville and creating the Oak Ridge Institute at the University of Tennessee

•Tenure recommendations requiring board approval

•Capital projects•Authorization to file a cy

pres action in Knox County Chancery Court to sell property acquired from the Eugenia Williams estate

•Authorization to execute a nonjudicial settlement agreement and purchase and sale agreement with respect to UT’s beneficial interest in a certain trust property

•UT Chattanooga voluntary retirement incentive plan

•Revised board policy statement on travel

The full agenda for each meeting and materials will be available at trustees.tennessee.edu/ or by contacting Jennifer Sicking, assistant director of media relations for the UT System at jsicking@tennessee.edu or 864-974-5179.

Requests to address the board may be submitted using the online form or the pdf at trustees.tennessee.edu/requests-to-address-the-board/. Requests will be accepted until 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 18. In accordance with the Standing Rule Governing Requests to Address the Board (also at the above link), persons who have preregistered to speak will be scheduled to speak in a committee meeting or the full board meeting on a first come,

first served basis. Speakers will be limited to five minutes each, and the total time available for speakers will be 60 minutes.

Anyone with a disability who wishes to attend this meeting may contact the individuals listed below to request auxiliary aids or services needed to facilitate attendance. Contact may be made in person, by writing, by email, by telephone or otherwise and should be received no later than 5 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, June 19.

Click here to view a live

webcast of the UT Board of

Trustees and committee meetings

beginning at 8 a.m., June 21.