featured
Hi there, soon-to-be Volunteers! My name is Sarah Rainey, the new Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beacon for the 2021-2022 academic year, and I am so excited to welcome you all to Rocky Top.
featured
Though they will not be on campus together, students from the Class of 2021 and the Class of 2025 have a unique shared experience: they both spent their senior years adapting to and overcoming the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
featured
When making the transition from high school to college, the prospect of a new workload and new levels of stress can be daunting. Coupled with the effects of the pandemic, stress can lead to missed deadlines, anxiety and other negative mental health effects.
featured
There is no end to the advice after college starts. Some of it is helpful and some, not so much. Everyone’s college experience is different and what applies to you might not matter to someone else. However, here are 10 things I wish I knew before coming to UT -- in no particular order.
featured
When coming to a university as big as UT, it can feel a bit daunting being just one person in a pool of 30,000.
featured
The University of Tennessee has numerous resources for their students that oftentimes fly under Vols’ radar. Lots of students start and finish their degrees without even realizing all of the offices dedicated to making students' time at UT better and preparing them for their future beyond Ro…
The Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Tennessee has had a series of major accomplishments from its recent cadet class.
featured
Last month, WVLT Assistant News Director and former Daily Beacon Editor-in-Chief Nash Armstrong passed away after a car accident. At only 33, Armstrong, revered for his leadership and journalistic ethics, had already worked at WVLT since 2013 and was also a former staff member of the Knoxvil…
For the first time in UT history, students from the Class of 2021 graduated on the field of Neyland Stadium. Traditionally, graduation ceremonies are held inside the Thompson-Boling Arena, but as the coronavirus pandemic continues to linger on, the university decided that an outdoor ceremony…
On Friday, April 30, around 3 p.m., Knoxville Police Department officers were dispatched to the parking garage behind the Stokely Residence Hall on UT’s campus due to what was reported as an apparent suicide.
Although Sexual Assault Awareness Month is coming to an end, it is always important for the UT community to be educated on organizations, offices and health centers, on and off campus, for students to learn more about this subject and what they can do to help.
The 2021 Student Engagement Awards were held on March 29. These awards honored 13 student organizations and 13 student leaders who have left their mark on campus. One of the awards for Commitment to Virtual Programming was awarded to Women of Haslam.
As spring classes come to an end, many find themselves looking at the next chapter — summer. While some UT students may be returning to their homes and their families, other students will find themselves spending their summer in the Rocky Top sun.
With the recent rise of vintage clothing, more and more college students are seeking out this type of apparel. Students at the University of Tennessee are no exception to this phenomenon because seemingly no one is immune to the allure of a piece of clothing with a history behind it.
Perhaps as a metaphor for a brighter future, College Democrats and Republicans came out with the sun on Sunday afternoon following days of rain to play a game of “bipartisan” kickball, along with a few local politicians. Politics and kickball, after all, are both sports with two opposing teams.
On Friday evening, results for the 2021 SGA election were announced in a virtual Zoom meeting — and the Forward campaign triumphed.
Natalie Campbell, known to many at UT as “Nattercam,” is one of those students who everyone seems to have a connection with. Maybe she was the first UT student they met as she led their tour group in a signature orange polo, or maybe she was their group leader at the Ignite summer program or…
On Thursday, the University of Tennessee School of Law hosted a panel as a part of their Critical Conversations series that focuses on race and social issues. This panel, titled Critical Conversations: Race, Children, and Police in Knox County Schools, comes considering the recent protest ov…
The UT Board of Trustees held a special virtual meeting on April 20 in which they reviewed and approved revised additions to the Student Code of Conduct for the UT Knoxville campus and the student immunization rules which will apply to all UT campuses.
One of the three campaigns running in this year’s Student Government Association elections is Forward. Forward is made up of Claire Donelan, running for student body president, Reginald Williams II, running for vice president, Nia Myrthil for student services director and Simon Jolly for exe…
The time for the 2021 SGA elections has finally arrived.
When Walker Hoover ran for student body president with the Promise campaign as a sophomore in 2020, he knew that no sophomore student had ever been elected to the position. But, these odds did not stop him from trying to be the first.
The 2021 Student Government Association campaign season is underway. Voting for SGA elections begins on Wednesday, April 21 at 8 a.m. and closes on Friday, April 23 at 5 p.m. Students can vote at votesga.utk.edu.
We are now in the last full week of classes, and to celebrate, UT is hosting I Heart UT Week to help students finish their classes strong while providing fun breaks.
When Will Lifferth attended UT, he designed his own major through the College Scholars Program which he called “Machine Learning and Ethics.” Now a software engineer at Google, Lifferth said at a TEDxUTK salon event on April 16 that he remains curious about many of the same things he studied…
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, UT students have now been given the opportunity to sign up and be vaccinated. There are currently a few possible options of vaccines, such as 2-dose vaccines like Moderna and Pfizer, or a 1-dose vaccine, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen.
Student Kimberly Diei entered the College of Pharmacy at the UT Health Science Center in Memphis during the fall 2019 semester like any other any prospective pharmacist. However, her experience quickly turned sour, and now, she is suing the university over its professionalism policies alongs…
On Thursday night, writer and activist Terry Tempest Williams spoke on Zoom about her current work on climate change, wildfires and social concerns among the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wednesday evening, three Student Government Association campaigns met for a debate prior to the organization’s annual elections. The hybrid event took place in-person at the Student Union auditorium and was also available to watch on Instagram live.
Anti-abortion rights activists on campus pride themselves on the ability to catch the eyes of passersby. There are the picketers outside the women’s clinic on Clinch Avenue holding signs that promise salvation and perhaps even an adoption. There is the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform which pro…
UT graduate Grant Rigney has been a lot of things: an engineering student, a professional musician, a Rhodes Scholar and now, a prospective medical student.
For many college students, one of the biggest anxieties weighing on their minds during graduation is their mountains of impending student debt. Although many students can rely on their parents to help them pay for college, most students end up having to take out their fair share of federal l…
Every member of the UT community is familiar with the Torchbearer Statue in Circle Park on campus. This statue is a famous symbol for the university, bearing the Volunteer Creed, which reads, “One that beareth a torch shadoweth oneself to give light to others.” It also holds a torch whose fl…
Graduation — an onset for rejoice and also a nerve-racking time for most college students. After graduating, students go on to less sheltered lifestyles full of paying off loans, finding jobs or possibly continuing their education past the undergraduate level. Sometimes figuring out how to s…
Noah Taylor graduated from UT in December 2019 with a degree in journalism.
With 17 recipients for the 2020-2021 school year, UT ranked highest in the SEC for the number of students accepted into the Fulbright Program and placed higher on the list of top Fulbright producing institutions than several Ivy League universities.
Earth Day is later this month, but we must remember the significance of our planet on more than just one day a year.
As of Tuesday morning, the CDC and FDA have suggested that the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine be halted, and UT is now closing its April 13 vaccination clinic.
On Thursday afternoon, Shalanda Baker spoke about racial injustice in conjunction with the transition to clean energy as part of the Howard Baker Center's Distinguished Energy and Environment Lecture Series.
The University of Tennessee has received a designation for Best Graduate Schools from the U.S. News and World Report after they released rankings for the top universities and programs.
UT’s Campus Events Board hosted author Chanel Miller to speak about her book “Know My Name” on Tuesday. This event was held as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
On Tuesday night, a panel of financial experts spoke to students about the importance of financial literacy and how it can increase independents for both artists and students.
The Office of Multicultural Student Life hosted legend Jenifer Lewis on Monday night as a collaboration with the Black Cultural Programming Committee.
With Earth Day later this month and spring on our doorstep, now is the ideal time to begin to focus on the long-term changes we can make to help better the environment as college students.
Though there is already a great deal of excitement surrounding the planned return to in-person classes in the fall, the English department’s latest hire has given them another reason to look forward to next semester. Cornelius Eady will be joining the faculty as the John C. Hodges Chair of E…
Hosted by Sexual Empowerment and Awareness at Tennessee, Nora Berenstain spoke to students on Friday afternoon about sex work and administrative violence.
As a year has passed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals across the world have been greatly affected. One aspect in particular that has been a prominent issue is that of the mental health effects that have occurred due to the pandemic.
While the COVID-19 vaccine has now become available to the UT community, this does not mean that the pandemic is over.
Rocky Topics asks students "are you getting the COVID-19 vaccine?"
For many who suffer through it, anti-Asian racism is a series of conflations. First, there is the totalizing conflation of all Asian peoples with those of the continent’s most populous nation. Many Asian Americans are accustomed to strangers assuming they are of Chinese descent, even if thei…
