Dean of Students Shea Kidd Brown, known by students as “Dean Shea,” will leave UT in January to take a position as vice president for campus life at Wake Forest University.
With this fall semester finally being back in-person, it certainly hasn’t lacked events, chaos and lots of learning curves. So whether you were hitting the books or binging a Netflix series, here’s some of the top news stories from campus that defined the semester.
Effective immediately, all mask and vaccine requirements at UT have been lifted.
Last week, UT announced that selection for on-campus housing would be made through a weighted, randomized lottery system for upperclassmen. The new system will favor first-year students and all incoming freshmen will be guaranteed on-campus housing.
On Wednesday afternoon, UT and the Alpha Tau Omega National Headquarters (NHQ) announced a joint decision to suspend the Pi chapter of Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) until the fall semester of 2026 as a result of an investigation into multiple alcohol and hazing violations at the fraternity.
On Monday afternoon, the Office of Chancellor Donde Plowman sent an email announcement that made official the reinstatement of a mask mandate in most buildings on campus in compliance with President Biden’s Executive Order 14042.
On Wednesday night, Sam Swan, a soon-to-retire professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, reflected on his accomplishments throughout his long career and gave parting words to the community of UT alumni, students and staff in a “Last Lecture” hosted by the Mortar Board Honor…
On Tuesday, just one day after UT System President Randy Boyd announced that the system would lift mask mandates on all campuses in response to a bill signed by Governor Bill Lee, UT Knoxville announced plans to reinstate a mask mandate in most buildings beginning Monday, Nov. 22.
On Monday, UT System President Randy Boyd announced that the system would lift all mask mandates across all campuses in response to a bill signed by Governor Bill Lee on Friday.
Mary Mahoney is a woman loved and known by many UT students, whether they have noticed her while buying a suit from Smokey’s Closet, have been assisted by her with resume building or have simply recognized her name in an email notification. Mahoney has been a vital part of UT, and after 45 y…
UT hosted the annual Homecoming Parade on Friday at 4 p.m. as the Vols prepare to take on the Georgia Bulldogs in tomorrow’s football game.
On Friday afternoon, university leaders were joined by a crowd of friends and family of Brenda Lewis Peel, the first Black graduate of UT, to dedicate the central galleria of Hodges Library in her name. In 1964, Peel, who studied psychology, became the first Black student to earn a bachelor’…
On the morning of Veterans Day, Nov. 11, the UT System announced that a proposal from President Randy Boyd and the Board of Trustees to provide military-affiliated students with in-state tuition had been sent to the state legislature for approval.
The University of Tennessee’s systemwide “Everywhere You Look, UT” campaign seeks to raise awareness of a simple fact — it is impossible to find any place in the state of Tennessee that has not been impacted by UT.
With an undergraduate enrollment of nearly 25,000, it is not surprising that most of the spotlight here at UT falls upon student events and issues. Many of the efforts and challenges faced by university faculty often go unnoticed, and now, with questions over the future of tenure and job con…
Japanese Ambassador to the United States Koji Tomita and his wife, Mrs. Noriko Tomita, visited the university on Wednesday to meet with local government officials, campus leaders and local business leaders. Ambassador Tomita presented a lecture at the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy on…
For many students who signed up for the “Vols Start Back” program from the Division of Student Success in August, the initiative seemed too good to be true. All that it required was that students show up to various campus events and complete modules on Canvas, and in return, students would r…
UT has offered to reinstate former associate professor Anming Hu after he was acquitted from charges of fraud and espionage.
In a letter addressed to Chancellor Donde Plowman and Athletic Director Danny White on Oct. 25, Deputy Athletics Director Ryan Alpert, UT Police Chief Troy Lane and Vice Chancellor for Student Life Frank Cuevas announced an action plan in response to the student misconduct that led to a dela…
At the large UT compost facility across from the UT Medical Center, more than 10,000 pounds of food waste and coffee grounds are collected from campus each week.
This Monday afternoon, victims of sexual assault and supporters of Title IX organized to present a list of demands to UT’s Office of Title IX.
Georgia’s public university system has recently come under fire due to a new policy approved by the system’s Board of Regents on Oct. 13. In an unprecedented move, the board gave college administrations the right to fire tenured professors without the input of their faculty peers.
In a letter sent to UT employees on Oct. 21, President Randy Boyd announced that, due to an executive order from the Biden administration, an undetermined number of employees of the university system will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8.
The world immediately came to a halt when COVID-19 emerged late in 2019. This meant putting a stop to all travel programs and school in general. Almost two years later, the world is getting back to a semblance of how it was before the pandemic. As part of this recovery, UT has started sendin…
On Thursday morning, the University of Tennessee System announced during an Education, Research and Service Committee meeting that it would raise the eligible household income level for the UT Promise scholarship from $50,000 to $60,000. The committee’s session was part of the UT Board of Tr…
The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT has held various events and programs this year, which include Slap The Rock, All Vol Tailgate and the recent groundbreaking ceremony of the newly-created BIPOC Garden.
It is common to be confused by all the academic terminology that is used at a university, especially when it comes to the titles that university employees hold. Here is a list describing major academic titles that might be difficult to fully understand at first glance.
On Friday, SGA held an in-person town hall meeting at the Student Union with UT President Boyd and Chancellor Donde Plowman to let students air their concerns following Boyd’s support for and subsequent withdrawal from a fundraiser for Tennessee Sen. Mark Pody, who openly advocates against L…
On Friday afternoon, a group of students protested what they see as a lack of support for the LGBTQ community on campus. They marched from the Torchbearer statue to the Student Union where UT System President Randy Boyd and Chancellor Donde Plowman hosted a town hall event to discuss the adm…
UT’s Pride Center has become a haven for many students over the years.
When the Princeton Review named UT the second most LGBTQ-unfriendly college and the most LGBTQ-unfriendly public college in the nation last fall, the ranking cemented a years-long stain on the university’s reputation.
Actions have a tendency to speak louder than words, and the university’s words on certain topics may feel hollow or “just for show.” However, concrete policy changes and additions demonstrate an institute’s true intent.
UT President Randy Boyd withdrew his support from a fundraiser for conservative Tennessee state Senator Mark Pody on Sunday night after facing backlash from students and faculty.
After months of petitioning and rallying for increased safety measures against COVID-19 on campus, representatives from United Campus Workers (UCW) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) were able to meet with Chancellor Donde Plowman on Oct. 7.
On the first floor of Hodges Library, the Miles Reading Room holds a three-shelf section full of books written by UT faculty. Books on anything from social work to poetry can be found in this tucked-away corner.
Just as they have every year since the 1990s, the anti-abortion Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) set up a large display on Pedestrian Walkway last week featuring photos from the Holocaust and American lynchings placed alongside images of fetal tissue, which the group says depict aborted fetuses.
Our campus is covered in about 8,700 various specimens of trees, which are all accounted for and displayed in the Facilities Services Tree Inventory Community Viewer. Anyone can go online to find information about a particular tree on campus, from its height to its scientific name.
UT Gardens hosted their fall Plant Sale Sept. 24-25, featuring a variety of house plants, perennials, exotic evergreens, trees, shrubs of all sizes and more.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, Chancellor Donde Plowman held her third annual Flagship Address in the Student Union Auditorium. She spoke on her five goals for the University of Tennessee: cultivating the Volunteer experience, conducting research that makes life and lives better, ensuring a cul…
At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, several faculty and staff members with United Campus Workers (UCW) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) gathered outside the front of the Student Union holding signs demanding safer working conditions during the pandemic.
The University of Tennessee faculty art show, "Professional Practices," opened Monday, Sept. 13, 2021 at the Ewing Gallery in the Art and Architecture building. The exhibited art includes work by faculty members Joshua Bienko, Paule Lee, Christopher McNulty, Althea Murphy-Price and Koichi Ya…
On Aug. 24, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, more commonly known as “FIJI," at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Since that day, protests erupted every night consecutively calling to ban the fraternity. Curren…
UT has altered its alcohol policy to allow campus organizations to serve alcohol at their events if they have completed the new event registration procedure and have been approved by the university. With the new policy, however, there are still many restrictions, and all changes fully comply…
On Sept. 7, Chancellor Donde Plowman met with UT President Randy Boyd and other chancellors from across the UT system and decided to extend the current mask policy, which requires masks in all indoor public spaces on campus, except when eating or exercising.
At the beginning of this semester, UT policy required that masks be worn in all classrooms, with optional masking in other spaces. This Monday, UT expanded its mask mandate to include all indoor spaces, with the exception of private offices and dorm rooms.
On Aug. 23, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first COVID-19 vaccine to gain the agency’s approval, there was a rush of new vaccine mandates across the country.
To help students through the unchartered territory of isolating during a pandemic school year last fall, UT staff could be seen handing out personal-sized loaves of pumpkin bread to make a random hotel room or repurposed dorm feel more like home.
On Aug. 23, the Office of Chancellor Donde Plowman emailed the UT community to announce that masks will now be required in all indoor public spaces on campus, except when “individuals are actively eating, drinking, or engaging in fitness activities.” The new policy does not require masks in …
Perhaps the pandemic made us forget what it meant to be on campus with nearly 30,000 other students. Perhaps too many people who could have walked to their first day of class decided to drive instead. Or perhaps, with one of the largest student populations in UT history, we have simply arriv…
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beacon on Aug. 17, Editor-in-Chief Sarah Rainey sat down with Chancellor Donde Plowman to ask a few questions regarding her personal experience with the pandemic, as well as to clarify university plans involving the COVID-19 pandemic and rising cases …
There has been some confusion regarding the mask policy at the University of Tennessee.
