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Campus News
- Global outreach extends to India
- Sample a Women’s Studies class in March
- Construction has begun on Brenda Lawson Student-Athlete Success Center
- Warhol Foundation gifts University
- Students stay Up 'til Dawn for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Global outreach extends to India
On a recruiting trip to India last month, Dr. Neslihan Alp, Director of Engineering Management and Graduate Programs, was pleasantly surprised to meet the father of Abhilash Purani, a master’s student in Electrical Engineering who began at UTC in fall 2007. Wearing a shirt that read “UTC Dad,” Mr. Purani stayed four hours with Alp at a university fair in Mumbai, helping to answer questions from prospective students and projecting a positive image of Chattanooga’s University.
“Because his son is very happy at UTC, Mr. Purani was happy to share his experience with others,” Alp said.
Dr. Alp promotes UTC in India Women's studies
In its mission statement and guiding principles, the University states its commitment to educating students for a life in a global society and the celebration of diversity of people. After 9/11, the number of foreign students studying at UTC dropped dramatically, and the numbers have not recovered as quickly as educators had hoped. So Linden Educational Services, an organization known globally for its success with international student recruitment, was enlisted by UTC to help.
Alp’s Linden trip to India included university fairs in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad where she saw nearly 2,000 students. In Hyderabad alone, Alp said 680 students attended the fair. Alp came back to Chattanooga with nearly 500 applications.
“Many of these students are interested in enrolling at the University in fall 2008, and we have the time to process all their paperwork needed to make it happen,” Alp said.
India is ranked first among foreign countries sending college students to the US to study, and with 15 Indian students of the 100 foreign students enrolled in fall 2007, it is also the country best represented at UTC. Students from India are most interested in studying Engineering, Computer Science and Business Management. There are more than 81,000 Indian students currently studying in the US, followed by 63,000 students from China. Korea, Japan and Canada round out the remainder in the top five countries. Not all international students are seeking assistantships, Alp said. In many cases their families or companies pay for their education.
“If we want to bring more students to UTC, we cannot just wait for them to come to us,” Alp said.
Alp is thankful that she was sent for the second consecutive year to recruit in India, and is hopeful the University will continue its investment in the effort to bring students and faculty to UTC.
According to Dr. Stephanie Bellar, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Alp has done an excellent job of representing the University in India and she is excited about the results of this year’s trip.
“This is a talented pool of people who will bring creativity to our University,” Bellar said.Sample a Women’s Studies class in March
Sample a Women’s Studies class during the month of March and see what the new Women’s Studies major will be like. Five Women’s Studies faculty members will open the Women’s Studies classes they teach this semester to the University and Chattanooga communities. The schedule of open classes is listed below. Everyone is invited to sample as many of these classes as they wish. For more information, email the Director of Women’s Studies at Marcia-Noe@utc.edu.
Wednesday, March 26, 11-11:50 a.m.
“Self-Made Women: Cosmetic Surgery Shows and the Construction of Female Pathology”
Elizabeth Gailey
Raccoon Mountain Room, UC
Lecture/discussion: Introduction to Women’s Studies
Thursday March 27, 3-4 p.m.
“The Politics of Fat”
Talia Welsh
Signal Mountain Room, UC
Lecture/discussion: Feminist Theory
Monday, March 31, 2-4:30 p.m.
“Incest, Innuendo and Intrigue: The Secret Life of Edith Wharton”
Marcia Noe
Holt 304
Lecture/discussion: Edith Wharton Seminar
Construction has begun on Brenda Lawson Student-Athlete Success Center
All 17 Mocs intercollegiate athletics programs will use the Brenda Lawson Student-Athlete Success Center, being built with private funds. Construction has begun on Vine Street, near Houston, the site of the old Siskin building.
“Our student athletes are excellent ambassadors for the University, welcoming the community and perspective students to share in the excitement of their achievements on the court and playing fields. They are most deserving of a dedicated space to hone their skills and build strength for success,” said Chancellor Roger Brown.
The Center features the Chattem Basketball Practice Facility and the Wolford Family Strength and Conditioning Facility, and allows for future expansion to include an academic enhancement facility.
“Our new facility will benefit all UTC student-athletics in their quest for comprehensive excellence—academically, athletically and socially,” said Rick Hart, UTC Athletics Director.
This $3.25 million facility will feature a strength and conditioning center more spacious than the area currently used in McKenzie Arena. The practice court will have four baskets on the side and be slightly oversized. Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2008.
This project is made possible through the generosity and support of the individuals and institutions for which these facilities are named, along with additional financial assistance from Bryan Patten.
Vance Travis, Phil Whitfield, and Tilman Wheeler of TWH architects, Inc., were chosen to design the 20,000 square foot facility.
Warhol Foundation gifts University
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced an unprecedented gift of the work of legendary artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987), a central figure in the American movement of Pop Art, and a major influence in avant-garde music, film, and photography. In honor of its 20th anniversary the Foundation is distributing 28,543 original Warhol photographs valued in excess of $28 million through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has been selected to participate in this program.
Jenny Moore, Warhol Foundation Curator, said UTC will receive 100 Polaroid photographs and 50 silver gelatin prints, all original works by Warhol and specially selected to complement the University’s current collection holdings. While the monetary value of the gift to UTC is yet to be determined, its aesthetic value to the UTC Permanent Collection of Art, the campus, and the Chattanooga community is beyond estimate.
“A wealth of information about Warhol’s process and his interactions with his sitters is revealed in these images,” Moore says. “Through his rigorous – though almost unconscious – consistency in shooting, the true idiosyncrasies of his subjects are revealed. Often, he would shoot a person or event with both cameras, cropping one in Polaroid color as a ‘photograph’ and snapping the other in black and white as a ‘picture.’ By presenting both kinds of images side by side, the Photographic Legacy Program allows viewers to move back and forth between moments of Warhol’s ‘art,’ ‘work,’ and ‘life’ – inseparable parts of a fascinating whole.”
According to Warhol Foundation President Joel Wachs, the aim of the Photographic Legacy Program is to provide greater access to Warhol’s artwork and process, and to enable a wide range of people from communities across the country to view and study this important yet relatively unknown body of Warhol’s work. The program offers
qualifying institutions the opportunity to bring a significant number of photographs into their permanent collections.
This bequest will join with the work of other internationally known artists currently in the UTC/Cress Gallery of Art Permanent Collection. The artists, all from Warhol’s era, include Robert Motherwell, Josef Albers, Dieter Roth, Herbert Bayer, John Piper, Varda Chryssa, Patrick Caulfield, and John Hoyland. The UTC Permanent Collection contains work by important regional artists from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s such as Carl Holty, Lamar Dodd, Frank Baisden, Lillian Feinstein, Hubert Shuptrine, Edward Shorter, and Leonard Baskin.
It also includes the work of artists with strong ties to Chattanooga such as the late painter George Cress and printmaker/illustrator Barry Moser. Recently the Department of Art/Cress Gallery was given an extensive collection of work from the creative life of mid-20th century designer and illustrator and the former head of the Department of Art, Weimar Pursell, and has assumed a collection of photographic work from the 1960s and 1970s by former Chattanoogan, now New York-based photographer Rosalind Solomon. The Department of Art/Cress Gallery also holds a collection of over 50 significant posters representing the work seminal contemporary graphic designers such as Art Chantry, Massimo Vignelli, Ivan Chermayeff, Paul Rand, and Herb Lubalin.
The Warhol gift to UTC underscores and signifies its Permanent Collection of Art which contains portions of the legacies of a growing number of artists in an archival repository that serves as an educational resource, according to Ruth Grover, UTC Director and Curator of Galleries, Exhibitions, and Collections. She eagerly anticipates the arrival of the Warhol collection.
“These photographs will be not be matted nor framed, but protectively stored in portfolios and available by appointment to individuals and small groups for ‘white glove’ study,” Grover said. “As they are photographs, care must be taken to limit their exposure to light and protect them from fingerprints and dust. Yet to experience this work, directly in hand, is an intimate and provocative opportunity. After the Warhol collection is assessed to determine how it may best be safely yet openly displayed, I am most excited to begin plans for short term public exhibitions of the work.”
During the twenty-year life of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Foundation has provided individual artists and arts institutions a total of more than $200 million in competitive grants guided by the vision of its founder and benefactor, Andy Warhol, whose dying wish was to bequest his estate towards the advancement of the visual arts.Students stay Up 'til Dawn for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Students play Twister at Up 'til Dawn event
A St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital fundraiser planned and executed by UTC students raised $48,000, beating last year’s effort by more than $15,000.
A letter-writing party organized by the Up ‘til Dawn planning committee drew 240 students who were responsible for filling in pre-written letters to send to their family and friends, asking that they donate directly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Recently on a Friday night, those students were welcome to Maclellan Gym with plenty of pizza, food, drinks, volleyball, dancing and inflatables, an “old fashioned lock-in,” as Juan Moreno called it. Moreno, Up ’til Dawn Director for UTC, led the Executive Board in this student-run endeavor. Shasta Westmoreland, Assistant Director of Admissions and Recruitment, served as faculty advisor to the Executive Board.
“The purpose for the gathering is to celebrate, but really it is done in honor of all the children who are constantly having to stay up because they are getting lab work done or because they are struggling with their symptoms due to cancer,” Moreno said. “Danny Thomas, the founder of St. Jude, believed that no child should die at the dawn of day, therefore students go from late at night until the early morning. Around 5 a.m., we announce to everyone the amount we raised. The Executive Board doesn’t even find out till the unveiling,” Moreno said.
When the students walked into the gym on the night of the celebration, they each received a bracelet representing an actual patient currently residing at St. Jude. The bracelet displayed the patient’s name, age, type of cancer, and hometown, so that throughout the night when the student felt tired or wanted to go home, all that was needed was a quick glance at the bracelet for inspiration.
“The bracelet reminds them that someone else is having to stay up, but with little to no choice,” Moreno said. “For more inspiration, throughout the night we have a dancing power hour where we all do the corny wedding and party dances we all know, on the hour we have videos showing patients at St. Jude and their story, and the biggest thing, we had new meals every 2 to 3 hours and plenty of raffle items.”
The Up ’til Dawn Executive Board invests a lot of time planning the event, Moreno said, but it is all worth it at the end.
“When we begin to flip those sheets of paper with individual digits, it is just an amazing feeling of joy and accomplishment,” Moreno said. “It makes all the long hours and the work worth it to know that we are playing a pivotal part in the lives of many children. I had a great childhood. Every child deserves to have one too.”
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