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Table of Contents
- 3: President's Message
- 4-7: Alumni Awards
- 8-11: Campus Briefs
- 12-17: Unique Alumni
- 18-19: Advancement
- 20-21: Sports
- 22: Looking Forward--Looking Back
- 24-25: Homecoming
- 28-32: Class notes
- 32-34: Obituaries
ETSU President
Paul E. Stanton, Jr.
Managing Editors
Richard A. Manahan; Robert M. Plummer; Jennifer Barber
Contributing Writers
Anthony Aiken; Jeff Anderson; Jennifer Barber; Pat Barcel; Laure Craddock; Lee Ann Davis; Ben Daugherty; Pat Elledge; Carol Fox; Ashley Garris; Chris Hackney;Tisha Harrison; Leisa Harvey; Donald Harvill; Chris Henson; Jennifer Hill; Pat Holland; Ashley Martin; Peggy McCurry; Jo Anne Paty; Robert Plummer; Cyndi Ramsey; Shea Renfro; Jeremy Ross; Fred Sauceman; Carol Sloan; Joe E. Smith; Karen Sullivan; Mike White; Jenny Wilkins
Photography/Art
Ben Daugherty; Larry Smith; Jim Sledge; Jim Padgett; Chris Hackney
Publication Date
Fall 2009
President's Message
Despite the economy, ETSU remains strong. After a year of buyouts and budget cuts, East Tennessee State University is still strong, the school’s president said in August. Delivering the annual state of the university address at the faculty convocation Friday, Dr. Paul Stanton, ETSU president, said the challenges ETSU faced in the 2008-2009 fiscal year were tough but manageable because of good planning and good employees. “When I delivered the state of the university address last year, I was preparing for ... retirement, having made that announcement for medical reasons,” Stanton told the faculty gathered in the school’s D.P. Culp University Center auditorium. “Come October of last year, with the economic crisis worsening on all levels, I reversed my decision and decided to stay on as your president. I knew it was a horrible time to be out looking for my successor.” ETSU faced an unprecedented budget reversion going into fall 2008 that got worse in October as state budget revenues fell. Stanton subsequently appointed a budget reversion task force charged with looking at ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Among the recommendations of the task force was a voluntary buyout program, which was successfully implemented this past spring. “Faced with a national economy that almost collapsed and an ever-worsening financial situation on the state level as revenues fell dramatically, we formed that budget reversion task force to try and figure our way out of the mess,” Stanton said. “We were forced to close our administration unit in Bristol and to cease on-campus printing operations. And probably most dramatically of all, the budgetary crisis led us to offer those voluntary buyouts for both faculty and staff.” Stanton told the crowd that 128 of their fellow employees opted to take the buyout, taking away a combined 2,500 years of service from the school. The buyout offered payments for each year of service to the school and other benefits. “That loss of corporate memory and longtime experience created, yes some hardships, but our people – you – banded together to fill those gaps the best way that you could,” Stanton said. Stanton told the faculty gathered that despite the financial struggles and other challenges ETSU dealt with over the past year, his speech was not “doom and gloom.” He said the school has done a good job of adapting to the situation. He said the school has been through trying fiscal times before and remains a vital part of academe. “Our story is one of survival,” Stanton said. “Fiscal year 2008-2009 wasn’t the first instance of hard times for this institution. In 1936, for example, in the middle of the Great Depression, the Tennessee General Assembly considered closing this institution as an unnecessary luxury.” Now, Stanton said, ETSU is considering celebrations for its 100th anniversary in 2011. And the year was not all full of serious challenges or bad news, Stanton said. Stanton referenced an increase in global outreach opportunities for ETSU students, citing a recent trip to Rome for the study of that city’s architecture and a burgeoning exchange program with China as examples. Other examples of positive markers for the university included: • The College of Medicine awarding more than 1,500 degrees since 1982 • Student enrollment approaching 14,000 (Note: Official Count 14,677) • College of Pharmacy achieving full enrollment (Note: Currently 299, with a target of 320 at full enrollment) “It’s an epic now nearly a hundred years in the making,” Stanton said of the school’s story. “But it’s a story still fresh, still alive, still evolving.”
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 East Tennessee State University