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Table of Contents

  • 4: Award Winners
  • 8: Unique Alumni
  • 10: Campus Notes and Briefs
  • 14: Advancement
  • 17: Special Features
  • 25: Sports Spectrum
  • 28: Class Notes
  • 36: Homecoming Preview
  • 38: Activity Calendar

ETSU President

Paul E. Stanton, Jr.

Managing Editors

Richard A. Manahan; Robert M. Plummer

Contributing Writers

Jeff Anderson; Becky Buller; Jamey Campbell; Carol Fox; Kristn Fry; Simon Gray; Jennifer Hill; Patricia Holland; Donna Howard; Vicky Lee; Lynn Long; Richard A. Manahan; Mary Ellen Miller; Robert Plummer; Pamela D. Ripley; Fred Sauceman; Edie Shealy; Joe Smith; Craig Whitaker; Lee Ann Willis; Pam Wilson

Photography/Art

Jamey Campbell; David Greear; Donna Howard; Lynn Long; Robert Plummer; Edie Shealy; Jim Sledge; Larry Smith; Craig Whitaker; Lee Ann Willis; Pam Wilson

Publication Date

Fall 2000

President's Message

At East Tennessee State University, we are “Reaching Higher.” We have set our sights on becoming the best regional university in the country, so reaching higher is a guiding principle for us every day. And we reach higher through partnerships, alliances with people like you, our alumni and friends, whose generosity and vision not only inspire us to reach but allow us to grasp. I thank you for helping us always to reach higher, and I want to share with you some examples of how we are succeeding. ETSU continues to lead all Tennessee Board of Regents institutions in private fund-raising. As part of that effort, the first James H. Quillen Scholarships will be awarded for fall semester 2005, through the largest single gift ever received by the university, from our late and longtime friend and benefactor Congressman James H. Quillen. Each Quillen Scholar will be awarded $4,000 per academic year. Recently we announced the creation of a new Honors College at ETSU, one of the most exciting developments on our campus in decades. This college builds on our vibrant Honors Program, Honors in Discipline programs, and collaborative research opportunities for undergraduate students. Further, it will help us expand our national and international student exchange programs and greatly augment our commitment to the fine and performing arts. The Honors College was made possible through savings realized by the elimination of the football program and through a generous monetary designation from our friends Jim and Sandy Powell. I am confident that ETSU can have the strongest range and quality of Honors programming of any regional public university in the country. The Roan Scholars Leadership Program graduated its first class of students in 2003-2004. Currently, 15 students are enrolled in this prestigious program, founded and guided by the vision of Louis H. Gump of Johnson City, to attract, retain, and educate our region’s most promising student leaders in a curriculum patterned after the Morehead Scholars at the University of North Carolina. During 2003-2004, ETSU faculty and staff brought in a total of $36,329,045 to support research and sponsored program activity on our campus, an increase of 2.2 percent, or $782,939, over the previous year’s $35,546,106. Since 1995-96, we have increased the level of res+F2:F74earch and sponsored program activity at ETSU nearly three-fold. And this semester, the American Cancer Society awarded one of its largest grants in Tennessee to a researcher at ETSU. Dr. Joel Hillhouse, a health psychologist, has received a $1.3 million grant from ACS for a study that will focus on skin cancer prevention in young people, particularly college students. Another $650,000 annually is coming to us with the designation of the Johnson City Downtown Clinic as a Federally Qualified Health Center by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The clinic, on Fairview Avenue, is an affiliation of our College of Nursing and has served as the main primary and preventive care source for more than 10,000 men, women, and children during the past 14 years. Most of the patients are homeless, uninsured, the working poor, or migrant farm workers. Renovation of the ETSU Innovation Laboratory, on Market Street, has now been completed, with the help of a grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority. The new space was leased out immediately. There are now six client companies housed in the incubator employing 35 people at a median annual salary of $45,000. As companies grow and mature, they will occupy space in the university’s Innovation Park, to be located behind the lab, as part of the Middle Anchor of our Med-Tech Corridor. ETSU and the Med-Tech Corridor are the central components of the Valley Corridor, which runs from Huntsville, Alabama, to Blacksburg, Virginia, because we have the scientists necessary to drive new business processes. For the first time in the history of the university, we are guided by a long-range, 20-year master plan for intercollegiate athletics and our programs in physical education. This plan takes into account our anticipated needs to maintain competitive programs, the prospective location of those programs, in renovated or new facilities, and how new programs and facilities integrate with the campus master plan. Our Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is healthy and is no longer a financial drain on the general university budget. Our fall 2004 enrollment set several all-time institutional records, in student headcount, full-time equivalency (FTE), and transfer and graduate student enrollments. Student headcount, up 2.0 percent over the previous year, represented the highest enrollment in the university's history. The fall 2004 FTE was also the highest in the history of the institution, up 1.3 percent over the previous fall semester. And, transfer students were also at an institution high, topping the fall 2003 record which reflected a 13.4 percent increase. The overall university headcount for fall 2004 was 12,111 compared to 11,877 students in 2003. The greatest increases were in total undergraduates, up 1.2 percent, and graduate students, up 6.3 percent, with doctoral student enrollment up an impressive 37 percent. To serve those growing numbers of students, we have embarked upon a 15-year plan to renovate most of our student housing. Just in the last few months, we have had an alumnus, Kenny Chesney, named country music’s Entertainer of the Year, awarded the university’s first honorary doctorate degree to Donna Netherland, now 100 years old, and have had a book on the final days of World War II, written by Dr. Stephen Fritz from our Department of History, chosen for national recognition as a main selection by the History Book Club. The financial struggles that we have endured at ETSU have made us better managers and better stewards of both public and private funds. We have focused more sharply on our core business, which is teaching and learning. And we have learned to rise above limitations and doubt, always reaching higher. Paul E. Stanton, Jr., President, ETSU

ETSU Today - Fall 2000

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