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Table of Contents

  • 2: The President's Perspective
  • 4: Coming Home
  • 8: ETSU Leading the Way in Women's Health Research
  • 10: Coping with COVID
  • 12: Put to the Test: ETSU Health Leaders Establish Area's First Drive-Through COVID-19 Testing Site
  • 14: Tell Us Your COVID-19 Story
  • 15: Bucs Help Bucs
  • 16: All Pomp and Circumstances: Class of 2020 Celebrates Commencement
  • 17: Guidance for Graduates
  • 18: The 1911 Society
  • 20: Dateline: ETSU
  • 22: Who's Going to ETSU?
  • 24: Meet the ETSU Board of Trustees: Dorothy Grisham
  • 26: A Scholar for All Seasons:
  • 30: Promise Plus and Free Tuition
  • 31: Treasures
  • 32: Yearbook Digitization Project
  • 33: Whitney's Next Journey
  • 35: Piney Flats Native is New Head Coach for Women's Soccer
  • 36: Shay Becomes Head Coach of Men's Basketball
  • 38: What Could Have Been: COVID-19 Ends Bucs' Season Abruptly
  • 42: Entering the Esports Arena
  • 44: Class Notes
  • 46: Meet Pepper
  • 46: Obituaries

ETSU President

Brian Noland

Executive Editor

Fred Sauceman

Managing Editors

Joe Smith

Advancement/Alumni Editors

Pamela Ritter; John King

Contributing Writers

Kevin Brown; Matt Busch; Karen Crigger; Jennifer Hill; Amanda Mowell; Melissa Nipper; Brian Noland; Rebecca Proffitt; Fred Sauceman; Joe Smith

Cover/Graphic Design

Jeanette Henry Jewell

Photography/Art

Ron Campbell; Dakota Hamilton; Larry Smith; Charles Warden

Publication Date

Summer 2020

President's Message

At East Tennessee State University, we are accustomed to dealing with hardship. It has been a defining part of our past. When tested by economic crises, wars, and threats to our very existence, our leaders, our faculty and staff, our students, our alumni, and our neighbors have met the challenge. ETSU not only survived, but it prevailed and prospered. It will continue to do so. From the very earliest days, our leaders faced uncertainty. Only eight days after the beginning of classes at East Tennessee State Normal School, our founding President, Sidney Gilbreath, was troubled. Faculty had already been on the job for weeks and in some cases months, but they had received no pay. On October 10, 1911, during the official dedication of the Normal School, President Gilbreath turned to the state’s Superintendent of Instruction, John Willard Brister, and asked that faculty paychecks be sent forthwith, because, he said, the professors “are now living on credit, which does not always purchase the best quality of flour.” President Gilbreath’s successor met challenges even more severe. Dr. Charles C. Sherrod, whose name graces our beautiful library, led East Tennessee State for 24 years, through the Great Depression and World War II, from 1925 to 1949. When I reflect on the challenges we face today during an uncertain and unprecedented time, I think about Dr. Sherrod often, and I take consolation in the fact that we have weathered enormous difficulty, to emerge as an even stronger institution. Despite very limited resources that he faced beginning on the very first day of his presidency, Dr. Sherrod provided the leadership and vision that would lead to our accreditation, by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, in December of 1927. He worked night and day for the next 22 years to maintain it. The late Dr. Frank B. Williams, Jr., Professor Emeritus of History, once wrote that Dr. Sherrod operated on “a frayed thread rather than a shoestring.” In 1930-31, there were more missed paydays. The legislature reduced the appropriation from $175,000 to $150,000. To meet payroll on October 1, 1931, Dr. Sherrod used the college’s local funds as a loan, to be repaid when state checks were forthcoming. In the spring of 1932, conditions had worsened. Dr. Sherrod told the faculty that the state was broke. Because the state could not regularly meet payrolls, faculty borrowed money and paid interest rates from 18 to 24 percent. Professors exhausted meager savings and dropped insurance policies. On the last day of 1932, Dr. Sherrod read in the Nashville Banner that a state senator from Union County was introducing a bill to abolish the teachers colleges. Dr. Sherrod led the campaign to defeat the bill and keep the institution open. From 1933 through 1937, however, the legislature only appropriated $56,000 a year for each state college. In 1933, bank failures prevented a number of students from registering for winter quarter. Four days before President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Bank Holiday, Dr. Sherrod sent a letter to all of our students. He wrote, “On account of the unsettled condition of the banks in our territory, we regret to announce that we cannot cash out-of-town checks or accept them in payment for meal tickets, fees, etc., until the banking situation clears up.” The year 1935 was worse. Dr. Sherrod had to eliminate the last six weeks of the summer session. In 1937, the school received a $90,000 appropriation, but the state still had trouble meeting payroll. The closure of the school was again debated, by political candidates seeking office and by members of the General Assembly. Those who advocated closure described all the former normal schools as “an unnecessary luxury.” During the World War II years, our enrollment steadily declined and reached a low point of 260 students during the winter quarter of 1944. Several faculty had to teach in other disciplines to take the places of colleagues in the military. Not until 1946 did the budget return to the pre- Depression level of $175,000. Depression and war disrupted the schedules and the career plans of hundreds of students. Our institution has survived some very dark days in our history. That survival required flexibility, can-do attitudes, faith in each other, and a deep commitment to the fundamental mission of higher education. As Dr. Sherrod and his colleagues knew so well, those traits have always defined us at East Tennessee State University. For very different reasons, we faced some dark periods of financial uncertainty during the winter and spring of 2020 as COVID-19 upended our world. An appreciation for the history of this institution helped us through those days of uncertainty. Facing deep budget cuts and threats to the very existence of East Tennessee State, our predecessors never lost focus on our mission, which has always been to improve the quality of life for the people of this region. The spring 2020 semester began like any other semester. There was anticipation. Hope. Excitement. Our students had dreams. For many members of the class of 2020, this was to be the greatest semester of them all as they were just a few months away from earning their coveted degrees. The time soon came, however, when we had to alter almost every aspect of university life. When unprecedented decisions had to be made, they were driven by that fundamental mission. And those decisions were accepted by a campus that never lost faith in our enterprise. As we were figuring out new ways to carry out our teaching, research, and public service missions, good things kept happening. We launched our ETSU Partnership Plus program. We celebrated the reopening of the Culp Student Center. Our men’s basketball team won the Southern Conference Tournament. We saw final touches to the Martin Center for the Arts being made. ETSU received many national rankings. Students, faculty, and staff continued to earn national recognition for their work. The close of the semester did not look like other spring semesters. Academic instruction had moved online. The year-end events that I always cherish looked different. Classrooms, research labs, our library, our residence halls, and the quad were empty. Still, it was a time of celebration. A time of hope. A time of dreams being realized. Over 2,200 students celebrated the ending of a journey on May 9. It was our first virtual commencement ceremony, and the ingenuity and creativity that made it happen deeply touched and inspired our entire region. Since graduation, we have continued to see challenges emerge across this nation, opening wounds that strike to our core values of equity and inclusion. No one could have imagined that in the weeks following Commencement, our nation would watch a horrific murder unfold on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the killing of George Floyd reminds us that dramatic progress and improvement are still needed in this nation if we are to truly open doors of opportunity and change outcomes so that all of our students are able to achieve their dreams. Higher education must play an even greater role in teaching those lessons. Knowledge is the hope of the human race. With it come compassion and understanding and respect. In these difficult times, it is vital that America’s colleges and universities reaffirm those eternal values. Sincerely, - Brian Noland, President

ETSU Today - Summer 2020

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