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Table of Contents

  • 3: President's Message
  • 4-6: 2005 Alumni Awards
  • 7&10: Campus Briefs
  • 8-9: ETSU Carillon
  • 11-13: Unique Alumni
  • 14-15: Advancement
  • 16-17: Homecoming
  • 18-21:Â Sports Spectrum
  • 22-28: Classnotes
  • 30: Campus Notes

ETSU President

Paul E. Stanton, Jr.

Managing Editors

Richard A. Manahan; Robert M. Plummer

Contributing Writers

Jeff Anderson; Bruce Behringer; Lee Ann Davis; Carol Fox; Debi Frakes; Kristn Fry; Deena Gonzales; Tisha Harrison; Jennifer Hill; Patricia Holland; Richard A. Manahan; Danielle Oprean; Jo Anne Paty; Robert Plummer; Pamela Ripley; Jeremy Ross; Janell Rowe; Fred Sauceman; Tyla Short; Mary Beth Slagle; Joe E. Smith; Joe L. Smith; Amanda Vance; Michael White

Photography/Art

Janell Rowe; Jim Sledge; Larry Smith

Publication Date

Fall 2005

President's Message

That a time of change, excitement and tremendous energy at ETSU! In fact, I consider this to be one of the most rewarding years of my professional life. It was just a year ago when I introduced our intention to create a College of Pharmacy for ETSU. Now we are within a year of seeing our first class of 65 pharmacy students begin their studies. The campus and community response has been unprecedented. With gifts ranging from anonymous $20 bills to six-figure corporate commitments, we now have in hand well over $6 million for the new college. From the inspirational initial donation by Mrs. Martha Culp, First Lady of ETSU from 1968 to 1977, to the campaign orchestrated by the region’s Food City stores, this has been as pervasive an effort as I have ever been a part of, reminiscent of the storied regional unity showcased as the College of Medicine was being created three decades ago. I think it’s important to note that 36 percent of the donors to the College of Pharmacy are ETSU faculty and staff. The Honorable Phil Bredesen, Governor of Tennessee, did his homework on our proposal, talked to a multitude of folks across the state, and came to campus in March to challenge us and motivate us. He placed a great deal of faith in this community, and I am proud to say we have met his challenge. To Governor Bredesen, to the cash-strapped patient who dug a $20 bill out of her pocketbook during a doctor’s appointment, to visionaries like Guy Wilson, our own Ron Franks and Peter Rice, to the area news media, without whom this could never have happened, I thank you deeply. And I do so on behalf of the students and the patients who will benefit directly from the presence of this new college on our campus. This past summer has been a time of hard hats, dry wall and plastic orange fences. The sounds of construction, renovation and improvement are welcome and long overdue at ETSU. After the boom times of the 1950s and ’60s, new building construction was a rare occurrence on the main campus. • By March of 2006, our nursing faculty members, who run the largest program in the state, will finally have their own home, as renovation of the old Sherrod Library is slightly ahead of schedule. • We are entering a new era in campus housing, with antiquated residence halls like Frank Clement and Ellington coming down, to be replaced with a comfortable, state-of-the-art coeducational facility. • The contract has been awarded, and construction is now underway on the 35,000-square-foot visitors center at the Gray Fossil Site, with more federal transportation dollars having come our way. • Construction has now begun on our new Forensics Center, a localstate-federal government partnership that will allow us to address growth, security, space, health and safety issues related to autopsy services in our current, inadequate facility. • The proposal for a $23.7 million, 130,000-square-foot Fine Arts Center has moved up on the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) capital outlay list. It’s among a number of projects for which we are now seeking private funding through a new, comprehensive, needs-based capital campaign entitled “Reaching Higher,” announced just this past spring. • On August 31, we dedicated our new carillon, between Dossett and Gilbreath halls. Funded entirely through private contributions raised specifically for this project, the carillon is quickly becoming a major campus gathering spot and a lasting symbol. This is the first visible addition to the campus made possible through the Reaching Higher campaign. • This semester, we welcomed students to our Honors College. Building on our existing University Honors Program and the various honorsin-discipline programs across campus, this new college will further augment the growing academic prestige of ETSU. • The number of academic programs at ETSU, especially at the graduate level, has grown dramatically in recent years, in response to market demand. On the near horizon are a doctoral program in clinical psychology, a Ph.D. in environmental health, and a doctorate in public health, to be offered through our much-anticipated College of Public Health. Programs and projects, mortar and masonite would mean nothing, though, without people. I enjoy bragging about ETSU folks and I want to highlight a few recent achievers. • Dr. Tom Kwasigroch has taught every medical student who has ever enrolled at ETSU, back to that very first class that started in 1978. This past spring, he was selected to be a McCann Scholar. Joy McCann of Tampa, Florida, created a foundation to reward people in medical education who have been effective role models and mentors. • One of the largest American Cancer Society grants ever awarded in Tennessee was received by Dr. Joel Hillhouse, a health psychologist at ETSU. The $1.3 million grant supports a study of skin cancer prevention in young people, particularly college students. • Our College of Nursing’s Johnson City Downtown Clinic has become a Federally Qualified Health Center through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The clinic 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 these patients are homeless, uninsured, the working poor or migrant farm workers. I am pleased to report that for 2004-2005, total research and sponsored program activity for ETSU and the ETSU Research Foundation set an all-time record, at $37,980,777—a 4.5 percent increase over last year’s record figure. Congratulations to all the faculty and staff who have helped us achieve that record. In private fund-raising, the ETSU Foundation awarded more than $771,000 in scholarship funds during 2004-2005. The value of the ETSU Foundation and university endowments stands at some $66 million, including the Chairs of Excellence. Two new scholarship endowments were established in 2004-2005 as a result of U.S. Congressman James H. Quillen’s $14.6 million bequest, the largest single gift from an individual in the history of the ETSU Foundation. Seventy-two Quillen Scholars—each holding $4,000 scholarships—are studying at ETSU this fall. Consistent with our theme, “Winning the Right Way,” our athletic program made the grade as part of the NCAA’s new Academic Performance Program this year. This program, which analyzes an athletic department’s ability to retain players and keep them academically eligible, is part of the NCAA’s efforts to improve academic success throughout its 300-plus institutions. The APP uses a scoring system that demands a program score 925 or better on a 1,000-point scale. Every ETSU team scored above the 925-mark. During the spring semester, eight of our teams posted cumulative grade point averages of 3.0 or better. We are delighted to welcome the largest enrollment in our history this fall and, amid all the numbers, we remain focused on the success of the individual student. Of all the universities in the TBR and The University of Tennessee systems, ETSU was the leader last academic year in the number of students who kept their grades high enough to retain the scholarship awards. This achievement attests not only to the intelligence of our students but also to the support systems that ETSU faculty and staff have created over the years to help those students succeed. I am quite proud of all that our faculty and staff have accomplished over the past year, and I’m excited about the goals ETSU is reaching toward in the coming year. We must remember that our greatest accomplishment and our highest goal is timeless—to help our students learn, to help them succeed and earn their degrees as they become enlightened, active citizens who will work for a better world. This is not only our mission but, indeed, our calling. - Paul E. Stanton, Jr., President, ETSU

ETSU Today - Fall 2005

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