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Table of Contents

  • 3: President's Message
  • 4-6: 2006 Alumni Awards
  • 7: Reaching Higher
  • 8-11: Campus Briefs
  • 12-13: Unique Alumni
  • 14-15: Advancement
  • 16-17: Homecoming
  • 18-21: Sports Spectrum
  • 22-28: Classnotes

ETSU President

Paul E. Stanton, Jr.

Managing Editors

Richard A. Manahan; Robert M. Plummer

Contributing Writers

Jeff Anderson; Jennifer Arthur; Amy Brown; Margaret Carr; Lee Ann Davis; Carol Fox; Kristn Fry; Deena Gonzales; Tisha Harrison; Jennifer Hodge; Pat Holland; Matt Kilgore; Richard A. Manahan; Carol Ollis; Danielle Oprean; Robert Plummer; Pamela Ripley; Jeremy Ross; Janell Rowe; Fred Sauceman; Tyla Short; Carol Sloan; Joe E. Smith; Joe L. Smith; Karen Sullivan; Amanda Vance; Michael White

Photography/Art

Jim Sledge; Larry Smith

Publication Date

Fall 2006

President's Message

I wish to thank each of you for supporting our university as you have joined the many efforts of students, faculty, staff and friends who play vital parts in the ETSU story. With the invaluable involvement and support of thousands of alumni, I am delighted to mark my 10th year as President of ETSU. Fiscal year 2006-2007 and the academic year, now well underway, find us particularly optimistic and deeply appreciative. I begin the new academic year, as always, with a sense of renewal, energy and great pride. For the first time in a decade, ETSU and other state colleges and universities across Tennessee are the recipients of a long-awaited increase in our operating budgets. At ETSU, our share of the $34 million infusion statewide equates to almost $2.5 million. Additionally, the state has allocated $6.8 million to address seven much-needed capital maintenance projects involving safety, infrastructure, roofing needs and building system problem areas. And, we are pleased the fee increase for students is the most modest in recent years, 4.1 percent. A sincere “Thank You” is extended to Governor Phil Bredesen and the Tennessee General Assembly for making higher education funding a priority. It’s exciting to report that ETSU has reached an all-time record enrollment of 12,649 this fall semester. Enrollment of undergraduate, masters and doctoral students set all-time records as well. This fall, for the first time, students residing in three Virginia counties and five counties in North Carolina may qualify for in-state tuition rates. We have said for years that it’s unfair when parents, and students themselves, drive across those state lines to go to work every day but are penalized with the burden of out-of-state tuition. Those sections of Virginia and North Carolina view ETSU as their regional university, yet, up until now, those residents could not fully take advantage of the education we offer, simply because of economics. In January 2007, our first class of pharmacy students will begin their coursework. As you recall, the advent of our College of Pharmacy is an amazing story. On March 17, 2005, Governor Bredesen came to this community to endorse our proposal to create such a college, and he challenged us—to raise $7.5 million to establish the school. Just 382 days later, the Governor returned to our campus, this past April 3, to congratulate the ETSU community on the attainment of that goal. Recently, The Business Journal of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia asked me for some views on leadership. As the campaign for the College of Pharmacy progressed, my thoughts returned to an anonymous quote I came across several years back. I think it epitomizes the mentality of ETSU very well: “To attain excellence, you must care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical.” I want to highlight a few examples that show how, together, we have cared, risked and dreamed to attain a culture of excellence. It would have been easy, in the summer of 2000, when those first few cracked and broken fossils surfaced during road construction on Highway 75 in Gray, Tennessee, to stand back and let someone else take the risk. We didn’t. We realized the Gray Fossil Site had the potential to change our understanding of the region’s prehistory. Just six years later, a $10 million museum, laboratory and visitors center is nearing completion. Moving from the prehistoric to the ultra-modern, the first component of a new student residential quadrangle on the eastern end of campus replaced two aging dormitories, built during the era when beds were slabs of concrete. At a cost of $20 million, this 542-bed facility will be our largest residence hall. Within the next year, we hope to break ground for a 110- bed efficiency apartment complex next to Davis Apartments, and, eventually, a new residence hall will replace outdated McCord and Cooper halls, which will come down in 2008. Building the new residence hall has been a valuable learning experience for three of our students, juniors in the construction technology program, which boasts a 100 percent placement rate for its graduates. Brad Parker is learning field engineering, while Daniel Smith and Greg Moore are performing as job clerks, learning the “ins and outs” of all the paperwork required at the construction site. The project manager, Rhett Coleman, began his career just like these young men, in the construction technology program at ETSU. Our Honors College marked its one-year anniversary this summer. With its emphases on the arts, international programs and undergraduate research, as well as scholarship opportunities for transfer students through the Midway Scholars program, ETSU’s Honors College is truly a new national model for honors education. ETSU continues its national leadership role in rural health. The 2007 “America’s Best Graduate Schools” edition of U.S. News & World Report magazine ranked the James H. Quillen College of Medicine number three for rural medicine. We have addressed many endemic health problems in Appalachia, but many still survive. Tennessee continues to rank low in statistics measuring the general health of the population. It gives me great pride to announce that for 2005-2006, ETSU set another record in funding for research and sponsored program activity, with $42,185,000, a ten percent increase over the previous year. That’s a threefold jump since 1997. Clearly, ETSU has emerged as a strong research institution, while remaining true to its original mission of teaching as well as a commitment to public service. On October 2nd, ETSU marks 95 years of teaching, research and public service. The yearlong celebration of our 75th anniversary began in 1985, the year I came to ETSU. The diamond anniversary, I think, marked a real turning point in the region’s respect and appreciation for ETSU, building the foundation for such programs as ETSU PRIDE Week. Several members of the original 75th anniversary planning committee are still employed here, and I will be calling on them for help and advice as we begin to turn our attention toward 2011 -- ETSU’s centennial. Thank you all for being a part of the ETSU story! - Paul E. Stanton, Jr.

ETSU Today - Fall 2006

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