Board to vote on UT's new chancellor

Davenport

The UT Board of Regents will vote Thursday on whether to approve interim University of Cincinnati President Beverly Davenport as the University of Tennessee's next chancellor in charge of the Knoxville campus.

If approved, she would be the first woman to head the Knoxville campus, and would likely start March 1.

UT President Joe DiPietro announced Davenport's selection in November.

Davenport stands to make $585,000 along with a housing reimbursement and expense account, according to an offer letter dated Sunday. At Cincinnati she makes more than $600,000.

Davenport would replace Jimmy Cheek, who will serve until his replacement takes over and then play a role in higher Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the university’s College of Education Health and Human Sciences.

Cheek, who announced in June that he was stepping down, earns $447,500 annually. He's been chancellor since 2009.

UT Knoxville chancellor candidates come from Georgia, Ohio, New York

The University of Tennessee has released the name of the third finalist seeking the Knoxville chancellor position: Alexander Cartwright, the provost and executive vice chancellor for the State University of New York.

Cartwright, whose name was released publicly Monday morning, is scheduled to visit the campus Thursday and Friday where he will meet college leaders and students.

Resumes: Cartwright, Davenport, Whitten

The announcement came as university leaders meet with Beverly Davenport on Monday and Tuesday. Davenport is the interim president of the University of Cincinnati, holding the role since July.

Prior to that she served as senior vice president for Academic Affairs and Provost.
Last week, officials met with Pamela Whitten, the University of Georgia’s vice president for academic affairs and provost since 2014.

The next chancellor will replace Jimmy Cheek, who will serve until his replacement takes over and then play a role in higher Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the university’s College of Education Health and Human Sciences.

Cheek, who announced in June that he was stepping down, earns $447,500 annually.

Country, state, county react to legendary Pat Summitt's death

Photo: Getty Images

The outpouring is intense.

Basketball has lost a legend. Tennessee has lost a daughter.

In the hours that followed the announcement of University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball coach Pat Summitt’s death, well-wishers have set social media circles, radio talk shows and television reports ablaze.

Her name is trending almost everywhere.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

People across the city, the county, the state, the nation and the world are honoring, praising and remembering the trailblazing Summitt for her accomplishments both on and off the basketball court.

The thoughts comes from her family, her friends, teammates, opponents, colleagues, acquaintances, people she barely met and people she never knew.

The theme is constant: People are saddened; her character was beyond reproach; she won’t be forgotten.

Tributes emerged throughout Tuesday, from President Barack Obama to educators, athletes and longtime friends.

See full story RIGHT HERE.

McIntyre gets sweet university gig

After eight years as Knox County Schools Superintendent, Jim McIntyre will join the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as director of the Center for Educational Leadership effective Aug. 1.

McIntyre announced in January that he will step down from his current position in July.

Housed within the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, the center provides leadership development for the next generation of school leaders.

The position was formerly held by Autumn Tooms-Cypres, who left in 2013 for a position at Virginia Commonwealth University. The center has been directed since then by Betty Sue Sparks, associate professor of practice, and interim director Mary Lynne Derrington, assistant professor of educational administration.

"I am delighted to become part of the UT team," said McIntyre in a released statement. "Our nationally recognized flagship University is doing remarkable work in the field of education, and I look forward to joining the outstanding faculty in contributing to that effort. I can now wear my Volunteer orange with even more pride."

Established in June 2010, the Center for Educational Leadership provides rigorous training for aspiring school leaders in a way that bridges the gap between theory and practice.

The center's components include the Leadership Academy, which provides an intensive 15-month postgraduate degree program in educational administration for a select group of fellows, a professional development task force that works with aspiring and new school administrators around the state of Tennessee, and a repository that houses current research on the best practices in the field of educational leadership.

A collaboration between UT and Knox County Schools, the Leadership Academy combines graduate-level coursework with a full-time four-day-a-week leadership residency in a public school to work with a licensed principal. Graduates receive a master's or education specialist degree and a beginning instructional leader license from the state of Tennessee.

As director, McIntyre will make $180,000 annually and his contract runs through July 31, 2019.

Alcohol on tap for non-UT events? Officials to discuss the issue

State lawmakers are expected to push the University of Tennessee into tapping what many believe could be new revenue – by serving beer and wine at big concerts and other non-school related events.

Officials say the university’s ongoing stance against selling alcohol at Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena is hurting the school’s bottom line, and that early estimates suggest UT is missing out on at least $500,000 a year in sales.

State Rep. Martin Daniel, R-Knoxville, said he plans to meet with UT President Joe DiPietro and Chancellor Jimmy Cheek in the coming weeks to discuss the matter further.

He said top school officials have “talked a lot about the business model at UT being broken,” which means they “can’t continue to implement steep tuition increases.”

Daniel said he’ll ask school officials to “look at all sources of revenue,” including “efficient use of their facilities.”

“Selling beer and wine at non-university events is just part of maximizing the revenue and lightening the load on Tennessee taxpayers,” he said. “We hope the university would take the action on their own. It’s part of the overall picture whether the university is maximizing their facilities.”

The Tennessee General Assembly again in January.

School leaders, however, said they should reach a decision before then.

Cheek said officials began talking about the matter during a retreat last winter, but said the decision ultimately will be up to the university’s Board of Trustees.

Full story RIGHT HERE.

Surprise flaws in old facility bring higher costs for UT but project OK

A University of Tennessee project to revamp an old industrial building on Sutherland Avenue has met some unexpected challenges.
The structure at 2000 Sutherland is the former home of the Southeast Precast Corp., which made concrete. Before that, in the early 1900s, it was built to house the Knoxville Marble Co.

UT bought the land in 2013 near Concord Road, and is converting it to house their Facilities Services division.

"We're trying to maintain the feel of what this looked like, so if you came through the doors you can imagine what this looked like, once upon a time," said Justin Dothard, the project manager for UT.

The $18.7 million project is an investment in Knoxville's history, said Vice Chancellor of Facilities Services Dave Irvin.

"You could probably go out and build a building from scratch for less than that, but it certainly wouldn't have the character, the quality, or the history we're getting with this reuse," Irvin said.

But it hasn't been easy. Once UT acquired the property, officials found serious issues with the ground: sinking soil had been filled with scrap marble for decades, creating a porous and unstable base. That delayed the project by weeks.

"The nature of sub-surface conditions is you don't know you have a problem until you dig up and find that you do have a problem," said Dothard. "So that was really something that had to be taken care of on the fly."

Parts of the structure rested on the shoddy ground.

"There needed to be some serious structural reinforcement above ground and below ground to make sure this building would be adequate," Dothard said.

To remedy this, they pumped urethane, essentially liquid plastic, into the ground. There, it filled in the cracks and hardened.

Dothard said that was cheaper than digging everything up.

They also discovered sections of the structure that had been built without a foundation, a throwback to looser building codes.

"The way part of this building were built, you would not be able to build it that way today," Dothard said.

All told, the repairs cost between $1 million-1.5 million. However, Irvin said that was all covered by contingencies built into their budget. They were prepared for issues; they just weren't sure how they would arise.

Rest of story RIGHT HERE.

County looking at amusement tax cut

In just a few weeks it will once again be "football time in Tennessee." Season tickets for the University of Tennessee's upcoming season have already been mailed and proudly display the phrase

"I will give my all for Tennessee today" that comes from the iconic sign that hangs outside the Vols' locker room.

However, when you buy a ticket to see UT football, men's basketball, or the Lady Vols, you do not give all of your money to Tennessee. That's the case today or any other day going back to the 1940s when the state passed an "amusement tax" that adds five percent to the price of UT home games in football and basketball. The tax also applies to almost all movie theaters in Knox County (an exception was given to theaters in Downtown Knoxville).

The five percent tax is split between the City of Knoxville and Knox County. The county's portion of the tax is relatively small, only half a percent. The other 4.5 percent goes to the city.

Now Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett says the county can do without its share of the tax.

"Doing away with our portion of it, it works out to a little more than $200,000. It's not much in terms of our total budget, but $200,000 to me is a lot of money," said Burchett. "People ask me why are we doing it and I say, 'Why not?' We take enough of your money already as it is."

The Knox County Commission will discuss repealing its collection of the tax during a work session on August 18. Burchett says he would like to see the tax phased out over a couple of years.

Read the complete story RIGHT SMACK HERE.

Vols move game for Boomsday to create big Labor Day weekend celebration

Just got this in from the good Visit Knoxville folks:

The University of Tennessee Volunteers and Visit Knoxville's Boomsday Team Up for a Spectacular New Labor Day Weekend Celebration.

The Vols' season opening game with Utah State is moving to Sunday, August 31st at 7:00 p.m.  As a result, Visit Knoxville will hold the 27th Annual Boomsday Festival on Saturday, August 30th. The festival will expand down Neyland Drive and feature special programming celebrating Knoxville and the Big Orange. Playing on Sunday provides the opportunity for the game to be broadcast on ESPN's new SEC Network.

"This will be a unique and exciting weekend for our city and our state," said Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones. "With Boomsday on Saturday and our season opener on Sunday, the atmosphere and energy in Knoxville will be unrivaled. We're also excited about being one of the schools featured on the first weekend of SEC Network football telecasts, and we are looking forward to this tremendous opportunity."

The 2014 season opener will mark the seventh time Tennessee has played on Sunday. The Vols are 3-2-1 all-time in the previous six games. The last Sunday contest for Tennessee was the season opener on Sept. 5, 2004, a 42-17 win over UNLV that marks the only Sunday game to date in Neyland Stadium history.

"Holding Boomsday on Saturday in partnership with the University gives the opportunity to provide Vol fans and visitors alike with a truly memorable holiday weekend," said Kim Bumpus, president of Visit Knoxville. "Events like this stimulate our local economy and highlight all that Knoxville has to offer. We look forward to celebrating this great city all weekend long."

Boomsday 27 will feature more music than ever before. The Knoxville based Black Lillies will headline the event on the main stage with other local artists performing a variety of music from jazz to country and bluegrass on a total of 3 stages.  The famous Pyro Shows fireworks will blast off at 9:00pm and broadcast live on WBIR.

Admission to this year's event is $20 per adult (children 12 and under free) and includes access to a programmed and secured fireworks viewing along Neyland.  Your admission grants full access to all performances, a family-friendly kids area, new food vendors, shopping and much more. There's even a VIP area for Veterans (who can attend Boomsday for free with Military I.D.)

Boomsday tickets go on sale in July.

'Coach' Dooley out: Good riddance

Well, Derek Dooley is gone.  And Screams from da Porch says: Don’t let the door hit you on you’re a$$ on the way out!

Seriously. Let us count the ways you suck-ethed. 

You are arrogant.

You were a $*#& to a reporter bud of mine who doesn’t even cover your crappy team but called you out because you also don’t know how to count or manage money.

You wore the tackiest, lamest, dumbest pants ever. In public.

You can’t coach. Although your deer-in-the-headlights look on the big screen was always amusing.

Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess

That said, Nick Saban couldn’t coach that batch of losers the University of Tennessee fielded this year. Or last year. Or the year before. Or . . . .

Now, maybe if they’d bother to recruit county Mayor Tim Burchett’s nephew . . .

Naw, forgot, he doesn’t have any tattoos or a criminal record.

Heh.

Mayor doesn't hold back on Twitter

Well, it wasn’t exactly a Donald Trump-like  meltdown on the Twitterverse because, well, almost no one can be as stupid and ridiculous as Trump and the dead animal that sits on top of his head, (how many times has be filed for bankruptcy and why is he still allowed a credit card again?), but Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett – a well know twittin’ Twitter-er (yes he does his own tweets) on Friday night had a few things to say about the University of Tennessee.

The tweet in question: “I need to get him some tats and a criminal record so UT will be interested.” (He was no doubt referring to the troubled football program. (“Troubled” being generous. How about that Kentucky game last year. Bwahahahahahah.)

 The mayor, of course, was writing about his nephew, a senior who plays quarterback on the Christian Academy Knoxville football team and is a finalist for Mr. Football. The kid is a stud. (CAK also beat up on Alcoa last night by the way.) And he’s certainly better than that pretender who can hit a car with a beer bottle on a Friday night but can’t manage to find his wide receivers the next afternoon.

Anyhoo, Burchett quickly took down the tweet, but not before a number of folks retweeted it. One person said it wasn’t smart of him, another thanked him for his honesty and another told him to “stay classy.” Whatever. You got to see the stuff I have to remove sometimes. Heh.

“I pulled it down pretty quickly,” the mayor, who has almost 1,800 followers on the social media site, told me this after. “I was just being funny but everyone went ballistic. I didn’t think anyone read that stupid thing. It was probably up for about five minutes.”

Course in all the outrage, no one seemed to notice all the nice stuff he said about veterans.

'Chase it with a shot of Bud Light'

Oh, man, this is funny. Someone has applied some new lyrics to the tune "Boot Scootin' Boogie." In the newspaper world, we call it "localizin'" the story. Not sure how happy Brooks & Dunn are gonna be. Check it out:

Xander's lawyer: Everyone BUTT my client is lying and I'll prove it

Talk about a disaster in what was supposed to be damage control. And quite a way to keep the whole butt-chugging incident in what is now an international news cycle. Click right smack here for the ridiculous to watch, read and listen as the attorney for Xander Broughton swears his client never did the whole alcohol enema thing. (In all my years doing the whole journalism gig, this is certainly one of the last things I ever expected to serve as a topic of a press conference.)

No, instead he got drunk and one of his buddies gave him a wedgie. Or something like that. 

Seriously, that's what local lawyer Dan McGehee said. Yes, apparently everyone - the cops, the EMTs, the investigators, the media, the entire freakin' hospital that treated the kid - all got it wrong.

Trust us, he said. All you morons blew it. "Shame on You," he said. Trust in these underage kids who can't remember a thing. They'll tell you what really happened.

When someone did ask, though, Broughton replied "it's a long story."

Hey, I believe them. I do. But I think he needs a publicist. Not an attorney.

Anyhoo, here's what must have happened. I can picture it right now:

The cops, who already have this very prosecutable case based on evidence and the boys' own admissions that they were drinking underage and nearly killed their friend in the process, decided to lie.

Yes, the cops must have figured: "Let's just add something to this whole thing that we can't prove. Let's just make it up."

I can imagine Knoxville's finest, scouring the Internet and stumbling into urbandictionary.com and coming across the phrase 'butt-chugging.'

"We're bored," I can just hear one cop saying to the other. "Let's just invent this case."

Yeah. That's what happened.

Walls is finalist for university audit gig

Remember awhile back when some county folks were talking about outsourcing the internal auditor's office? Whatever happened to that, anyway? I sure don't remember.

Hmmm. I should probably look that one up, huh?

Anyhoo, Richard Walls, at left, the county's internal auditor, sure didn't forget. Cause apparently he's been out looking for a new job.

You know, just in case.

According to a University of Tennessee spin release, the school's Audit Committee will meet next Monday to interview candidates for the executive director's gig for “audit and consulting services.”

They'll be held from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on the 8th floor conference room of Andy Holt Tower.

According to the fancy note: “Audit and Consulting Services provides objective, independent appraisals of accounting, financial and other operational systems in University departments and units and oversees institutional compliance.

Other candidates include Betsy Bowers, Associate Vice President for Internal Auditing and Management Consulting, University of West Florida; Judith Burns, Interim Executive Director, Audit and Consulting, University of Tennessee System; and Sandy Jansen, Assistant Chief Audit Executive, Texas Tech University System.