The Daily Beacon

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Issue 55, Volume 122

Thursday, April 4, 2013

TASLC aids in balancing athletics, academics Staff Reports Joe Scogin has been named assistant provost, director of the Thornton Athletics Student Life Center, and senior associate athletic director. He will begin in May. Scogin is currently the associate athletic director at the University of Missouri. The Thornton Center helps student-athletes balance the difficult demands of their academic and athletic schedules by providing academic support services. NCAA rules require colleges and universities to provide these services for studentathletes. At UT, these services fall within the academic structure of the university. “Over the last two years, we’ve made some important changes at the Thornton Center to strengthen the bridge between academics and athletics,” Susan Martin, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said. “Joe has a strong background in both academics and athletics; he will be an effective liaison between the two and provide a positive influence on the lives of our student-athletes.” Dave Hart, vice chancellor and director of athletics, agreed: “Joe Scogin brings an exceptional skill set to a critical leadership position as director of the Thornton Center. Academics and athletics have good reason to share a collective excitement about the positive strides we will experience under his direction.” Scogin has been at the University of Missouri since 2001, most recently serving as associate athletic director for academic services. During his leadership tenure, the University of Missouri has seen record performances in graduation success rates, academic progress rates, and grade point averages. Missouri regularly performed at the top of the Big 12 Conference in all academic categories and recently has seen similar performances in the Southeastern Conference. “I’m energized about the program and becoming part of the Volunteer family,” Scogin said. “I look forward to working with administrators, faculty, and coaches to create a program that’s nationally respected for its excellence.” Scogin has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in health and human performance and sports administration from Fort Hays State University. He has a doctorate in education, school, and counseling psychology from the University of Missouri. He serves on the board of directors for the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A). Scogin recently provided leadership as the chair of the University of Missouri United Way campaign. He is also a member of the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association and has served on the Big 12 Legislative Services Committee and Academic Committee.

Duncan delivers education address Blair Kuykendall Editor-in-Chief U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan underscored the importance of increased funding and innovative education reform yesterday in a packed UC Auditorium. “What is the smartest use of our scarce education dollars?” Duncan asked. “The answer, I believe, is that high quality early learning is the best educational investment in our children, in our communities and ultimately, in our country. I say every child needs and deserves a well-rounded world class education.” He said longitudinal studies project high returns for investment in early education. “At the polling booth, voters are approving referendums to expand preschool programs even if it means paying slightly higher taxes,” Duncan said. “I have every faith we will soon see Tennessee expand its preschool program as well.” Congressman John Duncan, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and Senator Howard Baker Jr. turned out for this installment of the Baker Distinguished Lecture Series. “We established the Baker Whitney Carter • The Daily Beacon Distinguished Lecture Series Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, speaks to in honor of one of our own, the crowd during a Baker Distinguished Lecture Series Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., on Wednesday. to honor his distinguished

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great model of governance and partnership. “Tennessee has been a font of innovation and creativity,” he said. The secretary praised Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system established by former Governor Phil Bredesen that bases 50 percent of a teacher’s score on student achievement. He used this example of reform to call for a general paradigm change in U.S. education. “It is time as a nation that we finally level the playing field and stop playing catch-up in our schools,” he said. Duncan charged members of the educational system and students in the audience to keep up the good work. “This commitment to continuous improvement in Tennessee is real, not some slogan, and other states can learn from it,” Duncan said. “It takes courage to make yourself vulnerable, but it also makes you better ... . “This is real progress and it should absolutely be celebrated.” He encouraged the state to implement research-based reforms. “For all of the progress, there is still a long way to go,” he said. “Students in most states still out perform students in Tennessee.”

Major conference to discuss purpose of government Justin Joo Staff Writer The role and form of government in solving the nation’s major issues will be discussed in an all-day conference this Friday. Coordinated by the UT Roosevelt Institute, the “Government By and For Conference” will feature a number of speakers and panels focusing on solutions for some of the U.S.’s most pressing issues. The conference will be on Friday from 9 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. It will take place in the Toyota Auditorium of the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy. The Issues Committee and the Baker Center co-sponsored the event. The Roosevelt Institute is a university think-tank that studies issues and policy ideas that would better the community, both on a local level and at large. Julia Ross, the UT chapter president, described the Institute’s purpose further. “Our goal is to take the resources available at the university,” said the sophomore in microbiology, “… to do research and implement policy through a variety of grants and publications opportunities that the campus network offers us to make things better in our local Knoxville community, but also to look at policy on a grander scale on the national and even international level.” The conference is based off a report of collaborations from all 80 Roosevelt chapters. The Institute surveyed a few thousand millennials to see what

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career. … He is someone we should all in Tennessee — in the nation for that matter — be very proud of,” Matt Murray, director of the Baker Center, said. Duncan praised Tennessee for the emphasis placed on remedying a troubled educational system, specifically for being one of the first two states in the nation to receive Race to the Top funding in 2009. “I am thrilled to have this opportunity to talk about how this state is literally helping to lead the nation where we need to go in education,” Duncan said. “It is no secret that for many years Tennessee actually lagged behind most states in academic achievement and how to attain it. I’m not interested in where you were, but where you are going. … State assessment scores have jumped, and graduations are on the rise.” He highlighted the bipartisan successes made by Governor Bill Haslam and Educational Commissioner Kevin Huffman. “Tennessee’s legislators and governors have treated K-12 education as an investment in the state’s future … the legislature has not let the perfect become the enemy of the good,” Duncan said. “Tennessee has provided a

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they thought the ideal government would look like for the U.S. and what they expected of government. “What came out of it was this expectation that government should serve in four roles,” Ross explained. “Government should be a lawmaker, government should be a body that engages its citizens, government should be an innovator and government should be a server of the public good.” Based off those results, the theme and focus of the conference came about. Eric Dixon, Institute member and senior global studies major, said that the conference will start a conversation on the national outlook. “The whole conference is about dialogue about very important, pressing issues that are facing our country,” Dixon said. “So hopefully they’ll come away with both new and specific and general ways to think about those problems outside of that political sphere that we kind of operate in the U.S. now.” There will be several panels, lectures and discussions throughout the day, featuring distinguished speakers, UT faculty and members from the main New York branch of the Roosevelt Institute. The keynote speaker is Dr. Gar Alperovitz. Aside from currently serving as the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, he’s also been involved with Cambridge University, Harvard’s Institute of Politics, the Institute for Policy Studies and a Guest Scholar at Brookings

Institution. Alperovitz has authored several books and delivered the keynote address at the Green Party’s 2012 National Convention. Dixon said that the main reason for bringing Alperovitz as the keynote speaker is because he is known for presenting alternative policy ideas that “aren’t very mainstream, but good for our communities.” Having such a large conference is perhaps a considerable achievement for UT’s branch of the Roosevelt Institute, considering that the student group only started in last fall. Dixon said that the success of getting the conference planned and running is a testament to the UT Roosevelt Institute’s success. “I think it’s absolutely huge that we’ve been able to pull this together. … I think it’s indicative of our desire to collaborate and build coalitions on our campus and our community,” Dixon said. The conference is free and open to the public. A student ID is required for students. Lunch will be provided for those who registered for the conference, but Ross and Dixon said that there will be food available for those who didn’t register. Any and all are welcome to the conference. “If you are at all interested in politics or government or social issues generally, there will be something very interesting to you,” Dixon said. “ … We put a lot of time into this and we think it has a lot of substance, a lot of important substance that we should be discussing.”

Parker Eidson • The Daily Beacon

Dave Hart poses with new football head coach Butch Jones on Dec. 7.

Honors lecture focuses on future of athletics Hanna Lustig Staff Writer Amid post-Spring Break chaos, the Chancellor’s Honors Program quietly continued its brown bag lecture series Tuesday in the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy with guest Dave Hart, vice chancellor and director of athletics. Each month, a new speaker sets aside an hour to sit down with students and share an informal lunch and conversation. Sheridan Brewer, junior in microbiology and the student responsible for organizing the event, outlined his reason for inviting Hart, in particular, to participate. “We have these luncheons to get honors students to interact with successful people in our community,” Brewer said, “and we thought this would attract some honors students

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who aren’t normally involved in other events.” Hart took questions from attendees and led a roundtable discussion over sandwiches, chatting openly about the turmoil surrounding the football program. As Hart sees it, the solution lies not in change but in consistency. “When you look at championship programs, what you see is stability,” Hart said, “And there has been too much transition in leadership positions. But we are on our way to establishing stability.” In the hire of UT’s newest coach, Hart believes he has found that stability. “I think we got the right guy in Butch Jones,” Hart said, citing his great “track record” and recruitment abilities. “This is where he wanted to be.” See HART on Page 2

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