T-Showers 60% chance of rain HIGH LOW 84 74
Check out the Beacon Weekender
Two US swimmers have local ties
Friday, July 13, 2012
PAGE 6 T H E
E D I T O R I A L L Y
Issue 13 I N D E P E N D E N T
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906
PAGE 3
http://utdailybeacon.com
Vol. 120 S T U D E N T
N E W S P A P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
T E N N E S S E E
U.S. Olympic swim team trains at UT
Matthew DeMaria • The Daily Beacon
Michael Phelps perfects his butterfly stroke at Allan Jones Aquatic Center Thursday.
Lauren Kittrell Editor-In-Chief
Matt Dixon Sports Editor Locals woke up before daybreak Thursday morning to witness an event that hadn’t occurred in Knoxville since 1996. Arriving as early as 4 a.m., spectators, including many UT students, waited in the rain outside the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center to watch the U.S. Olympic swimming team train for the upcoming
London Olympics. The team arrived in Knoxville on Sunday and will practice on campus until leaving Knoxville on Saturday for France. The U.S. squad previously trained in Knoxville before the Atlanta Summer Games 16 years ago. Thursday was the only opportunity for the public to watch the team. The first 1,200 people in line were able to watch inside the aquatic center from 8-9 a.m., while the outdoor pool was open from 8-10 a.m. to those who couldn’t get a seat inside. While the inclement weather made for an interesting start to the day, the result was an
experience many will never forget. For Kristy Myers, a junior in microbiology, the possibilities were endless. “When I heard that the Olympic team would be coming to Knoxville, I thought it was crazy that they would come here of all cities in America,” Myers said. “I mean, Knoxville is awesome. I was just excited I might have the chance to run into (Michael) Phelps or (Ryan) Lochte at Walgreens.” Though Myers was disappointed in her hopes for a chance meeting with an Olympian, she managed to console herself with the knowledge she had witnessed some-
UT to build ‘One Stop’ center Wesley Mills News Editor It can be draining to pay your parking ticket at one location, your tuition at another location and go grab your financial aid and register for graduation somewhere else. In fact, for some, not only is it taxing on the body, it’s also hard to remember exactly where you pay for everything and register for everything. In the attempt to be in the top-25 list of public universities, UT will start building a One Stop student services center that will cater to the needs of students, all in one place. Starting in the summer of 2013, One Stop will be open for use. The goal of the center is to create a wireless network where one can have everything from financial aid to tuition, common enrollment and payment services readily available.
Wireless as it may be, the ground level of Hodges Library will be the physical, central location where the One Stop will be stationed. While One Stop may be a critical component for students to access information, pay for college, and check one’s DARS, it’s also vital in helping UT obtain its top-25 public university goal. “This is important for us in the top-25 list of public universities because it will increase the friendliness and the welcoming quality of the student experience coming right in the door,” Provost Susan Martin said in an interview with UT. “We know that students, particularly in that first year of their college experience, need to learn how to negotiate the university, and the retention of our students, especially our first and second year retention, is a critical component of our top-25 plan as we seek to improve time to graduation and graduation rates.”
Martin said that one of the goals is to have a more welcoming, friendly environment that is easier to maneuver and results in less time standing around. “Our idea is to have a very fluid, customer-service friendly space where there will not be that window at which you stand in that line to get your answer,” she said. “There will be a more modern feel to it, if you will. The counselors will be roving, the students will be comfortable.” According to UT, the financial aid office and the bursar’s office will continue to stay open once One Stop opens, assisting One Stop in performing existing functions as well as aiding in any counseling help, as well as in scheduling and payment issues. Anna King, junior in human resources management, says the scattering of all the different payment locations and information desks causes unnecessary stress. See ONE STOP on Page 2
Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon
Orientation leaders Marcel Valentine, sophomore in civil engineering; Bridgette Bjorlo, junior in journalism and electronic media; and Scott White, junior in logistics, check out students during freshman orientation on June 28.
thing few people see in person. “Seeing them at the open practice was a little anticlimactic because I wanted them to be more crowd interactive,” Myers said. “But it was still exciting that we got to see something that most Americans don’t get the chance to see.” With the Olympics looming, swimmers like Phelps and Lochte are preparing to represent the U.S. and looking for more gold medals. Phelps said his focus is on the end achievement and nothing more. See UT & OLYMPICS on Page 2
New UT study could help Pentagon spend more efficiently Staff Reports As with most government agencies, the US Department of Defense faces intense pressure to be more efficient in how it spends tax dollars. Building greater trust with defense contractors might be the solution, according to a new study sponsored by the US Air Force and co-authored by professors from UT, Auburn University, and the University of Alabama. Cutting unneeded bureaucracy could reduce costs by 20 percent, which would save about $20 billion each year, according to the study, written by Russell Crook, a UT associate professor of management; David Patterson, executive director of the UT National Defense Business Institute; Dave Ketchen, a Lowder Eminent Scholar at Auburn University; and James Combs, a professor at Alabama. The Department of Defense currently spends $400 billion each year acquiring products and services from defense contractors. About $100 billion of the money is spent on administrative costs, according to eighty defense executives who were surveyed for the study. The authors found that a lack of trust between the Department of Defense and its contractors is a major driver of red tape. One solution could be “relational contracting,” a concept that has helped private industry dramatically reduce the costs of doing business, Patterson said. Relational contracting requires buyers and suppliers
to work together to build trust. “As Department of Defense funding is reduced and the department seeks better buying power, establishing trust between the government buyer and the industry provider remains extremely important,” Patterson said. Cooperation created through relational governance also can bring new opportunities, Crook said. Suppliers for Procter and Gamble, for example, have collaborated with the consumer products giant to create a series of innovative products. This program has been so successful that Procter and Gamble’s executives now believe that half of their firm’s innovations can arise from ideas provided by suppliers. “The Department of Defense could benefit by adopting Procter and Gamble’s approach in two key ways,” Crook said. “First, the Department of Defense and its suppliers could work together to develop more advanced technological innovations for defending our country. Second, the costs of these innovations could be lowered if unnecessary reporting and compliance costs could be trimmed.”