IMPACT INSTRUMENTAL IMPACT

Whad a little more than 30 members.

It was something of a change from his previous position as the associate director of the University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band. It fields 400 members.

“When I took the job here, I knew there were 33 kids signed up for band and, for a university this size, that’s not right,” Coleman says.

He has made it right and then some. As of June 2022, 11 months after he arrived, the Marching Mocs had 140 students signed up, a 425% increase and the highest number in more than a decade.

“I said, ‘You know, if we could be 85 or 90 this year, I think that’d be great. That’d be positive,” Coleman says. “The growth that’s happened this year has just really been a shock to me.”

One of Coleman’s first goals was visiting some regional high schools within a two-hour radius of Chattanooga, including Huntsville and Birmingham in Alabama, Nashville and Knoxville in Tennessee, and the northern suburbs of Atlanta.

“Where you grow a band program is you have good relationships with middle school and high school directors who encourage their kids, not only to keep playing but, ‘You should take band at UTC,’” says Coleman, who spent 25 years as a band director at high schools around Atlanta.

“First of all, he really knows his craft, and I think that’s a big draw, but he’s not arrogant about it. As my mother used to say, ‘He’s not full of himself,’” says Wright, who has known Coleman for 30 years.

“He’s a warm and welcoming person, and I think that attracts kids, but it attracts their parents because you have to sell the parents on it as well, you know?”

As one might expect, COVID also played a role— and still plays a role—in the growth of Marching Mocs. With the pandemic clamping down after March 2020, any Marching Moc who started at UTC in fall 2019 may have been somewhat idle for almost two years, Coleman notes.

“The day-to-day stress of the pandemic is over, but we’re going to feel the effects of COVID for a long time because we basically have two years with a lot of students who don’t know what it’s like to be a band,” he says.

“So we’re dealing with a lot of young band members and that’ll take a long time to catch up because, try as you may, there are going to be habits that need to be broken. That’s a lot harder to do than just starting off the right way.”

After more than a year of planning, the College of Arts and Sciences launched its official Residential College in August 2022. Housed in Decosimo Apartments, the program is a partnership between the College of Arts and Sciences and UTC Housing and Residence Life. The initiative focuses on four pillars to promote students’ personal development and success:

 Wellness: Personal growth and self-authorship/ownership.

 Identity: Who residents are and whom they want to become.

 Scholarship: Preparing residents for academic and professional success.

 Engagement: Creating lifelong relationships and forging a connection to the residence hall and UTC.

The Residential College helps develop students’ sense of belonging within and outside the classroom and encourages them to develop skills they use in academic and professional success. Support services and other resources are provided to help students.

“We believe that learning doesn’t only happen in the classroom,” says Nikolasa Tejero, director of the Residential College and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“We use these communities to engage students in the learning process in their residences and the community at large. We cultivate a sense of belonging that promotes inclusion and instills confidence. As a result, our students are motivated and empowered to try new things, persist and push themselves to succeed. The impact we are already seeing is significant.”

Students live in apartment-style suites, each consisting of four private bedrooms, two shared bathrooms and a common kitchen and living room.

College of Arts and Sciences launches

A&SRC—residential learning communities

Students also have priority access to outdoor congregational spaces and the adjacent Stacy Town Center facilities, which hold activities throughout the year.

The Residential College is comprised of five residential learning communities. Four are sponsored by specific academic departments within the College of Arts and Sciences with specific curricular and disciplinary themes:

 Life Out Loud, sponsored by the Department of English and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. Students passionate about studying languages (English, Spanish, French, Latin and others) and literature in those languages.

 Music Row RLC, sponsored by the Division of Music in the Department of Performing Arts. Freshman, sophomore and transfer students who love music and musical performance.

 PHASES: Politically, Historically and Socially Engaged Students, sponsored by the Department of Political Science and Public Service and the Department of History. Students majoring in political science and history study the local history and politics of the Chattanooga area with the goal of making them active citizens with a stake in their communities and the region.

 Sustainable Mocs, sponsored by the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science. Introduces students to the interdisciplinary nature of biology, geology and environmental science and shows how each discipline interacts with issues related to sustainability.

 CAS General, sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences. For freshmen majoring in degree programs within the College of Arts and Sciences. It also welcomes undeclared students interested in exploring degree programs within the College of Arts and Sciences.