On Rocky Top 2017

Cover by Laurel Cooper • The Daily Beacon

Volume 133 Issue 60

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Thursday, June 1, 2017

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Wildfires bring code red air quality to campus and Knoxville Shelby Whitehead Staff Writer

With air clouded by thick smoke, UT is suffering the effects of recent wildfire outbreaks plaguing East Tennessee.

The lack of significant rain since August has created the perfect opportunity for these wildfire outbreaks.

“It’s just super dry, almost unprecedented,” Wayne Clatterbuck, UT professor in forestry, wildlife & fisheries, said.

Knoxville is roughly five inches behind its average yearly rainfall estimate. Chattanooga overshadows that count, being 16 inches behind its normal yearly rainfall.

Despite these drought conditions, the spark that started the fires is not due to nature.

“Majority of our fires are human-induced,” said Clatterbuck. “A lot of people seem to get a thrill out of setting things on fire.”

It has been confirmed that the start to most recent wildfires have been arson and human carelessness. Simple actions, such as not properly extinguishing a campfire or burning a brush pile, can cause major damage in extremely dry conditions.

“We haven’t had any lightning storms to

ignite any of this stuff. It’s not like it’s spontaneous combustion,” Gary Dean, UT professor of geology, said. “It’s always a little bit of human help.”

Tennessee Fire Code states protecting structures as a priority in cases of wildfires. After that, trees are targeted because the wildfires cause defective lumber quality.

Clatterbuck said areas most susceptible to wildfires are the mountainous regions. Due to their seclusion, these remote areas often lack the water pressure needed to suppress wildfires or roads navigable to firetrucks.

Rather than treating the wildfires with water, firefighters have initiated a process called “backfiring” in which they fight fire with fire.

Once a wildfire is located, the firefighters start a second controlled fire, burning it toward the wildfire.

This strategy is cheaper than using water, important due to the fact that budgets are not currently in place to handle the wildfires at their current capacity.

The controlled fire uses the resources that otherwise might have ignited the wildfire.

Through this process, they stall the fire, preventing its spreading.

One of the immediate consequences of the fires has been the depreciated air quality,

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Donations are amassed for firefighters and those affected by the wildfires in the Gatlinburg area.

Tyler Warner • The Daily Beacon sending Knoxville into a code red warning.

Particulates from the fire debris have been trapped in the atmosphere and remain hovering in the breathable air due to the warm weather.

In response to the air quality and how it affects people within community, Clatterbuck admits there is “not a whole lot you can do about that.” He said, “Just try to stay inside with no prolonged exposure if you can help it.”

Despite these precautions, those with especially sensitive allergies and respiratory problems are suffering.

Alongside the air, the soil is being negatively transformed by the fires. As fires heat up, the

soil’s organic matter is changed, microbiomes are killed and nutrient cycling is altered. These effects will remain even when the fires are gone.

The environment is changing through a positive reinforcement; as the ground gets drier, the vegetation gets dehydrated and rainfall has less effect.

“These drought conditions aren’t something that can just be remedied by a nice rain storm,” Dean said. “It’s going to take quite some time of steady, slow rains to actually infiltrate the ground and get it moist.”

The wildfires will end when the rains begin, and there is not currently a prediction as to when that will occur.

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Davenport looks ahead at future of UT Annie Tieu

News Editor In February, Beverly Davenport was sworn in as the eighth chancellor of UT by the UT Board of Directors, replacing former Chancellor Jimmy Cheek. In her short time as chancellor at the university, Davenport has hired a new athletic director and addressed various other issues surrounding UT. On Friday, April 21, Davenport spoke with Alumni Board President Clay Jones about what else she hopes to accomplish as chancellor at UT. First and foremost, Davenport emphasized her plans to build up and reboot the faculty in all departments. With students becoming more technologically advanced, she said there is a need to boost current faculty to keep up with students and competition from other universities.

“We need to re-tool; we have to refine; we have to be nimble and smart and different than when I first became a faculty member.

We weren’t trained to do all those things, and we need to have environments … that match the kind of 21st century learners that are coming to us,” Davenport said. “So, we have to continually invest in the professional development of the faculty that we have.”

On the other hand, Davenport said bringing in new faculty is also necessary to provide students with a progressive educational experience as well as advance the university.

“We need to think about succession,” Davenport said. “We need to think about, ‘How do we recruit? How do we find those next stars, those next greatest people to teach our students and to engage in research that makes a difference and improves the quality

“

Everyone wants to look at the amount of money a person makes. Well, let’s look at the quality of life that a person is able to lead.”

Beverly Davenport, chancellor

of our life?’”

In response to Davenport’s emphasis on innovation and constant progress, Jones asked how the chancellor plans to invite more change when university settings are not as open to innovative changes as other types of environments.

“We partner with people who know how to do it … We engage with our cities where we’re situated,” Davenport said. “We have to cultivate that kind of innovative stance.”

The chancellor said she plans to use Knoxville’s assets, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to help with this goal. She also said she wants to bring in individual scientists, entrepreneurs and students to help.

Next, Clay asked Davenport how she plans to address UT’s aspirations toward the Top 25 and Vol Vision 2020.

Journey to the Top 25 was a goal set by the university to join the ranks of the top 25 public research institutions in the nation.

The plan focused on five prioritized areas: undergraduate education, graduate education, faculty, research and engagement and infrastructure and resources. In 2015, under former Chancellor Cheek, Vol Vision 2020 became a part this plan, which added another priority: diversity and inclusion.

“Like any leader, she’s going to come in with a fresh set of eyes,” Jones said. “And then she’s going to do course corrections … to try to achieve similar goals but perhaps update those goals to what she sees is important.”

While Davenport is not against the agenda set forward in Journey to the Top 25, she said she wants to adapt the plan to address to what it means to be a top university in 2017.

“I am in the process of re-imagining what Top 25 could be because nobody that we care about is standing still. Nobody is standing still,” Davenport said. “We need to get clearer on who we’re going to benchmark and clearer on the criteria by which we’re going to compare ourselves.”

Davenport said she began by looking at UT’s current top programs. Twenty-one of the university’s programs are already among the top 25 in the nation and 13 programs are in the top 10, including the architecture and design program, undergraduate business program and engineering programs, Davenport said.

“Everybody says it’s the top 25, but they don’t know what that means,” Davenport said.

“So, I’m on a mission to clarify that, to refine that and to think about what that means. And we’re going to market that and make that message clear … Every program that you lift up and raise up, raises all of us.”

While there are already nationally ranked programs at UT, Davenport said this does not mean there should be a lack of focus on other programs. UT, as an institution that focuses

Beverly Davenport is the current Chancellor of The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

•Courtesy of John Parker on higher education, still has a responsibility to give its students diverse educational opportunities, Davenport said. And it takes comprehensive and strategic planning to meet the needs of all programs on campus.

“We are a comprehensive research institution … Who’s to say what we cut out because nobody wants to major in that,” Davenport said. “It’s a huge, huge challenge to constantly be examining what it means to be a collegeeducated person. What is it that’s put before our students; how much choice should they have; how much restricted choices should they have?”

Another issue Jones brought to Davenport was about how UT should encourage others, like parents, to understand the value of education and invest in the university for their children. Davenport said she wanted to shift the focus away from applying business models and the idea of a return on investment when it comes to university students.

“For better or for worse, we’ve adopted a lot of corporate language,” Davenport said.

“Everyone wants to look at the amount of money a person makes. Well, let’s look at the quality of life that a person is able to lead.”

While Jones said universities are like businesses, he agreed with Davenport that they also need to address student needs.

“The university has to be run like a business, but it’s not a business. There’s no profit; the stakeholders are looking for different things,” Jones said. “I’ve always said we’re training people to have careers and be good citizens. That’s the output of what a student should be, and I think she gets that.”

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Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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Campus says ‘goodbye’ to Chancellor Cheek Chris Salvemini Staff Writer

Complete with cookies and cake, the campus reception for Chancellor Jimmy Cheek provided an opportunity for the chancellor to say “goodbye” to faculty, staff and students on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

Cheek’s last day will be on Feb. 15, when former University of Cincinnati Interim President Beverly Davenport takes over as the new Chancellor.

“I have had the great opportunity to come here from another university and start anew my career,” Cheek said. “I thoroughly enjoyed the people, the students, the faculty, the staff, the alumni. I got to do some really neat things.”

Professors, students and administrators came to the Tennessee Terrace in the Neyland Stadium Skybox to say goodbye to the chancellor. While there, a line to shake Chancellor Cheek’s hand stretched to nearly out of the room.

Programs and events of Cheek’s term include a journey to become one of the top 25 public research universities,

the development of a strategic plan to improve five core areas of the university and the introduction of the largest and academically strongest freshmen class in 30 years. During his administration, Cheek also faced a Title IX lawsuit and controversies over diversity programs on campus.

“When I was superintendent of schools, Dr. Cheek and I visited West High School together. One of his initiatives was to go to the early admissions candidates for UT to actually go to the students, in their classroom, in their school and bring them their college admissions letter,” Jim McIntyre, director of the Center for Educational Leadership, said.

“Not only did Dr. Cheek come, and I went with him, but he brought a big orange bus, he brought cheerleaders, he brought Smokey and the admissions offer actually opened up and played ‘Rocky Top.’” Cheek will return to a teaching position on Feb. 16 and will return in August as a distinguished professor in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences.

He will also have a partial appointment

in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and as Chancellor Emeritus, he will be expected to also do work for the overall campus.

“It’s been since 1992 that I taught a course. Prior to that time, from 1974 to 1992, I taught every single semester including the summer, so I really missed being in the classroom, mentoring students and advising students,” Cheek said.

The reception included a speech by UT System President Joe DiPietro and interim Provost and Senior Vice Provost John Zomchick, before Cheek addressed the crowd with his wife. Cheek was gifted with a notebook of letters and photographs of his time at UT as well as medal of recognition for his service.

“We owe him a debt of gratitude we can’t ever repay. We owe a debt to Eileen for the husband-less dinners and husband-less nights,” DiPietro said. “There’s no doubt I will miss him. I worked a long time with him, and you can always count on him. You can always trust him, and he always does what is right in his mind for the institution.”

Former Chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Jimmy Cheek, at his last lecture Alex Phillips • The Daily Beacon

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Construction brings frustration, high hopes Mary Hallie Sterling

Asst. Digital Producer The campus-wide orange cones are proof that administrators are working to upgrade UT’s campus. To the students it may seem frustrating and inconvenient, but there is a master plan.

“What’s so exciting when we’re doing so many things at once is that we have the opportunity to catapult this university above all of its peers and really position us in the 21st Century in a very unique way,” Dave Irvin, Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Services, said.

While many of these projects remain ongoing, Irvin said some will be finished as early as Fall 2017.

One of these soon-to-be-completed projects is Strong Hall, which will be open during the summer for students enrolled in summer classes and will be completely finished before the fall semester begins. Once completed, Irvin said the hall will provide advanced labs for science classes.

“We’ve had really terrible teaching labs for chemistry and biology,” he said. “Now we’re going to state-of-the-art labs. Much larger labs so that we can accommodate more students.”

Strong Hall will also offer plenty of study space, and most of the building will be open 24 hours for student use.

Phase One of the beautification of Volunteer Boulevard will also be complete before students return this fall. The landscaping will extend to Peyton Manning Pass.

The next phase of this project will take the landscaping from Lake Loudon Boulevard to Pat Head Summitt Street.

In an effort to make the campus more pedestrian-friendly, Volunteer Boulevard will now include bike lane and on-street parking will be removed up to Pat Head Summitt Street.

Irvin said, however, that the new Lake Avenue Parking Garage, which is estimated to be completed by Spring 2018, would make up for the lack of on-street parking.

The new garage will have eight stories, adding 1,000 parking spaces.

Another large project affecting campus is Phase Two of construction on the Student Union.

The original Student Union — formerly known as the University Center — was built in 1952, when it comfortably accommodated UT’s 7,000 students.

Communications Coordinator for Facilities Services Brooke Krempa said that as of Fall 2016, UT had 28,052 students attending. With almost 30,000 students, UT required a larger and more modern Student Union. The concept of a new structure was derived from a group of students who pushed the project into the hands of the administration.

The six-story Student Union that currently resides on campus was only Phase One of the plan. Krempa said the next phase will give students an additional 251,000-squarefeet for an overall 395,088-square-feet of student space. Its amenities will include a ballroom, dining areas, lounges and meeting areas for organizations on campus.

“The new union will really leapfrog us from being one of the worst unions to one of the best,” Irvin said.

Krempa and the Student Union project managers said the total budget for the project is $182 million, which was funded through a student fee increase.

Funding for other UT construction projects mainly came from the state, and Irvin said they have been very generous thus far.

Projects funded by the state include Strong Hall and the Ken and Blaire Mossman Building, a new engineering building.

Additional funding for construction is provided by UT alumni, donors and federal grants.

Construction around campus but not on UT property, such as the Cumberland Avenue Corridor, are projects managed by the City of Knoxville. Irvin said he hopes to continue the Cumberland Corridor through campus to synchronize downtown Knoxville and UT’s campus.

Fall of 2019 will see the opening of the new Student Union as well as the Ken and Blaire Mossman Building. New West Campus housing and dining will be completed, and the Cumberland Corridor is projected to be finished at that time as well.

Irvin said he and others in Facilities Services sympathize and understand the frustration students feel dealing with construction.

“If all we were doing was building a new lecture hall, it would be nice, but it would be an opportunity missed,” he said.

“We’re really trying to not just build buildings, not just do a pretty landscape, but to completely revision what it means to be the University of Tennessee.

“At the end of the day, your alma mater is positioning itself to be one of the top universities in the country.”

The Student Union is currently undergoing construction as a part of its expansion plan. Laura Altawil • The Daily Beacon

Tenn. community fights outsourcing Alex Holcomb

Editor-in-Chief

Tennessee is NOT for Sale members protested on Monday, April 24, at the Torchbearer statue against Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to outsource all facilities services jobs to a private company.

Tennessee government employees sent a contract to Jones Lang LaSalle, a professional services and investment management company, on Monday to be signed by Friday, agreeing to outsource. However, UT needs to agree to the contract as well, and, last Tuesday, state employees came to discuss outsourcing with Chancellor Beverly Davenport.

The protest’s sponsors were the Progressive Student Alliance, the American Association of University Professors and Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee. And, at the event, students, campus activists and government officials spoke out against the outsourcing plan, including the lead organizer of the United Campus Workers Cassie Waters and assistant professor of German Sarah Eldridge, among others.

One of the first to address the crowd was State Rep. Mark Staples (D-Knoxville).

Staples was elected to office in November 2016 and his district covers UT. He has

actively fought outsourcing by co-sponsoring legislative oversight on outsourcing and working closely with Tennessee is NOT for Sale.

“I’m fighting like hell for you every day, every single day. We’re not talking about brick and mortar. We’re not talking about concrete,” Staples said at the protest. “You pull 14, 15, sometimes 16-hour days. Men and women send their children here to become better individuals through this institution of higher learning. You’ve cried with students.

You pull the students through. You’ve talked them from quitting, so we can’t quit on you.

“I promise you this: If you continue to fight, I will continue to fight with you.”

Tennessee District 1 County Commissioner Evelyn Gill (D-Knoxville) was also elected to her position in 2016 and spoke to the crowd about what she hopes to demand from the Tennessee government.

“I support the initiatives of opting out of passing this contract. It is in fact one of the worst things the state of Tennessee can do,” Gill said. “We demand transparency.

We demand that this opt-out be put to death.

We want to make sure our message for the governor is strong: We support the state employees of public institutions in the state of Tennessee.”

See OUTSOURCING on Page 13

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Al Roker gets Vols in T formation, UT breaks world record Alex Holcomb

Editor-in-Chief

Sarah Plemmons Staff Writer

Al Roker visited UT’s neck of the woods Wednesday morning to help 4,223 students, staff and alumni break the Guinness World Record for the largest human letter.

The lines to be scanned into Neyland Stadium, where the record was broken, were full of students chanting support for UT and stretched out to Neyland Drive. Although students were not required to be at the stadium until 5:30 a.m., many arrived earlier, starting at 4:30 a.m. In the stands, people danced to the Pride of the Southland pep band as they waited to break the record.

As part of his Rokerthon project, Roker, who has been a full-time weatherman for the Today show since 1996, has visited three universities including UT to help the schools break records and is not done yet. By the end of the week, he will have visited five colleges across the country. Roker said the schools, while different, have something in common.

“Well, you know, (Tennessee) begins with the T. The others (colleges) began with a K, and another began with an N. But what they all have in common is this incredible school spirit and a desire to show that school spirit, and that’s really neat. It doesn’t matter how big or small your school is, proportionally you can really make a difference,” Roker said.

Football head coach Butch Jones and Chancellor Beverly Davenport appeared on Today during the broadcast within Neyland and drew names to give two students a total of $5,000 in scholarships. Jones also passed a football to Roker during the show.

Knowing that millions of people were watching, Davenport said she was excited for the attention the event would bring the university.

“When I knew that our students had entered us into this competition, I knew we would make it,” Davenport said.

“This is known all over the country ... this stadium, Neyland Stadium, the Tennessee Vols. I could not wait to walk in this morning.

“It just furthers our legacy. Who doesn’t want to be a part of this pride, this tradition? ... Who has this kind of impact? You walk in and feel it. You just

feel it. I’m so proud to be a Tennessee Vol.” For some, Knoxville became the city that never sleeps. Skyla Smith, graduate student in public health, did not sleep to make sure she would be part of breaking the record.

“We’re breaking the world record, so who wouldn’t want to be here?” Smith said. “I came from a small undergrad school, so this much spirit means a lot to me.”

The record for the largest human letter was previously set in 2016 by Queen’s University in Canada by 3,373 people forming a Q. More than 6,000 people registered online to participate in UT’s record breaking event, but only 4,223 actually came out. Michael Empric, a Guinness World Record adjudicator traveling with Roker this week, said he was surprised that UT was able to beat the record.

“So, I’m not allowed to speculate, but this was the biggest record that we’re presenting this week with the most people,” Empric said. “Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure when we got here yesterday if you guys were going to get enough people in this stadium at five in the morning, but you pulled it off.”

World records are broken every day, however, and while the student turnout was impressive to him, Empric said UT’s record could be broken at anytime.

“I’ve adjudicated this record before.

It’s happened before, and it could happen again. This record could stand for several years, or it could be broken next week. I always tell people that part of my job is going to records that are going to be broken,” Empric said. “So, I love it when people try and see a record and go for it themselves.”

Roker has done two other Rokerthon events with different themes previously. In 2014, he completed the longest, uninterrupted, live weather broadcast at 34 hours, and in 2016, he predicted the weather from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in one week.

Roker, who studied communications at State University of New York at Oswego, had advice for students who want to follow in his footsteps.

“Be open to all kinds of opportunities.

When I was in school, I didn’t want to be on TV; I wanted to be a producer or a writer. An opportunity for me to do weather on camera happened, and I took it,” Roker said. “You never know where you’re going to go and what you’re going to do if you close yourself off to opportunities.”

Al Roker’s Rokerthon 3 at Neyland Stadium.

Both photos by Adrien Terricabras • The Daily Beacon

CAMPUSNEWS

OUTSOURCING continued from Page 10 Former president of United Campus Workers Tom Anderson has worked for facilities services for years and is currently a buyer in central supply while working with Tennessee is NOT for Sale. He said he opposes outsourcing because a Chicago company cannot understand the needs of a Tennessee university.

However, what it comes down to, Anderson said, is the human cost.

“What they don’t want us to understand and what they hope our leadership doesn’t get is that there is a human cost to outsourcing,” Anderson said. “There is a human cost to the workers, to our families, to our campus community and the students who go to school here, and the larger community and the businesses that support this campus.”

Head of the Sociology Department Jon Shefner, a leader in the Tennessee is NOT for Sale organization, circulated a letter to faculty to write their opinions on outsourcing, which was delivered to Davenport on Monday afternoon.

At the protest, he said outsourcing is a national problem and a strategy to shift public wealth to private benefactors.

“Nationwide we know that outsourcing

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon has been a strategy to cut worker power, to cut benefits, to cut benefits, to cut wages, to cut security,” Shefner said. “The office for customer focus government – and, yes, you’re a customer not a citizen – have kept information from us, from taxpayers, from universities as much as possible.”

Darcy Ayers, senior in anthropology, is member of the Progressive Student Alliance and said she has been involved with efforts to oppose outsourcing by speaking to representatives and organizing protests.

On Monday afternoon, she addressed campus workers from a student’s perspective, recognizing the role of facilities workers on campus. She also compelled the chancellor to listen to the voice of students’ on this decision.

“I want you to know that, on behalf of all students, that we see you, and we care about you, and we recognize the trial that our government is imposing on you,” Ayers said. “Chancellor, if you are listening, I am asking on behalf of all students here at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville that you remember in the coming months that the University of Tennessee is not for sale.”

Robert Dykes, a zone maintenance employee, said that, despite promises that facilities workers will keep their jobs after outsourcing, he does not believe it.

Dykes cited the outcome of government

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A crowd of facilities workers, students, faculty and Knoxville citizens attend an outsourcing protest on Monday, April 24. Alex Holcomb • The Daily Beacon facilities privatization in Nashville as an example, which occurred three years ago.

“For our governor to assign a team to try get rid of our jobs, I feel insulted actually because these are our tax dollars.

We’re paying for this as much as anyone else,” Dykes said. “I think they’ll get rid of everybody in order to bring in lower

wage employees ... They say they’re going to protect all their workers, but that’s a sham.”

After the speakers had finished, protesters marched through Circle Park and a reverend held prayer over the workers and administration outside of Andy Holt Tower, where Davenport’s office is located.

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Title IX compliance reflects, responds to culture change Bradi Musil

2016-17 Editor-in-Chief Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, was forced to drop out of Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies in 1966.

It was the same year she got married, and at the time, Georgetown did not permit married, female students to attend, believing they were just wasting the institution’s resources. “(Colleges) felt that married women would waste the education they received because they would just leave and have babies, and they would never apply that education in the way it was meant to,” Jenny Richter, UT’s Title IX coordinator and vice chancellor for equity and diversity, said at a Sex Week panel on Thursday, April 6.

Two years later, in 1968, President Johnson signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors, including university officials, from discriminating the employment of workers on the basis of sex, race, color, religion or national origin. This laid the foundation for President Richard Nixon to sign Title IX into law in 1972.

Title IX was a response to countless lawsuits filed in the ‘60s and ‘70s because of sex discrimination cases like Luci Johnson’s.

In only 37 words, Title IX encompasses everything from athletic programs to sexual violence. The law reads: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

“Each part of that simple statement has been dissected to the nth degree,” Richter said. “Title IX really was the opening of the doors for individuals — I mean men and women, because there were federally funded, public schools that were also closed

to men — so while a majority of the doors were closed for women, it does apply across the board and across genders.”

While the language and the law have remained the same since Title IX’s creation 45 years ago, the culture and concepts surrounding sexual violence, gender equality and sex discrimination have drastically changed.

With an evolving culture, educational institutions are also expected to respond with similarly evolved regulations or policies to remain compliant.

“Congress comes up with the law, and then regulations have to be implemented so people understand what we’re supposed to do with this,” Richter said. “There’s nothing in there that talks about athletics. There’s nothing in there that talks about a science class. So, federal agencies are given the responsibility of interpreting these things and creating guidance.”

However, sometimes these changes in regulation can lead to a lot of confusion or misinformation. For example, every year the Office of Equity and Diversity compiles a report for the State of Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, which includes the number of Title IX complaints from the past year.

Over the last few years, the numbers have skyrocketed — showing 129 complaints for the fiscal year in 2016, 54 in 2015 and only one Title IX complaint in 2013.

Richter said these jumps are not necessarily the result of an increase in Title IX offenses, but rather the result of several reporting and categorizing changes as well as an increase in campus awareness of sexual violence and Title IX issues.

“What the state of Tennessee used to want to know is how many Title IX complaints we got, where the only thing you’re looking at is when students walked through the door and said, ‘I have a Title IX complaint,’” Richter said. “Nobody ever did that, so in the old days people (institutions) reported very,

very few complaints.”

Richter said the university now counts all complaints that fall under Title IX and the university’s sexual misconduct policy, whether the complainant calls it a Title IX violation or not. Instead of only reporting “Title IX complaints,” which resulted in very few each year, the university reports all complaints described as sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking, among others, which result in numbers close to 100.

The university’s old method of reporting, Richter said, mirrored how other higher education and state institutions were reporting their complaints. The change in reporting practices was a result of several factors, including the April 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter released by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and the more than 100 ongoing federal investigations at higher education institutions for the suspected mishandling of Title IX violations.

UT was added to this list of investigated universities in 2015.

Kayla Parker, founder of UT Students Who Stand, a group of students who have experienced sexual violence on campus, said she suspects universities previously only documented literal “Title IX” complaints to make their assault numbers appear low.

“I believe universities want to sweep the number of sexual assaults that are actually occurring on campus under the rug as to not invoke panic amongst student population, faculty members or donors,” Parker, senior in sociology, said. “If there’s a high number of sexual assault cases and Title IX complaints, that might be something that’s looked at negatively by people thinking about sending their children to the University of Tennessee or by people who are thinking about continually donating money, if they feel like it is an unsafe environment.”

A high number of Title IX complaints on a university campus should not necessarily be seen as a negative, Richter said, but rather an indication that the college is working to build an environment where students feel safe reporting an attack and where students know how to report such incidents.

“I would expect that the more training that we do and the more exposure we have, then the more reports we are going to get,” Richter said. “I do think that there have been an increase in reports — absolutely, positively — but whether or not that that means there are more incidents of it (Title IX offenses), I hope not. Because, if there are more incidents, with all this training and all this notification, then we are really going backwards.

“But, I really have to hope that we are getting more reports because more people know that you can, and they know that it’s

wrong, and they know they’ll be supported.”

However, Parker said the majority of members in UT Students Who Stand, which is comprised of 19 female students, chose not to report their attack to the university because they lack confidence in UT’s ability to handle such reports appropriately. They fear their story won’t be taken seriously or, in some cases, won’t even be believed, Parker said.

“A lot of survivors don’t feel like they are valued over their perpetrator,” Parker said.

She further explained that patriarchal societies and rape culture have fostered a toxic campus environment where victims, especially women, are burdened with proving their attack while alleged perpetrators often have an easier time maintaining their innocence.

“We can say we support survivors, and we can say we believe them, but we have to start thinking about practical processes that will ensure survivors feel more supported,” Parker said.

With the increase in awareness of sexual violence and the complexities that surround consent, Parker said she is optimistic that the experiences of survivors on college campuses are positively changing. She said this is due to organizations, like UT Students Who Stand, who work to provide unconditional support and avenues for empowerment after an attack.

“It’s important that we are now having an accurate count of how many people are assaulted,” Parker said. “I haven’t had any drastic increases in people joining my organization, but I have seen drastic change in women across the campus feeling confident to tell their story.”

Parker expects UT Students Who Stand to grow, knowing that statistically 1 in 4 university women experience assault and 19 members on a campus of nearly 30,000 enrolled students is a marginal number.

Ultimately, Richter said as the number of complaints continue to climb, the university will be expected to respond accordingly with programs that both prevent and address sexual discrimination on campus, even if she does not believe there are more incidents.

“We have a lot of students who need assistance and help, and that’s going to challenge the institution to handle that well,” Richter said. “But I think we are doing that.

I think we have an excellent care and support system.

Investigations are still difficult — they’ll always be difficult because you’ve always got two sides — but I think we’ve got good processes and procedures in place.”

Reports and statistics about campus sexual misconduct can be found at http:// sexualassault.utk.edu/.

CAMPUSNEWS

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

Bathroom bill flushed out of Tenn. legislature Alex Holcomb

Editor-in-Chief

Annie Tieu

News Editor

The controversial bill that would require public school students and colleges to use the restroom matching their gender at birth failed without debate Wednesday, March 22, in the Senate Education Committee.

Although the bill was reintroduced from last year by Mt. Juliet Republican Sen. Mae Beavers, it failed to receive a motion from senators, killing the bill for the year as legislators will not be able to be reintroduce it until the next legislative session.

Opponents of the bill from the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBT Chamber of Commerce silently held signs in protest while the committee was in session, believing the bill discriminates against the LGBT community and violates civil rights laws.

“I’m pissed, and I just want to piss,” Jeff Gallagher, sophomore in English and transgender student, said. “I know a lot of trans-people who look like the gender they identify as, and if they were forced to go into their (birthassigned) bathroom that would just be really

sad ... And I feel uncomfortable in the girls’ bathroom because I’m like, ‘I’m not one of you. I don’t belong here, but I have to be here because the law is such that I have to be here.’”

While Gallagher has found college to be an easier place to be a transgender student than high school, he says there would be negative effects on public school students if it were implemented.

“I think for younger trans people who are just now discovering who they are and just now discovering where they fit in the world, coming into a very hostile (environment) ... that’s going to be really, really hard for a lot of them,” Gallagher said.

Since President Donald Trump’s executive orders in February repealed former President Barack Obama’s protections on transgender students, Tennessee policymakers who originally backed the legislation, like Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, have stated the need for a bathroom bill is no longer necessary.

The idea has been the subject of debate and protest at both local and national levels since its conception. In April, protesters interrupted Beavers and Rep. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon), who sponsored the bill in the House, during a press conference on the legislation and followed them to their offices in the Capitol afterwards.

Tennessee’s bathroom bill is similar to one

passed by North Carolinian legislators in March 2016. After passing, the state received national attention with many boycotting travel, organizations moving athletic competitions and businesses divesting from the state. Despite many states introducing the bill, none have passed it.

Jonathan Reddington, sophomore in computer science, sees bathroom bills as immature.

“Most of them don’t strike me as easily enforceable, and the basis for most of them seems to be, ‘I feel uncomfortable about something; therefore, it should be banned. It should be not allowed because it makes me uncomfortable,’ which is not okay in my book,” Reddington said. “Forcing others to conform to you doesn’t strike me as very mature.”

The Supreme Court has not decided whether anti-discrimination laws applied to school transgender bathroom cases are constitutional.

When a case arguing whether a Virginia transgender student could use the school bathroom corresponding with his gender identity, the Supreme Court justices chose to send the case back to a lower court for further consideration.

While the fate of this year’s version of the bathroom bill has been decided, the future of it is still uncertain.

“I’m glad that it did get killed for now,” Gallagher said. “I don’t think it’s going to stay killed since this is Tennessee, and this is a very Republican area.”

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ARTS&CULTURE

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Rhythm N’ Blooms showcases eclectic mix of musicians Jenna Butz

Special Projects Editor

Rhythm N’ Blooms 2017 closed out Sunday, April 9, and this year’s festival was full of mainstream pop rock, blues, dark acoustic and gypsy punk. With all the venues in Old City, it’s near impossible to catch them all; but Rhythm N’ Blooms is all about taking it slow, drinking plenty of beers and finding new favorites along the way — and that’s exactly how my Rhythm N’ Blooms went. Here are the weekend’s highlights.

Friday, April 7 After taking a nap to gear up for the night/weekend, I started my Rhythm N’ Blooms with Nikki Lane, an outlaw country singer from Nashville, on the Cripple Creek stage. I was already kind of a Lane fan, but seeing her live has turned me into a super fan. She kicked her set off with “Highway Queen” from her latest record of the same name, and she proved old-school country is alive and well, drinking wine out of a water bottle, singing with her mom and promising that not even 700,000 rednecks could make her stop.

From there, I caught the first of many secret shows at Pretentious Beer Glass Co. Ben Gaines and Cameron Moore, two of the six members of this Knoxville based funk Americana band, played a more acoustic set. Their acoustic set had a more Lumineers vibe, but Moore’s soulful voice brought Justin Timberlake feels to certain songs. No two songs sounded the same, and I couldn’t wait to see their full band.

I caught some of the night’s headliner, Dave Barnes, but honestly, Barnes was better suited for a more intimate venue. While Barnes is a talented musician with plenty of fans, his talent felt lost underneath the interstate. With the perfect venue right down the road, the singer-songwriter could have really showcased his art somewhere else.

Saturday, April 8 Saturday was all about finding new favorites, and Rhythm N’ Blooms is one of the best places to do that. I started with Daniel Miller in the Lonesome Dove courtyard. Walking into the festival, that was the first sound I heard, and I couldn’t resist checking him out. This alt-country artist mixed his Appalachian background into his work, and Miller felt like an

The Royal Hounds rocking the Cripple Creek stage.

Kristin Dehkordi • The Daily Beacon East Tennessee version of Chris Stapleton while still maintaining his own sound.

Then, I popped in quick to see Birds of Chicago make playing a clarinet the coolest thing I’d ever seen before meeting a friend at another secret show.

When rockabilly band, the Royal Hounds, took the secret show stage, I looked at my friend and said, “What is even happening?” The band’s high energy, Elvis Presley influences and humor made it one of the weirdest, most fun shows I’d ever seen.

At the Jackson Terminal though, I experienced the exact opposite. Oklahoma singer-songwriter John Moreland was in the middle of his mostly acoustic set, accompanied by just one other musician.

Moreland’s music was raw and hurt in a way that I didn’t know music could hurt. “Farce the Music” called Moreland’s music “gloriously and joyfully heartbreaking,” and no other description feels right.

Moreland’s rawness easily made him the best find of the weekend, and when his set was over, I felt like I’d come out of a trance.

The highlight of the day though was seeing half the reason I even wanted to go to Rhythm N’ Blooms this year: John Paul White. Half of former folk band the Civil Wars, White’s solo work is dark and brooding (similar to “Barton Hallow” Civil Wars) while still being delicate and emotional.

See RHYTHM N’ BLOOMS on Page 17

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Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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RHYTHM N’ BLOOMS continued from Page 16

Sunday, April 9 Work got in the way of some of the earlier shows this day, but starting the evening with Ruby Amanfu + Steelism felt like going to church. It was Sunday, after all. Amanfu’s voice is somehow gritty but angelic, and Steelism’s innovative version of Americana created a listening experience that filled all the outdoor space of the Cripple Creek stage.

From blues to rock to R&B, this set was a journey that I would have happily listened to all night.

Not wanting to miss one last secret show of the weekend, I caught the Pinklets, a band of teenage sisters from Knoxville. At the bar, I heard one bartender tell his co-worker that they were probably the best band they’d had their all weekend, and I’d agree. For being 12, 14 and 17, these sisters knew a thing or two about epic solos and unapologetic rock music.

The weekend ended with headliners Young the Giant, and I was beyond pleasantly surprised. I’ve never been a huge fan of the California indie rock band, but their live show was too fun to be mad at. Also, they sound way better live.

If ending the weekend with dancing in a crowd of happy strangers doesn’t sum up Rhythm N’ Blooms, I don’t know what does.

(Above) Aaron Lee performing at the stage in Jackson Terminal.

(Top left) Artists working on a mural next to the Cripple Creek stage.

(Bottom left) The Pinklets performing at the Cripple Creek stage.

All photos by Kristin Dehkordi • The Daily Beacon

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ARTS&CULTURE

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Dear Parents & Future Vols We want you to know that at UT

VOLS HELP VOLS Taking care of one another is part of our culture. It is who we are as volunteers Since 2015, over 2,200 VOLS have been trained to be active bystanders An active bystander safely intervenes in a potentially harmful situation

Learn how to become a VOL who Speaks UP! for the UT community at tiny.utk.edu/speakup

wellness.utk.edu @volshelpvols This project was supported by Grant No. 2015-WA-AX-0024 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program /exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

Refugee finds own American dream Jenna Butz

2016-17 Special Projects Editor On Yassin Terou’s first day in Knoxville, he walked down Cumberland Avenue and was taken aback by the strangers on the street smiling at him.

“What are they doing?” Terou remembered asking himself. “That looks funny.”

Now, the owner of Yassin’s Falafel House has embraced his American home, and he discussed the trials and triumphs of moving to America and opening his own business with students and the Knoxville community on Tuesday, March 28, as part of Campus Events Board’s Culture Week.

Before Terou began telling his story, audience members were welcomed to the International House Great Room with a table lined with food from Yassin’s Falafel House.

Warm pita, hummus, baba ganoush and falafel sandwiches were offered, and the audience had the chance to taste Terou’s passion for his work.

Then, the short movie about Terou, his family and his business that was created by Square and Twitter was shown. The film chronicled Terou’s move to the United States, knowing no English, and how he went from selling sandwiches outside the Muslim Community of Knoxville mosque to owning his business downtown.

“Since I’ve come to Knoxville, the only thing I’ve felt is love — from Muslims, nonMuslims, even people that don’t believe in anything,” Terou said. “They’ve just given us love.”

Stating that he wouldn’t talk much about the conflict in Syria, Terou focused on his own journey and his belief in the American Dream.

Having nothing from Syria, no photos, no family heirlooms, Terou has focused on Knoxville and how to make his mark on Rocky Top. “We want to be part of this community; we want to build it and even help you,” Terou said. “We want to help the American community. The people who can’t work. The people who are sick. The old people.

“We want to help you, not only get help.”

This also includes sharing his religion and culture with the larger community. Before opening his falafel shop, Terou sold sandwiches outside of his mosque, and when word spread about his food, non-Muslims would stop by, eat some falafel and get a glimpse into Knoxville’s Muslim community — the same community that helped Terou and his family build their American Dream.

After meeting Nadeem Siddiqi, a Muslim community leader in Knoxville and the campus chaplain, the two paired up and opened Yassin’s Falafel House. They started with

$2,000 and two plastic tables. Terou would rent space in a friend’s kitchen, make his food there, then bring it to his storefront to sell.

Now, Yassin’s has grown to accommodate more customers, but Terou still focuses on making simple food well. He aims to serve customers, who have become like family, the best quality food he can.

“This is very good for a Syrian, Muslim guy,” Terou joked.

However, Terou did focus on the seriousness of being a refugee, explaining how long and tedious the process to becoming a refugee can be.

“This is not your choice,” Terou said. “A lot of us don’t want to leave our house. Now, Knoxville’s my home, but when I come, (I thought) maybe I would want to go back. But a lot of people, they don’t have this choice.”

Siddiqi then spoke and applauded his friend and business partner’s drive to make his place in the community. Referencing the current political climate surrounding the Middle East and the Muslim community, Siddiqi said it is Terou’s courageousness that has made the mark Yassin’s has left on the community possible.

“One thing I really appreciate about Yassin is the authenticity and fearless … that video’s not possible without some fearlessness,” Siddiqi said. “If you’re playing it cautious, if you’re playing it safe, if you’re in this zone where no one’s going to affect you, you might sell some falafels, you might sell some fries, but you’re not going to impact the community in any way. It’s not going to happen.”

Acknowledging Terou’s effect on the community, Eddie Roe, CEB member and senior in College Scholars, said when the CEB Arts & Culture committee brainstormed speakers to bring for the event, someone immediately suggested Terou. Wanting to bring in a community leader, CEB agreed that Terou fit the event’s purpose.

“We wanted to highlight a community member who’s really shown this cultural highlight …,” Roe said. “We wanted to bridge the gap with community for Culture Week.”

On April 29, Yassin’s Falafel House was awarded the Institution for Change award by the non-profit community shares. This honor is awarded to “a business or institution that has implemented an initiative that demonstrates socially conscious business practices in its dealings with the community.”

Stemming from Terou’s compassion and his religion, the award honors Terou’s goal of creating one community, not a divided one.

“As-sal mu alaykum. It means peace be upon you. A lot of people think it’s only for Muslims and Arabs. Peace is for everybody.

It’s not only for us,” Terou said. “When I say ‘As-sal mu alaykum,’ I say it for everyone.

“That’s what I believe, and that’s what I hope for you and for us.”

ARTS&CULTURE

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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Teenage sisters talk Bonnaroo, Rhythm N’ Blooms Good crowd, energetic.

LA: I tend to find that we really like playing shows like that. Like, I had fun at Jackson Terminal and I had fun at the first stage, but if I just had to play just those types of shows for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t be having fun.

Jenna Butz

2016-17 Special Projects Editor

Eliza, Lucy and Roxy Abernathy are just 12, 14 and 17 years old, respectively, but the sister trio performed their pop rock at three different shows at Rhythm N’ Blooms this weekend. With an album release show coming up on May 12 at the Relix Variety Theatre, The Daily Beacon caught up with these Knoxville teenagers to talk playing three shows in one day, Bonnaroo and learning their limits.

n How did you come up with your style of music?

LA: I think after seven or eight or however many years we’ve been doing this, I think you grow into it. People ask us, they’re like, “What style of music do you play?” I’m like ...

EA: I say pop rock.

LA: I think we literally just grew into it.

EA: There are so many bands that we’ve heard. Music, this is going to sound really cliche, but music has been such a huge part of our lives. We’re always hearing music everywhere in our house. There’s always music playing. Lucy singing ... all the time.

n Talk to me about how you guys started playing together.

Eliza Abernathy: About a billion years ago.

Lucy Abernathy: Well actually, we started with another band member who is no longer playing with us.

Daily Beacon: Same band name?

LA: Same band name, yes.

EA: Actually, we started out at the Tigresses when we were like five.

LA: But it soon became the Pinklets.

Her parents are musicians and our dad is a musician, and it just came about in the family.

EA: We were like, “I want to do that.”

LA: I’m pretty sure, if I’m remembering correctly and this was when we were like five and six and Roxy was probably seven, one of us literally said “Do you want to start a band?” I think those words were actually spoken.

EA: We would just record little like singles.

LA: Hilarious.

EA: We’d make really silly songs.

LA: We weren’t serious, obviously, and we didn’t know we were going to get serious.

n How do you go from playing together just as a family to making a band that plays at the music festival on a main stage?

EA: It kind of just escalated. We started out playing on a radio show that the former member’s dad had.

LA: Kidstuff on WDVX. EA: We played on that a lot, and people listened to that, I guess. We had just a few small shows, and then we got older..

LA: I think the thing that really kicked us off was Beaumont Rocks. We went to Beaumont Elementary School, and my mom and a few other parents and organizers organized this benefit for our school and let us play there. We weren’t playing huge gigs. We were playing birthday par-

n Some of your lyrics seem older than you guys are. How do you write music like that?

The Pinklets performing at Rhythm N’ Blooms at the Cripple Creek stage.

Kristin Dehkordi • The Daily Beacon ties. We played at a petting zoo. It was fun.

Just fun stuff. So, we played that.

EA: And we played it again the next year. Then we didn’t play it a year. Then we played it the year after we didn’t play it.

LA: After that, parents would want us to play at their kids’ birthday parties, and parents there would be like, “I’m organizing a benefit for this” so it sort of developed. Once we played Waynestock, we got offered — it was just last year — we got offered Bonnaroo, and that sort of kicked everything into gear.

n How was Bonnaroo?

LA: I think the best part about it was being able to experience the music festival.

We played a small stage there. It wasn’t a big deal. It was like every other show that we’ve played.

EA: But we kind of drew people in, and it just felt really good..

LA: There was a lot of energy. Like, they didn’t care what we played. They were just there to listen to music and experience the festival and learn about new music like us because no one knew us. I smiled at Josh Hutcherson. Put that in.

n How has the festival been, and

how did you manage three shows in one day?

EA: It was less stressful than I thought it would be. It still had that little bit of stress.

LA: I’ve had a lot of problems with my voice in the past. You can tell right now it’s really hoarse and low. This isn’t my actual voice. You’re listening to the more masculine version of Lucy. This was really testing my limits.

EA: My fingers hurt. That’s my complaint.

LA: I can’t believe I agreed to do that and actually did it. I’m very proud of myself for doing that. And now I know my limits, and it’s two shows, not three.

EA: We had a lot of fun.

LA: We had so much fun today. I felt very professional.

n What was your favorite part of performing today?

LA: Everyone was just so excited to be there that it made me feel so good, and my friends had just gotten there.

EA: I also liked the secret show. It was a small place, so after the show, you can actually talk to people ... It was kind of cute.

And it was really fun. I had a good time.

LA: So, at one show we played, there was this person who came up to us after the show and said, “That first song really resonated with me.” That got me really. I was like, “Dude, that’s a really sad song.

Are you okay?” It made me realize that I think it’s easier for me to write about things I’ve never experienced before. Girl, I don’t know what love feels like. I’m like five. But not knowing what it feels like gives me more places to go with it because I don’t have this “Oh my god, that guy. I fell in love with him when he opened the door for (me). How do I feel?” and write that down. If you’ve never felt it...

EA: You can be more creative with it.

LA: It leaves more to the imagination, and I’ve never written a song about something in my life. It just doesn’t happen for me.

n So, your CD release show is May 12 at 7 p.m. at Relix Variety Theatre.

LA: Doors are at 7 p.m. Music starts at 8 p.m.

EA: Everyone’s invited.

LA: I’m just so excited, and I want to invite all of my friends because they’ve been there for me and been patient. All the time, I’m like, “Sorry, I can’t sleepover tonight. I have band practice,” then it got to this point of “We know. You’ve got band practice.” I’m just really excited to be surrounded by the people that made it happen and give this to them in return.

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CAMPUSNEWS

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

THE DAILY BEACON STAFF EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief: Alex Holcomb Managing Editor: Rob Harvey Chief Copy Editor: Nick Karrick News Editor: Annie Tieu Asst. News Editor: Kylie Hubbard Sports Editor: Tyler Wombles Asst. Sports Editor: Damichael Cole Engagement Editor: Chloe Lattwe Digital Producer: Cameron Riehl Asst. Digital Producer: Mary Hallie Sterling Opinions Editor: Morgan Schneider Photo Editors: Emily Gowder, Adrien Terricabras Design Editors: Laurel Cooper, Lauren Mayo

ADVERTISING/PRODUCTION Student Advertising Manager: Zenobia Armstrong Media Sales Representatives: Landon Burke, Madeline Cremin, Harley Gorlewski Advertising Production: Nathaniel Alsbrooks, Alexys Lambert Classified Adviser: Mandy Adams

CONTACTS To report a news item, please e-mail editor.news@utdailybeacon.com or call 865-974-2348 To submit a press release, please e-mail pressreleases@utdailybeacon.com To place an ad, please e-mail beaconads@utk.edu or call 865-974-5206 To place a classified ad, please e-mail orderad@utdailybeacon.com or call 865-974-4931 Advertising: (865) 974-5206 beaconads@utk.edu Classifieds: (865) 974-4931 orderad@utdailybeacon.com Editor-in-Chief: (865) 974-2348 editorinchief@utdailybeacon.com

Dear Volunteer, What you’re about to read is the 2017 On Rocky Top issue that The Daily Beacon produces each year with all the biggest stories that you need to know before arriving ... on Rocky Top. Telling you what you need to know is our thing. We’re UT’s student (no faculty, please) newspaper, and we cover everything from protests against the president to concerts happening this weekend.

Whatever it is, you can trust the Beacon to know about it.

This past year has been a whirlwind of headlines, and this paper and our website has the information to get you up to date.

In the news section, you’ll see stories about Title IX reports, our new chancellor, intellectual diversity and reporting on issues no one knew about until we found them.

Sports fans can read the process of

CORRECTIONS POLICY: It is the Daily Beacon’s policy to quickly correct any factual errors and clarify any potentially misleading information. Errors brought to our attention by readers or staff members will be corrected and printed on page two of our publication. To report an error please send as much information as possible about where and when the error occurred to managingeditor@utdailybeacon.com, or call our newsroom at (865) 974-5206.

The Daily Beacon is published by students at The University of Tennessee Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Wednesday during the summer semester. The offices are located at 1340 Circle Park Drive, 11 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The newspaper is free on campus and is available via mail subscription for $200/year, $100/semester or $70/summer only. It is also available online at: www.utdailybeacon.com

The Daily Beacon is printed using soy based ink on newsprint containing recycled content, utilizing renewable sources and produced in a sustainable, environmentally responsible manner.

published a paper every weekday, but starting in the Fall, we’re cutting back to printing twice a week. This isn’t because we’re cutting down our coverage but because we want to focus more on getting the news as quick as possible instead of making a paper as much as possible. We hope you join us in the change as a reader, but we would love to see you join the team as well.

I don’t know your name, but I know you’re a Tennessee Vol. Remember that means something.

Welcome to Rocky Top, Alex Holcomb, Editor-in-Chief

Moving forward by cutting back Bradi Musil

2016-17 Editor-in-Chief

Main Newsroom: (865) 974-3226 editorinchief@utdailybeacon.com LETTERS POLICY: Letters to the Editor must be exclusive to The Daily Beacon and cannot have been submitted to or published by other media. Letters should not exceed 400 words and can be edited or shortened for space. Letters can also be edited for grammar and typographical errors, and Letters that contain excessive grammatical errors can be rejected for this reason. Anonymous Letters will not be published. Authors should include their full name, mailing address, city of residence, phone number and e-mail address for verification purposes. Letters submitted without this information will not be published. The preferred method to submit a Letter to the Editor is to email the Editor-in-Chief at editorinchief@utdailybeacon.com .

hiring a new athletic director, profiles on players that are more than players and previews of next year’s football team. And, yes, sports are a big deal at UT. If that’s the only reason you came, then you made the right choice.

But don’t think we can’t have fun in here. We have coverage from Knoxville concerts and festivals, reviews of restaurants you should (and should not) eat at and some of the intriguing places you can visit while you’re a student.

UT is constantly moving, and like our Earth’s orbit, we’re moving with it — even when we don’t realize it. While you move and change here, you’ll find your place in this little world. My advice is to hold your plans loosely. Be open to change and welcome new ideas. Give your all for — not only Tennessee — but also yourself. You’re not here for too long, so make it count.

This year is a changing year for the Beacon as well. For the past 50 years, we’ve

UT is an institution built on traditions, but as a university and its campus respond to change, these traditions too must evolve.

And The Daily Beacon is about to bring its own 50-year tradition to a close to welcome a new era of journalistic style for its student members.

Starting in Fall 2017, The Daily Beacon — UT’s editorially independent student newspaper, which currently distributes 6,000 copies five days a week — will be decreasing its print frequency to just two days and focusing instead on its 24-hour, online presence.

The change comes as a result of a quickly and drastically changing media industry as well as the financial burden presented with daily print costs.

Rachel Wedding McClelland, the Director of Student Media, explained that print costs eat up a majority of the newspaper’s budget.

“When we looked at our budget for a year’s time and what we can’t control the costs of — you know we can control costs like how many days a week we print, but we can’t control the cots of how much it costs us to print,” McClelland said.

The staff began looking into how many newspapers were left on the stacks at the end of the day and surveying what the Beacon’s readership wanted from the student publication, inquiring about

what they wanted to read about, how and where they wanted to get their news and what media platforms they preferred, which McClelland said all had to be taken into account before administration was willing to “buy the idea of reduced print.”

Of a survey conducted in fall 2016 which asked students “would you prefer The Daily Beacon either print a daily newspaper with corresponding online content or print a weekly newspaper but provide updated daily content and breaking news online,” 62.8 percent responded that they would prefer less physical papers and more online coverage.

The spring 2016 Beacon staff also conducted an audit to see how many newspapers were being picked up each day and found that, on average, 6,000 copies of 10,000 were left unread daily.

“It just became clear that moving to two days was the thing to do in terms of a business decision, in terms of the way the industry is headed and in terms of what students on campus are reading and how they’re turning to the Beacon,” McClelland said, admitting that the change was long overdue.

Claire Dodson, a 2015 UT graduate and former Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beacon, said even when she worked at the newspaper two years ago, the Beacon staff was already looking for ways to improve their digital platforms and differentiate between their print and online products.

“It looked not great,” Dodson said, laughing about the outdated appearance of the former utdailybeacon.com. “And it wasn’t super user

friendly.”

While the staff worked to develop the website, cleaning up its overall look and making it a more navigational space for readers, Dodson said she and the former Managing Editor Hanna Lustig simultaneously looked for ways to begin distinguishing between the website’s feel and the print product.

“Print and digital have such unique things that journalists can do with them that I think it’s worth making them into more distinct products,” Dodson said. “We were really interested in magazine, so we really liked that aesthetic for print and then making online more of a place for breaking news and multimedia content.”

In the hopes that the print frequency would be decreasing in the fall, the Beacon staff this year hired a digital production and engagement staff — the digital production staff focusing on web exclusive content while the engagement team focuses on the Beacon’s social media accounts.

The Beacon will transition from Monday through Friday print to printing just on Mondays and Thursdays, with the projected plan of producing a typical newspaper on Monday and a more specialized, themed issue on Thursday.

Dodson said she thinks the twice-weekly print schedule gives Beacon staffers much needed flexibility to experiment with what they can do differently with the two mediums.

See MOVING FORWARD on Page 3

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

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Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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Volapalooza 2017 balances indie rock, unexpected weather Allie Clouse

Staff Writer Volapalooza kicked off its 15th annual end-of-the-year concert on Friday, April 28 with headlining performances by Pell, COIN and the X Ambassadors.

The event was coordinated by the Campus Events Board and had to be quickly relocated due to rainy conditions that would have threatened the preservation of World’s Fair Park. Although some fans were apprehensive about the new venue, Volapalooza still brought in large crowds. Emily Hicks, co-chair of the VOLAnteer program, spoke about the extra planning and dedication of the CEB committee after the sudden move.

“With the rain changing our plans, I’ve never seen a more resilient group of people,” Hicks said. “Our leaders took on the same amount of work in 48 hours that some people put into several months. With the change of location, I think everything turned out amazing. The lights were amazing, which we wouldn’t have had at World’s Fair Park, and every band sounded great.

“Overall, we made the best of a situation we didn’t necessarily expect.”

Our leaders took on the same amount of work in 48 hours that some people put into several months.”

Emily Hicks, co-chair of the VOLAnteer program

In addition to the music, guests enjoyed novelty activities such as henna tattoos, caricatures, a silent disco and a fortune teller.

Attendees of the festival also munched on eats throughout the night from a variety of food trucks at the event. Hicks noted the popularity of the alternative entertainment.

“I was excited about the participation,” Hicks said. “Our novelties like the henna

artist and fortune teller had great turnouts, and the food trucks seemed to be a hit too.”

However, the music acts were the star of the show. Thousands of audience members came from across campus and the state to see artists play. The acts chosen to perform this year included Luke Pell, DJ A-Wall, Pell, Electric Darling, COIN, Mountains Like Wax and X Ambassadors. Grace Shoffner, an incoming freshman, came to the festival to see COIN for the third time.

“They were amazing as always, and the whole event was really fun,” Shoffner said.

“The music was definitely what I came for and definitely worth it. I loved the atmosphere of the whole night, and will probably go next year regardless of who’s performing as long as they have the same energy.”

The event lasted from 5:30-11 p.m., but audience members, volunteers and performers kept energy and excitement high for the entirety of the night. The sets were engaging with the lead singer of X Ambassadors even wading through the crowd to sing in the middle of it. With most of the performers having an alt-indie style, festival goers were also introduced to some fresh music.

Hicks was surprised by the crowd’s enthusiasm.

Volapalooza 2017 line-up reveal Eric Bailes • The Daily Beacon “Never have I seen a crowd more into a show,” Hicks said. “I was super impressed by the artists that really got the crowd going. I think a lot of people were exposed to a new band or a new experience.”

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ARTS&CULTURE

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

DJ Rupture performing at The Standard on Saturday night.

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

Big Ears celebrates avant-garde talent The stage brightens as headliner Wilco performs at the Tennessee Theatre on Friday night.

All photos by Rrita Hashani • The Daily Beacon

Megan Patterson

2016-17 Managing Editor No matter the music festival you attend, the line up is always going to be daunting. Who to go see, when to take breaks and how to fit everything in is an impossible, wonderful dilemma, and Big Ears failed to be an exception to that rule. I did my best, however, to catch all the different aspects of what does make Big Ears exceptional.

Friday, March 24: I began my festival experience a day late with nief-norf, a contemporary music collaboration based in Knoxville that centers around percussion-based experimentation. Going in with this expectation, nief-norf met my expectations. I was skeptical when I saw a full stage set up and only one man standing on it. But, he proved that one man with a snare drum can make you experience Orion’s Belt during his performance of “Constellations.”

While the music was enthralling, it was difficult to focus with the sound of clanging dishes and voices in the background. The Square Room is an okay venue for other musical acts, but when the performance relies so heavily on subtle shifts in dynamics and intricate melodies, its location behind Cafe 4 becomes a huge problem.

Next, I traveled to the Knoxville Museum of Art for a performance by the UT Electro

Acoustic Ensemble. This group of students improvises using acoustic instruments and electronic equipment.

The location of the KMA allowed the group to create a very active, multifaceted performance.

Musicians flowed from the large hall at the back of the museum up into the exhibit rooms on the first floor and back. The instruments pair in each room seemed to correspond with the artwork, and the combination of auditory and visual stimuli enhanced each other.

One of the more interesting aspects of the performance was the variety of objects used as “instruments” and even how the instruments themselves were used by the musicians. One man stood with only a microphone and gave the most literal example of using his voice as an instrument that I have ever seen. And, toward the end of the performance, the musicians one by one tossed their keys onto the ground in front of them to add to the cacophony of sounds winding down in the hall.

Next I switched gears and headed to Jackson Terminal for the second segment of the poetry slam competition underway. This was one of my favorite parts of last years festival, so my hopes were high for the performance.

It began by showcasing three younger poets who were clearly the protégés of the more established slam poets in the audience. All three took the stage like professionals, but the performance that really stood out was a piece a girl and guy

did together about how they met on Tinder.

They addressed the antiquated issue of mixedrace relationships through the common experience of a modern dating site.

The rest of the night’s performers all brought their own style, but the crowd lacked the energy I remembered from last year. It had decreased in number but also in enthusiasm.

To end the night, I headed to what was the main draw for many attendees of this year’s festival — Wilco’s performance at the Tennessee Theatre.

Wilco undeniably put on a good show, with two hours of music and two encores. The experienced band knew their audience and sprinkled in the right amount of interaction, such as when Jeff Tweedy tipped his hat to the crowd to elicit a collective scream after the line “What was I thinking when you said hello” in “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.” And, of course, the band’s performance of “Art of Almost” drew a standing ovation from many in the crowd.

What made the performance, however, was the lighting and stage set.

The band opened in the woods at twilight, encased in an elaborate forest of trees barely illuminated by the lights. Then, suddenly daylight broke and the backdrop projection of a clouded sky shone behind the band. The variation in lighting on the trees and in the sky throughout the show gave each song and moment a unique mood and provided an ethereal, dreamscape

atmosphere for the audience.

Saturday, March 25: I started off Saturday with Horse Lords at The Standard, and this four-piece jam band had me wanting more cowbell by the end of their set.

With their two drum sets forming the foundation for each piece, Horse Lords mastered repeating measures with slight variations each time to make each song feel like a perpetual crescendo.

After a brief break, to take advantage of Sweet P’s catering at the Big Ears headquarters in Jackson Terminal, I headed to the Mill & Mine for Steve Lehman and Sélébéyone.

I arrived a little before 8 p.m. eager to see this collaborative album performance by Lehman, a world renowned saxophonist, and two rappers Gaston Bandimic and HPrizm. However, I ended up waiting until nearly 9 p.m. for the performance to start.

I didn’t seem alone in my confusion while myself and other audience members watched the musicians go through what felt like interminable sound checks. As we waited in an area roped off about 50 feet from the stage, a man to my right lamented rushing through his dinner, saying, “I choked down salmon for this.”

By the time the performance began, ready skepticism had replaced my earlier eagerness, and I was prepared to be the toughest critic.

Fortunately, Sélébéyone proved me wrong, and I quickly realized why many were calling their self-titled album one of the best of 2016.

The musician’s fusion of jazz and hip hop alongside electronica and dance music sounded unlike anything I had ever heard. Bandimic and HPrizm each brought their own sound and the two complemented each other along with Lehman’s saxophone. The much more driving, harsh passion of Bandimic’s Sengalese rhymes were off set by HPrizm’s more fluid, melodic tone.

I very reluctantly left before the performance had concluded in order to catch Henry Grimes at the Bijou.

Grimes’ performance was what you might expect from a man decades into his jazz career.

He played with a stoic, unbroken concentration and, with his band, created an easy melding of sounds.

Between the cello, drums, flute and Grimes’ standing bass, the quartet composed a series of primal, raw pieces that made you feel like Grimes had discovered music’s ancestral soul and the bass was its heartbeat. They received a standing ovation, and I headed back toward Old City.

On my way, I encountered two surprises: a film projected outside of Mast General Store showing cityscapes, a shifting night sky and the flurry of a dressing room all accompanied by live musicians and Mayor Madeline Rogero.

Rogero was on her way to watch the film projection and said that her favorite performances so far were Wilco and My Brightest Diamond.

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Henry Grimes, 81, standing tall with his double bass as he performs with his band at the Bijou Theatre on Sunday night.

She emphasized the importance of expanding the festival’s local range and said that “it keeps getter better.”

“This one guy said to us, ‘You know people are really nice here. I mean really, really nice here,’” Rogero said. “I think this is turning a lot of people onto Knoxville and all that we have to offer. Big Ears is great for us, and Knoxville is great for Big Ears.”

DJ/Rupture’s performance at The Standard hosted more big names, including Ashley Capps, in the audience. Although it didn’t start till after midnight, the DJ’s mix of club beats kept the crowd’s energy high while they danced.

Deerhoof ’s appearance at the Mill & Mine, however, was the highlight of the night. This San Francisco group stepped onto a stage with very minimalist equipment and no set, but they used every inch of the space during their full-body energy performance, leaping, spinning and head banging across the stage.

Although they have been around since the mid-’90s, Deerhoof was clearly a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. The band members were visibly having the time of their lives on stage, and their enthusiasm brought the audience up to their level.

About halfway through the show, lead vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki led the crowd in a “midnight exercise,” asking the audience to raise their hands and mimic her movements as she shouted out “right, left, right,” “freeze” and “scream.”

Deerhoof ’s energized show was the perfect conclusion to the night.

Sunday, March 26 I ended my Big Ears experience with the second half of The Magnetic Fields’ album “50 Song Memoir,” an album composed by founder and lead vocalist Stephin Merritt that chronicles each year of his life. Since I caught the second half, Merritt took myself and the rest of the audience through the ‘90s and into the 21st century through the perspective of a cynical musician.

The Magnetic Fields’ performance felt like a story-telling session set to music and illustrated by film. Merritt laid out the details of his life with candid humor and a self-deprecating bass from a stool set within a bedroom. His band members surrounded this set in a semicircle and a screen hung above the stage to display animations, footage, images or text to visually present Merritt’s stories.

Between 35 cent bagels, multiple heartbreaks and poverty in New York City, Merritt sang about the tragic life of an artist in an increasingly reflective way throughout the album.

He ended the performance on a light note again with a song proclaiming “everyone is someone’s fetish” and that he has found love once again.

Overall, The Magnetic Fields’ performance captured everything that Big Ears hoped to present: original music, compelling visuals and an artistic mind.

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ARTS&CULTURE

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

New yoga club seeks to relieve student stress Hannah Overton Copy Editor

The life of a college student at UT is typically busy to say the least. A heavy workload can quickly lead to high levels of stress, but one club on campus aims to help students manage their stress levels and be healthier at the same time.

Elyse Kolbaba, a senior in communications studies, founded the increasingly popular yoga club at UT after her mom suggested she begin practicing yoga herself.

“I never gave (yoga) the time of day since I had so many other things to do. I’m always on the go, and it’s tough for me to sit still and get rid of the never-ending to do list in my head when I need to,” Kolbaba said.

“I’ve learned that teaching yourself to calm down and be still may be difficult, but it is the best thing you can do for yourself.”

After her mom’s suggestion, Kolbaba searched for yoga on VOLink and was shocked when did not find it.

“So I looked into starting the club since yoga has become so mainstream and it is so beneficial to college students with our

UT yoga club Kayla Smith • The Daily Beacon stress levels especially.”

Kolbaba was just a beginner when she started the club but wanted something to hold her accountable and find a way to meet new people. So she met with advisors, gathered IDs of people who were possibly

interested, wrote a constitution and eventually got the club approved.

“Since the start of the club, I have learned so much about myself, the way UT works and yoga— it’s been an amazing experience. I only wish I had done it sooner,”

Kolbaba said.

Kolbaba is excited for the future of the yoga club as the group has grown quite a bit since she first founded it.

“We started with five of us doing yoga in my living room and just had 34 students at our first meeting in HSS,” Kolbaba said.

“We received nearly 140 signups at the Fall Fair last Friday so I think people are really excited when they find out about us.”

Kolbaba wants to spread the word about the club around campus for those who might not know it exists. She believes everyone can benefit from yoga club for multiple reasons — relaxation, exercise, flexibility and just wellness in general.

“I think students especially need yoga with our stress load.”

The goals of UT’s yoga club are simple: de-stress, increase wellness and allow for students to get involved.

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it … Whether you’ve never practiced yoga before or are an extreme yogi, all are welcome,” Kolbaba said.

The yoga club meets in HSS 203 at 8 p.m. every Wednesday. The mission of the club is to cultivate an interest in yoga and its health benefits. All students are welcome.

ARTS&CULTURE

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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New Mexican restaurant provides budget-friendly flavor Jenna Butz

Special Projects Editor

SoKno Taco Cantina is situated on a corner in South Knoxville that doesn’t quite fit the Mexican restaurant’s vibe.

There is a Kenjo gas station across the street and Round Up Diner, where a homestyle meal is barely more than $5.

The intersection is surrounded by modest single-family homes and churches, and the warehouse, minimalist vibe of SoKno Taco Cantina would fit better in Happy Holler or just right downtown.

Regardless of the location, though, Knoxvillians will travel for new foods, and when I went in Monday night, the parking lot was full and the outside patio was packed. My friend and I were seated quickly inside an interior that boasted plenty of tables in an open concept.

Right away, I was impressed by the cantina’s prices. Other taco spots in town can run upwards of $15+ for tacos with little or no sides, but SoKno Taco Cantina’s taco platter was $9 for two tacos with whichever meat the customer ordered, kidney beans smothered in

queso, Mexican rice topped with pico de gallo, chips and salsa. My friend and I both decided on the taco platter with one chorizo and one carnitas taco each; and for a dollar more, we each added a small side of queso to our meals.

SoKno Taco Cantina also boasts an impressive craft beer list that also had the right price. I ordered a Bell’s Two Hearted Ale for $4.25. It would have cost closer to $7 downtown.

Our food came, and we were both amazed by how much food $10 had gotten us. I covered my beans and rice in the different hot sauce options and dove in.

For the sides, the kidney beans in queso took the cake. SoKno Taco Cantina makes their queso with a mix of melted queso and smoked gouda cheeses with chorizo, and to add it on top of some slightly refried beans was a solid move on their part. The rice didn’t stray too far from traditional preparation, the tortilla chips were typical restaurant style and the salsa was just a solid, mild red sauce.

The meat of the tacos, though, was by far the star of the meal. The carnitas were juicy and tender with a great smoky

SoKno Cantina’s Mexican cuisine comes under impressive prices in an unexpected setting.

Jenna Butz • The Daily Beacon

flavor, while the chorizo had that great traditional flavor that’s made it a favorite in Mexican cuisine. Other meat options included blackened cod, diablo shrimp, grilled steak and chicken among a few others, and I have every intention of going back to try them.

Despite what worked in the meal, though, what I really missed was some spice. One of the best parts about

Mexican food is the spice, and SoKno Taco Cantina could have stood to mix in more cumin or chile powder. That’s not to say the food wasn’t good, but without queso or cilantro, it was a little bland.

Overall, the price was right for the neighborhood (and the college student budget), but as SoKno Taco Cantina grows, I’d hope to see a little more pizazz and flavor in the food.

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ARTS&CULTURE

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Like flowers in spring, vinyls return to Knoxville McNeeley Moore Staff Writer

What is the importance of vinyl records and record stores in the modern age of Spotify and iTunes?

“The importance? A different listening experience entirely,” Magnolia Records store owner Carey Balch answered.

Balch’s store, Magnolia Records, owned alongside his business partners Paxton Sellers and Steve Green, opened their doors early this April. North of downtown Knoxville, just past Old City next to Public House, the yellow building features a logo with a magnolia flower reflecting the title. Inside, the trio offers handpicked vinyl from new independent artists to collectable classics.

Stacks of vinyl copies line the aisles and walls for visitors to browse through and explore. The genres widely vary from jazz to indie rock and beyond. Although the selection is wide, Magnolia Records promises that all the records will be far from the mainstream titles one might find in a typical music store. There’s nothing that’ll be on the top 40 charts.

Instead, the smaller collection is intentional. Each record is placed there for a reason, according to the owners.

Magnolia Records wants to highlight a high quality, well-thought-out, harder to find vinyl selection. It’s a quality over quantity mindset the owners strive to achieve.

There’s also a growing CD collection, although vinyl is certainly the focus.

The idea for Magnolia Records started following the closing of the popular vinyl warehouse, Disc Exchange, last year. The three owners all worked at the Disc Exchange at one point in time, which was a foundation for their knowledge of vinyl and the vinyl business.

Balch was working at a recording studio down the street when he had the idea to open a record store in the basement, reflecting record stores he greatly admires in music powerhouse cities such as Nashville and Asheville. Then, he approached Sellers.

“At the time, I was discussing opening a store as well,” Paxton said.

The two put their heads together and brought Green along, who works at the local concert venue, the Mill & Mine, and started planning for Magnolia

Records.

The store opened at the time of music festival Big Ears and has drawn in a variety of music lovers. Despite the opening at a time that draws many visitors to town, Balch mentioned that the store really draws in the Knoxville community as well.

“The record store really benefits the music community,” Balch said. “It’s tremendous. The community offers us loads of input. We try to reflect their unique ‘do it your own way’ mindset, and pull from different people in the community.”

“

We try to reflect their unique ‘do it your own way’ mindset, and pull from different people in the community.”

Carey Balch, store owner

To the owners, this music community is the kind promoting that different kind of listening experience Magnolia Records strives for. Magnolia Records wants to be a part of the answer to those seeking that different experience, Balch said.

“It does depend on the listening experience you want,” Balch said. “If you want to drive in the car and just listen to background noise, it’s going to be different for you. But for vinyl lovers, it’s a different approach.

“There are people seeking that different approach in record stores, as records fly off the shelves.”

ARTS&CULTURE

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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Local photography professor opens traditional darkroom McNeeley Moore Staff Writer

Jenna Butz

2016-17 Special Projects Editor

The new Knoxville Community Darkroom reintroduces the traditional art of film photography to the local community.

The darkroom is a non-profit for artists to create and be educated on the art of oldfashioned print work.

As the organization’s mission statement reads on their website, “The Knoxville Community Darkroom, KCD, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center whose mission is to educate our local community about film photography and traditional film processes as a means of artistic self-expression.”

The darkroom aims to carry out this mission in multiple ways. First, it work with students, offering on-site and traveling workshops to introduce students to the basics of film photography. It also volunteers across the community to teach the basics of general photography. By focusing on education, the darkroom’s goal is for “participants to feel empowered to go forward and create their own

body of work,” as stated on its website. Most of these events or partnerships wrap up with a gallery exhibition at the darkroom space.

In the actual darkroom space, Knoxville Community Darkroom offers classes, meetups, critique nights and workshops. There is also a gallery space for darkroom members and community artists to showcase their work.

“We are very focused on growth, both in terms of memberships and also in the services and classes that we would like to offer,” darkroom vice president Jacob Long said. “We are working very hard on putting together classes and workshops that our members and the community have asked for. We want to be a part of the vibrant Knoxville arts community. Ideally ,we would like to be the hub for photography and give something back to the community that means so much to us.”

The idea began in 2015, when Lisa Ellis Flanary, creator and president of the Knoxville Community Darkroom, heard about community darkrooms in Nashville and Asheville.

After research, she discovered most states had several and decided Knoxville needed one too.

Flanary believes such a place will help engage artists in traditional photography, as opposed to a day and age of photography that is almost entirely digital and online.

“Using film is more of a craft than digital,”

Flanary said. “You have your literal hands in the chemistry. Rather than digital, the images look different, they have more depth.

In digital, you can take 200 images and hope one turns out decent. In film, it’s intentional.

You have a limited number of exposures, and the art happens in the camera, not a digital afterthought.

“You have to think the image out with time.”

Long agreed, saying that the community darkroom gives artists and photographers a place to gather, share tips and tricks and create their art.

“Many people ask us if a darkroom is still an important part of photography in the digital age,” Long said. “The answer is yes. Even at the collegiate level, the darkroom is still highly valued as a source of valuable information for learning photography. Many professional and hobby photographers still shoot and process film to make prints in the darkroom. darkrooms have been in use since the inception of photography in the early 19th century, and they are here to stay.”

As for the community, Flanary, who teaches photography at Carson-Newman, looks forward to seeing students learn in the context of the darkroom.

“Students who start out in the darkroom

will benefit by the thought process it takes, and eventually be better photographers,” Flanary said. “For those who may be in the rut with digital work, film will give them a different perspective. I hope many younger people discover they actually prefer film.”

Apart from the students, Lisa also hopes already established photographers of all kinds will come together in such a context.

“I have expectations the darkroom will be a center for local photographers, those who work in any type of medium, really,” Flannery said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of photos they take or how. I want it to be a community.”

The Knoxville Community Darkroom’s grand opening was March 31, and it is located off of Homberg Place on Kingston Pike. This May, they’ll have their first gallery show featuring member’s photographs created there.

“I’m really anxious and looking forward to May and to see what the member’s have created,” Flanary said, who mentioned she hasn’t seen anything the photographers have created in the darkroom yet. “We’ve only been open 10 days, but I’m already excited to see what people have made.”

Learn more about the Knoxville Community Darkroom and their goals and missions for the art community at theknoxvillecommunitydarkroom.org.

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ARTS&CULTURE

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Market Square businessman to detail jail time in new book Courtney Whited Copy Editor

Visit Market Square in Downtown Knoxville on any given night and find yourself surrounded by activities, restaurants, bars and more. The popularity of the area today is evident from film viewings in the summer, Shakespeare on the Square and the skating rink in the winter. However, this was not always the case.

“A sizable chunk of the seed-money which revitalized Historic Market Square came from an illegal weed, which makes for a pretty good historical anecdote if you’re ever giving a walking tour in Downtown Knoxville,” Scott West, who with his wife, Bernadette West, bought up a majority of the property and began invigorating the area, said.

West’s book, “The Crook Books: Scott West’s Recipes for Disaster,” chronicles his time in both Blount County Jail in Maryville, Tennessee, and Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, and was published in 2016.

“I was ready to publish as soon as I got out of prison in 2010, but my family encouraged me to wait a few years until the world caught up with my pretty strong opinions,” West said.

“So, on the 10-year anniversary of the very memorable date when hundreds of DEA, IRS and armored police officers kicked in the doors of our homes, seized our assets and sent us off to the Big House, I published the first in the series of Crook Books.”

The book’s website states that the story is “one of the largest cases of the IRS” and “is told through humor, poetry and original art in a book that encourages you to think about our world in fresh ways,” and readers are encouraged to “read it on the toilet.”

“I challenge orthodoxy constantly,” West said.

With the subtitle “Good-Intentioned Bad Guys,” the book focuses on West’s division of people into four categories: goodintentioned good guys, good-intentioned bad guys, bad-intentioned good guys and bad-intentioned bad guys.

“Bad-intentioned bad guys are the criminals that steal your TV, assault and kill people. They victimize others.

Whereas good-intentioned bad guys are good people that break bad rules. Put another way, who is the better person, someone who follows the rules and only does things to benefit himself or a person who breaks rules and helps many others in the process?”

West said, explaining his theory.

West cited Harriet Tubman and her history as a member of the Underground Railroad, as well as Oskar Schindler and

his saving of Jews in Nazi Germany, as members of the good-intentioned bad guys community.

“So sometimes being a bad guy is quite good,” West said.

West was sentenced to 75 months; he spent six months in the Blount County jail before spending four years in a federal prison camp in Alabama.

“Steel and concrete. No sunlight ever, no windows, no TVs, no time outside. The fluorescent lights were never turned off. We had oatmeal for breakfast, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and beans for dinner every day. Very little entertainment other than the occasional fight,” West said, describing his time in Blount County Jail.

“There were generally about 60 guys in a Pod designed for 40 which increased stress, and usually inmates had to sleep on the concrete floor in a plastic ‘canoe’ as there were bunks for only 40.”

The federal prison camp, although not a maximum-security prison, was a lonely and rough time for him as well.

“The idea of our prison system being humane and civilized to me is pretty nonsensical,” West said.

“Imagine if you were given a choice, we break your fingers or you do 25 years with no parole in a very ‘civilized’ prison.

Someone else will sleep with you wife, and your kids will call someone else Dad, and your parents will be dead and buried when you get out,” West said, further explaining the most difficult part about serving time.

“How civilized is that? Most of us would take torture with a foreseeable release before we’d take 25 years in a hole, any day.”

This being said, West was determined not to waste any of his time behind bars, and writing was a way to “work through quite a bit of emotional baggage.” “(Writing) forces us to channel the chaotic thinking, racing thoughts that a lot of us experience when we are in pain or feel lost into a narrative we can share with other people,” Kristi Havens, assistant director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English, said.

Bridget Sellers, a senior in creative writing, agreed that writing is a way through which people can work out the events unfolding around them.

“On the simplest level, writing is meditative. It’s an activity that engages you and doesn’t really support a distracted mindset,” Sellers said.

West, at first, figured that the type of people reading his book would be collegeaged students, like Sellers.

“Challenging orthodoxy is what young, smart idealistic people do,” West said.

However, he also noted that “once Hippies, now capitalistic entrepreneurs”

Scott and Bernadette • Both photos courtesy of Scott West were a group that he thought would enjoy the book and what it has to offer.

“Nowadays, though, I think these books are way more universal in readership,” West said. “I believe that conservatives and progressives alike are annoyed by the crushing weight of stupid rules and laws and appreciate a voice that challenges the hypocrisy in so much of our herd thinking.”

So, armed with a degree in creative writing from UT, West spent his time writing his experience in the form of his three volume series, of which “Good Intentioned Bad Guys” is the first volume, and poetry.

“The chip I had on my shoulder became a series of entertaining books which others could read and hopefully gain something from,” West said.

What does he hope people gain from his writing?

“On my computer I have written three things, which are actually all the same thing: simplify, declutter, focus,” West said.

“So, to your readers I say, choose the best of the ideas you love, doing that which inspires you, and then keep at it until you succeed. This is no substitute for persistence.”

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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CAMPUSNEWS

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

Local protest aims to prevent Knox county sheriff from joining deportation program Kylie Hubbard

Asst. News Editor More than 50 people gathered for a rally and march to Market Square Monday afternoon beginning outside of the Knoxville City County Building to show solidarity with Knoxville immigrants.

The event was to protest the 287(g) jurisdiction application Knox County Sheriff Jimmy Jones did, which allows state and local officers to enforce federal immigration law. If approved, Knox County would be the first in Tennessee to sign up since Davidson County did not renew the program.

Jones previously applied for 287(g) status in 2013 but was rejected by the Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency largely due to the disapproval of Knoxville residents.

The event’s co-sponsors were ACLUTN, Comité Popular de Knoxville, Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, the Allies of Knoxville’s Immigrant Neighbors (AKIN) and the Tennessee Immigrant and

Refugee Rights Coalition from Nashville.

Nationwide, more than 100 organizations participated in a day of action Rise Up! May 1 event. Mary Ann Reeves, member of AKIN, said the event has local significance.

“This is a particularly onerous program,” Reeves said. “It racially profiles residents of our community, diverts local police resources to perform federal immigration duties, destroys public trust in our police and costs the taxpayer incredible amounts of money.”

Jones has not publicly commented on the issue but has been quoted on his intentions to “stack violators like cordwood in the Knox County Jail” until a federal agency takes notice. While a similar program was instituted in Nashville, it has since opted out of the program along with other big cities.

“Sheriff Jones is one of the first sheriffs in the country who have reapplied for the 287(g) program,” Reeves said. “We hope to bring light to this horrendous action.”

Residents gathered shortly after 4 p.m., joining in chants such as “287(g) is not welcome in Tennessee” and “a nation united will not be defeated.” Members in the crowd

played drums to draw attention to the protest, and bystanders gathered to watch.

Joseph Kwon, policy coordinator at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights coalition, said that despite the noise, the goal was peace.

“We are not here to antagonize anybody,” Kwon said. “We are just here to voice our opposition peaceably.”

The chants were followed by brief stories of those affected by President Donald Trump’s recent immigration ban policies. The speakers told others in the crowd about their fears and want for more unity in the community.

“When immigrants are afraid to interact with their local police ... then it is a big problem for the entire community because they are less likely to report crimes and be modernized,” Kwon said.

To represent unity, protesters joined together to march to Market Square and continued with their earlier chants. Bystanders watched as they walked to Market Square.

“We just want Knoxville to be a welcoming community to all immigrants and refugees ... where we can all thrive,” Reeves said.

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MOVING FORWARD continued from Page 2 “That’s a good pacing to get to sample around with longer-form stories and other things besides just the day-to-day in print,” she said. “You can have tiny little things and longer things, and just have a more well-rounded experience.”

While the Beacon’s main function is to provide relevant, accurate, timely and well-written news to UT’s campus, it — like any other student group at a university — is chiefly concerned with equipping the students who are involved with the tools they need to be successful after graduation. The reduction in print days and the opportunities for students that it brings with it, McClelland said, ensures just that.

“If you understand social media, if you can take video, if you can edit video, if you can work your way around a camera and know how to write a news story, you’re going to be more valuable to that news organization,” McClelland said. “What we’re trying to do is prepare students for anything they might face in terms of a news related job, and the experience that we give them will provide access and training they need to make those kinds of shifts into the professional world.”

Alexander Holcomb contributed to this article by interviewing Rachel Wedding McClelland.

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

MEN’S TENNIS

Woodruff tabbed as men’s tennis head coach Tyler Wombles

Sports Editor For Chris Woodruff, a dream has become reality.

The 44-year old was named head coach of the Tennessee men’s tennis team on Friday, culminating a journey that started in Knoxville as well.

“This has been a dream really,” Woodruff said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more than growing up here and playing here.”

Woodruff was raised in Knoxville and played collegiately for Tennessee, lettering for the Vols in 1992 and 1993. He earned All-American honors in both seasons and is the only Volunteer to have been crowned NCAA singles champion (1993).

Woodruff won two event titles: the 1997 Canadian Open and the 1999 Miller Lite Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, as a professional player. He earned a singles ranking of No. 29 worldwide in January 2000.

In 2000, Woodruff reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and competed in the Davis Cup, helping clinch the United States’ victory over Zimbabwe.

After retiring from the professional game in 2002, Woodruff joined Tennessee’s coaching staff as an assistant. He was promoted to associate head coach in 2006.

He succeeds Sam Winterbotham as head coach. Winterbotham was fired earlier this month by athletic director John Currie after Tennessee recorded a 13-14 record in 20162017.

“Working with Sam (Winterbotham) for eleven years, we forged a great partnership,” Woodruff said. “He made this university a much better place for the time and effort he put in.”

As an assistant coach, Woodruff coached

Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese to three national championships in two seasons, with the duo’s effort in 2014 marking Tennessee’s first NCAA doubles championship in 34 years.

Woodruff recruited 56 players in 14 seasons for the Vols. He has also coached players from 19 different countries.

“To our former players, alumni and everyone who has been affiliated with Tennessee Tennis, we will have a successful program,” Woodruff said. “We will be outstanding in the classroom, gentlemen. And we will win championships.

“This place is forever etched in my heart. I grew up here. It’s the springboard for who I am today, both in how I developed as a player and who I have become as a man.”

Tennessee has already found success with another former tennis player turned head coach, Alison Ojeda. The first year coach took the women’s tennis program to a 19-12 record this past season, including an appearance in this year’s NCAA tournament.

“Looking forward, I’ve gotten to know Alison Ojeda, the women’s coach,” Woodruff said. “I’ve known her for a really long time. I think she and I will do great things here.”

Currie expressed excitement in adding Woodruff to the university’s list of current head coaches.

“Like each of you, I have high expectations for our tennis program,” Currie said. “While it’s easy to say that this man needs no introduction, that’s not appropriate for Chris Woodruff. For a quarter century, he has optimized the spirit of quality and excellence of Volunteer tennis while representing UT and his hometown of Knoxville with class and dignity on the world stage.

“He is prepared for this moment…I know, and the people that helped interview Coach Woodruff feel very strongly that he is absolutely the right person.”

SPORTS

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

MEN’S GOLF

Nevin transitioning to team play Damichael Cole

Asst. Sports Editor In collegiate golf, teams bring six players to the tournaments: five to the team portion and one extra golfer for the individual portion.

Rhys Nevin, a freshman golfer from Cheshire, England, has participated in three tournaments at Tennessee, but he has never participated in the team portion.

However, this weekend, Nevin will have a chance to take advantage of an opportunity he has been seeking.

Nevin will be a part of the five-man team that the Vols will take to their tournament in Florida this weekend.

“To break into the team makes me want to play well even more than usual,” Nevin said.

Before coming to Tennessee, Nevin enjoyed a good deal of success in Europe. Some of his accolades included placing runner-up at the 2014 Daily Telegraph Junior Championship, earning third place at the 2015 Henry Cooper Junior Masters and winning the tournament title at the 2015 Northern England Country Championship.

His impressive play was a part of the 2016 class head coach Jim Kelson is very high on, calling it “one of the strongest recruiting classes” in his 24-year coaching career.

Coming from England, the adjustment to American culture has not been difficult for Nevin.

“His first couple weeks he had questions, and I tried to guide him a little bit,” teammate Lorenzo Scalise said. “He has done very well in his transition.”

Nevin loves the food, the places and he is surrounded by good people, which help make the shift easy for him.

A weird twist to this is the relation of Knoxville to Cheshire; according to Nevin, Knoxville “wasn’t too different” from home.

“American food, I like it,” Nevin said. “The steaks, the BBQ and being down south as well is

Rhys Nevin Madison Nickell • The Daily Beacon

nice.”

This relatively smooth change has made it easier on the golf course, and it actually has him primed to take advantage of a golden opportunity this weekend in Florida.

While at home during the break, Nevin worked on his game with his coaches and wanted to improve his play for the spring semester.

In addition to applying what he learned with his coaches back home, Coach Kelson has also been important in Nevin’s improvement.

“My game is a lot better now than it was in the fall,” Nevin said. “Hopefully it shows this week.”

As a golfer, Nevin has been praised by his teammates for his great putting stroke on the greens. With only three tournaments under his belt, experience will be critical for him going forward.

Coaches and teammates have shown the confidence they have in Nevin, and Coach Kelson has helped Nevin believe that he can have a Top10 finish this season.

Now progressing, Nevin is looking to seize the moment. He didn’t struggle in his move to America, so it’s clear that he isn’t afraid of this moment.

“His spot on the team after he competed as an individual last week, he deserved that and I think he is going to do very well,” Scalise said.

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

SPORTS

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

Currie ready to lead UT athletics Trenton Duffer

Sports Editor Within moments of the announcement of John Currie’s hiring as the new athletic director at the University of Tennessee, Vol fans made it known exactly how they felt about the new hire.

Whether it was Twitter, Facebook, radio shows or hand-written letters, Currie’s reappearance in Knoxville left certain fans of the program disgruntled.

But Currie welcomes the opinions – even the critical ones.

“We’d always rather have passion, regardless of whether it’s up or down that day, than apathy and people that don’t care,” Currie said in his introductory program on Thursday, March 2.

Currie should be used to that “passion.” After working as assistant athletics director at Wake Forest in 1998 and 1999, Currie returned to UT in 2000 as the assistant athletics director for development and was later promoted to associate athletics director for development in 2002.

However, Currie got off to a fast and successful start while working at UT. While providing oversight for the men’s basketball program, Currie was in direct management of fundraising, marketing, ticketing, media and public relations and the internet and broadcast offices, all of which raked in $84 million a year in revenue and gifts.

In 2006, he helped secure a $50 million gift to the university for academic and athletic needs, the largest individual monetary gift in Tennessee history. Giving to the athletic program at Tennessee more than doubled while Currie was here, going from $19.5 million in 2003 to $41.6 million in 2008.

Currie also helped mastermind the $200 million plan to make renovations to Neyland Stadium and helped implement new student season-ticket football sales in 2008. In 2004, regular-season football sales implemented by Currie helped the Vols to a single-game attendance record of 109,061.

Renovations to multiple athletic buildings at UT were also due largely in part to Currie’s leadership. Spearheading the construction project of the Pratt Pavilion basketball practice facility and the $36 million renovation to Thompson-Boling Arena, Currie implemented revenue models to fund both of the projects without any outside funding from state or local government, university-derived support or tax dollars.

Individual-named gifts that included the $4 million aquatic center, $2 million softball stadium, $1.5 million soccer stadium and $2 million baseball renovations were also received while Currie was at UT. The Day Golf Practice Facility was also planned in Currie’s last year.

But in 2009, Currie left Tennessee to become the new director of athletics at Kansas State University.

Chancellor Beverly Davenport and new athletic director John Currie Altaf Nanavati • The Daily Beacon The hiring of Currie almost came out of the blue, but it’s a decision that new UT chancellor, Beverly Davenport, is completely in favor of.

“This really was a time, an effort and a common goal, from the beginning, to find the best person for Tennessee, and we truly believe we found someone who meets all of those criteria that we were looking for,” Davenport said.

Davenport added that her first impression of Currie was that he was “honest, transparent and high energy” and that he has a “strong history” with UT. “He thrived in that role,” Davenport said.

“When John picked me up at the airport, he had – in his front seat – the state of Tennessee and what does it say? ‘I will give my all for Tennessee today.’ So today, and always, we are going to give all for Tennessee.

“He served me out of a Tennessee glass, he had orange all over his house, and I said, ‘Wow, this guy really loves Tennessee,’ and it reassured me that we had found the right person.”

While at Kansas State, Currie had multitudes of success in the financing department. In Currie’s eight years at Kansas State, the university raised more than $200 million in cash contributions for athletics – more money in that period of time than the previous 48 years combined.

Kansas State’s $46 million in cash contributions raised in the 2014 fiscal year nearly quadrupled the annual total prior to Currie’s arrival.

“One of the things we did in that process was just get out there with the fans,” Currie said. “There’s some similarities. Tennessee’s got the Big Orange Caravan and K-State’s got the Catbacker Tour (promoters of university athletics), so we got out and about and really worked, and we also had to re-earn trust … One of the ways we did that was being transparent, being

very accessible.”

Currie also hinted at some possible changes coming in the near future for Tennessee.

“We’ll do some things here over the next little bit from an athletics’ perspective to ensure that the Tennessee faithful and the whole Tennessee family feel like they have a good opportunity to share their personal feelings,” Currie said.

Although his past successes are impressive, Currie’s newest stint in Knoxville won’t be an easy one. One of the criticisms fans have of former athletic director Dave Hart was the dissolving of the “Lady Vols” namesake for all women’s athletics programs at UT except the women’s basketball team.

Although Currie didn’t outright come out and say changes were coming, his past acknowledgement of the importance of women’s athletics on campuses could be a good sign for protesters of the name change.

“I do passionately believe in how the University of Tennessee under Joan (Cronan) and others has been setting the example for intercollegiate athletics through the years,” Currie said.

Currie will take over as athletic director on April 1, 2017 – which also happens to be his 46th birthday. With energy and a plethora of past successes, Currie’s reign could be monumental for Tennessee.

“This is an unbelievable day for the Currie family,” Currie said. “When the chancellor pulled out that piece of paper after a few hours (of meeting), and all I could think about was (General Neyland’s) Maxim No. 2 … Play for and make the breaks, and when one comes your way – score.

“So I pulled out a pen and signed that thing as fast as I could.”

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

ROWING

Rowers Voysey, Pearson combine friendship, competition McKenzie Sherman Contributor

For rowers Jesselyn Voysey and Katherine Pearson, the sport that they love has become a way of life. Both knew when beginning the college process that they wanted to take their passion for the sport one step further and began the search for a school that would fit their academic and athletic needs.

Voysey, a senior majoring in journalism and electronic media, has not always rowed. This season is only her fourth year participating and the way Voysey got her start in rowing is quite unique in her eyes.

While attending Orange Coast community college in her home state of California, she was approached by a rowing team member, and it went from there.

“I played soccer all the way up until college,” Voysey said. “My first week of school somebody on the rowing team was like ‘You should try rowing you’re really tall.’ I didn’t really know anything about it, and so I joined, and here I am.”

She knew her next step after her two years going to school in her home state was going to involve rowing somewhere, and she started

to acknowledge her desire to compete at the Division I level.

Although Tennessee was quite far away, it ended up in the crosshairs of her sight as a good fit.

“I was looking at different schools and I really didn’t know a lot about Tennessee to be honest.”

Voysey said. “The coaches asked me to come on my official (visit), and when I came here it was so different.”

Moving from California to Tennessee was a big change, but it ended up being just what she was looking for.

“I thought Tennessee would probably be the biggest change I could possibly do,” Voysey said.

The comradery, a community feel and excitement built around sports mixed with a high level of school spirit were just a few things at the top of both Voysey and Pearson’s lists of favorite things when on their visit to Knoxville. It helped the pair make their decisions to attend and brought them to the level they are today.

“Coming here gave me the opportunity to get a good education and to row so I was really excited about that,” Pearson, a junior majoring in hotel and restaurant tourism, said. “When I first visited I also got the opportunity to go to a football game, and I was just amazed at all the

school spirit around athletics ... so that got me really excited and gave me another reason to want to go here.”

A school with a great fan base and the wellknown “sea of orange” did aid in both decisions, but looking deeper in that it was not all about the football Saturdays that are known and loved.

“I love our boathouse on campus,” Voysey said. “It’s super convenient and it’s actually really weird to have that. A lot of schools have to commute a pretty long drive to their boathouse, so it makes it really convenient.”

With Pearson having been a rower since her sophomore year of high school, the sport to her is “beautiful.” Rowing has also aided in the development of her time management skills throughout her journey as a Vol and given her the opportunity to continue doing a sport that she loves.

As student-athletes, both know the high demands, and at times, it can be difficult. But it is something that has helped them to develop into better students, athletes and people in general.

“Rowing in college has helped me with balancing my life because we practice 20 hours a week and have meetings and other requirements throughout the day and then class,” Pearson

said. “So it’s really helped me learn about time management, balancing and organization.”

Both Voysey and Pearson have high hopes for the remainder of the fall season. Going into the spring season, where competitions will be more conference based and bring a bigger sense of rivalries, the pair also hopes for success.

Pearson sees the sport as unique and beautiful because although it is 100 percent a team effort, it also requires a strong individual dedication and commitment to always push yourself during competitions.

“Everyone has to be perfectly in sync, and once you get that and all eight of us are rowing in sync, and you can just hear the ore locks going in together and the blades going in together – it’s just an amazing feeling,” Pearson said.

Along with being in sync, holding your team members accountable and pushing them harder in practices and out on the water is something that Pearson sees her team doing and knows that will pay off in the long run when it comes to finishing races and accomplishing team goals.

“We could be the best of friends on land, but once the work starts we know how to improve each other,” she said. “I think if we just keep pushing ourselves more and more, we’ll have a lot more competitiveness with other schools and

SPORTS

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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SWIMMING & DIVING

Small impressing early in college swimming career Taylor Crombie Contributor

Tennessee freshman Meghan Small has made a splash since joining the swim team last fall.

She wasted no time and picked up her first two career wins in the Volunteers’ second meet of the season in the 200-yard backstroke (1:56.86) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:00.63), both of which qualify for NCAA B-cut times. Last weekend against Georgia, she trimmed her time in the 200 backstroke down to 1:55.64 and her 200 IM down to 1:58.31, keeping herself in the conversation for Tennessee top performers week after week.

While many athletes can be described as intense and, at times, inconsistent, Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich says Small is different.

“She’s not somebody that is particularly fiery or volatile, she just brings a really steady attitude and a really steady work ethic,” Kredich said.

Small did not start swimming competitively until she was 13 and says that transitioning from club swimming to swimming as part of a team at UT was definitely something that required some adjustments.

“I think coming from club swimming, you focus more on yourself and that aspect of the swimming world,” Small said. “Coming to a team where it’s not “I” anymore, it’s all about us being together, and the points are not just you winning. It’s to swim for your team, not just yourself.”

The training and meet schedule on top of being a college student was another huge adjustment she had to make.

“The concept of a dual meet has been the biggest challenge,” Small said. “To be able to go fast in the middle of the week — after classes — is a new thing for me, but I think all of the freshmen have definitely handled it pretty well.”

And her teammates agree that she has adjusted well to those changes. Senior Colleen Callahan also swims in the breaststroke and individual medley events and has had the chance to watch Small’s progress closely since the two train together.

“It’s great to have her as a training partner in a lot of our IM sets,” Callahan said. “She definitely made a great transition into the team. She’s a great positive force in practices; it’s been great having her.”

Small has earned SEC honors twice in her short career. She was named SEC Swimmer of

the Week after winning all three of her events in Tennessee’s meet against Auburn in November.

She posted two NCAA B-cut times with her 1:56.01 finish in the 200-yard backstroke and 4:13.56 in the 400-individual medley. She also finished the 200-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 1:48.03.

Most recently, she was named SEC Freshman of the Week for her performance in the meet at South Carolina on Jan. 6. She was one of three female Tennessee swimmers to win two individual events at that meet, taking the 200 freestyle (1:48.71) and the 200 backstroke (1:57.77).

She credits having strong upperclassmen influences like Callahan to her success early in her career.

“Patricia Forrester and Colleen (Callahan) have definitely taken me under their wing,” she said. “Colleen, from more of a training aspect, pushes me every day in practice; and then Trish, more outside of the pool. She definitely helps keep not just myself, but everyone happy and just brings such a positive attitude to practice.”

Following the Vols’ final home meet of the season against Georgia, Coach Kredich named Small as one of a few Tennessee swimmers who has really started to hit her stride in the January meets and is very pleased with the progress she

Meghan Small Adrien Terricabras • The Daily Beacon

has made this season.

“She’s been just a joy to work with,” Kredich said. “She’s really patient and she’s very studious. She works hard in the water. As much as anything, she’s just really steady and consistent.”

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

FOOTBALL

O Captain, My Captain — Vols’ four captains ready to lead Trenton Duffer

2016-17 Sports Editor When Butch Jones announced at this year’s Orange and White game that the Vols were going to have four permanent captains for the 2016 season, there were a lot of confused faces in Neyland Stadium.

Jones had announced that he had a “big decision” set for the Orange and White game, and there weren’t many who could have assumed that it would be this.

“We have something very, very special here and nobody should ever take this for granted,” Jones said after the Vols’ Orange and White game on April 16. “It’s amazing because when you welcome people from other areas of the country, whether it’s recruits, whether it’s media members, whether it’s family members — it doesn’t matter.

“When they come here and they spend time within the walls of our football program and they’re around our players, they’re around our fans, they sense the excitement.”

The four players named — Joshua Dobbs, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Cam Sutton and Alvin Kamara — each bring leadership and skill, among other things, to the table.

Josh Dobbs, star quarterback: The story as to why Joshua Dobbs was chosen as a captain is a simple one.

He’s the starting quarterback and face for the football team. A leader when he’s not on the field playing, this year, Dobbs could put his name in the UT record books.

“We’ve put in a lot of time throughout the spring, the winter, the offseason and the summer,” Dobbs said last Sunday, Aug. 28, during practice. “We’ve grown as an overall offensive unit … We are definitely able to do different things, shift up the game plan week to week and keep defense off their heels.”

Coming into the 2014 season, Dobbs was just a redshirt third-string quarterback. Justin Worley handled the starting job while Nathan Peterman was the backup.

After Worley got hurt, Peterman got the starting nod to help the ailing Vols against rival Alabama. Peterman went 2-4 with 10 yards in the first half and was soon replaced by Dobbs, who came in and threw for 192 yards with two touchdowns on 19-32 passing. Dobbs also ran the ball 19 times for 75 yards, the most a Vols’ quarterback had at that time since Tee Martin ran for 81 yards in Sept. 1998.

After the Alabama game, Dobbs became the Vols starter and immediately made his presence known.

The next week against South Carolina, Dobbs orchestrated a fourth-quarter comeback against the Gamecocks after trailing 42-28 with under five minutes left in the game. Dobbs would toss two quick touchdown strikes to tie the game before Aaron Medley kicked home the gamewinning field goal in overtime.

Dobbs finished with over 300 yards passing and nearly had 500 yards of combined offense in that game.

“It keeps the defense on its heels when we’re able to have a balanced attack,” Dobbs said after the iconic win against the Gamecocks in overtime.

Ever since then, Dobbs has been an anomaly for the Vols team.

This season isn’t any different. Dobbs has earned second team All-SEC honors and even some Heisman talk.

And Dobbs is ready for the season.

“There’s been a lot of growth,” Dobbs said. “It’s a night and day difference than when I came here. It’s great to see the depth we have on both sides of the ball … The college football season is crazy.

No one ever knows when their name will be called, so everyone must be prepared to play.”

Jalen Reeves-Maybin, veteran linebacker: Reeves-Maybin is the Vols’ Will (or weak side) linebacker.

A native of Clarksville, Tennessee, Reeves-Maybin was a part of a talented 2013 recruiting class that included firstround draft picks Vernon Hargreaves and Laremy Tunsil as well as 2015 Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry.

Although he was highly touted by NFL Draft experts after last season ended, Reeves-Maybin decided to stay at UT to finish his senior season, saving his introduction into the draft for next year.

“I told myself I was going to be a professional college football player this year,” Reeves-Maybin said earlier this month.

“When it comes to taking care of my body and keeping maintenance on my body, I’ve been fortunate to have my degree. I might as well put all my time into football and build myself as much as I can.”

Reeves-Maybin is coming off arguably his best year at Tennessee. The senior had career highs in tackles per game, sacks and combined tackles, including an NCAA-high 21 tackles against Oklahoma last season.

See CAPTAINS on Page 42

Josh Dobbs in an interview during the Franklin America Mortgage Music City Bowl on Dec. 30, 2016. Adrien Terricabras • The Daily Beacon

Jalen Reeves-Maybin, veteran linebacker Alex Phillips • The Daily Beacon

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

FOOTBALL

New football coaches excited to get to work Rob Harvey

Managing Editor

With an important season coming up in 2017 for the Tennessee football team, this offseason the team has focused on building an elite coaching staff.

In total, the Vols have made six coaching changes this offseason.

On Tuesday, March 7, the three newest additions, Kevin Beard, Brady Hoke and Walt Wells, talked about their new positions on the coaching staff and how they are adapting.

Walt Wells: Out of the three new coaches, Walt Wells is the most familiar with Tennessee; for the past year he has been an offensive quality control assistant. On Feb. 27, Wells was promoted to offensive line coach.

Wells said his past experience at UT gives him a leg up in recruiting compared to the rest of the incoming coaching staff.

“That (having been here before) gives me a chance to do more recruiting to be quite honest with you,” Wells said on Tuesday. “Because I understand the terminology — we were in the room all last year and had a great room, and we still do. So, with the new stuff we’re doing,

“

I love being around those guys. My wife gets mad because 2:25 is my favorite time of day because I get to be with those kids.”

Brady Hoke, defensive line coach

it’s good to learn that quickly but then move on to some of the other things I’ve got to do.”

Wells comes in with over 21 years of coaching experience as an offensive line coach and coordinator. Before UT, Wells was at Eastern Kentucky (1997-2002, 2015), New Mexico State (2014), South Florida (2013) and Western Kentucky (2003-2012).

Wells will be replacing Don Mahoney, who joined UT when head coach Butch Jones started in 2013.

As spring practice approaches, Wells will be working with an offensive line that lost just one starter from last year and has a lot of depth. With all of that depth at his disposal, Wells will be looking at some position battles in the spring.

“I think the biggest thing that we need to do up front is all of the above, strength, continuity is a big thing and become one,” Wells said. “We need to settle in on some positions, but we’ve got tons of competition so it’s going to be hard to do that in the spring.”

Along with the returning players, Wells will also benefit from the arrival of freshman Trey Smith. Smith, rated the number one prospect by ESPN, was an early enrollee, meaning that he will be available to participate in spring practice — giving him a head start over the other incoming freshmen.

Wells is excited to coach a player like Smith.

“He will start off at left tackle, and then we’ll see where he goes as the spring goes on. There’s a lot of pressure on Trey, but he is a young man that is willing to take that. He’s mature, and he’s come in and worked well. I am looking forward to seeing him compete,” Wells said.

Brady Hoke: With much of the UT football staff coming in with little coaching experience at big time schools, adding Brady Hoke to the staff was a huge get. Hoke comes in with defensive line coaching experience, which is his new position at UT, and 12 years of head coaching experience, including four years as head coach of Michigan.

Hoke’s 12 years of head coaching experience at Michigan (2011-2014), San Diego State (2009-2010) and Ball State (2003-2008) is something that gives him an obvious advantage and which greatly benefits the UT staff.

However, despite having been a head coach before, Hoke is excited to be back as a defensive line coach.

“It’s fun being with those kids,” Hoke said on Tuesday. “That’s why as a head coach I always coached something on the defensive line… I love being around those guys. My wife gets mad because 2:25 is my favorite time of day because I get to be with those kids.”

Through his 33 years of coaching experience, Hoke has already gotten to know Butch Jones, even trying to get Jones to join his coaching staff while he was head coach at Ball State.

“He (Butch) was a heck of a coach with Mike Debord at Central Michigan at the time. You would see him at clinics, and recruiting, all those kinds of things. It’s probably been 16 years of knowing each other,” Hoke said.

Hoke will be the coach of the defensive line and the associate head coach. He will be replacing Steve Stripling, who will be the director of football program development for the Vols. Hoke will have his hands full — the Vols defense ranked 11th out of 14th in the SEC last year.

Hoke said he looks forward to improving that statistic with some of the returning staff and the new defensive coaches.

“It’s just not going to be me (trying to help them improve), believe me,” Hoke said. “Another year of the kids with Bob Shoop and his defense and with Thig (Tommy Thigpen) being a guy who has been here. I can’t say enough about Thig or Charlton as the secondary coach.”

Kevin Beard: While Hoke and Wells come in with many years of college coaching, Kevin Beard is the novice of the bunch. Beard enters with just three years of coaching experience, with only one of them being as a wide receivers coach, the spot he will be in charge of at UT. Beard, despite only three years of coaching experience, has spent time at some elite schools such as Miami (20142015) and Georgia (2016). He had just taken the wide receivers coaching job at Florida International on Dec. 5 before deciding to take the Tennessee job just a week ago.

While at Miami, Beard connected with now offensive coordinator Larry Scott, who at the time was the interim head coach at Miami for the last six games of the 2015 season. Now, Beard said he is excited to reconnect.

“It’s definitely a great opportunity,” Beard said on Tuesday. “Working with him back at Miami, he was always a pro.

He’s a professional. I’m excited for what

“

I don’t recruit players just to come to my school. I recruit players to educate them on the process.”

Kevin Beard, wide receivers coach

he is about to do.”

Beard will be bringing some personal knowledge thanks to his playing days, as well. He was a wide receiver at Miami from 2001-2003, where, in 2001, he won a national championship.

While at Miami as a coach, Beard played a large part in recruiting and even recruited some players who are now at UT, including sophomore wide receivers Brandon Johnson, Tyler Byrd and Latrell Williams and offensive lineman Marcus Tatum.

Beard said the recruiting aspect is something that he loves about his job.

“In this process and in this profession — recruiting — some people like it, some people don’t. And I love it,” Beard said. “The reason why I love it is because you build relationships with young men and families. I don’t recruit players just to come to my school. I recruit players to educate them on the process.”

Now, as spring practice inches closer, Beard said he has one goal on his mind.

“At the end of the day, we want to get better fundamentally,” Beard said. “We’ll be able to look at the film on day one and see the things that we struggle with…

That’s the things we’re looking to get out of spring ball — that we want to have fundamental integrity.”

Spring practice for the Vols begins on March 21 and will conclude with the Orange and White game on April 22.

SPORTS

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

SOFTBALL

39

FOOTBALL

Dormady, Guarantano headline quarterback race Tyler Wombles

Sports Editor

Jenna Holcomb Madison Nickell • The Daily Beacon

Holcomb flying into the spotlight Damichael Cole

Asst. Sports Editor When you’re the new person on a team, you have to carve a role and create an identity for yourself, and freshman Jenna Holcomb, a California native, had to fly in to get to Tennessee.

But that’s not the flying that has caught the attention of her coaches.

As an outfielder, Holcomb is asked to cover a lot of ground. She has already made several highlight-worthy plays through 15 games this season.

“One of the things that she’s done very well, and it’s too bad that we haven’t been on television very much; but she makes a lot of diving catches in the outfield too that not a lot of people see,” co-head coach Ralph Weekly said.

Along with the impressive ability she has displayed on defense, her bat has done some damage as well. Holcomb started this season with a 10-game winning streak, the longest by a freshman to start a season in program history.

A lot of the quick adjustments Holcomb has made can be attributed to the great coaching she has gotten and the tremendous talent that she had already had before attending Tennessee. She came in ranked as a top-20 player in the country in the FloSoftball Hot 100 list for the class of 2016.

Many of her other accomplishments include being named first team All-Sunset league as a sophomore, junior and senior. These accomplishments came after earning second-team honors as a freshman.

As a highly recruited player hailing from California, Holcomb was heavily courted by other schools like UCLA, Stanford and

Washington.

The decision ultimately came down to UCLA and Tennessee.

“They were recruiting me; and I wasn’t sure just because it was so far away, and I was kind of nervous about it,” Holcomb said. “I visited it and loved it; just the big sports school and how awesome the fans are and everything.”

Being so far away from home, the family atmosphere played a huge decision in her reason to come to Tennessee. Along with Holcomb, Tennessee has three other players who are originally from California.

Holcomb is a former high school teammate of fellow outfielder Megan Geer and was also a club teammate of Brook Vines and Taylor Rowland on the So Cal Athletics, a club team that reached the Premier Girls Fastball National Championship game in 2014 and 2015.

“Everyone has been very welcoming, especially coming like super far away from California,” Holcomb said. “It has been really nice having like a family atmosphere and support system that Tennessee gives us.”

Holcomb’s experience in high school and top-level summer ball is what has allowed her to start 13 of the first 15 games of her career. However, college is a different game, so Tennessee is a new challenge to Holcomb.

Holcomb has not been afraid to go out and make the diving catches and fly across the grass for her teammates.

“Megan Geer and the seniors have really kind of set the tone for all of us and what they expect in the outfield,” Holcomb said. “Just to go all out all the time and not be afraid to make a mistake, and if you do, make an aggressive mistake.”

Only a freshman, Holcomb will have several opportunities to make a diving catch and drop the jaws of fans.

With forty-six seconds remaining in the 2016 Music City Bowl in Nashville, Vols quarterback Joshua Dobbs took the snap from center Coleman Thomas, stepped back a few feet and dropped to a knee.

That play ended up being the final one of the 2016 Tennessee Volunteers football season, as head coach Butch Jones opted to have the clock run through its last ticks.

Jones, visibly ecstatic about the team’s 38-24 win, was hoisted up by his players in celebration on the sideline. For just a moment, it seemed his team could revel in victory, with no thought to what lies ahead for the next season.

Now, Jones and his staff must work towards solving the question that is on the forefront of the majority of coaches, players and fans’ minds.

Who will start at quarterback for the Vols 2017 season?

Dobbs, an Alpharetta, Georgia native, ranks third in Tennessee history with 9,360 total yards. He also holds Tennessee records for career rushing yards by a quarterback (2,160), career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (32), single-season rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (12 in 2016) and single-season rushing yards by a quarterback (831 in 2016).

Jones began evaluating his potential options during practice leading up to the Music City Bowl, giving those on the outside a glimpse into what the coaching staff looks for in a starting signal-caller.

“We’re looking for consistency,” Jones said. “Who manages the line of scrimmage? Who makes plays? It’s not just in team settings. Everybody’s being evaluated in individual drills, routes on air, everything that goes into it. All of our quarterbacks are very competitive and very driven.”

Jones has five names to toss around in the conversation: junior Quinten Dormady, who backed up Dobbs the past two seasons, redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano, a highly-lauded player who has never seen action in a college game, redshirt sophomore Sheriron Jones, redshirt sophomore Zac Jancek and freshman Will McBride.

Dormady and Guarantano are seemingly the early frontrunners for the spot.

Jones has appeared in just one game for

the Vols, completing 1 pass for 2 yards in the late stages of a 55-0 blowout of Tennessee Tech last season. Jancek has never played in a game, having been buried in the depth chart throughout his Tennessee career, and McBride is merely a freshman who may redshirt in the 2017 season.

The competition will be fierce.

Dormady was a fan favorite as a freshman in 2015, eliciting visions of pure pocket-passing perfection in the imaginations of Vol fans when he would take snaps in garbage time. Despite Dobbs’s freakish athletic ability and his knack for playmaking, he often struggled with accuracy in the passing game, opening the door for hope for what Dormady’s pro-style label could bring to the equation.

And after biding his time as the No. 2 quarterback, Dormady is ready for his chance to start.

“I was waiting a couple of years behind Josh (Dobbs) and, you know, learned a lot from him, so now I am going to get my opportunity to showcase what I can do,” Dormady said during Tennessee’s National Signing Day event. “I am excited.”

Dormady said that he will need to “just come out and be consistent and do the little things and rally the guys” in order to win the starting gig.

But it may not be that simple.

Jarrett Guarantano arrived in Knoxville with fanfare to spare. The dual-threat playmaker reminds many of Dobbs, despite not having taken a single snap yet in his young career. Plus, Butch Jones’s spread offense is built around a mobile, athletic quarterback.

And Guarantano certainly fits the bill.

Guarantano, who also spoke to the media during Tennessee’s National Signing Day Event, said that he spent a large amount of time learning from Dobbs this past season.

“I learned a lot,” Guarantano said. “I learned the pressure of being an SEC quarterback, the pressure of being a Tennessee quarterback. It all comes into account.

You can be the most hated guy, and you can be the most loved guy.

“But (Dobbs) did a great job over his career, and I thank him for helping me out and taking the time out that he did for me and making me a better player and person at the same time.”

See QUARTERBACK RACE on Page 43

4

CAMPUSNEWS

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

Morgan Mickey Hunter campaign sweeps SGA election Staff Report On Thursday night, April 13, the 2016-2017 SGA election season came to a close, ending the reign of SGA president Carson Hollingsworth and vice president McKinsey Patterson and welcoming a new team of executive leaders.

With 2,548 votes and 38.51 percent of the overall votes for SGA president, Morgan Hartgrove became UT’s SGA president-elect. Michael “Mickey” Curtis won vice president with 3,111 votes, and Hunter Jones won student services director with 5,957 votes.

“We won by a landslide, so that is an amazing feeling,” Hartgrove, senior in College Scholars, said.

“I couldn’t have asked for better people to run with, and even against honestly. They were amazing.”

Phillip Newsom came in second for SGA president with 1,745 votes, Beverly Banks came in third with 1,420 votes and Antonio Butler came in fourth with 792 votes. For SGA vice president, Emily Dickey came in second with 1,918 votes, and Kiersten Marsh came last with 1,459 votes.

Jones ran for student services director unopposed, earning 90.03 percent of the vote, since there were 659 write-ins for student services director.

There were 6,616 total votes this year, compared to 7,557 votes in 2016 — a 941 voter decrease.

Candidates speculated that the lowered turnout could have been the result of poor timing, with voting falling on the same week as Spring Recess.

Independent presidential candidate Antonio Butler said the process also felt shorter this year.

“There were a lot of different factors that can play into that (lower voter turnout), and also people are still being apathetic towards SGA and what they can do,” Butler, junior in supply chain management, said. “Michael, Morgan and Hunter ran for a reason. They think they can change that next year.”

Marsh, sophomore in political science, agreed that the timing of the elections may have negatively affected turnout, but admitted that a lack of student interest in SGA — something her campaign “LIT” actively sought to fix — could also be to blame.

“I think a lot of students felt disenfranchised, and that’s what we hoped to accomplish in the campaign that we ran is making sure that students didn’t feel like that,” Marsh said. “For next year, I hope people will start being engaged and start noticing SGA and start taking part because it does matter, and it can make a difference.”

Greater campus engagement as a means to battle this apathy is something Morgan Mickey Hunter also emphasized during their campaign. Curtis, junior in nursing, said that as next year’s vice president, he hopes “to represent (students) the best way that we can.”

“It’s bigger than us,” Curtis said. “Although we were trying to get a lot of people to vote for us, we were really trying to get people just to vote in general, just to know that they matter, their voice

matters.”

Candidates from the other campaigns are also focused on what the newly elected SGA representatives will do for the upcoming student body.

Despite his campaign’s loss, Newsom, junior in accounting, said he is looking forward to seeing what comes next for SGA under Hartgrove, Curtis and Jones.

“I’m sure they believe in their goals and their vision as much as we have,” Newsom said. “And, I’m optimistic about what our student government can do for our campus in the future.”

Butler said he plans to work outside of SGA next year to fulfill his campaign promises. He will work as the president of the Multicultural Mentoring Program in the fall and said he will hold the newly-elected SGA members accountable for their campaign promises. “(I hope) that they stick to what they say they did. Regardless of what Morgan said, whatever comes up in SGA next year, that they stick to the students that they represent and that they fight for all students — not just students that are inside of SGA,” Butler said. “Also, that they go to war for students and they don’t let administration or state legislators decide what they do. So, I’m going to hold them accountable for everything that they do, especially Michael Curtis and especially Morgan Hartgrove.

“I’m going to hold all of them accountable for everything they do and everything that they say they’re going to do on the campaign trail.”

As a sophomore, Marsh could run for an executive position next year, but she said she unsure about her plans. For now, she said she is happy for the senators in their campaign that won.

“This is a whole lot. This week has taken a lot out of me, but I’m not going to say it would never happen. Right now, in this moment, that’s not on my radar,” Marsh said. “We wanted to get people in senate who are going to embody our message and keep carrying it on and keep pushing to change senate and make some meaningful change, and I think that they will.”

Out of 57 senate seats, 28 candidates from the Morgan Mickey Hunter also won.

Although Curtis said that tonight was going to be about “relaxation” for the Morgan Mickey Hunter campaign, all three plan to get to work soon establishing an “exec” and adjusting to their new roles in SGA. “Got to get to work to make it better for the students,” Hunter said. “That’s more important than anything is to ensure that we can leave things better than we found them ... I can’t thank (students) enough for all the faith and support you’ve put in us and we look forward to serving each and every one of you this next year.”

Bradi Musil (2016-17 Editor-in-Chief), Megan Patterson (2016-17 Managing Editor), Alex Holcomb (Editor-in-Chief), Annie Tieu (News Editor) and Jenna Butz (2016-17 Special Projects Editor) contributed to this story.

11.97%

2016

38.51%

Morgan Hartgrove

2017

Phillip Newsom

President

Beverly Banks Antonio Butler

21.46% 22.05%

2015

26.37%

Michael “Mickey” Curtis, Jr.

Vice President 28.99%

Emily Dickey Kierstin Marsh 47.02%

Hunter Jones ran unopposed for Student Services Director with a voter turnout of 90.03%.

Voter Turnout

Breakdown of the 2017 SGA results Lauren Mayo • The Daily Beacon

Morgan Hartgrove, Mickey Curtis and Hunter Jones’ initial reactions after announcing their win at the Fort Sanders Yacht Club.

Laura Altawi • The Daily Beacon

40

SPORTS

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

SOCCER

Senior Jamie Simmons leaving it all at the net Damichael Cole

Asst. Sports Editor Jamie Simmons, a senior goalkeeper from Houston, Texas, has faced a lot of obstacles in her career.

However, she never took a “me first” approach.

Jamie Simmons started off her career at The University of Carolina at Greensboro. She spent her first two years at the school. She had two standout seasons; a freshman season in which she had 97 totals saves, fourth in program history and a sophomore year in which she had a 0.77 goals against average, also fourth in program history.

With those kinds of numbers, Simmons was searching for a bigger stage to showcase her talents. In a strange way, Tennessee ended up being the school of her choice.

“It’s actually kind of funny because I left and my parents thought I was going to choose a different school, and I was like, ‘Nope I made up my mind and I’m going to Tennessee,’” Simmons said. “Best decision of my life.”

When she came to Tennessee in 2014, she immediately stepped into a major role in the SEC. She started one game but played in 22 games that season. That one start serves as one

of her best moments and memories at Tennessee as a player.

The game was against the No. 8 ranked Florida Gators in the SEC tournament. The Vols pulled the upset beating the gators on penalty kicks and Simmons played a huge role in that game. She played 110 minutes, which ties for her career high and she had five saves.

Simmons, being the person she is, didn’t want to take credit for that result.

“It was a whole team effort and we rallied through it,” Simmons said about the game.

That attitude is one of the things that teammates will miss about Simmons.

“Jamie is such a positive person,” fellow senior Emily Morrow said. “I’ve loved playing alongside her and having her as a friend throughout college.”

After redshirting in 2015, Jamie Simmons was set to be the starting goalkeeper for her senior season. After starting early in the season, head coach Brian Pensky went with a decision to play both his goalkeepers.

The situation didn’t stop Simmons from being a senior leader and helping her teammates.

“Through the season I’ve been tested. My biggest thing is to try and stay mentally tough and give the team everything I have whether I’m playing or not playing,” Simmons said.

Going into the last game of the regular sea-

son, Simmons has started eight games her senior season and has played in 13.

Pensky never looked at the situation with his goalkeepers as a contest. With two goalkeepers with very contrasting styles, it was all about matching up with the teams they were playing.

He even described Simmons’ ability in a way that isn’t supposed to be humanly possible.

“Jamie is a flyer. Her physical ability to literally fly is special and it’s different,” Pensky said.

Academically, Simmons spent her time as a student-athlete being a nursing major. Knowing that it could be a difficult task, she credited her teammates on helping her out a lot through those times.

“Going through this and being a studentathlete together it’s kind of like a bond. You go through hard times together with soccer, school and balancing it all it’s not easy,” Simmons said.

As the days of her senior season begin to wind down, Simmons can now get to recap what it was like to have the experience of being a starting goalkeeper for the Tennessee Vols.

“Playing at Tennessee is an experience you can’t really explain,” Simmons said. “It was such a humbling experience.”

The senior goalkeeper will always have a place in Tennessee’s history. She had 94 saves in 2014, which was sixth in school history. Also as of now, her 135 career saves is seventh all time

at Tennessee.

With those numbers, there’s no doubt that Jamie Simmons has left it all at the net that she has been protecting.

“I’m leaving here, and I don’t have regrets,” Simmons said. “I gave it everything I had.”

Jamie Simmons •File Photo

VOLLEYBALL

Treiber ready to take the next step for volleyball team David Bradford Staff Writer

The plight of a first year student athlete normally includes observations from the sidelines and limited playing time.

“Freshmen come in and they have to get used to a lot of different things in the college game,” Tennessee volleyball head coach Rob Patrick said. “Whether it’s the speed of the game or the new offenses or the new defenses or techniques that we train.”

There are exceptions to the rule. For Tennessee volleyball, last season’s turnaround was not only a result of players gaining experience and added depth, but also due to the addition of middle hitter Erica Treiber.

The Michigan native didn’t need much time to adjust to the college game. By the end of the season, Treiber’s name appeared high on the stat sheet in a number of categories, finishing third on the team in kills (247), first in hitting percentage (.354) and first in blocks (131). As a

result, she was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.

Treiber never expected such a high level of personal success so early on, but knew that a team that had won a grand total of 17 games over the previous two seasons could find a way to “go far.”

“I knew we had a lot of talented players,” Treiber said. “Regardless of the record from the previous years, I knew this team could so something big.”

Now that the skill and potential of Tennessee volleyball is no longer a secret, Patrick expects Treiber to expand her arsenal by becoming a more versatile offensive player and remaining a dominant force on the net.

“I’m really looking to improve my blocking game from last season,” Treiber said of her personal demands for the upcoming season. “And I want to look to continue building my leadership role on the team.”

Patrick named Treiber one of the team’s captains, meaning she’ll help fill the leadership void left after setter Lexi Dempsey graduated last spring. It’s a tall task for a sophomore to

handle, but Treiber became a natural leader on the team during play last season, using this summer — as well as her inclusion in a leadership program — to further establish herself high up on the team’s hierarchy.

“A big part of being successful on the team is off the court,” Treiber said. “Our team chemistry this year has really picked up and we’re gonna do really big things based on our relationships and how we interact with one another.”

The interaction between Treiber and her teammates has already taken shape, becoming an almost unbreakable bond. Sophomore defensive specialist Brooke Schumacher is one of Treiber’s closest friends on the team and offers nothing but praise for one of the team’s most respected leaders.

“Erica has been my roommate since freshman year and we’ve really gotten close with her,” Schumacher said. “Her leadership has grown a lot … and individually, she’s a great girl, friend and teammate.”

Treiber’s success as a freshman also provides a valuable perspective for incoming freshman players this season.

Patrick has always stood by the philosophy that a player’s class doesn’t equate to playing time or performance level.

Freshman outside hitter Tessa Grubbs has already experienced Treiber’s personable approach to leadership first hand. ”Definitely coming in as a freshman, Erica has really helped all of us a lot,” Grubbs said.

“She’s very personable and I would say she’s my big sister. I know I can go to her for anything because she’s a great person on and off the court.”

Treiber isn’t the flashiest player or personality on the squad. However, she provides an example for first year student athletes — as well as upperclassmen — on the merits of being a hardworking volleyball player on the court and a dedicated student off it.

“She’s only a sophomore,” Patrick said. “But she has a lot of impact on how our team plays and a lot of that has to do with how she is as a person. She has a great work ethic, she’s very coachable, and she’s someone who makes good decisions on and off the court. We’re excited to have her leading this group of young ladies.”

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon

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SPORTS

The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017

CAPTAINS continued from Page 36 Now with his senior year upcoming, Reeves-Maybin is doing everything he can as a captain to make his last year great.

“Eating better, sleeping better, not getting in bed and watching Netflix until midnight,” Reeves-Maybin said. “Those are things I focused on the past, but I can say that I didn’t put everything I had in making sure I stay with those things. This year, I’m gonna try to keep that schedule and stay as professional as possible.”

Cam Sutton, stoic defensive back: One of the more popular players with the fans on this year’s squad, Sutton backs his popularity with a quiet composure.

But the Florida Gators have garnered a few remarks from Sutton this offseason.

The main source of Florida’s mocking comes from Jalen “Teez” Tabor. Since last season, Tabor has made a personal vendetta against the Vols, especially when it concerns Tennessee being the favorite to win the SEC East this season.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the second game of the 2016 NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors, Quincy Jones, another cornerback for Florida, tweeted out “Cavs tripping” to which Tabor replied “they ain’t tripping they just can’t hang, something like UT in the forth lol.”

When Sutton was asked at SEC Media Days about Florida players calling the Vols out during the offseason, Sutton answered with a strong response.

“We don’t really concern ourselves with that. We’ll play it on the field,” Sutton said coldly.

Sutton’s calm demeanor has been apparent since he arrived at UT. He’s started every one of his 38 games played at Tennessee. As a matter of fact, in his second game as a Vol, Sutton returned an interception for a touchdown.

At the Vols’ Media Day, Emmanuel Moseley, who will play the cornerback position opposite of Sutton this year, said that Sutton was like a brother to him.

“He’s really just a grinder,” Mosley said. “You can put any situation out there, throw it at him sudden change, and he’s on it. He never complains. You’ll never see him put his head down. He’s just ready to go at any time.

“He’s just a big playmaker. I’m happy I’ve been able to play with him and let him be like my big brother and show me the way.”

Alvin Kamara, skilled running back: The final Vol listed as a captain in 2016 is likely the flashiest player on the list.

Alvin Kamara redshirted in 2013

at Alabama before transferring to Hutchinson Community College in Kansas for the 2014 season. Kamara decided to transfer from the junior college in 2015 and was listed as the fourth overall JUCO player that year.

It didn’t take long for Kamara to join the Vols staff, and he’s proved to be a great fit since joining the team.

In his first year at UT, Kamara ran for nearly 700 yards and seven touchdowns.

Kamara also had 291 receiving yards with a trio of touchdowns.

Kamara, the only junior on Jones’ list, said at the Vols’ Media Day that he was honored to be chosen and that he likes the maturity of this year’s team.

“We have a group of veterans across the board,” Kamara said. “Our team is mature. When you become that mature, it comes down to a point where you have to own everything you do.”

Kamara, like Reeves-Maybin and Sutton, decided to stay at school for his final year rather than entering the NFL Draft.

Kamara tweeted out “Welp… another year of this college football thing on rocky top.!” two weeks after the Vols beat Northwestern 45-10 in the Outback Bowl.

Now that he’s still at UT, Kamara is ready to help Jalen Hurd with the running back duties. Kamara said that he and Hurd are “as cool as two peas in a pod.”

Running back coach Robert Gillespie agrees.

“Both of those guys respect each other,” Gillespie said to the media after last week’s practice. “The biggest thing is this — they realize they need each other to win. Winning is the ultimate goal for us. We don’t care about accolades, rushing yards and stats.”

Four captains, four different attitudes: Each player brings something different to the table.

Dobbs is the star quarterback that everyone wants to talk to. Reeves-Maybin is the veteran linebacker that’s been here since the beginning. Sutton is the quiet, collected cornerback that lets his plays on the field do the talking. And running back Kamara provides a bit of youth and humor to his vast experience.

Four different players with one goal: winning a championship.

“We look forward to being captains this season,” Kamara said after the Orange and White game. “I think we all see it as a challenge. We have to be better and hold ourselves to an even higher standard.

This is the first time Coach Jones has done this.

“It is a lot of pressure, but it is good pressure.”

SPORTS

QUARTERBACK RACE continued from Page 39 Guarantano played in just six games his senior year of high school due to injury, but still managed to throw for 1,592 yards and 12 touchdowns on 126-of-176 passing.

He also ran for 304 yards and eight touchdowns. The four-star high school standout was rated the No. 4 dual-threat quarterback in the 2016 class by Rivals.com (http:// rivals.com/).

Taller than most around him in high school football, Guarantano featured an accurate arm and a long-striding running style reminiscent of Colin Kaepernick. His Hudl account listed him at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds with a 4.49 forty-yard dash time and a max out of 300 pounds on the bench press and 435 in squats.

Dormady, listed on his Hudl account as 6-foot-4, 210 pounds with a 255 bench and 365 squat, was a stocky, incredibly accurate prep quarterback. Also a four-star recruit in high school, he completed 210 of 369 passes his senior season, compiling 2,893 yards and a whopping 32 touchdowns while also rushing for 261 yards and 5 touchdowns.

While Guarantano currently has no film to evaluate at the college level, there is plenty on Dormady. The junior has played in 10 total games over the course of two seasons, mostly in the waning minutes of blowout games. He has completed 24-of-39 passes for 357 yards and one touchdown.

But, that hardly tells the whole story.

Out of his 138 total career snaps, 98 (71 percent) were plays in which Dormady handed the ball off with 41 (29 percent) of those handoffs going to junior running back John Kelly.

This work between Dormady and Kelly could be an x-factor in determining who

“

I’m very excited I can’t wait for spring ball, and I know it’s gonna be a great competition.”

Jarrett Guarantano, redshirt freshman

Thursday, June 1, 2017 • The Daily Beacon will take the field come September.

Kelly, who won the hearts of coaches and fans alike after stepping up following the departure of running back Jalen Hurd, will almost certainly be the starting tailback next season, and whomever Tennessee’s quarterback is will need to have a strong repertoire with him.

If Dormady’s time on the field with Kelly has aided in developing such a groove between the two players, it could give him a leg-up in the competition.

Dormady has also put in time with many of the team’s other returning talent, completing 13 passes throughout his career to players that will be on the roster next season.

The past two seasons, Dormady completed four passes to sophomore Brandon Johnson, two to sophomore Tyler Byrd and one each to junior Jauan Jennings, redshirt-senior Josh Smith, Kelly, sophomore Marquez Callaway, sophomore Jeff George, redshirt-senior Ethan Wolf and redshirt-sophomore Eli Wolf.

Dormady’s accuracy in the passing game has shown improvement since his freshman year. While most of his game time has been spent during the latter stages of blowout wins, he was on the field for a large part of the home victories against Western Carolina in 2015 and Tennessee Tech in 2016.

Just a few games into his freshman season, Dormady struggled with passing accuracy against Western Carolina. Despite an impressive stat line (6-of-8 passing, 93 yards, one touchdown), only four of his eight passes were accurately thrown balls, based on ball placement and difficulty of receiver to make the catch based on the throw.

However, against Tennessee Tech, Dormady performed better. Ten of his 15 passes in the game were accurate based on those same parameters. While this is still not a great percentage, it does illustrate progression in Dormady’s maturation as a collegiate passer.

Butch Jones’s tendency toward conservative coaching and team management may sway him in Dormady’s favor due to the junior’s age and experience with the team.

But how much weight will those two things hold when compared to the undeniable athleticism and dynamic ability of the young Guarantano?

“I’m very excited,” Guarantano said. “I can’t wait for spring ball, and I know it’s gonna be a great competition.”

When the Vols take the field for the first time on Sept. 4 against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there may still be controversy, but the offseason competition will be over.

There will be only one first-team quarterback.

Only time will tell who that will be.

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The Daily Beacon • Thursday, June 1, 2017