Wednesday, September 13, 2023

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ABOUT THE COVER: Student Jack Mellom leads a tour of prospective students. System President Randy Boyd recently said a new guaranteed admission proposal would help “recruit more of the best and brightest” students.

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Letter from Dean of Students: Common ground

BYRON HUGHES Guest Columnist

It’s a new academic season on Rocky Top, and we are excited to get started. If you are a new student, welcome to the Big Orange Family. If you are a returning student, welcome back and I hope you are excited for new learning opportunities this year.

As a place to start on campus, my office fully understands the reality of our students attempting to thrive and flourish in all domains of life. My team is enthusiastic about the ways they can assist students through efforts of advocacy, support, and mattering and belonging.

From my office window in the Student Union, I often watch our community navigate through the intersection of Volunteer Boulevard and Cumberland Avenue – so many different students walking and intersecting with each other. Even as they all travel together with different destinations in mind, the flow of people continues despite the disruptions of people sometimes getting in each other’s way. For me, it is a symbolic reminder of the potential the UT community offers us, even amid collisions around deep differences.

A new year means new opportunities for us to learn together, live together, lead together

and serve together. In doing so, we are likely to encounter the many ways our identities, perspectives, spiritual traditions or worldviews are distinct from each other. The University of Tennessee believes in the critical need for free speech and inquiry. In fact, the standard for our community is that it “should be a marketplace of ideas for all students and all faculty.”

A place where everyone matters and belongs means that we have to hold space for both agreement and dissent in our community. We do so by valuing the inherent dignity of each person and following the insight of Eboo Patel, who often says, “Living in a diverse democracy means you can disagree on some fundamental things and work together on others.” Life is messy. Life is complicated. There’s no better place than Rocky Top to figure this out … together.

When disagreements don’t go well, you can start with us in the Office of the Dean of Students. We can be a sounding board, point you in the right direction and journey with you through your concerns. Our approach is not to guarantee a particular outcome but to offer care-centered support while preserving the marketplace of ideas that enriches the diversity and access of our modern land-grant university.

There is no one type of student, but my hope is you find community and friends easily and readily. We find differences occur in not only who is represented in our community but also

the experiences they bring which create a stronger UT. Whether you are a first-generation student, someone who wants to learn more about different beliefs and worldviews or a student who wants to dive deeper into your own identity, we understand that our mission as a land-grant university compels us to help you find common ground amongst our collective diversity. Our community and Volunteer spirit are what make us unique and special. Amazing and inspiring individuals like each of you help us succeed. Let’s have a tremendous year on Rocky Top!

Be well – Go Vols!

UT Promise scholarship raises income limit

ALLISON MURPHY Contributor

The number of students who can apply for free college tuition has gone up. In August, the university system raised the income limit for the UT Promise scholarship from $60,000 a year to $75,000. The last increase was two years ago, from $50,000 to $60,000.

More students enrolled in college will help Tennessee reach its workforce development goal of providing 55% of the population with a degree or certificate by 2025. The UT Promise scholarship joins the Tennessee Promise, which provides high school seniors two years of tuition at a community, technical college or some twoyear programs at four-year schools. It also joins Tennessee Reconnect, which does the same and adds some four-year programs for any adult without a degree. All UT campuses except the Health Science Center participate in Tennessee Reconnect.

President Randy Boyd announced the UT Promise in March 2019. The system first gave out scholarships in the fall of 2020 to 1,191 students – 409 of them at the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus. Last year, 425 UT Promise students chose UTK.

The scholarship is paid for by fundraising through a partnership with the UT Foundation and the Ayers Foundation, created by Jim Ayers, the former chairman of FirstBank. UT Promise is a last-dollar award that takes care of the balance left after all other sources of financial aid are applied.

Students are also matched with a mentor, who meets with them three times a semester. They must also complete eight hours of community service each semester. Leigh Morales, UT system director for student success, said UTK students have completed over 2,000 community service hours since 2022.

“UT Promise is more than a scholarship. It is an experience that includes community service and mentorship,” Morales said. “Both of these components help a student become engaged on their campus and in their community, build relationships and connect with resources that help them be successful.”

The university also has two other awards that with the UT Promise make up the Tri-Star Program: the Tennessee Pledge scholarship, which covers tuition, fees, and room and board for those making less than $40,000, and the Flagship scholarship, which supports freshmen from specific high schools for two years.

“This is a school for everyone,” Boyd told the Tennessean in 2019.

He also said the program ensures the university’s mission to provide a gateway to success for lower-income and middle-income residents.

Byron Hughes serves as Dean of Students for the university, a position he has held since 2022. Courtesy of Byron Hughes

UT System President Randy Boyd addresses the Board of Trustees on Friday, June 30 in Memphis. Courtesy of UT System News

As graduate student stipends increase, campus leaders reflect on efforts

ABBY ANN RAMSEY Editor-in-Chief

After being elected president of the Graduate Student Senate in the spring of 2022, George Fields, along with his newly elected vice president Leighton Chappell, set out to talk to UT administration about an issue that had been on the minds of graduate students for months: stipends.

The stipends, which many students must stretch to cover food, housing and other living expenses, is their payment for hours of teaching, research and taking classes.

Now, almost 18 months since those first conversations, the minimum graduate student stipend rate has been raised — a move Chancellor Donde Plowman announced at the end of August, just a short while after the GSS passed a resolution pushing for it in May. Stipends are now $19,401 for nine-month positions — a $2,121 increase — and $25,868 for 12-month positions — a $4,268 increase.

“Though this is a major step forward both in terms of supporting graduate students as they meet their basic needs, as well as a major step forward in our realization that advocacy does work, and university administration is responsive to our calls for help, there is always more to be done,” Fields, a fifth-year PhD student in the department of political science and a now GSS senator proxy for the department, said.

Before efforts for stipend raises officially began, the GSS had previously had success advocating for UT to cover mandatory fees and differential tuition, as well as addressing the need for university housing assistance.

Continuing on that path of making graduate school more financially feasible, Fields and Chappell met with interim Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Allen Bolton in February and collaborated with the graduate school and Division of Finance and Administration to gather data on current stipend rates.

By the end of the 2023 spring semester, members of GSS had had countless conversations with UT administrators and a full resolution published outlining their requests which led to the university’s recent announcement. United Campus Workers also called for a stipend raise with a protest and petition in April, and other groups supported the resolution.

Raising stipends for graduate students is a move that not only reflects the work of people on campus who fill both student and teacher roles, but it also reflects changes in Knoxville as the cost of living has increased dramatically.

“With absolutely no options for on-campus housing, graduate students only have market rentals at their disposal, for which they compete with undergraduate students, new staff and faculty members who have relocated, and ultimately the larger Knoxville community,” Fields said.

Knoxville’s rising costs played a direct role in GSS’s resolution to raise stipends outside of just housing as graduate students also face expenses for food, healthcare, childcare and everything in between. The GSS and other campus advocacy organizations try to find other ways to assist with these costs, but raising pay is an effective step toward dealing with the issues.

When it comes to addressing stipends, Plowman mentioned in the announcement that along with the raise comes a commitment to “establish a practice of regularly reviewing alignment of our stipends.” In Fields’ opinion, this should look like further increases in graduate assistantship stipends and the establishment of cost of living adjustments, going along with rising costs in the city.

“As the economy is ever-evolving, graduate students are some of the most susceptible members of our community who simply cannot afford delays in being able to cover their basic expenses,” Fields said. “The university expects a lot of its graduate students and in many ways, we deliver more than expected.”

The raise, along with the vision of assessing stipends, meets what was outlined in the resolution, but Fields points out that there is still more to be done when it comes to properly compensating graduate students and advocating for graduate students in general.

Fields said that part of that advocacy work happens by collaborating with other student advocacy groups on campus. He also said that continuing to do work even when outcomes feel slow at an institution as large and bureaucratic as UT is still necessary and gratifying.

“The beauty of the work the GSS does is that many members will graduate before the fruits of their labor can be realized and experienced –but we do it anyway,” Fields said. “Many issues the Graduate Student Senate leads the charge on are systematic issues that reach across campus populations. Solutions to these problems are usually slow-moving and face institutional obstacles.”

Chappell, who graduated in May with a master’s in recreation/sport management, also said that the move to raise stipends and continue to prioritize graduate students will prove beneficial to the university as a whole.

“I thoroughly believe with the recent investment, the student experience and University of Tennessee take a giant step closer in being more competitive and unique - in part to being the best,” Chappell said.

And while people still see room for stipends to be increased more and for more advocacy work to take place across organizations, the GSS counts this as a major win for advocating for students.

“I can peacefully say that we did what we set out to do some 18 months ago,” Fields said. “I called Leighton when I heard the news, and I started the call with three simple words: ‘We did it.’ Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, we did, but there is so much left to do.”

The Graduate Student Senate recently passed a resolution that led to the university raising graduate student stipends. Courtesy of Graduate Student Senate

UT Board of Trustees approves new guaranteed admission proposal

JOSHUA JOHNSON Staff Writer

The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees approved a new guaranteed admission proposal at their meeting on Sept. 8. This proposal will affect Tennessee high school students across the state and all four of UT’s campuses.

UT President Randy Boyd presented the proposal in an Education, Research and Service Committee meeting that preceded the full Board of Trustees meeting. This meeting also included the chancellors from UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga, UT Martin and UT Southern.

In an effort to more aggressively recruit the best and brightest students in the state of Tennessee, this proposal will guarantee first-year admission to any of UT’s campuses for high school students who either finish in the top 10% of their high school’s graduating class or achieve a 4.0 or higher GPA. In addition, students who achieve a 3.2 or higher GPA and have an ACT composite score of 23 or higher will have guaranteed admission to UT Chattanooga, UT Martin and UT Southern.

The proposal was discussed thoroughly by the Education, Research and Service Committee, and most of the debate centered around the third leg. It was originally proposed for all four campuses, but the Board and UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman expressed concern about the lack of space and resources available on campus at the state’s flagship university for another major enrollment increase as a 3.2 GPA and a 23 ACT score is below the typical admission standards at UTK.

“It’s the third part that’s making us nervous that we could guarantee admission that we wouldn’t be able to deliver on,” Plowman said. “We don’t know how many students didn’t apply here last year because they didn’t think with a 23 they could get in.”

The chancellors of the three other UT campuses were in full support of all three legs of the proposal, and they stressed that they had plenty of room for expansion.

Boyd’s main focuses with this proposal were to more aggressively go after a shrinking pool of high school graduates, to keep Tennessee’s best students in-state and to provide more opportunities for students at rural and more socioeconomically disadvantaged high schools.

“From a recruiting point of view, we think this will allow us to recruit more of the best and brightest because we’ll already know that they’re accepted, and we’ll be able to send them out notices much, much earlier in the cycle than we do today,” Boyd said. “We believe that being the first one to tell them

that they’re accepted will provide us an advantage.”

President Boyd also stressed the importance of having direct guidelines high school students can shoot for.

“We’ll give hope and a clear goal for students,” Boyd said. “As a freshman in high school, they’ll know what the target is. They’ll know what they need to achieve to be able to enter. We’ll remove the mystery.”

This is not a new minimum requirement to be admitted to any of UT’s campuses. Applicants outside of this criteria will still be considered holistically and admitted. These standards will also be looked over and potentially adjusted every year. UTK adding in the third leg of the proposal in the future when more housing is built — or having different GPA and ACT standards entirely — was discussed but not agreed upon.

This is not a new concept. Some other states across the country, like Texas and Florida, have similar policies in place.

“This will be the greatest decade in the history of the University of Tennessee,” Boyd said. “When they list all of the great accomplishments of this decade, today’s decision will be one of the things that people look back to and say that’s one of the reasons why this is the greatest decade.”

PED Walkway hosts the majority of foot traffic on campus, serving as the main avenue for more than 36,000 students to walk to class. Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. Edward Cruz / The Daily Beacon

Chancellor Donde Plowman speaks on the future of UT Knoxville and its growth at last year’s annual Flagship Address. Thursday Sept. 29, 2022. File / The Daily Beacon

The café that feels like home

Melanie LaFoy, a chef and former UT French professor, recently opened Potluck Café, a restaurant that offers nostalgic home-cooked meals and a relaxed dining experience.

from their store,” LaFoy said.

Down at the road’s bend where East Glenwood Avenue and North Broadway Street meet sits a small brick building housing local businesses. At the corner is a café. Immediately as you enter, a wicker billy goat greets you to your left. Upon your eyes adjusting, you realize you just stepped into a different world — a world filled with a brilliant array of colors and textures, joined with the eclectic ensemble of decor.

Around the open space, people laugh and converse under floating plants. Someone at the countertop bar hums the melody to the music playing overhead. Standing behind the counter is a woman with a whimsical aura who effortlessly spins around to greet you: Welcome to Potluck.

Melanie LaFoy, founder and owner of Potluck Café, started her operation as a pop-up brunch shop in various locations throughout the year in 2022. Commonly seen at spaces like Tern Club and Crafty Bastard Brewery, LaFoy made a name for herself and her food. At the start of 2023, the innovative chef began her journey of finding a space of her own. It was a tricky time as the availability of spaces suitable for restaurants was limited.

On March 22, 2023, LaFoy publicly announced that Potluck Café found its home at 1328 N. Broadway St. This is the previous location of Kava Noble — an ethnobotanical tea room now located on Sutherland Avenue. She worked on the space to ensure doors would be open on the first day of July, decorating the café with lots of items she found from the thrift stores around the neighborhood.

“I did all of it myself. And, you know, I always loved thrift stores and thrifting. I have been into all the thrift stores on the block, and now all the ladies who run them know me. Everything in here is

The inspiration for her menu is a unique blend of French and southeastern cooking — a combination that presents itself in a variety of casserole dishes, including options that fit different dietary needs, such as gluten-free and vegan. Potluck Café serves other classics such as ready-to-go sandwiches, coffee and salads. However, this special eatery offers so much more than a hot lunch.

As an expatriate, band member, former UT professor, mother and chef — to just name a few things — the café‘s owner is just as bright and colorful as the environment she has cultivated.

Native to Maryville, Tennessee, chef LaFoy knows the Knoxville area well and the culture associated with southeastern Tennessee. During her late teen years, she had an opportunity to go to France, where she later found herself returning and eventually living in the European nation.

Both teaching and cooking have always been big parts of LaFoy’s life. After earning her master’s in French literature from UT, she lived and worked in Nantes, France, as a professor at Université de Nantes, teaching poetry and literature while also working at a creperie.

Even when she returned in 2019 before the pandemic as a UT French professor, LaFoy found herself quickly dashing after classes to shifts at Sweet P’s and Good Golly Tamale — something she loved to do with the free time she found herself with during her time at Rocky Top.

LaFoy is excited to share Take & Bake and To-Go Fridge with UT students — two services that partner very well with college life.

The food at Potluck Café catapults you to nostalgic memories of eating with family and friends. For students who ventured far from home, this is a meal that can help with feelings of homesickness.

Heather Ryerson, writer for Inside of

Knoxville, shared her thoughts after having some leftover chicken alfredo lasagna casserole from the To-Go Fridge.

“I think the leftovers are great from a student perspective,” Ryerson said. “Especially when you are trying to save a couple dollars, that’s the way to go.”

Due to Ryerson’s practice of visiting local spots, she has grown aware of what will mark a business for success. She said the most successful businesses are selfaware and community-forward, and they work to do what they can to best benefit the community.

The feeling of community is at the core of this dining experience. Potluck Café’s atmosphere welcomes anyone and everyone to its cozy lodge. From the moment you walk in and take a seat, the café feels like something out of a movie or TV show — that pleasing aesthetic found in fictional places like Luke’s Diner and Monk’s Café come to life. LaFoy identifies the café as becoming a form of a neighborhood spot, as many surrounding residents come into its four walls.

The cafe’s hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays — except

on Wednesdays — and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. On Wednesdays, the café is closed. However, there is still an opportunity to be had. For adventurous students, faculty and staff who want to try something new, there is the Supper Club — a reserved evening where LaFoy draws a featured recipe from a suggestion box.

The Supper Club has two back-toback seating times from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., with only 16 available slots for each. Reservations are done ahead of time and are currently available through direct messaging @potluck. knox on Instagram, but will soon be done through potluck-cafe.com.

LaFoy has come a long way to where she is now, and she has a lot of people to thank for helping make Potluck Café what it is today. Places like Tern Club, Crafty Bastards Brewery and Good Golly Tamale allowed her to use their kitchens to cook during her pop-up brunches.

“Small business people who have been through that process and know what it’s like have been so helpful, and I know I couldn’t get through that on my own,” LaFoy said.

ALEXA-MARIE BELEN MELÉNDEZ Contributor

Owner Melanie LaFoy greets customer at Potluck Cafe’s service counter. Alexa-Marie Belen Meléndez / Contributor

Early hellos and Irish goodbyes: Recapping Moon River Festival

ADAM DELAHOUSSAYE Staff Writer

For a decade now, Moon River Festival has been bringing some of the hottest and most exciting acts from around the world to come perform in Coolidge Park, the communal backyard for residents of Chattanooga.

Attendee Ashton Maguire, a recent UT graduate now living in the city, says it’s only added to his excitement of moving to a new city.

“It’s cool seeing artists from all over come to town to play,” said Maguire. “A lot of times, the concerts in town are local people or other people from Tennessee. So it’s cool seeing this many different acts come together for a festival like this.”

As we began our second day at Moon River in Chattanooga, clouds and overcast were traded for a sun that flooded throughout Coolidge Park.

As the heat rose, so did Chattanooga as music fans gathered right off the bridge for another day of live music and good feeling.

Our first guest for Sunday was our sweetheart from the plains, Kaitlin Butts. The Oklahoman has been stealing hearts all the way from her collaborations with Flatland Cavalry up to the release of her newest project, “What Else Can She Do.”

The cowgirl kicked her spurs into her audience’s side as we galloped through the opening track, “White River.”

As climate and mood playing off of each other seem to be a recurring theme this weekend, Butts brought in a beaming day two with a slew of murder ballads, breakup songs and even a cover of Nirvana’s brooding “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” The words exiting this cowgirl’s lips were far more weathered than the red lipstick would have you believe.

After her set, Butts spoke about her influence and how it’s morphed into her artistry as well as left an impact in the world of female country music.

For starters, it should come as no surprise that Butts is a former theater kid. Murder ballads paired with her all-black getup are enough to prove her knack for showmanship.

“I started singing when I was five years old,” said Butts. “And when you’re five, they put you in ballet and tap, jazz, and I did it for about twelve years.”

On top of performance practice, her roots had a helping hand in creating the artist we know today.

“As I’m doing dance, I’m also listening to a lot of old country, murder ballads and things like that,” Butts said. “So here I am, this little girl doing my tap dance recital to a Johnny Cash song.”

The combination of fear and flair was only spun into inspiration as Butts entered high school right around the time stars like Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert were beginning to make Nashville rumble. Butts says their paving of the path is what drew her to musicianship.

“I was around 15 at the time that there was this huge, female-backed movement coming out of country music that made me feel like I could be that,” Butts said. “So one day I just picked up a guitar and started covering every song I could and eventually writing my own stuff.”

Perhaps her most famous cover of Nirvana’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” comes in the form of a track titled “in the pines” on her newest record “What Else Can She Do.”

Butts says its placement felt as natural as it sounds, which may be accredited to her mother’s ear instead of hers.

“As a musician, everyone’s mom or whoever has a list of songs that they want them to play,” Butts said. “So for her 50th birthday, I took a bunch of those songs to learn and play, and (in the pines) was one of them. I fell in love with it. My band, all these little rock and roll guys fell in love with it. They love those big scary songs. When we were finishing the album, I wanted an ending that let people know ‘Hey, the bad guy dies at the end,’ and it just fit perfectly.”

With a heart as pure and a voice as layered as Butts, even Moon River’s early acts were already booming with energy.

Up next was The 502’s. Their self-described “folk orchestra” sound took little effort to fill the stage as this six piece brought a lighter side of life to their performance.

“We’re the happiest band on Earth for a reason!” said frontman Ed Isola in between saxophone riffs from Joe Capati.

Not only was it blazing hot, but now there was cardio involved as the band and crowd simultaneously divulged into the same groove of life throughout the set. The sun may have been bright, but even it looked dim compared to the energy that glowed off this crew as they deliv-

ered a performance that no doubt required you to wear your boogie shoes from start to finish.

Suddenly, an army of picnic blankets sprawled across the lawn and were laid out in anticipation for the little sister of country music’s royal family, Noah Cyrus.

Naturally, Cyrus entered the stage in a haze of smoke draped in a radiant white dress as a soul that clearly runs in the family booms through Coolidge Park with her drifter’s anthem, “Lonely.”

That soul then lifted us off the ground with the infectiously flighty “I Got So High That I Saw Jesus.” If the look wasn’t enough, the angelic imagery came bursting off the Poplar stage with the flick of a wrist from Cyrus. She certainly had the voice to convince us of such.

As the sun faded, blue lights rose off the Iris stage for Judah & the Lion’s grand entrance back into Chattanooga. Natives of Nashville, Tennessee, the group has amassed a cult following throughout the state.

Almost every other cool dad or recent college graduate had worn a shirt of theirs all weekend to finally let loose to their earth-shaking opener, “Take A Walk.” Immediately hitting the gas and refusing to let up, our crowd that was relaxing on the lawn a few hours ago was now on their feet, resulting in a rumble throughout the park.

An eternally grateful group, frontman Judah Akers took time out of their set to acknowledge the good graces of everyone that got them where they are, including Moon River’s creators Drew and Ellie Holcomb.

Drew was invited on stage, and the two shared a karaoke-esque duet of Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy,” to roaring praise and rowdy feet. They may not have started the party, but

they sure kept it going.

At long last, Hozier entered. The towering 6-foot-6 Irishman strutted on stage as the culmination of a weekend chalk full of acts perfectly in sync with their audience began to end. Hot off the release of his latest project, “Unreal Unearth,” we immediately ripped into the record’s immediate standout, “Eat Your Young.” The rhythm instantly latched into a crowd of raised hands, and the pace kept up with some of the artist’s most formative efforts, “Jackie and Wilson” and “From Eden.”

Like the rest of this weekend’s highlights, Hozier did indeed let us in on multiple facets of his personality. Alongside alternative rock earworms were some of his rawest and most stripped moments to date.

“Cherry Wine” saw the stage light focused only on Hozier and his guitar. Accompanying these stage lights was a sea of phone flashlights — all their holders screaming the words of the song for him. If it wasn’t already evident enough, a warm atmosphere was top priority here at Moon River.

Hozier broke character, cutting the music in the middle of a song to inform the crowd of a person who had just fallen. Almost immediately, event security arrived, and we were back like we never left once it was confirmed everyone is safe. As any concert savant or even general performance fan would tell you, artist concern for fan safety is always a comforting sentiment.

Thus, Moon River Festival 2023 came to a close – one of the shining examples of what live music in Tennessee can be by displaying the market and the tenacity for such an event. This riverside rodeo may be over, but it certainly won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Attendees of the 2023 Moon River Music Festival gather on the grass at Coolidge Park to watch their favorite artists take the stage. Edward Cruz / The Daily Beacon

Kaitlin Butts opened day two of the Moon River Festival by performing hits from her new project “What Else Can She Do.” Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023.

Edward Cruz / The Daily Beacon

Week of 9/11/23 - 9/17/23

Exhibits land at Ewing, Downtown Gallery

said had to be seen in person.

The Weekly Crossword by Margie

E. Burke

“Audacious Black Freedom Dreams” is a digital collage installation by BLACKMAU, the artist duo of Stacey “BLACKSTAR” Robinson and Kamau “DJ Kamaumau” Grantham. The exhibit will be on display at the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture through Oct. 29.

The UT Downtown Gallery is also hosting a solo exhibit of Robinson’s illustrations, titled “Black Utopias: Distractions + Disruptions in Time Space,” through Oct. 21.

Robinson is an associate professor of graphic design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Grantham is a clinical psychologist at the same school. The pair both grew up in New York – Robinson in Albany and Grantham in Buffalo – but only met and bonded over their shared interests of music and art years later.

The exhibit consists partially of BLACKMAU’s DJ set from an Afrofuturism Festival held by Carnegie Hall last year. The other part of the exhibit is made up of digital collages, a technique BLACKMAU often uses, on banners that hang from the ceiling.

Julie Lohnes, director of the School of Art and curator of galleries and collections, said the exhibit speaks specifically to Black communities but also has something for everybody.

“It’s really about the future and how can you imagine being free in the future,” Lohnes said.

The installation comes with 30 books on display, including two of the three that inspired the exhibit: “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama, “Freedom Dreams” by Robin D.G. Kelley and “We Want to do More Than Survive” by Bettina Love.

Robinson also created a series of logos based on images and items from the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University, which Lohnes

“Not everybody’s going to agree with all of our exhibitions, but we want to do something that’s thought provoking, that’s interesting, that might make you think and that speaks to communities around us,” Lohnes said.

The Ewing Gallery also has an interactive part: what Lohnes calls a “making space” where visitors can create art responding to prompts like, “Where are you in space with the works that you see?” and “What’s your favorite piece, and why?” In the three weeks since it opened on Aug. 22, people have filled two walls and a whiteboard with sayings, paper collages and three-dimensional creations. Lohnes said in the past 15 years, art shows have added more community components.

Lohnes has known Robinson since 2017 and said she has learned a lot from him about the community aspect.

“It’s not just you put up the art and you’re done,” Lohnes said. “But how can you bring people into the space to see it and to have some type of reaction?”

Lohnes said drawing and graphic design classes have already met in the gallery. However, she also looked outside the School of Art, to the department of Africana studies and to The Bottom, a cultural center founded by a former UT professor which will host a coordinating workshop.

Shayla Nunnally Violette, head of the department of Africana studies, noted that the field itself was interdisciplinary.

“I hope students are able to draw on concepts in Africana studies, notions of liberation and freedom, that continue to be questions in larger society,” Nunnally Violette said.

The lecture is just the beginning of events, as Robinson will be an artist in residence at UT the first week of October. For details on programming related to Robinson’s residency, you can visit the Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture’s website.

ALLISON MURPHY

Contributor

The view from inside “Audacious Black Freedom Dreams” at the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture on Sept. 7, 2023. Allison Murphy / Contributor

OPINION: OCD is not an adjective. It’s a real diagnosis.

ALAYNA HEIFNER Columnist

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines obsessive-compulsive disorder as “a disorder characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that prompt the performance of neutralizing rituals (compulsions).” Although this definition is accurate, it fails to acknowledge everything a sufferer of OCD endures daily.

Most people with OCD know the frustration of having a casual conversation and hearing the classic, “That messes with my OCD so bad” or “Oh my God, I’m so OCD.” I know I’ve felt that frustration one too many times. The sigh of frustration because your all-too-real disorder is used as a meaningless adjective for someone who likes to be organized.

I certainly do not claim to know what all OCD sufferers experience, nor do I claim to speak for everyone with the disorder. However, I believe I can articulately speak out on why OCD is not an adjective because at just seven years old, I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

So here is a gentle reminder that just because you like your room to be clean and your pens to be color-organized does not mean you have OCD. These miscellaneous organizational tasks do not make your diagnosis any less valid. My room is messy, my pens are not color-coded and I have OCD.

OCD encompasses a vast array of obsessions and compulsions that present differently in every single patient. One thing all OCD sufferers have in common, though, is the obsessions and compulsions that affect our daily lives. In that way, we can all relate.

“People with OCD process their thoughts differently and behave differently from what is considered neurotypical,” writer Julia Simkus stated in a Simply Psychology article. “Their brains show higher levels of activity in brain regions related to planning, judgment, and body movements, leading to obsessions and compulsions.”

OCD is a real disorder with a serious and observable diagnosis. You may not even realize that you are improperly using the diagnosis of OCD yourself. I can confidently tell you that sufferers of OCD do recognize when someone else uses OCD as an adjective.

Medication and therapy can help treat the severity of someone’s OCD. When left untreated, it has the power to consume all aspects of life. When the acronym OCD is used correctly, it can be a helpful tool/di-

agnosis to validate someone’s experiences and symptoms so they may move forward on the path to treatment and recovery. When it is used incorrectly, it can trivialize the diagnosis and may deter someone from seeking help when it’s needed.

I first remember experiencing symptoms of OCD at five years old. I would cry, sitting on the floor retying my shoes over and over until I could get the knot perfect. I remember the sheer exacerbation of my OCD when I started kindergarten, which brought along panic attacks.

Compulsions took over my life for most of elementary school. I was terrified of going to school. Fun sleepovers and sweet play dates added another layer of terror because my obsessions never left me alone.

My obsessions and compulsions defined my day-to-day life. I would lay awake at night with death on my mind. I would walk through life in terror of the next panic attack. My intrusive thoughts convinced me that I was an awful person. OCD kept me from being a kid for many years.

When I was twelve years old, I began my long journey of finding psychiatric medication to treat my OCD - a journey that I’m still on today. Things are a lot better now, but I still live with obsessions and compulsions that affect my daily life and are sometimes difficult to manage.

If any of these experiences or descriptions of OCD resonate with you, I encourage you to seek help through a clinician, therapist or psychiatrist to assess what may be going on. To those diagnosed with OCD who may be reading this, remember that you are not alone.

OCD sufferers, like myself, wish that OCD was as simplistic as wanting to be organized or liking to clean. Every time you utter the phrase “I’m so OCD,” think about how you may be discrediting the very real diagnosis for people who have the disorder. Think about how you are invalidating sufferers of OCD.

So, be careful how you speak about OCD. You never know who around you may be suffering from it since it is not an outwardly visible disorder. Millions of us are not only OCD sufferers but OCD survivors.

Tidiness does not prescribe OCD. Messiness does not disguise OCD.

Alayna Heifner is a freshman at UT this year studying philosophy. She can be reached at aheifne1@vols.utk.edu.

OPINION: The positive impacts of the university’s Green Fee

AUDREY NASH Columnist

College life is expensive. Many fees add up quickly (tuition, housing, dining, etc.), and it’s easy to lose track of where exactly all the money is going. One of these seemingly invisible fees is the Green Fee.

The Green Fee is an additional tuition cost for students at the University of Tennessee. It was established in 2005 by the Student Government Association. Every student pays the Green Fee each semester. In-state students pay $10 per semester, and out-of-state students pay $35 per semester. While $35 may seem like a drop in the ocean compared to tuition alone, the Green Fee adds up quickly.

According to the UTK Office of Sustainability website, the Green Fee collects around $870,000 annually. The last published budget for the fund totaled $1.2 million. So where does all this money go?

The Green Fee was created to fund proj-

ects called Make Orange Green initiatives or student-led directives to create a more sustainable and environmentally conscious campus. I bet you have seen the little Make Orange Green sticker all over campus.

The most prevalent completed project was installing water bottle refill stations throughout campus — each funded by the Green Fee. And it doesn’t stop there. Hand dryers in bathrooms, energy-efficient lighting and dining hall to-go containers are just a few of the Make Orange Green projects that have come about across campus. However, the Green Fee funds more than meets the eye. The fee also goes toward funding sustainable research initiatives, eco-conscious design projects, conferences and pretty much anything else you can think of that has to do with sustainability and the University of Tennessee in some way, shape or form.

The guidelines for the Green Fee spending state that on-campus projects that positively contribute to the university’s sustainability goals will be considered, allowing anyone’s creative submissions to receive funding. Students, staff and faculty should apply to receive funding if they have an idea.

The process to submit a project is simple.

All you need is an idea, which could range from adding a new water bottle refill station to changing the way water is irrigated on campus. Just head to the Office of Sustainability’s website, click “funding opportunities” and fill out your request.

From there, the Student Environmental Initiatives Committee (SEIC) will vote on the request. The SEIC meets about once a month and consists of a majority of students with some faculty and staff. At their meetings, they converse about the best way to spend their funds and which projects should move forward. From there, the projects and initiatives are carried out with the funds generated from the Green Fee.

Although many students may not know about the Green Fee, all students are impacted by its effects every day. The SEIC is always looking for innovative and creative ways to make the university more sustainable.

So if you’ve got an idea, send it in! Help your campus grow more sustainable. Because at the end of the day, that’s what the Green Fee is all about. The University of Tennessee uses student ideas and money to make the university a better, more environmentally friendly place.

Columns and letters of The Daily Beacon are the views of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or the Beacon’s editorial staff.

Audrey Nash is a freshman at UT this year studying sustainability. She can be reached at anash13@vols.utk.edu.

The UT Office of Sustainability recycling truck gets a makeover and is posted to Twitter on July 1, 2021. Courtesy of the UT Office of Sustainability

Tennessee men’s golf wins nail-biter in Visit Knoxville Classic

As play concluded on a perfect Sunday afternoon, Tennessee took home its first hardware of the season from its first home tournament in 18 years.

Tennessee completed a nail-biter of a final round of golf this Sunday in Loudon, Tennessee, at Tennessee National Golf Course. The Vols held onto a one-stroke lead over a surging Ole Miss team.

The tournament began on Friday with solid play and Tennessee claimed a onestroke lead over the rest of the field. Strong play from redshirt senior Bryce Lewis led Tennessee while three other Vols remained even par or better during round one.

“It feels different. It doesn’t really feel like we are at a tournament,” Lewis said of playing at home. “We are staying in a cottage. It’s right off the range. So, it’s nice to be able to play at home and play with all the guys and hang out in the same cottage. It’s pretty neat.”

Day two on Saturday saw the Vols start to pull away and shoot 15-under for the day, growing an overall lead of 22-under. Tennessee led second-place Mississippi State by 12 strokes going into the final round. Four members of the starting lineup shot under par during round two and all sit inside the top 10.

Tennessee’s star golfer Caleb Surratt withdrew from the tournament with an illness, and the team responded to his absence with their play, especially Evan Woosley-Reed.

Woosley-Reed led the team in round two after firing a 64 – tying his careerlow 18-hole score. He sat in third place going into the final round.

As round three teed off early Sunday morning, Tennessee was well within the driver’s seat of the tournament and looking to coast to a victory. A surging Ole Miss team shot a tremendous 18-under on Sunday to propel them back into contention.

“We definitely can build off the good momentum but also the bad and the recovery,” Woosley-Reed said. “We can go back and look at our stats and analyze everything that we did wrong and hone it in and get back to work tomorrow and work our way into the SEC fall preview.”

Thanks to a solid bogey-free round from Jake Hall and Woosley-Reed stepping up to lead the team through the final day, Tennessee was able to hold on to a one-stroke victory.

“Coach told us we had four for four. We just have to trust each other and do every-

thing we can one shot at a time and trust the process,” Woosley-Reed said. “Caleb sent us a text last night that he was sorry he couldn’t be there and that it’s unfortunate he got the flu or whatever he had, and it was kind of just trusting in us from him and all of our trust in each other. It was really good.”

Individually, Mississippi State Hunter Logan finished as the champion logging a score of 11-under par beating out North Florida’s Nick Gabrelcik (10-under) and Ole Miss’s Michael La Sasso (10-under). Woosley-Reed finished 9-under with the best 54-hole finish of his career.

This victory marks the ninth win of the Brennan Webb era. He is now only two wins away from tying former Tennessee coach Mike Malarkey (1976-98), who is

third in career tournament wins.

“These guys have never had the experience of playing in a home tournament,” Webb said. “So, to come out here and do this in front of friends and family and the members of Tennessee National who have been so supportive of our program is great.”

Where Tennessee found its success this week was the par threes. Tennessee National is a course designed to punish errant players, and nothing can be more devastating than difficult par 3 holes.

On strokes for the entire tournament, Tennessee shot 6-under while the next closest team shot 1-over. If it was not for the precision Tennessee showed on these crucial holes, there is no doubt Tennessee would not have been as successful.

Even through all of the adversity faced, from the withdrawal of Surratt to the late push by Ole Miss, Tennessee found a way to prevail. Webb believes these experiences will help improve the team by trusting in each other and teaching them to overcome whatever situation they may face.

“We did a really good job of trusting each other and pushing one another,” Woosley-Reed said. “Making birdies and looking back and raising the putter and all of that ... The team here is one that is great and one that I will never forget, always love these guys.”

Tennessee hopes to carry the momentum from this weekend into its next event, the SEC Fall Preview held in Birmingham, Alabama, Sept. 25-27. The Vols won the event last year.

ALEX CARPENTER Contributor

Golfers celebrate during the Visit Knoxville Collegiate at Tennessee National Golf Club. Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. Cambree Gliessner / Contributor

What to make of Tennessee football’s slow start to 2023 season

In college football, ultimately a win is a win. However, the quality of the win certainly holds weight.

Tennessee football (2-0) beat Austin Peay, an FCS team, 30-13. Quarterback Joe Milton showed some reason for concern, the defense showed some signs of leakage and the majority newcomers lost a chance at in-game experience as a result.

“A win? Absolutely,” head coach Josh Heupel said. “Do we need to be a whole lot better? Yes, absolutely. In particular, offensively, there’s some things that we control, give credit to them too. They played well, they played hard and they forced us into turnovers and created negative plays.”

Milton’s 223 yards and three touchdowns — one on the ground — doesn’t scream “sound the alarm.” But in back-to-back weeks, teams haven’t given him the deep ball, and he’s struggled to adjust.

For the last two weeks, Virginia and Austin Peay have basically dared him to beat them short with mixed results. With playmakers like Squirrel White, Dont’e Thornton and Bru McCoy all over the field, Milton must give them an opportunity to make plays.

Yes, he’s hitting his receivers for the most part, and they should make the catch, but Milton’s placement has not been its best.

“I feel like it’s coming out there from the jump and execute what’s going on,” Milton said. “Not letting a moment get too big, just going out there and executing. Don’t think about anything else, just do your assignment at a high level. I didn’t start my best, but it’s not about how you start. It’s about how you finish.”

The offense is getting off the field as quick as it was last year but this time without points to show for it.

“At the end of day, there’s a lot of things that we can look at in the mirror, watch the video,” Heupel said. “And we have to take another step on the offensive side of the football. Some positive things on special teams and probably defensively a lot of positives, but they were out there on the football field too much, certainly by the end of the football game.”

The defense was able to out talent the Austin Peay offense when it was all said and done. Aaron Beasley and the rest of the front seven played terrific. Beasley had two of the Vols’ seven sacks and five of their 14 tackles-for-loss. The biggest thing was again their ability to get off the field.

However, it was a 10-point game with nine minutes left on Saturday. The Govs

nearly brought it back within 10 to close the game before a Tennessee goal line stand halted things.

Still, as unfair as it may be, it’s a quarterback’s game — especially in Heupel’s offense. Everything begins and ends with Milton. It’s his job to set the tone for how the game will go.

Milton needs to find a way to make things simpler for himself by making the easy throws.

The “three-headed monster” of Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small and Dylan Sampson in the backfield will continue to supplement him. Still, it’s the balanced attack that makes Heupel’s offense so lethal.

The Vols are a solid team whether Milton

reaches his potential or not. There is nothing horrible about what Milton has done so far. There is still another level to be reached, however. That level could be the difference between Tennessee being good and Tennessee being great.

“Listen, the job for us is to be the best football team on the field every Saturday,” Heupel said. “You walk off the field, and you see the scoreboard, and you either accomplished that goal or you didn’t. We gotta come back in. We gotta learn, reset and grow from it. Certainly, as we head into conference play we’re gonna need to be better than we were tonight. Are we capable of doing those things? Yeah, absolutely.”

ERIC WOODS Assistant Sports Editor

Joe Milton (7) escapes the pocket in a win over Austin Peay. Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. Parker Phegley / Contributor

Football PICK ‘EM

Florida 28 vs. Tennessee 31

Kansas State vs. Missouri

LSU vs. Mississippi State

Minnesota vs. North Carolina

Washington vs. Michigan State

Colorado State vs. Colorado

Northwestern vs. Duke

Aaron Beasley leads Tennessee defense

Aaron Beasley shot out of a cannon, running through the middle of the Austin Peay offensive line untouched. He laid a brutal hit on Austin Peay quarterback Mike DiLiello.

The sack ended an Austin Peay drive in the first quarter. It was also a sign of things to come for Beasley on Saturday night. He finished the 30-13 win in Neyland Stadium with a team-high nine tackles, with eight being solo.

“I was just out there having fun with my guys,” Beasley said. “I was just out there having fun and playing ball. That’s all I was really feeling.”

A lot was asked of Beasley on Saturday. With Keenan Pili sidelined for the foreseeable future with an upper-body injury, Beasley was flexing from the mike and will linebacker spots.

That didn’t slow him down, nor stop his aggression. He ripped off two sacks, and five of his tackles came at a loss. Both sacks for Beasley ran through the Governor offensive line untouched. His defensive line did their job, and Beasley was able to finish off the play.

“Really, we were just doing our jobs,” Beasley said. “I know on one of them, they went 5-0, and we had five on the line. I was really the free blitzer on that play. The defensive line always does a great job of doing what they’re supposed to do, taking the blocks away from me so that I’m able to get to the quarterback.”

Elijah Herring was the other starting linebacker alongside Beasley, but fresh-

man Arion Carter took the field soon after. When Carter was on the field, he mainly played on the weak side. Beasley played on the weak side when Pili was healthy, but playing on the strong side didn’t hold him back on Saturday.

“I thought he tackled extremely well,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said. “He was violent. I thought you saw his speed, athleticism on some of his pressures, affected the quarterback. Had a sack, thought he played really well tonight.”

Carter wasn’t the only freshman linebacker to play quality snaps on Saturday. Jeremiah Telander racked up six tackles.

The mark puts the freshman out of Gainesville, Georgia, at second-most on the defense.

“He’s a dog,” Beasley said of Telander. “I’ve been seeing it since he started ballin’. He can play some ball, and he’s a dog, so I expect some big things from him.”

The second linebacker spot will likely continue to rotate as the season goes on. Telander has made an impression on the coaching staff and Beasley.

Carter offers you raw athleticism and someone who can fly around the field. You also have Herring and Kalib Perry who have been in the system and are familiar with what it takes to win.

Whatever route Heupel and the Vols take with the rotation is yet to be seen. Telander made an impression against Austin Peay, so don’t be surprised if he is called on when Tennessee travels to Florida in Week 3.

“A guy that we have great trust in that’s athletic,” Heupel said of Telander. “He’s gonna continue to grow and develop as a young player, but believe that he can play at this level. He got out there and did some really positive things tonight.”

Florida 20 vs. Tennessee 28

Kansas State vs. Missouri

LSU vs. Mississippi State

Minnesota vs. North Carolina

Washington vs. Michigan State

Colorado State vs. Colorado

Northwestern vs. Duke

Florida 31 vs. Tennessee 28

Kansas State vs. Missouri

LSU vs. Mississippi State

Minnesota vs. North Carolina

Washington vs. Michigan State

Colorado State vs. Colordo

Northwestern vs. Duke

Florida 28 vs. Tennessee 34

Kansas State vs. Missouri

LSU vs. Mississippi State

Minnesota vs. North Carolina

Washington vs. Michigan State

Colorado State vs. Colorado

Northwestern vs. Duke

Florida 21 vs. Tennessee 30

Kansas State vs. Missouri

LSU vs. Mississippi State

Minnesota vs. North Carolina

Washington vs. Michigan State

Colorado State vs. Colorado

Northwestern vs. Duke

Florida 28 vs. Tennessee 35

Kansas State vs. Missouri

LSU vs. Mississippi State

Minnesota vs. North Carolina

Washington vs. Michigan State

Colorado State vs. Colorado

Northwestern vs. Duke

Caleb Jarreau Sports Editor (6-1)

Tanner Johnson Staff Writer (4-3)

Jack Church Staff Writer (3-4)

Eric Woods AssT. Sports Editor (5-2)

Bella Hughes Managing Editor (3-4)

Madeline McNeely Contributor (4-3)

CALEB JARREAU

Sports Editor

Aaron Beasley (6) celebrates against Austin Peay in Neyland Stadium. Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. Parker Phegley / Contributor