University of Tennessee Knoxville - Volunteer Yearbook (Knoxville, TN)

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High atop the ttTower of Powerii the guard has changed. A new king sits on the throne. The Tower of Power is, of course, Andy Holt Tower, and the new king is UT President Lamar Alexander. Alexander, who took office July 1, replaced Edward Boling, president of the UT system since 1970. Returning from six months off in Aus- tralia, the former Tennessee governor moved into his new office in a cloud of controversy over the selection process. Since that time, however, faculty and administrators seem to have smoothed out their differences. ttThe University of Tennessee, Knoxville has never been in better shape than today? Alexander said. ttMost of the time in a new position like this, you have to come in and get the wagon out of the ditch? 1 John Kotlowski He sees his posi- tion as tta wonder- ful opportunity to help the state by helping the univer- sity . . . improve itself. . . I want this flagship cam- pus to be as well regarded as those in North Carolina, Pennsylvania or even Minnesota? To help himself get a feel for the university, Alexan- der circulated post cards among stu- dents asking three questions: ttWhat are the first three things that come to mind when you think of the University of Tennessee'Pt ttWhat are the three things UT does best? ttWhat are the three things UT needs to work on the hardest to do betteriw NIlve received some very good responses from those cards? Alexander said, putting the number of cards returned around 4,000. Also, Alexander spent one day with sophomore Shane Williams to see the university from a student,s perspective. He attended classes with Williams and even spent the night in the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house. Although he splits his time among the UT campuses and his home in Nashville, he sees no problem with his accessibility. itA lot of people forget I am not the 2 University Relations head of the Knoxville campus? he said. ttThat is the role of the chancellor. I work pretty hard to be accessible to faculty and students. I like to stay in touch with them. In my current situation, I can dip in and out and not get involved? Academic improvement tops Alexanderis list of priorities, although he leaves the method of improvement up to the univer- sity. gMy aim is not to run this university or say in what direction it should go - I just make sure it is on the right track and thinking big. itI don,t tell them what to do? he said. 01 just try to pull the best out of them. Like Count Basie. He wasn,t the best musician, but he had that quality of pulling out the best in the musicians around him. Book I 1 One problem facing UT, according to Alexander, is its academic endowment. ttAn obvious minus is the lack of full academic scholarships. We wouldn,t try to have one of the nationls top football teams without full athletic scholarships, and we can,t be one of the top universities without full academic scholarships? Also facing Alexander are several appointments. Chancellor Jack Reese announced earlier in the year that this would be his last term in office and that he would return to teaching. ttThe task is not to replace Jack Reesef he said. ttFor the time he has been in office, more progress has been made on this campus than ever before? The prob- lem, he notes, is to find someone who can work well with the faculty and administra- tors and continue growth in academic stature. tiThe biggest problem is in finding a way to say the university is in better shape than it has ever been before but that it still needs to be betterf, aby John Mead www ow 1. Lamar Alexander greets the press during his first day in office as UT president. 2. Alexander and Chancellor Jack Reese Will work together only for a short time since Reese announced he wi11 return to teaching. 3. Alexander hopes to keep in touch with students by teaching a class gafter he gets his feet wet. ti

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Volunteer

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