The Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE) and the Oak Ridge Joint Institute for Biological Sciences signed an agreement in 2006 to establish the China-US Joint Research Center for Ecosystem and Environmental Change with two institutes of the Chinese Academy of Science: the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources and the Research … Continued

President John Shumaker, who had signed a letter of intent in June with Beijing Bohua Foreign Language School, announced in September 2002 an initiative to cosponsor a private secondary school in Beijing, China, with the Tennessee Department of Education and the China Electronics Corporation. The school was to have dual accreditation to issue high school … Continued

The first choral camp for high school students was held July 30–August 5, 1967. One hundred twenty students from throughout the state attended. Dr. J. Clark Rhodes, professor of music education, was the camp administrator.

The Christian Student Center, composed of student members of the Church of Christ, was organized in January 1957. In August 1957 the Church of Christ purchased a house at 928 S. Seventeenth Street.

Channon Christian, a 21-year-old senior in sociology, was memorialized January 25, 2007, in a candlelight vigil at the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center Auditorium. She and her boyfriend, Chris Newsom, were carjacked and brutally murdered during the morning of January 7. The trial of the perpetrators was lengthy. After the guilty verdicts had been … Continued

From 1931, when the James D. Hoskins Library was completed, until 1954 when the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center was completed, a Christmas tree decorated by students was annually erected on the lawn of the Hoskins Library as a project of the All Students’ Club. A star was placed on the tower of Ayres … Continued

In 1881 students applied substantial pressure to have a week of Christmas holiday instead of only one day. The board of trustees created a special committee to consider the question. The faculty, which was allowed discretion in the matter, reluctantly gave in to the students’ demands for a week’s holiday—a Southern tradition. The board of … Continued

The players’ lounge in the Neyland Thompson Sports Center was named the Chuck Smith Players’ Lounge in 2002 as a result of his gift of $150,000 to the Athletics Department’s facilities campaign. Smith played football at UT in 1990 and 1991. He was a second-round draft choice of the Atlanta Falcons in 1992 and helped … Continued

This senior honorary society for men was established in 1932 and took the Circle and Torch name in 1934, with a view of remaining local for the three years required by the national Omicron Kappa Delta Honorary Society and then applying for a charter. In 1937, 1938, and 1939, UT’s Administrative Council declined to allow … Continued

Circle Drive is the loop road around the Hill. It was built in 1882 with student labor. State law required student labor for students at the university as a provision of the designation of the University as Tennessee’s land-grant institution.