Go Vols

Florida kid shows up to school with a homemade University of Tennessee shirt. He gets picked on.

UT sends him a bunch of official gear, decides to produce his t-shirt (with 50,000 pre-orders), and offers him a 4-year scholarship.

Organic Chemistry

After watching this, I think I should have done better when I took this course (a million years ago).

Lively Exchange of Idea

Funny...

College Encourages Lively Exchange Of Idea http://t.co/zqvLbvrMSu via @theonion

— Michael Arrington (@arrington) June 11, 2015

Eduroam

I've recently learned about the Eduroam service and I must say it is a cool idea. Basically, a bunch of schools got together to allow wireless access at each other's locations:

"The eduroam initiative started in 2003 within TERENA's Task Force on Mobility, TF-Mobility. The task force created a test bed to demonstrate the feasibility of combining a RADIUS-based infrastructure with 802.1X standard technology to provide roaming network access across research and education networks. The initial test was conducted among five institutions located in the Netherlands, Finland, Portugal, Croatia and the UK. Later, other national research and education networking organisations in Europe embraced the idea and gradually started joining the infrastructure, which was then named eduroam. 

eduroam allows any eduroam-enabled user to get network access at any institution connected to eduroam."

So say, I was a student at the University of Tennessee here in Knoxville. If I were to visit London, I would be able to connect to the LSE's (and many other's) wireless network. That's pretty slick.

Power T

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville is moving away from the UT System logo. The logo incorporates the image of the state.

They will start using the Power T in 2015. This is the same logo that athletics uses today. This seems to be a move to create more of a local, Knoxville identity.

But Coach Butch Jones has been preaching the idea of "One Tennessee" in an effort to lock up recruiting statewide.

But #1 in your hearts

People who work in the tech industry say my school is number eight on the list of best business schools.

Prom Around These Parts

This is how we do it. (Update - the picture was taken down b/c "guns scary." I've got it still...

UTK Greeks

UTK Greeks having some fun in more constructive manner at CCA than say some others more recently in the news.

Ciriculum, Curiculum, Curriculum

One of those days... while completing a form for my daughter's preschool, I tried to answer the question:

"Why have you picked this developmental program for your child?"

My answer was:

Reputation and educational ciriculum curiculum curriculum.

I sure hope she gets more book learnin than I did at skool.

Take 15, Graduate in 4

Take 15, Graduate in 4:

"When I went to college, you were expected to graduate in four years.

For today’s college students, this expectation has somehow gotten off-track.

We have embarked on an all-out effort to make on-time graduation the new norm for our students. Starting in the fall of 2013, our full-time undergraduates will be charged for 15 credit hours per semester—the number they must take to graduate in four years. They now pay for only 12 credit hours, regardless of how many they take. "

"This new plan will be a money-saver for students and their families. Adding just one year of college costs an extra $24,000."

Look how much we are saving you! Ignore that tuition is going up! Sounds like spin to me. And I took 21 hours a semester on occasion, so it is safe to say that I'm okay with people taking more than 12 hours.

100Mbps for Every 1,000 Students

A study finds that schools need 100Mbps for every 1,000 students. At my work, we currently have 20Mbps for every 1,000 users. Unfortunately, we only have about 150 users in my office. I'd comment more on the article, but I only have the bandwidth to pull up the headline.

Not an Academic

This is an example of why I didn't pursue being an academic:

"The paradox is to have to speak of exteriorization without a preceding interior: the interior is constituted in exteriorization."

Well, lah de dah.

More Hams!

150 freshmen to get tickets at Cal Poly -KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog:

"Dennis Derickson (AC0P), Cal Poly Electrical Engineering (EE) department chair, conceived the Freshman Licensing Initiative which gives every EE 111 student a chance to get their radio license. As part of the EE 111 curriculum, this test session will be administered during the 50-minute class period and count as one of the midterm exams for the freshmen students."

I wish I had an opportunity* like this when I was in school.

*Maybe I did, but I didn't recognize it at the time.

Free Coffee

Headline: UT officials urging students to learn how to protect themselves:

"Safety officials at the University of Tennessee said police can't always get to you in time, so they are asking students to learn how to protect themselves.

Officials are asking student and staff to take part in an online training program that includes tips for staying safe around campus. The idea is to help people know better how to protect themselves in the minutes immediately following a crisis situation."

I'd like to see the content of the course.  I'd be surprised if any of the tips included using hollow points or putting in extra practice at a range.

But you do get Starbucks coupon and a certificate for completing the training.

Via Uncle

Who needs data?

An article from the Student Free Press on the bill to allow guns on campus... a pretty typical write-up, but this quote caught my eye:

“The safety and security of our students, faculty and staff is paramount among our priorities, said Hank Dye, Vice President for Public and Governmental Relations. “We agree with law enforcement professionals who say ‘guns on campus’ is a bad idea…Our campus security officers feel strongly that the introduction of firearms into that kind of mix hinders rather than helps in the safety equation.”

Oh wait, they feel strongly that guns would limit safety. As long as it is a strong feeling, I guess that is okay. It is a shame there isn't a method to test the validity of theories or some group that could help analyze data.