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The University of Tennessee College of Engineering 114 Perkins Hall Knoxville, TN 37996-2012 |
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| Newsletter
of the UT College of Engineering |
Development News |
COE Welcomes New Development Director |
| On June 1, Cathleen "Cathy" Pope began her tenure
as the college's new Director of Development. Pope has 20 years of
professional experience in development, public relations, and marketing
that spans academic, business and industry, nonprofit and political
settings. Prior to joining COE, she was the Director of Development and Community Relations at Child & Family Tennessee, the largest private, nonprofit social services agency in East Tennessee. In other roles, Pope served as the Assistant Director of Development at the College of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and as a political fundraiser in two U.S. congressional campaigns and a gubernatorial primary campaign in the state of Maine. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where she received a B.S. degree in journalism. "We are fortunate to have an individual with Cathy's credentials as our new development director," Dean Jerry Stoneking said. "I believe her diverse background and capabilities will help us achieve our development goals and will serve us well in our efforts to reach College of Engineering constituencies." |
Today's Today's top high school students are recruited more heavily than ever before by engineering schools regionally and nationwide. These students tend to receive multiple scholarship offers and, not surprisingly, often opt for the college that provides the most lucrative financial award along with a compelling educational opportunity.
The College of Engineering is fortunate to have the Engage freshmen \engineering education program that, increasingly, is receiving local and national attention for its innovation and success. Through the generosity of alumni, friends and corporate partners, we are also able to make scholarship awards that literally help hundreds of new and current students each year.
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| Cathleen Pope |
Since 1996-97, COE's scholarship expenditures have more than doubled. While this is positive news, there are a few hurdles that remain. For example, we need to increase our efforts to ensure that the best and brightest students who are admitted to the college actually enroll. We offered scholarships to 270 of 406 new freshman applicants this year. Of these, 146 students accepted resulting in a success rate of 54%–6% lower than our typical acceptance rate. UT's tuition hike, along with higher scholarship awards offered by competing engineering colleges, makes recruiting students an even greater challenge.
As a reader of TN Engineer, how can you help? If you have already established a scholarship at COE, consider increasing the size of the endowment or making a larger gift to the account each year to take inflationÑand tuition increases–into consideration. If you haven't created a scholarship, perhaps now is an appropriate time to evaluate your annual or long-term philanthropic plans and weigh the option of a scholarship.
Establishing an endowed or an annual scholarship can be a rewarding, tax-advantaged way to give back to your alma mater while commemorating a family legacy, recognizing an individual family member, honoring a professor or mentor who was particularly helpful or acknowledge -ding a department that provided an academic basis for your career. A scholarship can also be used as an effective recruiting tool for business and industry to tap into young talent.
As a result of the Geier vs. McWherter anti-discrimination consent decree, The University of Tennessee is required to raise $675,000 per year for five years for new minority scholarships that will be used to recruit African-American students. The Knoxville campus is expected to raise $411,750, 61% of that sum. At the end of each year, the state intends to give the university an incentive award of an additional $450,000.
The Tennessee Alumni Association also announced recently that it would give an annual incentive award of $100,000 to "match" these scholarship funds as well. This represents another opportunity for creating new scholarships at the College of Engineering that will likely have a value-added impact through state funds.
Scholarships are crucial to the college's success in recruiting students and continuing our legacy of exemplary engineering education. Those listed in the box below either created a scholarship or increased their support of one this year.
Their commitment and philanthropy are essential, and we appreciate them sincerely. For more information, please contact the Engineering Development Office at 865-974-2779.
Office of Engineering Development
120 Perkins Hall
Knoxville, TN, 37996-2012
865-974-2779 (Phone)
865-974-2015 (FAX)
cpope@utk.edu (e-mail)
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