College students head back to campus
Hi there from East Tennessee!
Welcome to School Zone, the Tennessean's weekly newsletter highlighting the top education stories across Tennessee.
I'm Becca Wright, the higher education reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel, filling in this week. I've worked at Knox News for nearly a year now (!!!), and I'm looking forward to another year of reporting on the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and higher education across the state.
Happy FDOC!
As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, students are making their way back to campus for the First Day Of Classes, and college towns across the state are buzzing with that back-to-school energy.
For several of Tennessee's public, four-year universities, its the first fall semester in two years they won't be required to wear masks indoors. Colleges have also archived their COVID-19 tracking dashboards and stopped contract tracing.
It's a move toward treating COVID-19 like any other illness.
In places like Knox County and Shelby County, where community spread is medium and low, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't recommend wearing masks indoors. But where community spread is high, like in Davidson County, masks are still recommended indoors.
Here's when Tennessee's public colleges started/are starting back (and when folks in Knoxville should start avoiding the soon to be never-ending line at the Starbucks on Cumberland Avenue).
Aug. 18: Tennessee Tech University
Aug. 22: Austin Peay State University, East Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee State University, The University of Tennessee Chattanooga, The University of Tennessee Martin, The University of Memphis
Aug. 24: The University of Tennessee Knoxville, The University of Tennessee Southern
College students in a post-Roe world
Tennessee's near-total abortion ban goes into effect on Thursday, and in a state where nearly 30% of the abortions in 2019 were obtained by those younger than 24, college students are uniquely impacted by the ban.
Tennessee State University's president Glenda Glover raised the alarm to Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the semester this month, saying that the restrictions on reproductive health care hurt students, faculty and staff across higher education, especially those most at risk to drop out, like Black and low-income individuals.
"Our goal for students is to maximize their potential to be successful in the educational environment," Glover told Harris. "The uncertainties (of) reproductive health and (the) reproductive health environment — that affects them and affects their decisions and also affects academic success."
It's also caused a bit of confusion for medical schools, which are still required to provide access to abortion training.
"The biggest challenge that schools, faculty, staff and students face today is the confusion and uncertainty around a 50-state patchwork quilt of varying laws and guidance that, frankly, has only become more complex and more chaotic with the Dobbs decision," said Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education.
Read more about how Tennessee's abortion ban could affect college and medical students here.
UT Agriculture Institute's new leader
This month I sat down with the new leader of the University of Tennessee's Institute of Agriculture, Senior Vice President and Senior Vice Chancellor Carrie Castille.
Her title is big, and so are her responsibilities. With agriculture being one of the biggest economic drivers in Tennessee — the industry generated $56.3 billion in 2019 — Castille has the chance to make a real difference as head of one of the state's essential research centers.
"We have a home in every county. We are a gateway. Every county is a gateway to the University of Tennessee, regardless of the campus," Castille said. "There's not a single department in Knoxville, nor is there a single campus or a single county, that we can't touch and reach."
Her big short-term goal is doubling enrollment at the Herbert College of Agriculture within the next five years — and subsequently increasing the graduates going into the agriculture career pipeline.
Want to know how she plans to do that? You can read all the details here.
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We want to hear from you
Let me know what I should write about next! I'm always open to hearing story ideas from readers across the state despite being based in Knoxville. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at becca.wright@knoxnews.com.
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Extra credit
► More than 300 books about LGBTQ+ individuals and Black people were pulled from Collierville Schools last winter and spring during a self-initiated review prompted by proposed legislation, Laura Testino of The Commercial Appeal reports.
► Students in Tennessee could have to repeat third grade next year if they aren't reading on grade level because of a portion of the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act that goes into effect this year. Find out how students can avoid being held back.
► Zaevion Dobson, the 15-year-old Knoxville football player who sacrificed himself to save two friends in a random drive-by shooting in 2015, was honored on Friday at the first-ever Zaevion Dobson Memorial football game at Fulton High School. His death spurred local and national demands for gun control and violence prevention. Learn more about how his legacy will permanently live on through the program.
►The Williamson County Schools Board of Education passed three resolutions on Monday during its first meeting of the school year, Anika Exum reports. Here's what you need to know from the meeting.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: College students head back to campus
