Dear
Alumni,
For
those of you who came to the Spring Alumni/Friends day I want to say that it
was great seeing you and sharing a stimulating program and pleasant social
gathering. For those of you who could not attend you were missed, but I
hope you were able to catch up on the day’s events by visiting our
website. The Alumni Board did a terrific job in planning the program and
festivities and SIS is grateful for their service and support of the
School. At the end of the formal program the Alumni Board met to have a
business meeting at which time it reviewed the findings of the alumni survey
which some of you participated in. The findings were very helpful in
shaping the thinking of the board and the SIS administration about the future
of alumni relations and affairs. An important aspect of the survey
related to the implementation of an SIS Alumni Society. For a number of
years I and others at SIS have thought it odd that while we had an SIS Alumni
Board we had no SIS Alumni Society. The SIS Alumni Board has worked
diligently to improve alumni activities and the discussion has included how to
further improve alumni activities and how to best utilize the relationship that
could be established with UT alumni activities. Discussion led to the
idea of needing an SIS Alumni Society, but the question was how this would fit
with the SIS Alumni Board. Hence, the board in consultation with the SIS
administration decided that it would dissolve itself allowing the School to
start from scratch in helping shape a more solid foundation for Alumni to be
better represented and associated with the life of the school—it’s
students, faculty and friends. Based on this decision from the Board, I am in
the process of appointing a steering committee which will be made up of some
members of past Alumni Boards and other alumni at large. The charge to
the steering committee will be to create a charter for a new SIS Alumni Society
which will include bylaws and a process for electing its officers. I
believe that with the new Alumni Society in place the alumni of the School will
receive stronger representation, be better informed about the affairs of the
school and most importantly feel that they are contributing back to the school
in tangible ways. More details of this plan are provided for in the
upcoming issue of the newsletter (Interface). In addition I will
be giving periodic updates as to our progress during the summer months.
In the meantime our traditional alumni events which usually occur around
homecoming and in the spring will remain in place. If you have any
questions or comments as always they are welcomed and much appreciated.
Best,
Ed
Cortez
Edwin-Michael
Cortez, PhD
Director & Professor
School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee
451 Communications Bldg.
1345 Circle Park Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996-0341
Phone: (865) 974-2148
Fax: (865) 974-4967