Michael Birdwell, History, Homer Kemp, English, and Margaret Phelps, Curriculum and Instruction, recently concluded a nine-week Reading Institute for 30 Upper Cumberland teachers from 17 schools in eight counties. The institute was made possible through a grant titled "Teaching Reading Across Literature and Social Studies in Grades 7-10," funded in part by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the U.S. Department of Education under the auspices of the Improving Teacher Quality Grant Program.

Roger Dickson, Residential Life, was recently selected to serve on a 15-member Strategic Planning Task Force for the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers. Dickson was the only chief housing officer chosen from programs statewide and will serve as the only Tennessee representative on the task force. SEAHO is the regional professional association for college housing programs in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The task force will focus on identifying the overall needs of the housing profession, as well as legislative lobbying to obtain necessary funding for housing programs which historically have been hard hit by continuing budget problems across much of the Southeast.

Betty Vaudt and Christina McCloud, Human Ecology and Child Care Resource and Referral, presented two sessions titled "Supervising with Style" at the Fifteenth Annual Tennessee School-Age Care Conference, held April 2-3 in Nashville. The sessions provided managers with insight and skills to enable them to effectively supervise young adults working in summer programs for school-aged children.