In This Email:

1. Latest News - Juneteenth Recognized as a State Holiday

2. May Observance Calendar - View What's Happening in May

3. Development Opportunities - Learning Pathway Spotlight

4. Employee Spotlight - Meet Our New Employees

The state of Tennessee has officially recognized Juneteenth as a legal state holiday. Thank you to Gov. Bill Lee and our Tennessee General Assembly for passing this meaningful legislation. As a result of this state recognition, the University of Tennessee System will now observe Juneteenth as a systemwide paid holiday beginning June 2023. This means our offices, campuses and institutes will be closed on June 19, in recognition of this national holiday. This holiday also provides employees an opportunity to honor the present and reflect on our shared history and tradition.

Read more

Beginning April 1 and continuing through June 30, we will be accepting applications for new enrollees in the Knoxville-area sick leave banks. This includes the Institute for Public Service, UT System Administration, UT Foundation, UT Knoxville, UT Space Institute and Institute of Agriculture. View the application form. 

For more information regarding the sick leave bank, visit this website. An informational on-demand session is available at SLB Information Session on Demand - YouTube. 

For questions, or to submit your application, email sickleavebank@utk.edu.

DASH held its first virtual town hall on May 3. More than 900 UT staff attended the event from across the state. Thank you to the presenters and attendees for making this event such a success! For those who were not able to attend, you can view a recording of the session.

A reminder that all guests must go through security upon entering UT Tower and must be escorted at all times by a UT Tower employee during their visits. Recently, there have been a few instances of unescorted guests. As a result, PBA may start imposing fines for each occurrence. We would appreciate your cooperation in ensuring the safety and security of all visitors and staff by adhering to this policy.

While most of our meetings are now hybrid and include a Microsoft Teams meeting link, it is important to note that not all meetings need a Teams link to be added to the invite. One of the default settings in Microsoft Outlook includes an automatic inclusion of a Microsoft Teams meeting to all calendar invites.  Automatically adding a Teams invite can sometimes lead to confusion, especially in situations where Zoom is required instead of Teams. Therefore, we recommend adjusting your Outlook calendar settings to uncheck "add online meeting to all meetings." Step-by-step instructions on how to make this adjustment are included in the following link.

View step-by-step instructions

The University of Tennessee System Administration (UTSA) has been recognized on the 2023 DiversityInc Top Regional Companies list, ranking 38 for its efforts in creating a collaborative, inclusive and respectful culture. The DiversityInc Top 50 ranking assesses diversity management in corporate America and evaluates companies on their workplace fairness policies, practices and procedures within their industries. UTSA is among esteemed regional companies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, Science Applications International Corporation and Northwestern Mutual. 

“We live in a vast country that reflects a wide range of people, interests and ideas,” said University of Tennessee System President Randy Boyd. “Our strength comes from our diversity – of individuals, thought, opinion and intellectual pursuit. We are honored to celebrate and be celebrated through this designation.”

“We are actively working to strengthen inclusion, diversity and engagement (IDE) at UTSA. By fostering inclusion in our workplace, we are supporting an environment that values the diversity of our teams and encourages positive employee engagement. Our efforts to enhance IDE at UT are embedded as the foundation of the systemwide strategic plan,” said Delphia Howze, chief inclusion strategy officer for UT System Administration. “We recognize that while we have moved the needle in many areas, there is still more work to do. This recognition by DiversityInc is a testament to our commitment to our Be On UT values.”

Personal Best Racing is an an event management team that enjoys race day and bringing fun events to the community! With a myriad of events expanding the rest of this year, there are plenty of opportunities to join in on the wellness fun. Use code Jamie15 for a discount on the race of your choice.  

If you have questions, email PBR ambassador and fellow UT Tower employee Jamie Blessinger at jblessin@utk.edu. 

Personal Best Racing Information

Mental Health Learning Pathway

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Take some time to focus on your mental health and earn over four hours of professional development credit in K@TE by completing the Mental Health Learning Pathway. This learning pathway contains eight online classes and five articles to help support your mental health in the workplace.

See the pathway*

*You may need to log in to K@TE before clicking on the link for the link to work.

Preston Wooten joined the UT System on May 15 as a senior auditor. He is from Nashville and has a B.S. degree in finance and a B.A. degree in Spanish. He has 10 years of experience in bank internal auditing and as a regulatory examiner. When Wooten is not working, he enjoys anything outdoors and spending time with family.

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