Former Chancellor Jimmy Cheek delivered his last lecture Monday evening at the Baker Center after eight years as UT’s Chancellor.
The lecture consisted of a question-and-answer portion with preselected interviewers –– engineering student ambassadors William Fredebeil and Abby Link asked questions before audience members were given a chance to ask their own.
Cheek was the seventh chancellor of UT and began in 2009 after spending four years as the senior vice president at the University of Florida. His goals were to become a Top 25 school, improve campus infrastructure and promote research.
The lecture opened with a brief account of Cheek’s history in academia and dreams as a child. He recollected wanting to be a rancher when he grew up, his time at Texas A&M as a student, all the way to his 34 years at the University of Florida.
Cheek will be a distinguished professor in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. He will teach classes on educational leadership that involve his tenure. He will also be a chancellor emeritus, giving him the opportunity to work for the campus as a whole.
“I want to remind you that I am a Vol for life, so we will stay in Knoxville. I will go back on to faculty. I’m looking forward to that. We plan to be actively involved in the University of Tennessee, the community and the state for many, many years to come,” Cheek said.
Cheek offered advice regarding overcoming tough obstacles in life, the importance of having mentors for guidance and growing in the face of skepticism.
“I came (to the lecture) because I thought Dr. Cheek would have a lot of valuable advice for someone just starting out professionally,” Avinash Prabhu, a graduate student in materials science, said. “Being in the very early stage of my career, I could use and learn things he might have to share.”
UT’s new chancellor, Beverly Davenport, stepped into her new role Feb. 15. Cheek said the transition between chancellors went smoothly and without much issue.
Davenport was previously the interim president of the University of Cincinnati where she focused on faculty diversity and addressing sexual assault, as well as raising academics ratings. Davenport has said she will bring those values to UT as well.
Mickayla Stogsdill, a Baker Center ambassador, has enjoyed Cheek’s time at UT. She attended several Cheek events but found this one to be special because of his unusual vulnerability.
“I thought it was really interesting. Normally, Cheek doesn’t give personal answers. Normally, he is very reserved when it comes to stuff like that, and in this last lecture he wasn’t,” Stogsdill said. “He really talked about some things, especially vulnerability, which he rarely does. So that was something that I had never heard before.”
Former Chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Jimmy Cheek, was named an honorary member of the UT Mortar Board by President William Fredebeil (left) and Vice President Abby Link (right) at the end of his last lecture.
