Университет Теннесси в Чаттануге: История и современность

Public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, US

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is part of the University of Tennessee System.

UTC was founded in 1886 as the then private and racially exclusive Chattanooga University, which was soon merged in 1889 with the Athens based Grant Memorial University (now Tennessee Wesleyan University), becoming the Chattanooga campus of U. S. Grant Memorial University. In 1907, the school changed its name to University of Chattanooga. In 1964 the university merged with Zion College, which had been established in 1949 and later became Chattanooga City College. In 1969 the University of Chattanooga joined the UT system and became the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The University of Chattanooga Foundation Inc. is a private corporation, created in 1969, that manages the university's private endowment.

UTC uses the semester system, with five optional "mini terms" in the summer. The leadership of the campus rests upon the chancellor, who answers to the UT System President. The university is currently headed by Chancellor Steve Angle.

Chattanooga is best known for its nationally ranked Business program, Engineering, Nursing, English, Chemistry, Accounting, Psychology, Music, and Education departments. The university offers over 140 undergraduate majors and concentrations, and over 50 undergraduate minors. Chattanooga also offers nearly 100 graduate programs and concentrations, and PhD programs in Computational Engineering and Physical Therapy. In an effort to expand the horizons of its student body, UTC recently began an exchange program with Kangnung National University of Kangnung, South Korea.

SimCenter is UTC's computational engineering and simulation center. In November 2005, SimCenter was listed as the 89th most powerful supercomputer by Top500. On November 20, 2007, the university announced the center has been named a National Center for Computational Engineering. More recently, The SimCenter provided the academic research for a new source of alternative energy unveiled by Bloom Energy Corporation in Sunnyvale, California. The Clinical Infectious Disease Control Research Unit is a research interest group composed of UTC faculty, students, and local partners. Members of the CIDC have had their research published in peer reviewed journals, as well as presented at professional meetings and conferences. More information on their current projects and recent events can be found on UTC's website.

The university is served by CARTA bus routes 4, 7, 10, 14, 19, and 28. Route 14 only operates on weekdays during fall and spring terms, when the university is session. The route runs on and off the campus on McCallie, Houston, Vine, Douglas, Fifth, and Palmetto Streets. A recent extension serves Third, O'Neal, and Central Streets, as well as Erlanger Hospital, and a large parking lot at Engel Stadium. All students showing valid university identification cards (MocsCards) ride for free on all CARTA routes, year round.

Patten Chapel is one of the busiest sanctuaries in Chattanooga. Mostly weddings and memorial services are held there. A bride's room has been prepared and is always ready. Reserving the chapel should be done around a year in advance as its popularity sees events almost every weekend. Wedding receptions are not hosted at the chapel.

Formerly the Lupton Memorial Library, Lupton Hall, named for T. Cartter and Margaret Rawlings Lupton, was constructed in 1974 to replace the aging John Storrs Fletcher Library (which has since been restored and renamed Fletcher Hall). As of 2005, the library's collection includes nearly 2 million items, including the Fellowship of Southern Writers archives. In early 2008 the university was granted funding to build a new library. The university broke ground in 2010 for the new $48 million library. Construction was completed on the UTC Library in January 2015. Following the opening of the new UTC Library, Lupton Hall began renovations in 2018. Opening to students and faculty in 2020, Lupton's entire 116,000 square feet of available space had been gutted and rebuilt to include student centers, academic departments under the College of Arts and Sciences, various classroom spaces, and a new on campus restaurant, 'Freshens'.

The school's athletic teams are called the Mocs. The teams were nicknamed Moccasins until 1996. (The origin of the name is uncertain; however, Moccasin Bend is a large horseshoe shaped bend in the Tennessee River directly below Lookout Mountain.) The mascot has taken on four distinct forms. A water moccasin was the mascot in the 1920s, and then a moccasin shoe (known as "The Shoe") was used as the school's mascot at times in the 1960s and 1970s. From the 1970s until 1996, the mascot was Chief Moccanooga, an exaggerated Cherokee tribesman. In 1996, the Moccasins name and image were dropped in favor of the shortened "Mocs" and an anthropomorphized northern mockingbird, in accordance with the state bird, named "Scrappy" dressed as a railroad engineer. The school's main athletic logo features Scrappy riding a train (a reference to Chattanooga's history as a major railroad hub and to the song "Chattanooga Choo Choo"). The mascot takes its name from former football coach A. C. "Scrappy" Moore.

The marching band is referred to as the "Marching Mocs" and performs at all home games.