October 2, 2007
To: UT Knoxville Community
From: Chancellor Loren Crabtree
Subject: Haslam Gift
I am very pleased to announce today a gift of $10 million from Jimmy and Dee Haslam. Their donation will fund endowed professorships, support the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, assist forensic science in anthropology, and create a prestigious honors scholarship called the Haslam Scholars.
This generous gift will be counted as part of the Campaign for Tennessee, a multiphase fund-raising effort that will extend through 2011.
Jimmy Haslam is president and chief executive officer of Pilot Travel Centers. Dee Haslam is CEO of RIVR Media and also chairs the UT Development Council. The Haslams are chairs of the Campaign for Tennessee for the Knoxville campus.
Of the $10 million, $3 million will be used to create the Jimmy and Dee Haslam Marco Endowment in the College of Arts and Sciences. Earnings from the endowment will provide support for scholarly research and for the graduate student programs of the Marco Institute.
Another $2 million will go to the Forensic Anthropology Center, with $750,000 earmarked for a building to be constructed for the Anthropological Research Facility, known as the Body Farm. The remainder will create an endowment with the earnings used elsewhere in the program, possibly the creation of a postdoctoral fellowship.
Though its location is yet to be determined, the building is expected to house a morgue, a facility where students can work with human remains and a classroom.
Another $2.5 million will be used to create the Haslam Family Professorship and Chair Endowment. Earnings will allow the university to recruit and retain top-notch faculty.
The remaining $2.5 million will go to into an endowment from which earnings will be used to create and fund the Haslam Scholars program, a premier honors program that will provide unprecedented opportunities and scholarships for students attending UT Knoxville.
We are announcing the Haslam Scholars program today because the application deadline -- Nov. 1 -- is rapidly approaching, and we need you to help us spread the word.
The Haslam gift enables UT to provide a program that is similar to some of the most prestigious scholarship programs nationwide, including the Jefferson Scholars Program at the University of Virginia, the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the Presidential Scholars Program at Boston College.
The Haslam Scholars program provides a $1,500 laptop computer, a study-abroad experience valued at $4,000, as well as up to $5,500 to support a senior research thesis and travel to a national or international academic or professional meeting to present their work.
All Haslam Scholars also receive the Chancellor's Scholarship -- currently the top academic scholarship -- which already covers tuition and fees, room and board and some other expenses.
Haslam Scholars will be chosen based on scholastic achievement, leadership experience and potential, maturity and seriousness of purpose, and evidence of special talents and skills.
To be eligible for the Haslam Scholars program, students must apply by Nov. 1 for early admission to the UT Chancellor's Honors Program. They also must request and complete an initial interview with the directors of the Chancellor's Honors and Haslam Scholars programs by Feb. 1.
Finalists will be invited to interview with a blue-ribbon selection committee in March, after which Haslam Scholars will be named.
If you'd like to read more about the program, see
UT Knoxville | Chancellor's Honors Program | Haslam Scholars Program
We appreciate the Haslams' extraordinary generosity, and we thank them for supporting two excellent programs that have brought, and will continue to bring, national attention to UT. By endowing professorships and creating the Haslam Scholars program, the Haslams will enhance the university's drive for excellence.