Beginning in April 2017, ETSU will be one of six universities to branch off from the Tennessee Board of Regents.
Gov. Bill Haslam announced his plan to have a Board of Trustees at ETSU, with eight appointed members, a student representative and a faculty representative.
Fred Alsop, a professor in biology, will be the sole faculty member on the Board of Trustees and will be able to vote on the faculty’s behalf.
Alsop was vetted and placed on the ballot by the ETSU Faculty Senate as one of three nominated faculty members. The BOT then distributed the ballots to every full-time faculty member and Alsop was selected.
As the faculty representative, Alsop is making it his mission to make ETSU the best the university could be.
“Providing the best learning experiences and skills for the most diverse body of students in an exciting university environment using the best staff, most knowledgeable administrators and outstanding faculty we can assemble while growing the institution and its mutualistic relationships with our community and our region,” Alsop said.
Alsop graduated with his bachelor of science with a double major in biology and fine arts, with a teaching first through twelfth certification at Austin Peay State University. He then received his master’s degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in zoology with an emphasis in orthithology.
In 1972, he joined the biology faculty at ETSU, where he has remained for 45 years. Throughout his time at ETSU, Alsop has won many awards, such as the University Distinguished Faculty Award, College of Arts and Sciences Research Award and more recently, the Paul Hayden Memorial Award at the Tennessee Environmental Conference in March 2016.
Alsop is an avid bird watcher, enjoys the outdoors and is also a published author.
Alsop also founded the Tennessee University Faculty Senates, which represents 10,000 faculty members at 10 Tennessee universities.
No stranger to representing the university and faculty members, the BOT has challenges all their own.
“The biggest responsibility will be in being the single board member with the most institutional knowledge of ETSU,” Alsop said. “My duty is to actively engage in learning my new role and in representing all the facets of the university community to the best of my ability.”
Alsop will keep the needs of the faculty in the forefront of his mind, while also considering the students, staff and university as he represents on the board for the next two years.
