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2004-2005 An Exciting Year for the Department of Consumer Services Management

by Nancy Fair, department head

As another academic year comes to a close and I pause to reflect on CSM’s accomplishments, I am amazed and gratified at how much a department with a relatively small faculty can accomplish.

Nancy Fair
CSM has a strong commitment to experiential learning and has continued to integrate opportunities into the curriculum. Through a wide range of class projects, students worked with industry partners including the Krystal Company, Ruby Tuesday, Connor Concepts, Baptist Hospital, Goody’s Family Clothing, the Howard Baker Center, Wal-Mart Stores, and Proffitt’s Department Stores. The Cracker Barrel luncheon Series is more popular than ever; lead faculty Carol Costello and John Antun are exploring avenues to accommodate more guests. The first items of the students’ UT Vols line of products were introduced last fall. The T-shirts and UT Tartan products did quite well—over $100,000 at wholesale for the first six months. While the first products were entering the marketplace, this year’s product development students were designing new products that will be coming out this summer and fall.

CSM’s faculty members continue to be fully engaged in scholarship, receiving funding from a wide variety of sources including USDA, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, Tennessee Department of agriculture, and the International Council of Shopping Centers. The research efforts of the faculty and graduate students resulted in presentations at major conferences for their fields and in publications. The quality of these efforts received national recognition. Ann Fairhurst received Apparel Magazine’s apparel All-Star Award; Youn-Kyung Kim and RCS doctoral student, Hyeyoung Kim, received the Best Paper award at the annual meeting of the American Collegiate Retailing association (ACRA); and Nancy Fair was selected to present the keynote Prentice Hall lecture at the annual meeting of the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA).

CSM continues to increase its engagement with its industry partners and the community. The Institute for Service Excellence and the UT Tourism Institute have strengthened the outreach efforts of the department, and the CSM Advisory Board has been instrumental to these efforts. This year’s fundraiser, “Caribbean Adventure,” raised over $38,000, which will be used to support student enrichment activities. We were particularly pleased with the students’ leadership and involvement in the event that made it even more rewarding. We hope to systematically grow this leadership with future events. This year’s student enrichment funds were used to support the following activities: study tours to New York City, Atlanta, Nashville, and Tunica; graduate student participation inprofessional meetings; trips required to complete class projects; exceptional internships; and team-building and leadership sessions.

As this year ends, we are moving ahead on new initiatives that I look forward to reporting to you next year!

Jennifer Martin, Food Service
Jennifer Martin gets hand-on experience for her major in
restaurant and food service management.

 

Contact CEHHS

335 Claxton Complex
1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

Phone: 865-974-2201
Fax: 865-974-8718