On Wednesday, Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek celebrated faculty, staff, and students for their accomplishments throughout the past academic year. Tennessee Today will be highlighting staff members who received recognition for their efforts to support the campus’s mission.
Several staff members were recognized for their service to the university community.
Award recipients included:
Extraordinary Service to the University
Since the moment he accepted the position of director of RecSports, Rex Pringle has gone above and beyond to bring fun wellness activities to the UT community. After joining UT in 2004, he helped develop a stronger focus on providing and promoting opportunities for healthful lifestyles through education and service. Now an average of 75 percent of students have participated in at least one RecSports activity each year for more than a decade.
Pringle guided the design and construction of the RecSports Field Complex on Sutherland Avenue, which opened for student use in 2013. But his dedication doesn’t stop there. Never letting his title of director go to his head, he can be found picking up trash and keeping the TRECS tidy, making sure every person who enters the building has the best experience possible.
Extraordinary Customer Service
For thirty-one years, Connie Ogle has assisted the Department of Psychology with tasks big and small. Her “Admin Specialist III” title doesn’t quite describe the roles she fills, including graduate program coordinator, staff and work-study supervisor, liaison with other campus departments, and even sometimes surrogate mother. Her nominator said, “I can’t tell you how many students, faculty, and staff have entered her office, shut her door, and shared their frustration, anger, sadness or joy about whatever is going on in their lives.” Her loyalty, her professionalism, and her smile are well known throughout the department. “If a job needs to be done, Connie will be the first to volunteer, no matter how challenging or unpleasant the task.”