I’m a proud graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. I obtained my Bachelor of Conservative Arts Degree from that outstanding institution of higher education in 1975 and my Doctor of Lawyer-ology from the Big Orange College of Law in 1978.

I am not impartial about the University of Tennessee. My blood runs orange. Not Texas orange or Clemson orange, or for God sakes, Florida orange, but Tennessee orange, the same color as the daisies that grow each spring on the side of The Hill.

Next to my faith and my family, the University of Tennessee is the most important institution in my life. In fact, UT really is family to me inasmuch as it was on the campus of that wonderful university that I met the love of my life, Claudia Swafford Haltom. She looks gorgeous in orange.

It was also at UT that I found the best friends in my life — friends such as Pam Reeves and Charles Swanson — and inasmuch as their blood also runs orange, I consider them family as well.

Measured by any standard, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville is stronger and better than ever.

First, the student body is incredibly impressive. When I applied for admission to the University of Tennessee in 1970, to get in you had to have a vaccination, and the Registrar would waive that if you looked healthy. Now to get into the University of Tennessee you have to have a GPA of around 3.7 and an ACT score of around 28. I’m so thankful I got admitted in 1970, as I’m not sure I would be admitted in 2016.

Second, the faculty is stronger than ever as the university is attracting nationally renowned scholars.

Third, UT Knoxville is now engaged in a capital and building campaign that makes an old Baptist like me proud. The law school has recently launched a $40 million capital campaign, for which they have already raised more than $35 million.

And finally, President Joe DiPietro and Chancellor James Cheek are working every day to meet their stated goal of making the University of Tennessee at Knoxville one of the top 25 public universities in America.

And oh, by the way, let’s not overlook the fact that our football team is back in business after an unfortunate few years when they couldn’t even beat Vanderbilt.

But while the University of Tennessee is better and stronger than ever, it has unfortunately incurred the recent ire of several Tennessee legislators, including Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey.

Over the past couple of years, Tennessee lawmakers have become upset by three recent events on the campus of UT Knoxville.

The first was something called “Sex Week.”

The second involved, believe it or not, pronouns.

And the third involved Christmas parties, or more accurately faculty and student parties on the UT campus that “are disguised as Christmas parties.”

Lt. Gov. Ramsey and several of his fellow lawmakers have become so upset about these recent events that they have suggested that Chancellor Cheek resign, and they have threatened to cut funding for the University.

Well, with all due respect to the Tennessee General Assembly, I think this is much ado about nothing, which by the way, is the name of a play I read when I was a student at the University of Tennessee. As I recall, it was written by some guy named Shakespeare.

Let’s take these three controversial incidents one at a time.

Let’s begin with arguably the most provocative, the so-called “Sex Week.” Contrary to the title, as it turns out, “Sex Week” at UT wasn’t really that sexy at all. You would think from the title that it was a week devoted to pornographic movies and passing out orange and white condoms. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, “Sex Week” was a student-run event that was co-sponsored by a Christian student organization. It featured programs to counsel students on how
to avoid sexual assault and sexual harassment, and even included a program on abstinence.

Frankly, “Sex Week” paled in comparison to an event that was held on the campus of the University of Tennessee in 1974 when I was an undergraduate. It was called “Streak Week”, and it consisted of UT students running buck naked down Cumberland Avenue. Interestingly enough, the then Lt. Gov. of Tennessee, John Wilder, never threatened to cut off funding to the University of Tennessee because of the naked students. He just looked the other way, which was clearly the right thing to do. (I will resist the temptation to say he turned the other cheek.) The reaction of university officials at that time was best summarized by the late, great Chancellor Jack Reese, who told the Knoxville News Sentinel, “I am confident that streaking is just a fad that is going to peter out in the next few days.” Chancellor Reese did not misspeak. He knew exactly what he was saying.

The pronouns controversy stemmed from a memo issued by the UT Office of Diversity, encouraging staff and students to stop using pronouns such as “he” and “she”, and to replace them with “xe”, “zir” and “xyr.”

I frankly don’t understand what xyr were thinking in the diversity office when xyr issued this memo. It sounds kind of silly to me, but is it really something that justifies a legislative investigation?

And then we come to the Christmas parties, or more accurately, the “suggestion” by the University of Tennessee Diversity Office that student and faculty holiday parties should be more inclusive and not be “Christmas parties in disguise.”

Well, I’m a Christian. I love Christmas. I love Christmas parties. My wife and I throw a big Christmas party each December, and we don’t disguise it.

But my faith and my love for Christmas are in no way threatened by an email from some academic bureaucrat. If I were on the faculty of the University of Tennessee, I would respond to the email by throwing a Christmas party.

And if I were in the legislature, the last thing I would do would be to respond to the email by going on television, blasting my alma mater, and threatening to cut back its funding.

And so as a taxpayer and a proud graduate of the University of Tennessee, here is my suggestion to Lt. Gov. Ramsey and other leaders in the Tennessee legislature. You made your point, and while I disagree with you about Sex Week, I’m actually in your corner when it comes to pronouns and Christmas parties.

But now that you’ve made your point, I urge you to quit being, in the words of a former Republican vice president of the United States, a bunch of nattering nabobs of negativism. Start talking about what’s great at the University of Tennessee. Support the incredible student body, the great faculty, and the administrators who are trying to make the University one of the top 25 public universities in America, and I’m not talking about in football, where of course, the Vols should be in the top 10 in America and will be again soon.

And now, would you please join me in singing a rousing rendition of Rocky Top followed by Have Xyrself a Merry Little Christmas?

BILL HALTOM is a shareholder with the firm of Lewis Thomason. He is a past president of the Tennessee Bar Association and a past president of the Memphis Bar Association. Read his blog at www.billhaltom.com.