Thursday, November 30, 2006

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

NOTE: With classes slated to end Dec. 6 and professors planning to leave campus, “Today’s Response” will go on hiatus Monday, Dec. 4 for the holiday season. “Today’s Response” will return on Monday, Jan. 16, 2007.

An early frost for Frist

The news that U.S. Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) will not seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination follows a similar announcement by former Virginia Governor Mark Warner regarding the Democratic nomination. Dr. John Vile, chair of the Department of Political Science, says, “Frist showed himself to be a capable legislative leader in the Senate, but he made a few missteps, and exit polling, even among Tennesseans after the election, suggested that he did not have a very good chance. Frist could still be one of those candidates (Al Gore is another, with a somewhat better chance on the Democratic side.) who could later step in IF (a pretty big if) the other major candidates self-destruct.”

Contact Vile at 615-898-2596.
jvile@mtsu.edu

“What we done in France we had to do.”—Gary Cooper in “Sergeant York”

More than 1,400 artifacts from German gas masks and mess kits to collar insignia and grenades were unearthed in Chatel-Cherey, France, during an expedition led by Tom Nolan of MTSU’s geosciences faculty and Michael Birdwell of Tennessee Tech’s history faculty Nov. 12-26, 2006. The trip was the researchers’ second sojourn in the past year. On this trip, the exact locale of Sgt. Alvin York’s heroic WWI victory was pinpointed at last with the use of geospatial technology, ending an 88-year mystery. Nolan and Birdwell will announce their findings at a joint news conference at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 8, in the R.O. Fullerton Laboratory for Spatial Technology in the Kirksey Old Main building. A question-and-answer session will follow opening remarks. Media only, please. Videographers and broadcasters must arrive at least 20 minutes early to set up their equipment.

Reporters, please RSVP to Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919.
lrollins@mtsu.edu

Cyberspace in China

The group Reporters Without Borders claims more than 30 journalists and 50 computer users are in jail in China for “inappropriate use” of the Internet. “Inappropriate use” could mean anything from reading foreign Web sites to hosting sites critical of the Beijing government. Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism, is concerned about American software companies’ complicity in all this with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo turning the names of users over to the government. “Well, the answer to that problem is not to do business with countries that abuse human rights—or to say to the repressive government ‘if you want our products, here’s what we want you to do,’” Burriss says. “After all, software companies do that sort of thing to American consumers all the time. Just look at the licensing agreement.”

Contact Burriss at 615-898-2983.
lburriss@mtsu.edu


TR EXTRA

SHOW ME THE MONEY!--THIS FRIDAY is the deadline for prospective freshmen and current MTSU students to apply for scholarships for the 2007-08 academic year. Merit scholarships and awards available include freshman merit scholarships, National Merit Finalist scholarships, awards for valedictorians and salutatorians, and Chancellor, Presidential, Buchanan Fellowship, Academic Service, Provost, and Raider scholarships. For more information, contact the Admissions Office at 615-898-2111, the Office of Financial Aid at 615-898-2830, or visit the Admissions Web page at http://www.mtsu.edu/~admissn.

CLEAN AND SOBER--MTSU’s Department of Public Safety will establish field-sobriety check points on campus the evening of Thursday, Dec. 7, and repeat them on a quarterly basis throughout the year. Police officials say there is a higher incidence of drunk driving right before and during traditional academic breaks. “Our goal is to reduce the number of impaired drivers by being proactive,” Associate Chief Roy Brewer says. The check points are made possible in part through a grand awarded to the department with funds administered by the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Governor’s Highway Safety Office. The overall goal is to reduce alcohol- and drug-related fatalities in Tennessee to 35 percent in 2006 from a baseline of 41 percent in the year 2000. Contact Police Chief Buddy Peaster or Associate Police Chief Roy Brewer at 615-898-2424.

“PERFORMING GENDER”--“Performing Gender” will be the embedded theme for the 2007 Interdiscipinary Conference in Women’s Studies Feb. 22-24, 2007 in the James Union Building. Among the guest speakers will be keynote speaker Jill Dolan, author of Presence and Desire: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Performance and Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theater. Marissa Richmond, historian and president of the Tennessee Transgender Action Committee, will discuss transgender history. Playwright and performance artist Deb Margolin will introduce her new full-length work. Margolin has been awarded an Obie for sustained excellence of performance and the Joseph Kesselring Prize for playwriting. Conference registration will be $75 ($85 on-site) for non-students and $30 ($35 on-site) for students and unemployed and underemployed individuals. The conference fee is waived for the MTSU community. For more information on the conference and registration, visit http://www.womenstu.web.mtsu.edu and click on “Women’s Studies Conference.”

A WHOLE NEW WORLD--Your children can be transported to Japan, China and Indonesia without flight reservations. A new exhibit at the Discovery Center enables youngsters to play dress-up with sarongs and kimonos, view animated superhero Astro Boy or learn about Japanese folklore on a 20-inch DVD player, construct their own colorful kites, make origami figures, work challenging tangram puzzles, stage their own hand puppet theatre and hold Japanese tea parties. The interactive exhibit is made possible by generous donations from Toshiba, Nissan, the Foreign Ministry of Japan and the Japan-U.S. Program of MTSU. The Discovery Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 for anyone age 2 and up. Contact Steve Hoskins at the Discovery Center, 502 SE Broad Street, Murfreesboro, at 615-890-2300.

ALL RIGHT, LET’S TAKE IT AGAIN FROM THE TOP!--The MTSU Women’s Chorale will present a free “sounds of the season” concert at 7:30 p.m. TONIGHT in the Hinton Music Hall on the MTSU campus. The group will sing works by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and others, and will feature a premiere piece of an unpublished, recently composed work by Dr. Mark Simmons of the University of Tennessee at Martin. Other selections to be performed will include Carol of the Bells, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, Coventry Carol, and A Virgin Most Pure. The Nov. 30 performance is free and open to the public. Contact Tim Musselman at 615-898-2493 or tmusselm@mtsu.edu