Wednesday, November 29, 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.

Home sweet home

All profits from the sale of a house to be built in the Blackman Farm community in Murfreesboro will benefit the Land Development and Residential Home Building Program at MTSU. This program, which is only about 18 months old, is the only one of its kind in the United States. The groundbreaking for the land on which the house will be built is to be held at 1 p.m. TODAY on Lot 219 (3517 Blaze Dr.) in the Blackman Farm community. Regent Homes will lead at team of professionals and MTSU students in the construction of a 2,600-square-foot, four-bedroom home with a wrapped front porch and a metal roof. Students graduating rrom the program will earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Management with a concentration in Residential Land Development and Home Building.

Contact Walter Boles, chairperson, Engineering Technology and Industrial Studies, at 615-898-5009. wwboles@mtsu.edu

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.

All right, let’s take it again from the top!

Because incorrect information was provided about the MTSU Women’s Chorale concert was provided to “Today’s Response,” we would like to apologize and issue the following correct information. The MTSU Women’s Chorale will present a free “sounds of the season” concert at 7:30 p.m. TOMORROW NIGHT 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 The group will sing works by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and others, and will feature a premiere piece of an unpublished, recently composed work by Dr.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. tmusselm@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

A UNIQUE TAKE ON ANOREXIA—Dr. Richard A. O’Connor of the Department of Anthropology at the University of the South will present a lecture titled “From Virtue to Vice: Applying Anthropology to Anorexia” from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. TONIGHT in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business Aerospace Building. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Karen Ann Demonbreum at the University Honors College at 615-904-8431.

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.