Monday, Feb. 12, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

On the job

The Tennessee Center for Labor-Management Relations will present a workshop on “The Legal Matrix of Workplace Injuries” from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. TOMORROW at 1313 Old Fort Parkway, Suite 300, in Murfreesboro. Workshop speakers will include Joan Hill, attorney education representative for United Steelworkers International, and Mark Travis, an attorney with the firm of Wimberly, Lawson, Seale, Wright & Daves. The workshop will examine questions raised by the simultaneous application of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Leave and Medical Act, as well as state workers’ compensation laws. Participants also will address collaborative ways in which to reduce the impact of work-related injuries on the employee’s “ability to work” and the employer’s “bottom line.”

For more information, please visit http://www.tnlabormgmt.org.

Love hurts

The fifth annual Tunnel of Love, an interactive event to raise awareness about sexually transmitted diseases, will be hosted by the Department of Health and Human Performance from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. TOMORROW in the James Union Building’s Tennessee Room. There will be an exhibit featuring literature about the most current statistics of both bacterial and viral STDs, complete with pictures of STDs. Classes are welcomed to attend the self-guided event. Also, vendors will be on hand to distribute safe-sex packets. According to the recent findings released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 19 million new reported cases of sexually transmitted infections each year—and half of them are among those ages 16-24.

Contact Casie Higginbotham, HHP instructor, at 615-904-8274.
chigginb@mtsu.edu

Peace and reconciliation?

Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, has generated enormous controversy and blowback from the American Jewish community. Is the intended comparison with South Africa accurate? Dr. Karen Petersen, political science, notes that “apartheid” means “separateness” in Afrikaans. “Carter could have used ‘Palestine Peace Not Separation’ if that is the message he intended to convey,” Petersen says. “Instead, he chose a word that is associated with violent racial segregation—an historically loaded term—in order to inflame the debate (and perhaps sell more books). … The use of apartheid is inappropriate because it does nothing to advance the dialogue and serves only to catalyze the positions.”

Contact Petersen at 615-494-8662.
kpeterse@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

VAUDEVILLE ISN’T DEAD!--Five current or former MTSU faculty members will help create an evening of frivolity in An Evening of Chekhov’s Vaudevilles, a presentation of the Murfreesboro Ensemble Theatre (MET) THROUGH FEB. 18 at the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Center for the Arts. The entertainment will consist of three one-act farces—The Bear, The Proposal, and Swan Song—with short performances by jugglers, magicians, acrobats and singers as interludes. Times are 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 and 17 and at 2:00 p.m. on Feb. 18. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for children and seniors. The Center for the Arts, a non-profit organization, is located at 110 West College Street. For ticket information, call 615-904-ARTS. To interview director Ayne Cantrell, call 615-893-1786 or write to acantrell@comcast.net. To interview MET founder and artistic director Tom Harris, call 615-895-0755 or write to millermn@comcast.net.

SOUTH OF THE BORDER--“Landscapes of Mexico,” a photography exhibit featuring the works of Hector Montes de Oca, is on display through February 28 at Baldwin Photographic Gallery in the Learning Resources Center. The exhibit is made up of 40 silver gelatine black-and-white prints. He is considered to be one of the most prominent Mexican photographers of his generation. He is especially distinguished for his black-and-white landscapes, which reveal his native country in a most striking and intimate manner. The exhibit will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Mr. de Oca will present a slide show/lecture on his work at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 28, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business Aerospace Building. Exhibitions and lectures are free and open to the public. Contact Tom Jimison at 615-898-2085 or tjimison@mtsu.edu.

ROCK, ROLL, AND RUN THE MIXING BOARD--If you missed the first Youth Culture and Arts Center recording workshop series of the year, you still have plenty of chances to learn cassette four-track, digital eight-track, computer recording and electronic music. It’s the hippest, smartest extracurricular activity your kids will ever enjoy. Children ages 12-17 are invited to participate under the tutelage of Ryan York, teacher of guitar, bass and drums at Chambers Guitars and Musical Instruments in Murfreesboro for a fee of $125. Classes are taught in Room 149 of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building each Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and each Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is open now for the next session, which will last from Feb. 15 through Mar. 11. For more information, contact York at bororecording@gmail.com.