Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Reading, writing, and free speech

The U.S. Supreme Court has said students do not leave their First Amendment rights outside the schoolhouse door. But the court also has given school administrators wide latitude in controlling behavior, including speech. What are the requirements and options when rights and responsibilities come into conflict? Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism professor and First Amendment expert, will discuss this topic in “Time, Place, and Manner: When the First Amendment and School Discipline Collide,” a professional development program for K-12 teachers and administrators to be made available by MTSU’s Satellite and Webcasting Center at 3:30 p.m. TOMORROW.

For details, call 615-898-2737 or contact itsc@mtsu.edu.

Brick by brick

Each and every brick to be laid in the MTSU Veterans Memorial will represent the support of an entire community for the enlightenment and inspiration of future generations. The bricks may be reserved by all those who wish to honor a veteran or active-duty service member or merely acknowledge their support for the construction of a permanent on-campus memorial to MTSU faculty, students, staff and administrators who perished while serving their country. The bricks will be integrated into the overall memorial design. All proceeds will help to pay for the memorial, which will be an outdoor classroom that includes a wall with the names of the military personnel.

To purhcase a brick with a memorial message, send a tax-deductible check of $150 payable to “MTSU Foundation—Veterans Memorial,” to P.O. Box 109, Murfreesboro, TN 37132. Credit cards also are accepted. Address any questions about brick purchases or donations to Robyn Kilpatrick at 615-898-5223 or rkilpatr@mtsu.edu.

Cumberland Mountain high

Dr. Jack Justin Turner, professor emeritus of political science, will discuss his novel, The Sheriffs’ Murder Cases (Chestnut Hill, 2006), at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, Mar. 1, in Room 103 of the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building. This event is free and open to the public. Turner will read selected portions of his book, which is the story of Jake Herald, High Sheriff or Chief Deputy or Chinoe County from 1920-1945. “I think of Jake Herald as a kind of mixture, and it’s a strange mixture, of Hamlet, maybe, and Dirty Harry,” Turner says, referring to William Shakespeare’s tragic prince and Clint Eastwood’s vigilante movie detective. “He likes to think about things and work them out, but once he gets started, he’s capable of taking extreme action, if necessary.”

Contact Connie Huddleston, events coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts, at 615-494-7628.
chudd@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

BEAUTIFUL BIWA--The Japan-U.S. Program of MTSU will present the Junko Tahara Biwa Ensemble at this year’s Music from Japan concert at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26 in Hinton Hall in the Wright Music Building. Tahara has performed extensively in Japan and at major venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in the United States. Her instrument, the biwa, is a fretted lute frequently used in the performance of traditional Japanese music. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. To obtain tickets by mail, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the Japan-U.S. Program, Box 167, MTSU, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132. For more information, contact Dr. Kiyoshi Kawahito at 615-898-2229 or japan@mtsu.edu.

WE’RE NOT PUTIN YOU ON.--Dr. Vladimir Mukomel, lead researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will speak at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business Aerospace Building. Mukomel will discuss the ethnic aspects of migration in Russia and President Vladimir Putin’s policies in the area of civil liberties. The holder of doctorates in sociology and economics, Mukomel has published more than 120 academic works, including 13 books. He regularly comments on Russian politics for the Russian and international media. This event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the American Democracy Project, GLOBAL (Get Lost Outside Boundaries and Limitations), and Americans for Informed Democracy (AID).Contact Dr. Andrei Korobkov at 615-898-2945 or korobkov@mtsu.edu or GLOBAL President Candi Nunley at global@mtsu.edu or AID President Angie Feeney at amf3g@mtsu.edu.

“PERFORMING GENDER”--Discussions, performance art, and feminist films are all part of the 2007 Interdisciplinary Conference in Women’s Studies slated for THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY in the James Union Building. The theme of the 2007 gathering, which is held every two years, is “Performing Gender.” Special guests include keynote speaker Jill Dolan, author of Presence and Desire: Essays on Gender, Sexuality, and Performance; Marissa Richmond, historian and president of the Tennessee Transgender Action Committee; and Deb Margolin, playwright and performance artist and founding member of Split Britches Theater Company. To register, please visit http://womenstu.web.mtsu.edu and click on “Women’s Studies Conference.” For more information, call the Women’s Studies program at 615-898-5910.

YES, THERE’S LIFE AFTER COLLEGE, BUT IS THERE MONEY?--“From Student Poverty to Financial Security: Planning to Get from Here to There” is the theme of the 14th annual Adult Learning in Tennessee Conference THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. This year’s gathering will focus on giving “both adult students and the educational professionals who work with them some new insights about preparing for financial security after graduation,” according to conference literature. The luncheon and keynote speaker Feb. 22 will be Dallas Nichols Ruddell, a 1996 alumna who lived on food stamps while earning her degree. After graduating with a degree in psychology, Ruddell moved to the San Francisco area, where she recruits and trains insurance agents and financial advisers. For more information, contact the Adult Services Center at 615-898-5989.

GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME--Officials at MTSU have extended the deadline to March 1 for prospective students wanting to apply for the EdScholar scholarships and approximately 70 MTSU Foundation scholarships offered by the Office of Financial Aid, Bonnie McCarty, assistant director of scholarships, says. The deadline was to be Feb. 15. A transition to a new computer software system from an old one is the reason for the extension. In addition to applying for the scholarships (EdScholar can be done online), students must apply for admission to the university. For information, call Admissions at 615-898-2111 or Financial Aid at 615-898-2830, or visit their Web sites at http://www.mtsu.edu.

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.

DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE--Guest artists Linda Pereksta (flute), Michael Rowlett (clarinet) and Brian Osborne (piano) will perform under the Doubled Air moniker at 8 p.m. TOMORROW in a free and open recital in Hinton Hall of Wright Music Building. Pereksta and Rowlett have performed together for more than 10 years, most recently under the Doubled Air name. They are members of the Flute/Clarinet Duos Consortium, an organization that commissions new compositions for this combination of instruments. The program will include such works at Georg Philipp Telemann's Canonic Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre's Ecos, Leonard Bernstein's Sonata for Clarinet, Steve Reich's Clapping Music, and Charles Ives's At the River. Contact Tim Musselman at 615-898-2493 or tmusselm@mtsu.edu.

“THE EMPIRES OF THE FUTURE ARE THE EMPIRES OF THE MIND.”—WINSTON CHURCHILL--The cigar-chomping bulldog of Britain during World War II, Winston Churchill’s wartime leadership is legendary. But what about the other Churchills—prisoner of war, disgraced politician, painter, and Nobel Prize-winning author? MTSU is offering a July 2007 study-abroad history course which will take students to the Cabinet War Rooms underneath London, as well as Parliament, Churchill’s birthplace, his country estate, and other sites related to the life of this great statesman. The instructor will be Dr. Jim Williams, a Churchill Fellow of Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., site of Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946. Contact Williams at 615-898-2633 or jhwillia@mtsu.edu or Jennifer Campbell, MTSU Study Abroad Office, at 615-898-5179 or jjcampbe@mtsu.edu.

DROP AND GIVE ME 20!--A groundbreaking ceremony for the Campus Recreation Center expansion and new Health and Wellness Center will be held at 2 p.m. FRIDAY in the dance aerobics room at the Rec Center. The expansion program will include an enlarged weight room, sport club/dance room, outdoor recreation equipment room, cardiovascular room, group meeting room, office suite, new entrance lobby, health assessment room, and family changing room. Another part of the expansion program already well underway is the multi-sport field complex on East Main Street. The project will include a field house, three fields, a jogging track, and parking area. This project is slated for completion this August. Recreation Center/Health and Wellness staff and Campus Planning officials will be on hand at the groundbreaking to answer questions. Media welcomed. Contact Arthur Reed, manager, campus planning, at 615-494-8867 or adreed@mtsu.edu.