Thursday, April 26, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Pickin’ and grinnin’

MTSU students in need of a study break can kick back with The Stones River String Band at 7 o’clock TONIGHT in Room 106 of the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building. The group includes students who are enrolled in a course on traditional music of the rural South taught through the McLean School of Music. Members of the band include Rebekah Weiler and Ben Bateson on banjo, Brian Vollmer on fiddle and banjo, Jessica Watson and Matt Petree on mandolin, Emily Cavender and Chandlin Ringgold on bass and Josh Philpott on fiddle and guitar. Instructors for the class are Paul Wells of the Center for Popular Music and Amy Macy, a professor in the Department of Recording Industry. The concert is free and refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Georgia Dennis at 615-898-5645.

Pull!

As part of the Blue Raider Athletic Association’s ongoing renewal phase for current members, the BRAA will sponsor the Shooting for Scholarships clay target event at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, April 28, at Big Springs Clay Targets south of Murfreesboro just off U.S. 41. Director Alan Farley says he is encouraging existing members to “renew and participate in the 110 percent club, giving 10 percent more than they did last year.” Farley says the BRAA, the Department of Athletics, and the Office of Alumni Relations are working to build chapters in surrounding areas, particularly Bedford, Cannon, Williamson, Davidson and Sumner counties.

For more information about Shooting for Scholarships, call 615-898-2210 or go to http://www.goblueraiders.com.

All that jazz

MTSU faculty and student ensembles are slated to perform at JazzFest 2007 May 4 and 5 on the public square in Murfreesboro. More than 20,000 people attended last year’s event, which is free and open to the public. Seven high school jazz bands from Rutherford County will entertain in the Friday evening segment. Middle and high school bands from Murfreesboro and Nashville also will play Saturday on the second stage along with rising saxophone sensation Chris West, an MTSU jazz studies graduate, and the Music City Swing Band. Louis Hayes will cap the festival Saturday with his Cannonball Legacy Band, reviving the great sound of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, with whom Hayes performed fro 1959-65.

For more information, call 615-8995-1887 or go to http://www.mainstreetjazzfest.com.

TR EXTRA

SHOW THEM THAT SOMEBODY CAIRS.--Community Assistance for International and Refugee Students (CAIRS) will conduct a yard sale from 8 a.m. until noon Saturday, April 28, at the St. Rose of Lima School gymnasium, 1601 N. Tennessee Blvd. in Murfreesboro. CAIRS is a not-for-profit organization that helps international students who are at MTSU on student visas or who have come to the U.S. permanently as refugees. Frequently, these students have no family support and work at minimum wage jobs to cover tuition with no money left over for health insurance or groceries. In the two short years CAIRS has been in existence, the fund has assisted MTSU students from India, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Turkey with small grants and loans. Donations will be accepted from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Friday, April 27, at the gym. Volunteers are also welcome to pitch in and help. For more information, contact Karen Case at 615-427-9411 or kcase@mtsu.edu.

DON’T WORRY! JOAN RIVERS WON’T BE THERE!--Some proud MTSU students and alumni will have a chance to find out what the “red carpet” experience is like tonight when the movie they helped to make is screened at the Nashville Film Festival. “My Name is Wallace,” written and directed by Dr. Bob Pondillo, electronic media communication, will be shown along with other short films at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 Theater, 3815 Green Hills Village Drive in Nashville. “Wallace” tells the story of a lonely, socially inept man who, in all innocence, reaches out for companionship without realizing the phone number he calls is a phone sex hotline. Contact Pondillo at 615-904-8465 or pondillo@mtsu.edu.

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE--The MTSU Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Studies will hold an open house from 3:30 until 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the Tom H. Jackson Building (formerly Alumni Center). The open house will be open to the campus community and the general public. Numerous posters will be on display regarding current research projects, student capstone projects and national student team competitions including NASA Moon Buggy, Solar Bike, Mini Baja, Space Elevator, Construction Management Competition and SAE Formula One. “The Lead Elimination Program and Concrete Industry Management program will have booths,” Sally Swoape of the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Studies says. Also, a plug-in hybrid auto and other project vehicles will be on display. Media welcomed. Call Swoape at 615-898-5009 or send an e-mail to sswoape@mtsu.edu.

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT--Your musically talented youngster could produce his or her own CD before he graduates high school. Ryan York, a 21-year-old MTSU student and teacher of guitar, bass and drums lessons, continues his recording workshops for kids ages 12-17. For a fee of $125 per student, the kids will be introduced to cassette four-track recording, digital eight-track, computer recording, and electronic music. All proceeds will help pay for the equipment. The next workshop classes are slated for May 10 through June 17 on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons in the John Bragg Mass Communication Building at MTSU. Registration for these classes is in progress and will continue through April 30. The recording workshops are sponsored by the Youth Culture and Arts Center, a function of Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Humanities (YEAH!), a nonprofit Murfreesboro-based organization. For more information about the workshops, contact York at bororecording@gmail.com. To learn more about the Youth Culture and Arts Center, go to http://www.youthculturecenter.org.

“DIVERSE TALES FOR DIVERSE TOTS”--The Diversity Subcommittee of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women is requesting donations of children’s books about any aspect of diversity now through April 27. The books could be old or new and for any age group. Gift certificates from your favorite bookstore also are welcome. These donations will be presented to MTSU’s Project HELP Program to help build up its new Dede Rucker Memorial Library collection. You can drop off your donations at several on-campus locations, including the Sociology and Anthropology mailroom (Room 335 in the Todd Building), the Upper Division English office (Room 323 in Peck Hall), the June Anderson Women’s Center (Room 206 of the James Union Building), and the Study Abroad office (Room 103A of Peck Hall. For more information, contact Dr. Ida Fadzillah at 615-904-8275 or ifadzill@mtsu.edu.

WE PAWS FOR THIS MESSAGE OF INTEREST.--MTSU’s Office of Student Organizations & Community Service will present the second annual See Spot Run at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 12, on campus. The 5K run/walk will give humans and their canine companions a chance to exercise at the same time. All proceeds, including entry fees, admissions, and sponsorships, will go to Habitat for Humanity. The goal is to raise the $50,000 necessary to sponsor a “blitz build,” an intensified construction effort, on campus. The entry fee is $15 before May 1 and $20 thereafter. Entry fees include T-shirts to the first 250 participants. Registration will begin at 6:30 a.m. on race day at Peck Hall. Also, registration is available at http://www.mtalumni.com or 615-898-5812.