Thursday, November 1, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Home will have to wait.

MTSU students are sponsoring a Habitat for Humanity home. “The Habitat Blitz Build is moving along very nicely and the home is nearly halfway complete,” says Jacqueline Victory, Director of MTSU’s Office of Leadership and Service. “However, some much needed rain stalled some of our efforts and has pushed our dedication back to Nov. 8.” The dedication originally was slated for today, Nov. 1, at 6 p.m. Volunteers are needed for the dates of Nov. 2, 6, 7, and 8. The construction site is located at 446 State St. in Murfreesboro, where teams working in two shifts will labor to build a Habitat home for the Bautista family. The five-member Bautista clan has lived with family, in a basement and in public housing over the years, but never truly had a place to call home. Victory says the MTSU Student Government Association has spent two years working to raise the $50,000 needed to build the Habitat home for the Bautistas.

Contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919 or lrollins@mtsu.edu.

They’ve got a lot of brass.

The fourth annual MTSU Brass Performance Clinic, an all-day event sponsored by MTSU’s music school, will culminate with a free and open concert by The Brass Band of Huntsville (BBH) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, in the T. Earl Hinton Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus. The performance clinic will be open to all high-school students, grades nine through 12. School music teachers and private instructors also are invited to attend and participate. They will attend clinics conducted by MTSU faculty and area professionals, including members of the Nashville Symphony and Nashville recording artists. In addition, a 1:30 p.m. concert will feature the MTSU Faculty Brass Quintet, the MTSU Symphonic Brass Ensemble and the resident, award-winning student ensemble, the Broad Street Brass.

For more information, call 615-898-2493 or visit http://www.mtsumusic.com.

Will the Milky Way turn sour?

The next MTSU First Friday Star Party is slated for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, in Room 102 of Wiser-Patten Science Hall. Dr. Eric Klumpe, physics and astronomy, will speak on “Galactic Collisions (Is the Milky Way Doomed?).” There will be an outdoor telescope observing following the lecture, weather permitting. The Star Party is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Klumpe at 615-898-2483.
eklumpe@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

BONJOUR!--Any student whose summer was no more exciting than spending endless hours lying by the pool frying to a crisp can prepare now for an unforgettable summer 2008. There’s no time like the present to register for the annual general education study abroad program in Cherbourg, France, which will run from June 2 to June 27. At this beautiful port town in the Normandy region of northwest France, students will experience the history, art and culture of the area. “With the general education program, a student can spend four weeks in Cherbourg and in Normandy, and they can begin studying French while they’re there if they choose to, but they don’t have to already know any French,” Dr. Anne Sloan, Assistant to the Provost for International Education, says. Contact Sloan at 615-898-5091 or asloan@mtsu.edu or Jennifer Campbell, Director of International Education and Exchange, at 615-898-5179 or jjcampbe@mtsu.edu.

SCALE THE TOWER AND FEEL THE POWER OF PAINTBALL--Two physically and mentally challenging competitions open to the public as well as the MTSU community are slated for early next month to raise money for the MTSU Veterans Memorial. The Alpine Tower Challenge is scheduled for 1-5 p.m. today, Nov. 1, and tomorrow, Nov. 2 behind the Campus Recreation Center. The National Guard Paintball Tournament is set for 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, at Middle Tennessee Paintball in Spring Hill. There is no entrance fee for either event, but donations are encouraged. In the tower challenge, teams of two persons each will attempt to scale a 55-foot-high wooden structure by using climbing holds, four dangling poles, a wooden “corporate ladder” with several feet of space between the rungs and a cargo net ladder. To learn more about the Alpine Tower Challenge, contact Josh Stone at the recreation center at 615-898-2104 or jrstone@mtsu.edu. To learn more about the National Guard Paintball Tournament, call Staff Sgt. Julius Santini, Tennessee National Guard representative at MTSU, at 615-494-7682 or julius.santini@us.army.mil.

THEIR BODY OF WORK--The Todd Gallery at MTSU will present “Of the Body,” an exhibition of contemporary figurative ceramic works from five artists of national recognition through tomorrow, Nov. 2. Dr. Lon Nuell, MTSU art professor and gallery curator, says, “The works to be seen in ‘Of the Body’ represent five unique perspectives that derive from the artists’ personal experiences and interpretations of the human presence in the contemporary world. Within these interpretations five manifestations occur.” The artists whose work will be showcased will include John Donovan, foundations instructor at MTSU. Admission is free and open to the public. Contact Eric Snyder, gallery assistant, at 615-898-5653.

Y’ALL COME TO SEE US WHEN YOU CAN--Officials in the MTSU Office of Admissions say that the Fall Visit Day, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 3, is full. Nearly 500 prospective students and their family members have registered. Admissions representatives request that prospective students and their families take one of the daily tours offered through Wednesday, Dec. 5. Please note that no tours will be offered Nov. 14-16 (Admission staff will be attending a conference that day.) and Nov. 21-23 (Thanksgiving holiday). The Nov. 3 Fall Visit Day will start at 10 a.m. CDT in the Cope Administration Building. Contact the Office of Admissions at 615-898-2111.

UP, UP AND AWAY--The 2007 Study Abroad Fair at MTSU will take place today, Nov. 1, on the second floor of the Keathley University Center. There will be foreign foods to sample, international music, and numerous people representing various venues of the study abroad experience. They will be happy to tell all about transportation, financing, locales, and how particular study abroad trips fit into students’ degree tracks. The joy of learning about other lands and cultures in person is not merely a dream—it can become a reality. Open your eyes to the great opportunities to learn and earn credit overseas. Contact Jennifer Campbell or Rachael King in the Office of International Education and Exchange, temporarily located in Room 129 of the Todd Building, at 615-898-5179 or jjcampbe@mtsu.edu or rak2m@mtsu.edu.

WHEREFORE ART THOU?--MTSU Theatre and Dance will present one of the most famous and beloved of Shakespeare plays, Romeo and Juliet, at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, Nov. 2-3, and Nov. 7-10 on the stage of Tucker Theatre in the Boutwell Dramatic Arts Building. “This is a true classic that students read in high school and people come to the play knowing,” says Dale McGilliard, the show’s director. “They all come with a different expectation, which adds to the wonderful challenge to producing it.” MTSU alumnus Lane Davies—who has appeared in a wide variety of television series including Married with Children, Scrubs and Seinfeld—will guest star in the role of Capulet.
Tickets must be purchased at the door on the evening of the performance. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for MTSU staff and K-12 students. For more information, please visit the speech and theatre department Web site at http://www.mtsu.edu/~theatre.

IT ALL ADDS UP--For the first time, the Department of Mathematical Sciences at MTSU will host a meeting of the American Mathematical Society. Slated for Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 3-4, the Fall Southeastern Meeting of the AMS will feature keynote addresses from leading mathematicians, along with 16 special sessions that will allow participants to present and learn about a host of research topics. All sessions and keynote addresses will take place in the Business and Aerospace and John Bragg Mass Communication buildings. To date, more than 300 mathematicians from more than 30 states will be on campus this weekend sharing results and ideas on topics ranging from financial mathematics to algorithmic methods in algebra. Research from 12 MTSU math faculty will be presented at the meeting, and nine of the special topic sessions have been organized or co-organized by MTSU math faculty. For more information, contact Dr. Jim Hart, associate professor of mathematical sciences, at 615-898-2402 or jhart@mtsu.edu.