Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Depending on the kindness of strangers

The Center Players will perform their inaugural presentation, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Thursday through Sunday Nov. 8-11 and Thursday through Saturday Nov. 15-17 at the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Center for the Arts, 110 West College Street in Murfreesboro. Blanche DuBois will be portrayed by Dr. Elyce Helford, director of Women’s Studies and professor of English at MTSU. Dr. Robert Bray, an MTSU English professor and Tennessee Williams scholar, will deliver a talk titled “Laying the Tracks for His Streetcar: The Evolution of a Great American Play” at 7 p.m. on the night of the Nov. 8 performance. A video of Bray’s talk will be played at future performances. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. for the Sunday matinee.

Contact the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Center for the Arts at 615-904-ARTS (2787) or http://www.boroarts.org.

The meat of the matter

Federal regulators plan to make more checks on meat from bigger and riskier plants as they try to prevent more E.coli-infested hamburger from reaching the market. Dr. Jessica Gentry Carter, animal science, says, “The incidence of E.coli O157:H7 has decreased significantly in the U.S. since 2000, but recent ground beef recalls have made the public aware of some obvious errors in detection of contaminated meat before it reached the consumer. Since the Topps Meat Co. recall on frozen ground beef (Sept. 2007), the Food Safety and Inspection Service has increased scrutiny of beef processing plants in an effort to make sure than E.coli O157:H7 control is still effective. On a good note, the U.S. has not seen much disruption in markets since the recall.”

Contact Carter at 615-898-2419.
jgcarter@mtsu.edu

Never forget.

Distinguished scholars will join Nazi concentration camp survivors and some of the military veterans who liberated them as they explore the effects of the Holocaust on Nov. 8-10 during the eighth biennial Holocaust Studies Conference in MTSU’s James Union Building. “Questions of Memory and Conscience” is the theme of the three-day event. “This year’s conference will be a truly notable event, (and) a powerful and poignant experience is in store for both the participants and the audiences,” Dr. Nancy E. Rupprecht, chairwoman of the MTSU Holocaust Studies Committee, remarked. “In addition to the public session …, the academic sessions include scholarship in a rich variety of forms—papers, discussions and exhibits, as well as film, music and a live dance performance.”

For more information on the 2007 Holocaust conference, including a detailed schedule that lists conference events that are open to the public, please access its Web site at www.mtsu.edu/~holostu. For additional information by phone or via e-mail, please contact Connie Huddleston, associate conference chairwoman, at 615-494-7628.
chudd@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

HERE COMES THE GUV--The Paul W. Martin Sr. Lectureship will welcome Governor Phil Bredesen to MTSU today, Nov. 7. The governor’s address, “Exploring Issues in Education,” will commence at 2 p.m. on the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business and Aerospace Building, and it will be open to the campus community and the general public. Bredesen’s education record includes the creation of the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation, which provides free books every month to children up to 5 years of age and now encompasses all 95 counties in the state. In his fourth year in office, education funding rose to $366.5 million. Bredesen’s speech is sponsored by the University Honors College in collaboration with the colleges of Liberal Arts, Education and Behavioral Science, Business, Basic and Applied Sciences and Mass Communication. For more information, contact Tom Tozer in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919 or ttozer@mtsu.edu.

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.

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. and Nov. 7-10 (tomorrow through Saturday)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.

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 (tomorrow) Nov. 8.” The dedication originally was slated for Nov. 1, at 6 p.m. Volunteers are still needed. 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.

THE SONG DOES NOT REMAIN THE SAME--The Center for Popular Music is celebrating Tennessee Archives Week (Nov. 4-7) and American Music Month with a display in the periodicals section on the first floor of the James E. Walker Library. The Center for Popular Music is an archive and research library with holdings that document 250 years of music in American culture and commerce. Located in the John Bragg Mass Communication Building, research hours are from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Special collection and archival materials may be searched at http://popmusic.mtsu.edu. Contact Lucinda P. Cockrell, Coordinator of Research Collections, Center for Popular Music, at 615-898-5884 or lcockrel@mtsu.edu.

DON’T PLAY IN THE TRAFFIC--Americans for Informed Democracy and the American Democracy Project will sponsor a panel on the issue of human trafficking from 7-9 p.m. today, Nov. 7, in the State Farm Lecture Hall on the MTSU campus. The scheduled speakers are Colette Berku, founder of Free for Life Ministries; Amber Beckham, former MTSU student and a Network of Emergency Trafficking Services (NETS) coordinator for World Relief; and Theresa Flores, a survivor of human trafficking. According to the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, the number of people in bonded labor, forced labor, child labor and sexual servitude at any given time could total as many as 12.3 million people. This event is free and open to the public. Contact Catharine Broemel at 615-336-1058 or crb3f@mtsu.edu.