Friday, January 18, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.

MTSU will be closed Monday, Jan. 21, on the official Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday. MTSU students will participate in a unity project to make a connection with Murfreesboro youth about King’s legacy at the Discovery Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday. At 6 p.m. on Monday night, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the Office of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs will sponsor a candlelight vigil at the Keathley University Center Theatre to kick off a week of activities honoring King. Worship leaders from Hillel, the Wesley Foundation and First Baptist Church will reflect on King’s legacy and how it relates to today’s society.

For information on more MTSU events scheduled to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. all week long, go to http://www.mtsu.edu/aahm/events_aahm.shtml or call the Office of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs at 615-898-2987.

Going gray behind bars

“Grandma Lifers in Prison: Approaches to Understanding the Lives of a Forgotten Population” will be the first presentation of the new year in the Women’s Studies Research Series at 3 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 24, in Room 100 of MTSU’s James Union Building. This lecture is free and open to the public. Dr. Ron Aday, professor of sociology and anthropology, will deliver the address and answer questions. “The number of women inmates in state and federal prisons has increased rapidly in recent decades and, more recently, older women have been the fastest growing segment of this population,” Aday says. “As a forgotten minority, virtually nothing is known about the distinct experiences of older women in prison.”

For more information, contact Dr. Jane Marcellus at 615-898-5282 or jmarcell@mtsu.edu, or contact the Women’s Studies office at 615-898-5910 or womenstu@mtsu.edu.

The bite and the blood

When MTSU student Craig Hutto lost a leg, he gained a new appreciation of the medical profession—one so intense that it prompted him to change his major. A week before his 17th birthday in June 2005, the Lebanon youngster was on vacation with his family about 50 miles southeast of Panama City. As Craig was fishing with his brother Brian, a bull shark estimated to be six to eight feet long attacked Craig’s right leg, piercing his right femoral artery. Medical personnel who happened to be on vacation on the beach went into action and saved Craig’s life, but they couldn’t save his leg. Craig has since changed his major from computers to nursing and speaks to groups about the importance of blood donations.

For more about Craig Hutto, contact Gina Logue in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081.
gklogue@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

WHERE HISTORY COMES ALIVE--You can contribute to the living legacy of MTSU by allowing officials at the James E. Walker Library to make digital images of your university memorabilia. The MTSU Memory Project is looking for photographs and documents from both the campus community and the community at large. Eventually, these images will be posted on a user-friendly, searchable Web site suitable for both research and reminiscing. If it’s in your attic, in a piano bench, or on a living room bookshelf, the Memory Project wants to make a digital image of it and preserve it for all time to come as part of the institution’s history. For more information, contact Ken Middleton at 615-898-8524 or kmiddlet@mtsu.edu or Mayo Taylor at 615-898-5605 or mtaylor@mtsu.edu.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION--“Freed Voices: A Dance Concert Featuring Choreography and Performance by African-American Guest Artists,” a concert to explore and celebrate diversity in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, in Tucker Theatre on the MTSU campus. More than 30 members of MTSU Dance Theatre, as well as four internationally and nationally known guest artists, will be featured in the upcoming performance. The guest artists were individually commissioned to create works for the student performers, as well as perform solos during the upcoming concert event. Tickets to the Jan. 19-20 performance are $10 per person with group rates available. MTSU students will be admitted free with a valid university ID. For more information about the upcoming dance performances, contact Kim Neal Nofsinger at 615-494-7904 or nofsinge@mtsu.edu.

READ ALL ABOUT IT--Four recent MTSU graduates now grace the halls of MTSU’s James E. Walker library and the walls of Tennessee high schools on posters encouraging students to read. The latest READ posters are available for viewing in the periodicals section of the library on the main floor. They feature young people from dramatically different walks of life who found reading to be essential to their academic, spiritual and professional lives. Bill Black, library professor in charge of administrative services, says library officials are working gradually to distribute the posters to schools throughout Tennessee. Featured on the posters are John Awan, a native of Sudan who has worked to collect books for shipment to his war-torn homeland; Matthew Bullington, a Murfreesboro native and recipient of a Presidential Scholarship, which paid for all four years of his MTSU education; Kimmie Jones, a Brentwood woman who has refused to let muscular dystrophy block her career in public relations; and Petar Skobic, a native of Croatia who learned English by reading Stephen King and J.R.R. Tolkien novels. Contact Black at 615-898-2772 or wblack@mtsu.edu.