Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

“He does not weep who does not see.”—Victor Hugo

What does the chatter over Sen. Hillary Clinton’s tears actually mean? Dr. Jane Marcellus, journalism, says, “Of course, the question that provoked the tears was itself gendered. No one would ask George W. Bush or Dick Cheney how they keep going day in and day out or how they manage to keep their hair looking so nice. Realizing that this would never happen raises awareness of how much we still trivialize concerns that are supposedly ‘feminine’ and how much we avoid questioning masculinity.” Marcellus says what she saw in Clinton’s response to the question posed in the New Hampshire diner was “a leader who was passionate about her beliefs, her patriotism and her ability to make the country better.”

Contact Marcellus at 615-898-5282.
jmarcell@mtsu.edu

Export ennui

In the second quarter of 2007, Tennessee exports fell 7.6 percent to $5.255 billion while American exports rose more than 10 percent. Only 10 other states and the District of Columbia reported negative numbers for the quarter. Dr. Steven Livingston, political science, wrote in the Fall 2007 issue of Global Commerce, “Steady gains in most Tennessee exports are being walloped by large losses in what have been the state’s largest export industries. Cotton exports continued their dramatic drop, this [fall] quarter falling to $153 million from $561 [million] a year ago. … The automotive trade also fared poorly this quarter. Tennessee’s Transportation Equipment sector lost nearly $300 million in exports from a year ago (down to $946 million).”

Contact Livingston at 615-898-2720.
slivings@mtsu.edu

How vital are vitamins?

We’ve all heard that taking too many vitamins can be detrimental to one’s health or even, in extreme cases, fatal. Dr. Janet Colson, human sciences, agrees, but she adds that sometimes taking substantial amounts of vitamins can be beneficial. “In fact, some vitamins like niacin ARE given in large amounts for therapeutic purposes,” Colson says. “Physicians recognize that the vitamin in high doses can have the same benefit as much more costly prescription drugs. So vitamins in high doses, taken without medical supervision, could possibly have very bad adverse effects.”

Contact Colson at 615-898-2091.
jcolson@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.