Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Allison, my aim is true.

Veterinary and medical professionals at the University of Texas are trying to fit a five-inch green sea turtle found near South Padre Island, Tex., bloody and missing three of her flippers, with a prosthetic flipper on her left rear side. If they can fit her with a prosthesis, could a damaged turtle make a successful return to the ocean with an artificial flipper? Dr. Vincent Cobb, biology, says, “Although this sounds like a worthy cause, it is not very likely that the young sea turtle will survive. One reason is that there is naturally high predation on small turtles, and an individual having a reduced swimming performance would be an easy meal.” Caregivers with the nonprofit Sea Turtle, Inc., a 31-year-old turtle conservation facility, have named the turtle Allison.

Contact Cobb at 615-898-2059.
vcobb@mtsu.edu

Body language

“White Looks/Black Bodies” will be the title of a lecture by Dr. George Yancy, assistant professor of philosophy at Duquesne University, at 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 11, in Room 304 of MTSU’s James Union Building. This event, part of the Applied Philosophy Lyceum at MTSU, is free and open to the public. Yancy works primarily in the areas of critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, and philosophy and the black experience. At present, he is engaged in a philosophical project that explores the theme of racial embodiment, particularly in terms of how white bodies live their whiteness, the philosophical identity formation of whites and questions of white privilege and power formation. The author of Black Bodies, White Gazes, Yancy is an editor of eight books and co-editor of The American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience.

Contact the Department of Philosophy at 615-898-2907.

A not-so-busy signal

Sprint Nextel’s CEO, Gary Forsee, left the company in 2007 with a $21 million golden parachute. His replacement, Dan Hesse, was greeted with a package of $27 million. That’s hardly chump change for a company that lost $29 million in 2006 and expects to lose two million customers this year in the competitive cellular phone business. Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing, says, “The exorbitant compensation packages handed out in the face of a dwindling customer base and plummeting financial value have to be devastating to employee morale. Also, the mix of lavish CEO pay and struggling customer service does nothing to endear the brand in the minds of existing customers and people who might be in the market for wireless services.”

Contact Roy at 615-904-8564.
droy@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

ASSALAM ALAIKUM—The Muslim Students Association (MSA) at MTSU continues its celebration of Islamic Awareness Week (April 7-10) at 5:30 p.m. today, April 9, when an episode of the F/X network television series 30 Days as a Muslim will be shown in Room 221 of the Learning Resources Center. In this episode, Morgan Spurlock, director of the critically acclaimed documentary Super Size Me, sends David Stacy, a practicing Christian from Virginia, into the Islamic community in Dearborn, Mich., to “work, eat and sleep” as a Muslim for 30 days. The week will conclude at 6 p.m. tomorrow, April 10, with a potluck dinner and MSA elections. These events are free and open to the public. To learn more and to find out about the rest of the week’s activities, contact Dr. Saleh Sbenaty at 615-494-7667 or ssbenaty@mtsu.edu or MSA President Nida Shirazi at nfs2c@mtsu.edu.

THE MIND BOGGLES--Sita Diehl, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness for the state of Tennessee, will speak on “A Closer Look at the Mental Health/Ex-Patient Movement in Tennessee” at 12:40 p.m. today, April 9, in Room 211 of Peck Hall. This event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Department of Political Science. For more information, contact Dr. Sekou Franklin at 615-940-8232 or franklin@mtsu.edu.

RAD-ICAL!--A series of six Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) classes will be offered at no charge every Thursday through May 1 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the MTSU police training room located at 1412 East Main Street. The class will be open to all female MTSU students, faculty and staff as well as to the general public. A workbook/training manual will be provided to each student. Enrollment is limited. For more information or to enroll, call MTSU RAD Instructor David Smith at 615-692-2424.

THE FIGHT AGAINST VIOLENCE--To generate awareness of the ongoing problem of violence against women, the June Anderson Women’s Center will present the annual Clothesline Project April 14-17 and “Take Back the Night” on Tuesday, April 15, on the MTSU campus. The Clothesline Project is a display of T-shirts decorated to symbolize fear, anger or other emotions associated with sexual assault. These T-shirts will be displayed Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the KUC Knoll. “Take Back the Night,” which is slated for 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15, is an evening rally that will feature concerned members of the campus community and the community at large speaking their minds on the issue of violence against women during an open microphone segment. The rally will be followed by a brief march on campus and a candlelight vigil. For more information, contact the June Anderson Women’s Center at 615-898-2193 or jawc@mtsu.edu.

THE REAL THING IN MOCK TRIAL--Longtime MTSU mock trial coach Dr. John Vile, chair of the Department of Political Science, was honored at the National Championship Tournament in St. Paul, Minn., this past weekend (April 4-6) as one of only two coaches inducted into the Coaches Hall of Fame. (In 2000, the American Mock Trial Association bestowed upon Vile the Congressman Neal Smith award for contributions to legal education.) This year, the team did not fare so well at nationals, losing two ballots to Michigan and splitting ballots with Stanford and Northwestern. However, Vile is especially encouraged by the potential of the talented freshmen and sophomores on the squad and is looking forward to next year’s contests. Two MTSU students have earned scholarships to John Marshall Law School in Chicago as a result of their performance in a National Diversity Mock Trial Tournament at that school. Nick Armes was on a team that placed second in the competition. Last year, Nicole Roerick was on the first-place team. Contact Vile at 615-898-2596 and jvile@mtsu.edu.

THE RIGHT CHEMISTRY--Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, a professor of chemistry at MTSU, will receive, the 2008 King-Hampton Award at a luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow, April 10, in the Hazlewood dining Room of the James Union Building. The honor was established by the June Anderson Women’s Center and the Association of Faculty and University Women in 1990. It is bestowed upon an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the advancement of women who work and study at MTSU. For more information, contact Kippy Todd at 615-889-5756 or ktodd@mtsu.edu.

THE WILD BLUE YONDER—The Blue Angels will be on campus from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Friday, April 11, in Room S118 of the Business and Aerospace Building to show a video and speak to a group of aerospace students. Reporters are invited to attend this rare gathering of aerospace students and the Blue Angels. For more information, contact Dr. Wayne Dornan at 615-898-2788.

TO YOUR HEALTH--MTSU students, faculty and staff are invited to the 2008 Health and Education Fair tomorrow, April 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the first- and second-floor lobbies of Keathley University Center. The event is presented by the MTSU School of Nursing Student Nurses Association, the Tennessee Office of Minority Affairs and the MTSU Student National Medical Association. Among the services available will be HIV testing, STD information, body statistics, cancer information, blood pressure screening and vision screening. For a small fee, blood chemistry and cholesterol testing will be performed from 8 to 10 a.m. in the McFarland Health Services Building.