Thursday, May 1, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Express yourself!

Collage: A Journal of Creative Expression, MTSU’s student literary and arts publication, was awarded its second Silver Crown Award in two years at the annual College Media Convention. The award ceremony, held March 16 in the Westside Ballroom of the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City, honors outstanding college publications nationwide. Together, the fall 2006 and spring 2007 issues of Collage received one of 31 awards out of 1,355 submissions. Only 13 publications were awarded the highest honor, the Gold Crown, and 18 collegiate publications received the Silver Crown Award, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s second-highest award.

Contact Collage adviser Marsha Powers at 615-898-5759.
mpowers@mtsu.edu

Consumer power

Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing, says power has shifted in recent years from retailers and manufacturers to consumers. He cites as evidence the ability of consumers to post user reviews online. A survey by the Society for New Communications Research finds that nearly 75% of respondents choose brands or companies in part on the basis of user reviews. “The value consumers place on gathering and sharing information online must not be lost on marketers trying to attract and retain customers,” Roy says. “Positive word-of-mouth simply cannot be bought; let your customers be your top salespeople! On the flip side, if you are failing customers in some way, is it not critical that you know that? Why would you want to suppress input from the people who you believe should be purchasing your offerings?”

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

It’s never too late.

Several non-traditional students at MTSU will have some extra money to help them complete their college careers. Two deserving seniors have been awarded the Jane Nickell Taylor Scholarship at MTSU. Daphne Carter Page of Lancaster is majoring in social work and will graduate in December 2008. Keri Lorene Brunstad of Murfreesboro is majoring in accounting and will graduate in spring 2008. The Joan Nickell Bailey Scholarship has been awarded to Virginia Ragsdale, a senior majoring in education and a single mother of two, who lives in Columbia. The OWLs (Older Wiser Learners) Enrichment Scholarships have been awarded to Kirsten Dee Julsgard, a single mother of two from Murfreesboro with a double major in philosophy and English, and Sarah Martin, a mother of three majoring in nursing and commuting to school from Lafayette. In addition, 10 OWLs Academic Service Scholarships have been awarded.

For more information, contact Dr. Carol Ann Baily, director of Off-Campus Student Services, at 615-898-5989.
cabaily@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

THE PAPER CHASE—The James E. Walker Library and the MTSU Department of Art are joining forces again this year to raise student awareness of paper usage through an imaginative project that will be on display in the waning days of the spring semester. The “Paper Rewind” project will remain in place through Wednesday, May 7. While students are studying for final exams and preparing research papers, they will be surrounded by paper animals, trees and people created by Professor Thomas Sturgill’s 3D design classes. In fact, students might find themselves sitting next to a paper person or look up to see a paper person sailing a paper airplane off the fourth floor balcony. “Students are printing 6,500,000 copies a year from computer printers, and this art project is intended to raise awareness on the part of the students to conserve natural resources and think before they print,” says Bill Black, library professor in charge of administrative services. Contact Black at 615-898-8378 or wblack@mtsu.edu; contact Sturgill at 615-898-2460 or sturgill@mtsu.edu. For more information, go to http://www.paperrewind.com.