Friday, August 8, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Don’t lock up the literature.

If you went to a prison to discuss literature with inmates, what books would you talk about? Mickey Spillane’s “I, the Jury?” Not exactly. Fyodor Doestoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment?” You’re getting warmer. How about readings by such authors as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Alexis de Tocqueville, Frederick Douglass, Henrick Ibsen and Joseph Conrad, just to name a few? Dr. Philip E. Phillips, associate professor of English at MTSU, will discuss the nine-week program titled “Great Books in Middle Tennessee Prisons” at 7 a.m. this Sunday, August 10, on “MTSU on the Record” on WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org). Phillips led the pilot initiative earlier this year at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility and the Tennessee Prison for Women, and he says the inaugural effort was so successful that he hopes to continue it.

For more information about the “Great Books” program, contact Phillips at 615-898-2699 or pphillip@mtsu.edu.For more information about “MTSU on the Record,” contact Gina Logue in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu at 615-898-2800.

Wise counsel

Two concentrations within the Department of Psychology at MTSU recently were accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, or CACREP. Dr. Christopher J. Quarto, psychology professor and a licensed psychologist, says, “We are delighted to announce that we recently received word that both the mental health counseling and the school counseling areas of study … are now accredited by the CACREP.” The newly acquired designation “is the highest level of accreditation for counseling programs in the United States and can provide a number of benefits for those who complete” such a program, Quarto adds. At present, the mental health concentration has 11 students and school counseling has 54 enrollees.

Contact the Department of Psychology at 615-898-2706.

Making a list, checking it twice

ATTENTION EDITORS AND REPORTERS: Beginning at noon Monday, Aug. 11, MTSU will release the names and hometowns of those undergraduate students who are on the Dean’s List for the summer 2008 semester and of those students who graduated during the Aug. 9, 2008, summer commencement event (slated for tomorrow). MTSU posts these lists online so that media outlets, especially hometown newspapers, may reprint this information for their readers—many of whom request that student accomplishments be shared with family and friends via the news media. To obtain a list, please go to www.mtsunews.com and click on either “MTSU Dean’s List” or “Graduation Lists” on the upper left-hand side of the page. Next, click on “Summer 2008,” which will include an alphabetical county-by-county listing of students.

For more information, contact the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919.

TR EXTRA

“A POLITICIAN IS A STATESMAN WHO APPROACHES EVERY QUESTION WITH AN OPEN MOUTH.”—ADLAI STEVENSON--Has a particular turn of phrase in a politician’s speech caught your ear and made you wonder why he or she chose those particular words? What is the speaker really saying? How do the candidates get their messages across to the voters? To figure all this out in this presidential election year, students can sign up for “Political Communication,” a class to be taught this fall at MTSU by Dr. Russell Church, speech and theatre professor. Participants will take on questions of whether race and gender are still issues, who votes and why, whether candidates are now more important than parties, whether the media now call all the shots, the power of interest groups, and how parties can increase turnout. The class will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:20 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Contact Church at 615-494-7958 or rchurch@mtsu.edu.

A REALLY BIG SHEW--The August edition of “Middle Tennessee Record” is packed with fascinating stories and compelling video of MTSU sights and sounds. Watch the Plant and Soil Science Club’s members as they grow and sell farm-fresh produce to raise funds. Check out the art deco-style Jazz Age mural painted by professor Erin Anfinsson at the Heritage Center in downtown Murfreesboro. Return with MTSU alumni to those thrilling days of yesteryear at the inaugural Alumni Summer College. And celebrate the success of the Center for Environmental Education, whose latest video to promote clean water in Tennessee won a Silver Telly Award. “Middle Tennessee Record” airs on NewsChannel5+ at 1:30 p.m. on Sundays. For a complete listing of other cable outlets that run the program, go to www.mtsunews.com. Contact John Lynch at 615-898-2919 or jlynch@mtsu.edu.

WELCOME, NEIGHBOR!--As state Rep. John Hood leaves the Tennessee General Assembly following six terms serving the 48th District, he embarks on a new mission for MTSU’s Office of Community Engagement and Support. Hood began assisting Dr. Gloria Bonner, the director of the office, on Aug. 1. “During my 12 years in the legislature, I have worked in support of MTSU, and this will give me another opportunity to represent the university with the community and local governments,” Hood says. Dr. Sidney A. McPhee, MTSU president, adds, “Any endeavor that John is involved in will be enhanced and enriched by his knowledge and skills, and we are extremely fortunate that he will continue to be a valuable resource for a university that he loves and has served for so many years.”Contact Tom Tozer in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919 or ttozer@mtsu.edu for more information.

“POVERTY IS LIKE PUNISHMENT FOR A CRIME YOU DIDN’T COMMIT”—ELI KHAMAROV--MTSU student Steve Sibley will realize the educational experience of a lifetime this fall when he interns for 10 weeks in Bangladesh with the Grameen Bank, the financial institution founded by Nobel Peace Prize-winner and former MTSU professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Sibley is the first recipient of the Kawahito Scholarship for Experiential World Poverty Studies. Dr. Kiyoshi Kawahito, for whom the scholarship is named, says he created it to give students a chance to live in some of the most debilitating conditions on the planet, examine why these areas are impoverished and witness conscientious efforts to fight the poverty. “You have to jump into the midst of poverty and really observe and feel how poor people live and struggle,” says the professor emeritus of economics and finance and former director of the U.S.-Japan Program. For interviews or photos, contact Gina Logue in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.

HER SONG--“Women in Music,” a brand new class to be taught at MTSU this fall, will be an exploration of the vast variety of women’s musical activities. Dr. Felicia Miyakawa, who will teach both undergraduates and graduate students, says, “The course will cover not only women composers in the western tradition, but also women performers, women patrons, and women as objects and symbols in the marketing of music.” Students will discuss cultural constructions of gender as they pertain to music, identify important women in musical history and outline their significance, talk about connections between diverse forms of feminism and their manifestations in music and much more. Women to be studied will range from Clara Schumann to Janis Joplin and from Jenny Lind to Tori Amos. Contact Miyakawa at 615-904-8043 or miyakawa@mtsu.edu.