Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Tarnished medals?

The United States track and field team collected 23 medals, including seven golds, at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. However, the high-profile failures, including the dropping of the batons by the men’s and women’s 4-by-100 meter relay squads, prompted television commentators to call the track and field team’s performance a “failure of leadership.” Dr. Andrew Owusu, assistant professor of health and human performance and a three-time Olympic athlete, says, while it’s not unusual to hear that, “There’s only so much the coaches or the technical stuff can do because once the athletes get out there, everything rests on how they perform. … At some point, the athletes have to bear some responsibility for their performance, but I am sure there will be some changes at the top.”

Owusu will discuss the Olympics with Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing professor and sports marketing expert, on “OpenLine” on NewsChannel5 tonight, Aug. 26, from 7 to 8 p.m., and at 7 a.m. this Sunday, Aug. 31, on “MTSU on the Record” on WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org).

Labor pains

The second economic quarter of 2008 was a challenging one for the Tennessee economy, notes a report from MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Center. The state’s unemployment rate rose from 5.2 percent to 6.1 percent. That’s the largest quarterly increase since 1982. Dr. David Penn, director of the center, writes, “With unemployment on the rise, one would expect to observe significant job losses in important industries such as manufacturing, construction, retailing, and the services-providing sectors. Indeed, manufacturing continues to lose jobs, and employment growth in the services-providing sectors has slowed to nearly zero. But these trends have been apparent for months; one would expect much larger job losses given the sharp jump in unemployment.”

Contact Penn at 615-898-2610.
dpenn@mtsu.edu

“I’ll be the roundabout/The words will make you out and out”—Jon Anderson and Steve Howe

A new traffic roundabout at the intersection of MTSU Boulevard and Blue Raider Drive allows motorists from each direction to loop around to continue on their desired route after yielding to any vehicles already in the loop. The change is part of the four-phase $80 million traffic master-plan construction project designed to improve traffic flow, safety and access around campus. MTSU’s roundabout is the first of its kind at a Tennessee public university, and it is accentuated by pieces of limestone columns that originated at the old Tennessee State Capitol.

Contact Ron Malone, assistant vice president for events and transportation services, at 615-898-5002.
rrmalone@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

A LONG AND SUCCESSFUL RUN--MTSU track and field coach Dean Hayes will be inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) Hall of Fame on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at the USTFCCA convention in Phoenix, Ariz. Hayes, who has been at MTSU since 1965, has led the Blue Raiders to 29 Ohio Valley Conference titles, 14 Sun Belt championships, and 18 NCAA Top 25 finishes. He has been named OVC Coach of the Year 15 times and Sun Belt Coach of the Year 12 times, including a run of 10 straight titles from 1977 to 1986. His fellow coaches voted him NCAA Outdoor Coach of the Year in 1981. In addition to coaching at the World University Games and other international events, Hayes worked as an assistant at the Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988 and a referee at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Contact MTSU Athletic Communications at 615-898-2968.

CLAP FOR THE WOLFEMAN--The late Dr. Charles K. Wolfe, professor emeritus of English at MTSU and cultural historian, will be inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame at an Oct. 2 ceremony at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Wolfe, who passed away in 2006, was a respected scholar of both country music and bluegrass and the author of more than a dozen books, including The Music of Bill Monroe, co-authored with Neil Rosenberg and published in 2007. Wolfe also was one of the faculty members who came up with the idea for a Center for Popular Music at MTSU. Paul Wells, director of the center, says of Wolfe’s induction, “It’s a well-deserved honor. Charles really made some great contributions to the history and literature of bluegrass music. … He wrote about what he loved, and he loved what he wrote about.” Contact Wells at 615-898-2449 or pwells@mtsu.edu.

FOR THE HEALTH OF IT--The staff of MTSU’s Health Services will welcome the community to its sparkling new facilities in the Campus Recreation Center with a 4 p.m. ribbon-cutting and grand opening slated for tomorrow, Aug. 27. “We’re bringing in a stage,” says Richard Chapman, Health Services Director. “We’re going to make it a real carnival/festival-type activity.” For the first time ever on campus, X-ray services will be available as well as travel medicine to support study abroad students. Another first and perhaps the main attraction will be the drive-thru pharmacy, which is slated to open around Oct. 1. Customers will drive in the recreation center’s main entrance, turn to the right and curve around the building, where they will encounter an ATM-type kiosk with a pneumatic tube system. For more information, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.

A RAD-ICAL IDEA--A series of six Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) classes will be offered at no charge from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. every Thursday beginning Sept. 4 through Oct. 9 in the MTSU Public Safety training room, 1412 East Main Street in Murfreesboro. 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. RAD is a comprehensive course for women that begins with awareness, prevention, risk reduction and avoidance and progresses to the basics of hands-on defense training. RAD is the largest women’s self-defense system in the United States. Enrollment is limited. Contact Officer David Smith at 615-898-2424.