Thursday, October 16, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

This is my Father’s world.

A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit against New York school officials for censoring a child’s poster. Antonio Peck made a poster showing kids in front of a church throwing away garbage when he was assigned to show what he had learned in class about the environment. A part of the poster that featured Jesus was folded back when it was displayed because the teacher was concerned about being accused of teaching religion in a public school. Antonio’s parents sued on free-speech grounds. David Hudson, adjunct political science reporter and First Amendment scholar, says the court considered it important to determine “whether the plaintiff could prove that school officials would have treated a purely secular image that was unresponsive to the assignment the same way that they treated the image of Jesus.”

Contact Hudson at 615-727-1600.
dhudson@fac.org

How to make an American quilt

“Piecin’ a Quilt: Jessie Carney Smith and African-American Women’s History” is the title of the next MTSU Women’s Studies Research Series lecture at 3 p.m. today, Oct. 16, in the SunTrust Room of the Business and Aerospace Building. Christa Hardy, research fellow at the James E. Walker Library, will examine contributions to history and to American librarianship by Dr. Jessie Carney Smith. “As head librarian at Fisk University in Nashville, Smith has been a central fixture in the emergence of black studies and African-American women’s history in a career that has spanned civil rights, black power and the women’s movement,” says Hardy. This lecture is free and open to the public.

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

Mock trial mastery

MTSU’s mock trial team is off to its fastest start ever, according to the program’s leaders. A team from MTSU placed among the top three of 28 teams that competed in the nation’s first college mock trial tournament of the season at St. Louis University, which was held on Oct. 10-11. Along with the University of Notre Dame and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, MTSU had a 7-1 win-loss record. A team led by junior Daniel Vaughan won both ballots in competition with St. Louis University, Drake University, and the University of Minnesota-Morris, and split ballots with Notre Dame. Dr. John R. Vile (Honors College), Brandi Snow (local attorney, and Dr. Amanda DiPaolo (political science), team coaches, observe that this is the highest ranking an MTSU team has ever achieved this early in the season.

Contact Vile at 615-898-2596.
jvile@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

FUEL FOR THOUGHT—MTSU Alternative Fuel Day, highlighting MTSU alternative fuel research and the MTSU Horticulture Center, is today, Oct. 16, from 2:40 p.m. to 5:40 p.m. at the MTSU Horticulture and Vocational Agriculture Building. Dr. Cliff Ricketts, agribusiness and agriscience, will conduct a tour of the alternative fuel research facility and showcase research vehicles. Dr. Nathan Phillips and Dr. Warren Anderson, agribusiness and agriscience, and the MTSU Plant and Soil Science Club will host an open house for the horticulture center. For more information, contact Janet Kelly at 615-898-2523 or Alanna Neely at 615-653-6018.

ROCK FOR RADIO--MTSU’s student-run radio station, WMTS-FM, will host a benefit tonight, Oct. 16, at Main Street (Club 527). Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the show will start at 9 p.m. Cover charge is $7, and the show will be open to patrons age 18 and older. Zombie Bazooka Patrol and Canon Blue will perform along with The Cactus’s (correct) and The Champion and his Burning Flame. For more information, call 615-898-2591 or send an e-mail to manager@wmts.org.

THE SHOT THAT HITS THE SPOT--With the cold and flu season fast approaching, MTSU Health Services will offer flu shots to the campus community at multiple locations on campus. This year, flu shots will be available from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. today, Oct. 16, at the June Anderson Women’s Center, which is Room 206 in the James Union Building; from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, in the conference room on the second floor of the Cope Administration Building; and from noon to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, in Room 318 of the Keathley University Center. Only cash and checks will be accepted at these locations. From 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21, Wednesday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 23, shots will be available in the atrium of the Health, Wellness and Recreation Center. In the atrium, patients may pay by cash, check, Visa, MasterCard, RaiderFunds, or students may charge their shots to their MTSU accounts. The cost is $15 for students and $20 for faculty and staff. No appointment is required. For more information, contact MTSU Health Services at 615-898-2988.

NO NEED FOR THE TIM RUSSERT MEMORIAL DRY ERASE BOARD (FLORIDA! FLORIDA! FLORIDA!)—MTSU students will prepare and broadcast their own election night roundup live on MTTV, Channel 10, from 8 p.m. to 11 or possibly later, on Election Night, Tuesday, Nov. 4, depending on how close the tallies are. “It becomes more than just an organizational exercise, which is important,” says Dr. Bob Pondillo, who teaches “Electronic Media Production: Election Night News Coverage.” “However, it’s one thing to know how to make great television, but it’s quite another to know how to engage the community.” Although arrangements are subject to revision at a moment’s notice depending on the circumstances, the class is planning on three bases for live shots. The percentages in each race will be displayed at the bottom of the television screen through a black box Associated Press interface device. Contact Pondillo at 615-904-8465 or pondillo@mtsu.edu.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER--“Pulled Resources,” a sculptural collaborative by artists Dan DeZarn and Thomas H. Sturgill, is on display now through Friday, Oct. 17, at MTSU’s Todd Gallery. The artists have a shared interest in exploring the concerns of contemporary human culture. In the past, they have focused on material usage, commodity, nature and people, and how those ideas intersect, says Eric V. Snyder, gallery curator. “They quickly found that they could construct impressively large, labor-intensive projects in relatively short periods of time and with fairly modest budgets,” Snyder says. Located on the first floor of MTSU’s Todd Building, the Todd Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and closed on all state holidays. Admission is free. Exhibits are open to the public. Contact Snyder at 615-898-5653 or esnyder@mtsu.edu.

A WORD IS WORTH A THOUSAND PICTURES--“4 Women 4 Views with Text,” a new art exhibition in MTSU’s James E. Walker Library, features the creativity of three MTSU professors and an MTSU graduate in combining visual and verbal elements, treating visitors to an experience that is at once visceral and intellectual. The works of Assistant Professors Noel Lorson and Kim Dummons, Professor Janet Higgins and alumna Nance Cooley will remain on display through Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Special Collections area on the fourth floor of the library. Viewing is free and open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Susan Hanson, a specialist with the library, says the works on display are individual entities that emerged from the creative spark of the collaborative experience. “It starts with a word, and it begins to take on a life of its own,” Hanson says. Contact Hanson at 615-904-8503 or shanson@mtsu.edu.

THE GOSPEL TRUTH--Local gospel choirs who want to reach a wider audience are invited to try out for a role in a new independent movie, “The New, True Charlie Wu,” written and directed by Dr. Bob Pondillo, professor of electronic media communication at MTSU. Auditions are slated for Monday, Oct. 20, Wednesday, Oct. 22, and Friday, Oct. 24 from 6-10 p.m. each evening in Studio C on the first floor of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building. “”We’re looking for exciting, uptempo, soulful singers who can project a lot of energy,” Pondillo says. Pondillo is the creative force behind three independent award-winning short films, two of which were accepted at the internationally prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France. To make an appointment for an audition or for more information, contact Veronica Privett at 615-752-7024.

PROMOTE THE VOTE--MTSU students who want to participate in early voting in the 2008 election will be provided with free transportation to the Rutherford County Election Commission Office at One Public Square South in Murfreesboro via Raider Express on six different dates this month. “The American Democracy Project (ADP) registered nearly 1,000 MTSU students to vote in Rutherford County this fall, so now we are shifting our attention to education all our students about the candidates in this election and making sure that everyone who needs a ride to vote has one,” says Dr. Jim Williams, coordinator of the ADP. The schedule for the free rides, which begin today, Oct. 16, at 7:30 a.m., in front of the James Union Building, is online at www.mtsu.edu./~amerdem.For more information, contact Williams at 615-898-2632 or jhwillia@mtsu.edu.