Monday, November 10, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Pass the pepper, please.

The MTSU Police Department will offer a free pepper spray class for women. The class is part of the Rape Aggression Defense system and will teach basic self-defense techniques to supplement women’s ability to survive dangerous confrontations. The class will be available to MTSU students, faculty and staff as well as the general public and will take place on Nov. 13, Nov. 20, and Dec. 4 from 6-8 p.m. in the MTSU Police Department training room, 1412 East Main Street in Murfreesboro. Topics to be covered include product selection, psychological and physical effects of the “fight or flight” syndrome, legal issues and retention and deployment techniques.

For more information or to enroll, contact Officer David Smith at 615-692-2424 or 615-494-8855.

Overcoming career fear

This week is Career Development Week at MTSU. An open house is slated for 10 a.m. to noon today, Nov. 10, at the Career Development Center, Room 328 at the Keathley University Center (KUC). Topics to be discussed in the days to come include “Resumania! Make Your Resume Crazy Good!,” “What Is Your Worth? Negotiating Salary and Benefits,” and “Managing Change: Transitioning from College to Career.” Wednesday, Nov. 12, will be a day for highlighting volunteerism and service. The Majors Fair is slated for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, on the second floor of the KUC.

For a complete list of events and more information, go to www.mtsu.edu/~career or call 615-898-5732.

The sweat set

Is the next career path in a struggling economy physical education? If so, get fit and you might get a job. Dr. Mary Lou Veal, health and human performance, says, “The National Association for Sport Education, an association within the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & dance, published the National Standards for Physical Education more than a decade ago. That document represents a consensus of American practitioners and scholars about what it means to be physically educated. Physical fitness is one of the six standards.” Israel wants its students to start early. The Israeli education ministry recently announced that students in100 high schools across the country will be offered the chance to major in fitness education.

Contact Veal at 615-898-2888.
mveal@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

IT’S TURNER’S TURN--Dr. Jack Justin Turner, author of the newly released The Foxes and the Hounds, Volume One, Big Medicine River Days, will present a free and open reading from the novel at 6 p.m. today, Nov. 10, at the MTSU Foundation house, 324 W. Thompson Lane in Murfreesboro. A political science professor at MTSU for 35 years, Turner is a native of Maytown, Ky. Called the “Kentucky Gone with the Wind” and “the great Kentucky novel,” The Foxes and the Hounds follows the lives of young people who set out to make their way through Kentucky during days of upheaval. A reception will be part of the Nov. 10 event, which will include a book signing. An interview with Turner about his book can be heard at http://frank.mtsu.edu/~proffice/podcast2008.html. Click on “October 26, 2008.” To request an interview with Turner, contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919 or lrollins@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.

GET YOUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66.--Noted photographer Tom Mallonee’s exhibit, “Evidence of Passing: Vanishing Points along an American Road,” opened recently and will be displayed until Dec. 4 in the Baldwin Photographic Gallery in MTSU’s McWherter Learning Resources Center. Tom Jimison, electronic media communication professor and gallery director, says Mallonee “has pursued large-format black-and-white work since 1979 and often has chosen subjects which stray from conventional notions of western landscape, yet still embrace decisive composition and meticulous printing techniques such as this 14-year project of bypassed sections of Route 66.” Exhibitions are free and open to the public. The gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and from 6 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. on Sundays. The gallery will be closed Nov. 27-29. For information, call 615-898-2085.

SIGN, SIGN, EVERYWHERE A SIGN--Don’t put those political yard signs in the trash! Donate them to the Albert Gore Research Center at MTSU. The center collects political signs for exhibits and educational purposes. If you have regular-sized signs (two-feet square) for a candidate or election issue from this or previous elections and would like to make contributions, please drop them off at the Gore Center in Room 128 of the Todd Building on the MTSU campus. Signs should be in good condition. The center does not need the support posts. Unfortunately, the center does not have the staff to retrieve signs from your home or office. The center also collects bumper stickers, buttons, fans and other political memorabilia. Samples are on display in the hall outside the center. For more information, contact Dr. Jim Williams, director of the Gore Center, at 615-898-2633 or jhwillia@mtsu.edu.