Friday, December 12, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Caps and gowns

The names and hometowns of MTSU students who will graduate during the fall 2008 commencement ceremony tomorrow, Dec. 13, in Murphy Center are available. To obtain a list of students from your county, go to www.mtsunews.com and click on the “MTSU Graduation Lists” link on the upper, left-hand side of the page. Then, click on the “Fall 2008” link, which will include an alphabetical, county-by-county listing. Of the 1,613 set to graduate, 1,400 are undergraduates and 213 are graduate students. The dual-commencement event will feature Darrell Freeman, president and CEO of information-technology provider Zycron Inc. and chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, as the guest speaker for the 9 a.m. ceremony. Dr. Charles Manning, Chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, will speak at the 1 p.m. ceremony.

Contact the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919.
news@mtsu.edu

God bless this grass.

In 2006, officers found more than nine pounds of pot and assorted paraphernalia in the California home of Craig X. Rubin. He claimed he was a Universal Life minister who ran an online ministry. However, the trial judge would not let Rubin use the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibits government from placing a burden on a person’s religious beliefs without a compelling state interest, as a defense. The appeals court recently agreed. David Hudson, adjunct political science professor and First Amendment Center scholar, adds, “The state appeals court also relied on the (U.S.) Supreme Court’s 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith, in which the high court ruled that the First Amendment did not prohibit a state from enforcing generally applicable criminal drug laws even as to claimed religious usage of drugs.”

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

Legacy of a dream

Kenneth B. Morris, president of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, will be the honored speaker at the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brunch at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17, in the Tennessee room of MTSU’s James Union Building. Morris is the great-great-great-grandson of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, one of America’s most brilliant orators and the first African-American nominated as a candidate for Vice-President, and the great-great-grandson of pioneering educator and Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington. Local heroes, heroines and humanitarians also will be recognized at the brunch, which is co-hosted by the Murfreesboro branch of the NAACP and the organization’s MTSU collegiate chapter. Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for students under 25 years of age.

Contact Dr. Barbara Knox at 615-275-9974.
bknox@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

LEAVE ROOM FOR THE BLOOMS--MTSU’s Plant and Soil Science Club concludes its annual poinsettia sale today, Dec. 12, from 12-5 p.m. at the Horticulture Facility just off Blue Raider Drive. Four-inch pots cost $3 each, and 6-inch pots cost $5 each. Chrysanthemums also will be on sale in four-inch pots for $3 each. For more information, contact Nathan Phillips at 615-494-8985.

A WORK OF ART--The works of MTSU art professors John Donovan and Erin Anfinson are on display at the Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery in Nashville through today, Dec. 12. Anfinson’s encaustic paintings and Donovan’s ceramic sculpture have been on display since Nov. 6. Both artists view this exhibition as an opportunity to connect what they teach in the classroom with their own creative studio practices. Their students will have the opportunity to view and enjoy the work and to better understand the effort that goes into an active and successful creative career. The gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call Julie Roberts at 615-532-9798 or julie.roberts@state.tn.us.

MIDDLE EAST MACKIE--An MTSU senior is one of only 10 college students in the nation selected to study as a William Jefferson Clinton Scholar in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, next semester. Nick Mackie, who is a double major in archaeology and international relations with a minor in Middle East studies, will depart for UAE on Tuesday, Jan. 6, and study at American University in Dubai (AUD) through the spring 2009 semester, returning on April 30. Although a semester at AUD costs $15,000, the Clinton scholarship will absorb nearly $10,700 of that amount. His courses include Comparative Politics of the Middle East, Islamic Art and Architecture, Media Culture and Society, History of the Middle East, and second-year Arabic language studies. For more information, contact Dr. Karen Petersen, assistant professor of political science, at 615-494-8662 or kpeterse@mtsu.edu.

HER EYE IS ON THE SPARROW--Dr. Jan Hayes, MTSU professor emeritus of educational leadership, will talk about her book The Split Tongue Sparrow on “MTSU on the Record” with host Gina Logue at 7 a.m. this Sunday, Dec. 14, on WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org). Hayes committed the Japanese folk tale to print following a 1988 trip to Asia. It tells the story of a happy little bird whose singing has very different effects on two women. The story begins and ends with a haiku poem. After a former student from Japan told her the folk tale, Hayes observed, “I thought it was such a beautiful story because it was about kindness, and it seemed so typical of her country.” Franklin-based graphic designer Bobby Dawson provided the illustrations. For more information contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.