Monday, December 15, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Like a good neighbor

State Farm Insurance Company recently presented MTSU with a check for $35,535 to support a professorship in the Jennings A. Jones College of Business as well as the MTSU Science Olympiad, the annual Invention Convention, and various activities that support the Salute to Armed Services/Veterans. G. Ron Nichols, vice president of operations for State Farm Insurance Companies, presented the check to several MTSU officials. The largest portion of State Farm’s donation, $25,000 was earmarked for supporting a professorship in the Jones College of Business. Dr. E. James Burton, business dean, says that State Farm has been a generous supporter of the college for many years.

Contact Tom Tozer in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919.
ttozer@mtsu.edu

The wisdom of women

The President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) is accepting applications from MTSU faculty for three grants of $1,800 each to be awarded in summer 2009 for integrating women’s issues into the curriculum. The grants are for use by tenured or tenure-track professors for the revision of a course, revision of a general education course for the Study Abroad program, the creation of a new course, the re-conceptualization of a current minor, or the creation of a new minor. Proposals will be reviewed by the Academic Affairs Subcommittee of the PCSW. The deadline for faculty to submit grant applications is Jan. 30, 2009. Details are available at http://www.mtsu.edu/~pcsw/grants.htm.

Contact Dr. Samantha Cantrell in the Office of Research Services at 615-494-8751.
scantrel@mtsu.edu

Confederates uncovered

Learn about a significant but little-known Tennessean at the next “Between the Lines: Reading About the Civil War” book discussion group, a free and open activity that will meet on four Thursdays in January 2009. During the upcoming discussions, the group will consider Sam Davis Elliott’s Soldier of Tennessee: General Alexander P. Stewart and the Civil War in the West (1999), a book that has been praised as providing “a fresh look at an often ignored but important figure.” The group will meet at 7 p.m. at the Heritage Center, 225 West College St. in Murfreesboro. The book discussion group is sponsored by the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, Linebaugh Public Library, and the Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County.

Contact Dr. Antoinette van Zelm at 615-217-8013.
avanzelm@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

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.

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 or bknox@mtsu.edu.