Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

A different kind of bond rating

Is it possible for molecules to “know” what they’re doing? Dr. Preston MacDougall, chemistry, says, “In chemistry, when two atoms collide and the formation of a new chemical bond is energetically favorable, the odds strongly favor the chemical reaction going forward. We can be very thankful that all chemical reactions, whether they occur in the atmosphere or in our blood cells, are highly regulated by so-called rate laws. For a given set of conditions, such as temperature and pressure, every reaction has its own rate constant, which only depends on the nature of the bonds to be made and/or broken.”

Contact MacDougall at 615-898-5265.
pmacdoug@mtsu.edu

“I do not consider myself as having mastered the flute, but I get a real kick out of trying.”—
James Galway

The ninth annual MTSU Flute Festival, featuring guest artist Katherine Kemler, will be held Saturday, Jan. 31, with registration beginning at 8 a.m. in the Wright Music Building lobby on the MTSU campus. Kemler will give a 1 p.m. recital performance and a 3:30 p.m. master class in the Hinton Music Hall of the Wright Music Building. In addition, Kemler will give a workshop titled “Introduction to Body Mapping for Flutist” at 2:30 p.m. “Dr. Kemler is an exciting and vivacious performer,” says Deanna Little, associate professor of flute and organizer of the festival. “Her enthusiasm is infectious and all that attend will be sure to have a fantastic experience.” Admission is $15 to register for the day as a participating flutist. The general public may register as guests for one or all of the public concerts and competitions for a one-time charge of $5.

For more information, go to www.mtsu.edu/~drhahn/flutefest09.html or call Little at 615-898-2473.

Let there be light.

President Obama intends for his administration to be open and forthcoming if his first week of work in the Oval Office is any indication. So says Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism professor and First Amendment expert. “Under (George W.) Bush and his attorney general, John Ashcroft, if you made a request to a government agency for information, there was a presumption that the information was not to be released,” says Burriss. “In other words, you, the citizen, had to prove the information should be made available. But, in one of his first official acts, President Obama rewrote the rules and told agency heads that the presumption should be in favor of releasing information—that the only way for the government to operate was in the open with a new emphasis on transparency.”

Contact Burriss at 615-898-2983.
lburriss@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

WE CAN BE HEROES FOR MORE THAN ONE DAY.--An annual hallmark of Black History Month at MTSU since 1996, the 2009 Unity Luncheon honoring “unsung heroes” in the community will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, in the Tennessee Room of MTSU’s James Union Building. This year’s honorees are Annie M. Cox, James E. McAdams Sr., Rev. James Thomas, Carl Wade, William Washington and Katie F. Wilson. Tickets for the Unity Luncheon are $20 for adults and $8 for students. No tickets will be sold at the door. For more information, contact Valerie Avent at 615-898-2718 or vavent@mtsu.edu.

A WORD ON WORDS--Middle-school and high-school students who have a way with words will vie to determine verbal supremacy in the Third Annual Linguistics Olympiad at MTSU on Saturday, Jan. 31, on the second floor of the Business and Aerospace Building. More than 80 students representing eight schools in the region are enrolled in junior and senior levels of competition. Traditional challenges in the Olympiad include such exercises as identifying the word formation of a foreign language based on the information presented, deciphering proverbs from other languages, finding commonalities among English words, and decoding cryptic messages. “Following the competition, we have organized fun activities for the students while judges are scoring, including Swahili 101, Word Games, and Psycholinguistic Experiments,” says Dr. Aleka Blackwell, associate professor of English. Contact Blackwell at 615-898-5960 orablackwe@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 Friday, 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 or 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 is meeting on 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 meets 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 or avanzelm@mtsu.edu.