Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Designing women—and men

Shirley Horowitz, interior designer and owner of Davishire Interiors, will visit MTSU on Saturday, Feb. 7, to serve as the keynote speaker for the 4th Annual Interior Design Showcase. Members of the MTSU student chapter of ASID/IIDA will serve as hosts for the Nashville-based designer’s upcoming talk, “An Interior Design Journey: The Interior Renovation of Far Hills, Tennessee Governor’s Residence,” which will be presented in the Tennessee Room of MTSU’s James Union Building. In addition to the public lecture, “Students in the MTSU interior design program will present vignettes of drawings, models and project boards that include residential, contract, commercial and lighting design,” says Deborah Belcher, registered interior designer and faculty adviser for ASID/IIDA.

Tickets are $25 each and include a 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. dinner and a 7:30 p.m. lecture. Tickets must be purchased by Feb. 2. For more information, contact Belcher at 615-898-5604.
dbelcher@mtsu.edu

Making it CLEAR

Environmental research at colleges and universities isn’t just scientific anymore. Increasingly, scientists are taking an approach to their work that includes more than laboratory analysis. That is the concept behind CLEAR, or Collaborative Education and Research, the brainchild of three professors at MTSU. “What we’re trying to do is bring together as many professors as we can in all different disciplines to work on projects from a very integrated standpoint,” says Dr. Frank Bailey, associate professor of biology. The starting point for CLEAR is the study of watersheds specifically the waters and streams of Smyrna. The ultimate beneficiaries will be the students, both undergraduate and graduate level, who will be working with Bailey and his colleagues, Dr. Ryan Otter, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. John DiVincenzo, professor of chemistry.

For more information, call 615-898-2660 or go to http://frank.mtsu.edu/~clearmt/.

The next glass ceiling?

Now that Americans have elected an African-American president, are they ready to consider a handicapped president? John Harris, director of Disabled Student Services, says he or she would have to answer a plethora of questions—even some ridiculous questions. Harris says, “They will face things like ‘Can the person physically manage this job?’, ‘How will they handle stress?’, ‘How will the media view them?’, and silly things like ‘How will they be able to travel from place to place?’, ‘How will they get out of bed in the morning?’, ‘How will they navigate in inaccessible buildings?’, perhaps ‘How will they be able to read?’ because, of course, in politics, anything can go if you can make it stick.”

Contact Harris at 615-898-2783.
jlharris@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.

“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.