Thursday, June 11, 2009

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Quiet, class!

How free is free speech for students? A 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” However, David Hudson, adjunct political science professor and First Amendment Center scholar, says the high court has carved out exceptions since that decision and lower courts have applied those exceptions differently. Hudson says, “The reality is that when lower courts evaluate First Amendment challenges involving topics such as student online speech created off campus, censorship of message T-shirts, school dress codes, removal of books from school libraries and others, the results are far from predictable.”

Contact Hudson at 615-741-1600.
dhudson@fac.org

Great expectations

Have you ever signed up for a college course not knowing quite what to expect, even after you receive the syllabus? Dr. Thomas Brinthaupt, psychology, has designed what he calls a Realistic Course Preview (RCP) based on the realistic job preview (RJP) concept in organizational psychology. “The RCP consists of a list of comments from former students about their experience in my course and with me,” says Brinthaupt. The comments are based on anonymous responses to a question posed to former students by Brinthaupt on their final exams. “One advantage of including this information is that it comes from fellow students and not the instructor,” says Brinthaupt. “Based on RJP research, students should perceive such information as more accurate, believable and balanced than if it came from the instructor.”

Contact Brinthaupt at 615-898-2317.
tbrintha@mtsu.edu

Post-recession penny-pinching

When the recession is over, will consumers maintain their newfound frugality or will they slip back into old habits? Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing, says, “According to an article in Advertising Age, marketers fear that the pull back on spending could last long past the end of the recession. Once we realize we can exist with spending less on certain products and eliminating other products altogether from our lives, little incentive exists to revert back to previous buying behavior. If this prediction comes to fruition, marketers will be forced to make significant changes to their approach to customer relationships.” Roy says marketers should re-examine how customers connect with their brands to improve the promotion of their products and/or services.

Contact Roy at 615-904-8564.
droy@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

IT’S A HOOT--Former NASA astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson will deliver a presentation at 1 p.m. today, June 11, in Room 326S of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building. Gibson will address teachers attending the Tennessee Aerospace Workshop. Gibson, who lives in Murfreesboro with his wife, former astronaut Dr. Rhea Seddon, contributed to five missions that totaled 36-and-a-half days in space. Eighty teachers from Tennessee are attending the three-week workshop. Fifty teachers are in the basic workshop, and 30 are in the advanced workshop. Reporters are welcome to attend and cover the workshop and/or interview workshop attendees. For more information, contact Phyl Taylor at 615-898-5874.

GOING THROUGH CUSTOMS--Running through late July, incoming MTSU students and their families will start familiarizing themselves with their new academic home through the CUSTOMS orientation process. “So many parents and students comment on how friendly folks are and how comfortable they feel about their choice of coming to MTSU,” says Gina Poff, director of New Student and Family Programs. “Although CUSTOMS is a lot of work for the staff and the new students, it really pays off in the end. It is a great way to start off the new journey into MTSU, and the freshmen really get a sense of what it is like to be part of the MTSU community.” Poff says officials expect 50 to 75 more students at each session this summer than in previous years. Contact Poff at 615-898-2454 or gpoff@mtsu.edu.

THE TOUR DU JOUR--MTSU’s Office of Admissions will offer student-led campus tours at 10 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (excluding holidays) through July 31. The tours are by reservation only. Plenty of openings remain for all of June and July. No tours will be given July 3 because the university will be closed for that holiday. To make a reservation, call 615-898-5670 or visit mtsu.edu/admissn/tour_admissn.shtml and click on “Schedule Campus Tours.” For more information, contact Michelle Arnold at 615-898-5280 or maarnold@mtsu.edu.

GET A CLUE!--MTSU is expanding its popular CSI: MTSU four-day program for students entering the 10th, 11th and 12th grades in Rutherford and surrounding counties. This year’s event is slated for June 16-19. The goals of CSI: MTSU are: to allow students to explore many unique career possibilities in forensic science; to provide a “real life” reasons to tackle higher level math and science courses; and to develop skills in teamwork, seeing and understanding details, critical thinking and presentation skills. The student investigators will be presented with a re-creation of an actual crime scene. Each student is trained in the fundamental processes of collecting evidence, including DNA, fingerprints, hair and fibers, simulated blood spatter, and shoe prints. For more information or to register, call 615-898-2462 or send an e-mail to eshockle@mtsu.edu

THE REV’S RECORDINGS--Martin Fisher, Manager of Recorded Music Collections at MTSU’s Center for Popular Music, is playing a major role in preserving the legacy of the Rev. Lonzie Odie Taylor for the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis. The new online exhibit “TAYLOR MADE: The Life and Work of the Rev. L.O. Taylor” is accessible at www.southernfolklore.com. The minister was a Renaissance man whose talents as a photographer, filmmaker, writer, recording artist and producer—all from his home “studio”—made him an invaluable chronicler of life in the African-American community of Memphis. Fisher’s role in the preservation of artifacts in the exhibit was to transfer 90 audio lacquer disc recordings produced by Taylor to a digital format. Contact Fisher at 615-898-5509 or wmfisher@mtsu.edu.

TELL A VISION--The June edition of “Middle Tennessee Record” includes features on the job market for graduates, a student’s charitable work for ill and abused children, national plaudits for a couple of top-notch alumni, educational opportunities for older learners, a student’s 10-week internship in Bangladesh, the work of the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, and the future of online degrees and distance learning. The monthly television program is available for viewing on NewsChannel5+ and Murfreesboro Cable Channel 9, as well as 16 different cable TV outlets in the region. Check your local listings or watch the show at www.mtsunews.com. The stories also have been posted to YouTube. For more information or to obtain a DVD, contact John Lynch at 615-898-5591 or jlynch@mtsu.edu.