Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

A little less conversation?

Does revving up hate speech and spewing it into the mass media push the buttons of deranged people prone to violence, and, if so, should government do anything to control it? Last week’s fatal shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum prompted a renewal of this timeless topic. Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism professor and First Amendment expert, “There are already laws that prevent conspiracy, and numerous court decisions have distinguished between speech and action. After the shooting, both liberals and conservatives were calling for more restrictive laws on speech. I really have to wonder how much of this was simply posturing in response to a senseless killing. All too often free speech makes a convenient target, as if controlling speech will really control violence. But do we really want to start putting people in jail only for what they think and say? I certainly hope not.”

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

You can’t tell a CD by its cover.

One of the major selling points of a 33-and-a-third rpm vinyl record album was an eye-catching cover. With a CD, what little cover art exists is too small to be terribly eye-catching. Dr. Mike Alleyne, recording industry, laments this development. “Although some new releases still come with ambitious visuals, many album covers are now consumed mostly onscreen,” says Alleyne. “If this seems like an exaggeration, make a quick visit to the iTunes store—just keep your magnifying glass handy. The link between sound and vision has entered a new era, and even former designers of acclaimed LP packaging are declaring the imminent death of album art. And that’s a shame because the album cover and its visual possibilities have been part of the popular musical experience for decades. For millions, the recollection of the songs is inseparable from the resonance of the graphics.”

Contact Alleyne at 615-904-8336.
dr.mike.alleyne@gmail.com

Time for an oil change?

In the latest edition of Viewpoints from The Middle East Institute, Dr. Sean Foley, history, introduces two other scholars’ differing views on attempts by certain Arab nations to broaden their economies beyond their chief asset--oil. “To shield themselves from the volatility of global oil markets, these states have sought to diversify their economies by investing in a host of non-oil industries, especially services, commerce and manufacturing,” says Foley. “No Gulf community has been seemingly more successful at achieving this balance than Dubai. Starting in the 1970s, Dubai built a thriving economy focused on transportation, tourism, real estate, commerce and a host of other non-oil industries.”

Contact Foley at 615-904-8294.
sfoley@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

A DIFFERENT BRANCH OF THE FAMILY TREE--A training session on Heritage Quest, the Tennessee Electronic Library’s ancestry database, has been moved to Room 137E of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building. The James E. Walker Library will host this session from 3:15-4:30 p.m. today, June 16. Heritage Quest includes the U.S. Federal Census images from 1790-1930, more than 24,000 family and local history books, the PERSI index of more than 2.1 million genealogy and local history articles, Revolutionary War-era pension and bounty-land warrant application files, Freedman’s Bank (1865-1874) records, and memorials, petitions and private relief actions of the U.S. Congress in the LexisNexis U.S. Serial Set. Linda Cubias of Proquest will conduct the training session, which is free of charge. However, seating is limited. Contact Kristen Keene at 615-898-5376 or kkeene@mtsu.edu.

DEAL OR NEW DEAL?--Dr. Kris McCusker, history professor, will present “’But Mr. Roosevelt was gonna save us all’: The New Deal and the South” at 7 p.m. tonight, June 16, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building. This lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be about the effects of the New Deal on Murfreesboro and Tennessee and will include a presentation on selected American life histories and slave narratives. McCusker’s presentation is part of a series of programs sponsored by Linebaugh Library System in conjunction with “Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story,” a new television documentary about the Federal Writers’ Project. The documentary is being produced by Spark Media and will be broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel HD later this year. For more information, contact Linebaugh Public Library in Murfreesboro at 615-893-4131 or go to http://www.linebaugh.org/soul.htm.

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.

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.