Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the Earth!”—Psalms 96:1.

Ben Speer’s Stamps-Baxter School of Music, based in Nashville, will provide instruction in the performance of Southern Gospel music July 12-24 on the MTSU campus. Subjects for daily classes include theory, harmony, songwriting, sight singing and ear training. Private lessons are offered in voice, piano, guitar and bass guitar. Electives include classes on how to lead congregational singing and how to build a successful career in gospel music. “The Stamps-Baxter Publishing Co. was, in its day, the premier publisher of Southern Gospel music,” says Dr. Stephen Shearon, MTSU professor of music. The Gaither Vocal Band, Allison Durham Speer, Greater Vision, Ivan Parker, Little Roy Lewis, Earl Scruggs and The Florida Boys are among the artists who have performed free concerts at the school in the past.

For more information, go to http://stampsbaxterschool.com or contact Shearon at 615-898-5984.
sshearon@mtsu.edu

Atomic skiing

Not all schussing is done on the ski slopes. SCHUSS is a computer program conceived and developed at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Preston MacDougall, chemistry, says, “The purpose of this program is to trace out gradient paths in the density of the cloud of electronic charge that give atoms and molecules their chemical properties. Almost all of the mass of atoms and molecules is in their nuclei, which are point-like in comparison to the size of atoms themselves, which are already too small to see (in the usual sense). The toxicity of carbon monoxide, which has the formula CO, does not result from the different mass of the nucleus in the carbon atom that fatally replaces one oxygen atom in the oxygen molecules that we need to breathe. Chemistry is all about electrons—how they are distributed and how this distribution responds to external stimuli.”

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

In mourning

When informed of the tragic death of her son, former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair, Lucille McNair told a reporter in a telephone interview from her home in Mount Olive, Miss., “I don’t want to know because, the way I see it, it was the devil’s work and not God’s work.” Dr. Phil Oliver, philosophy, says, “A mother’s grief at such a moment must be inconsolable, and I wouldn’t want to deny her, or anyone, the attempted consolation of religious solace. But, really now—humans do ‘devil’s work,’ and Ms. McNair believes God created humans. The buck stops where?”

Contact Oliver at 615-898-2050.
poliver@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

SEA HUNT (MINUS LLOYD BRIDGES)--MTSU sophomore Terrance Adams and his fellow representatives of the Diving with a Purpose program will travel to Washington, D.C., July 16-17 to accept the “Take Pride in America” award in the Public-Private Partnership category from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Diving with a Purpose (DWP) is a program that trains young African-American divers. “I went to a party one time, and everybody knew how to swim except me,” says Adams, a journalism major from Madison. “I’ve been told by my peers that black people don’t scuba dive or swim. But how can you let a color determine who you are?” Divers in DWP have helped the National Park Service, a division of the Interior Department, to identify and research a number of sunken shipwrecks and develop professional site plans for historical and archaeological sites in Biscayne National Park in Florida. For more information and/or a photo of Terrance Adams, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.

WHERE’S THE BEEF?--The junior beef heifer shows are slated for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, July 8, as the 38th State Junior Livestock Expo concludes at MTSU’s Tennessee Livestock Center, 1720 Greenland Dr., in Murfreesboro. Youth from 56 of Tennessee’s 95 counties are participating. For more information, contact Jim Neel, expo superintendent, at 865-789-9646, or Randy Weiler at 615-898-5616.

PRESSING ON--The legacy of MTSU’s working replica of an 18th century printing press will be explained through photos and prints as part of an exhibit at the main branch of the Nashville Public Library, 615 Church St., through Sept. 27. The exhibit is titled “Telling the Story: Letterpress Printing and Community.” The university’s segment will include the story of letterpress printing at MTSU. The works of current MTSU art students; alumni; visiting artists; faculty; elementary, middle- and high-school teachers and students who printed on the James E. Walker Library’s unique device will be highlighted. A reproduction of the English common press used by Benjamin Franklin in the early 1700s, the printing press was handcrafted in 2004 and 2005 out of chestnut and white oak wood from a 100-year-old house in Virginia. Contact Kristen Keene at 615-898-5376 or kkeene@mtsu.edu.

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 July. 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.