Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Signs of the times

How do you react as a motorist when you see a digital billboard on the highway? A study by Tantala Associates commissioned by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America found no indication that digital billboards in Cleveland, Ohio, led to more accidents than other billboards. Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing, says, “Most opponents (of digital billboards) may simply not want these big, bright displays being a part of the local landscape. Citing safety concerns may be the cover for the negative image that billboards have long suffered. But if digital billboards are more attractive (They will not peel or show effects of harsh weather.) and potentially more beneficial for advertisers and the community (having the ability to post info on a missing person, for example), let's hope that persons involved making decisions about billboard placement will recognize the value they can add.”

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

Writing with a Tennessee touch

Tennessee has produced many extraordinary authors, including Knoxville’s Nikki Giovanni, Hohenwald’s William Gay, Henning’s Alex Haley and Pickwick Dam’s Charles Wright. To acquaint MTSU students with their works, Dr. Randal Mackin, English professor, is teaching a Special Topics in Writing class this semester as part of the Tennessee Literary Project (TLP). Students will research the state’s authors, write biographical entries, compose current bibliographies and publish their work online. The TLP is partnered with Tennessee Humanities, a state agency that also is using the student-generated biographies on its website. Course requirements include 500-word biographies on minor writers, 1,000-word biographies on major Tennessee writers, conducting interviews with writers when possible, along with a seminar paper on an author of the student’s choice—all completed in a workshop setting.

Contact Mackin at 615-904-8155.
rtmackin@mtsu.edu

Russian brain drain

Is Russia losing its best and brightest to other nations? In November 2009, Dr. Andrei Korobkov, political science, delivered a presentation on the subject to the Global Institute for Support and Development of Russian Language and Culture in Moscow. He told the assemblage that 946,000 people left the former Soviet republics for permanent residence elsewhere between 1993 and 2007. “Approximately three-quarters of Russia’s professors of post-Soviet years left to work abroad from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk,” says Korobkov. “And 28 percent of these people now reside in the United States.” Korobkov also says current conditions in Russian universities don’t make students want to stay put. “It is no coincidence that only 17 percent of Russian students who travel to the United States say they would like to return home,” he says.

Contact Korobkov at 615-898-2945.
korobkov@mtsu.edu