Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Worship and women

While many critics of Islam denounce it as a religion that oppresses women, Dr. Rami Shapiro, adjunct professor of religious studies and an ordained rabbi, reminds us that sexism can be found among people of various faiths. “For example,” he writes, “the Catholic Church has just issued new rules that declare the ordination of women priests as a ‘grave crime,’ and the Episcopal Church is caught up in an internal battle over whether or not to have women bishops. … In Israel, the government has instituted a religious bus service that forces women to ride in the back of the bus so as to not entice Orthodox men to sexual thoughts (or worse) between stops. … Yes, you can argue that these are cultural problems not intrinsic to the religions themselves, but this is no less true of Islam.”

Read Shapiro’s blog at http://rabbirami.blogspot.com.

Fleeing fan syndrome

Minor league baseball, NCAA men’s basketball and NASCAR all realized increases in their scores in the 2010 Middle Tennessee Sports Affinity Survey conducted by the MTSU Office of Consumer Research. The PGA didn’t fare so well. Dr. Don Roy, Sports Business Studies Coordinator, writes, “The decline in the PGA’s Affinity Score (down six points) may be linked to a specific occurrence: the Tiger Woods scandal. The personal problems that dogged Woods over the winter and into early spring and his brief absence from the PGA Tour could have pushed away some people from the PGA.” Roy notes that other sports suffering a drop in fan appreciation include the LPGA (down one point), the NBA (down two points), and NCAA women’s basketball (down one point).

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

The good neighbor

Dan Brooks, a longtime member of the insurance profession, will be inducted into the Robert E. Musto Tennessee Insurance Hall of Fame on Friday, July 30. The festivities will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, 1200 Conference Center Dr., adjacent to Interstate 24 and Medical Center Parkway, in Murfreesboro. “There is no way for us to know all the times that Dan has gone out of his way to help and counsel agents in the beginning of their career,” says Dr. Ken Hollman, chairholder of the Martin Chair of Insurance at MTSU. Brooks spent his entire career—35 years of dedicated and loyal service—with State Farm. Twenty-seven of those years were spent in Tennessee and covered all regions of the states. He retired in 2009.

Contact Randy Weiler in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5610.
jweiler@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

“A HEALTHY STATE ENCOURAGES MANY VOICES—AND LOTS OF LISTENING.”—HHS SECRETARY KATHLEEN SEBELIUS--Expressions of confidence, faith, defiance, togetherness, satire and sobriety characterize the second edition of Voices We Haven’t Heard, a publication of MTSU’s June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students. The latest Voices is larger than last year’s edition, and it includes feminist poetry and prose nestled between glossy, colorful covers. Center Director Terri Johnson says the magazine empowers students by providing them with a creative outlet for their observations on racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and other forms of oppression. Voices We Haven’t Heard is free and available from the June Anderson Center in its new home, Room 320 of the Keathley University Center. For more information, call 615-898-5989 or go to www.mtsu.edu/jac.

I’M PLAYING WITH MY BOOKS, MOMMY.--“Books and Children in the 19th Century: A Small Portrait” is the theme of an exhibit on display now and throughout this summer in the fourth floor Special Collections area of MTSU’s James E. Walker Library. The purpose is to show the variety of ways children and the adults around them engaged with books in the 1800s and early 1900s. The works available for viewing are indicative of the children’s book as an object of moral and educational value. The idea behind the books is to teach values and build character. Entertainment techniques are employed strictly to attract the children and hold their interest. Highlights include several movable books, which are books that contain text or illustrations that the child can manipulate. Pop-up books are one such type of movable book. Many items in the display have never been exhibited previously. Call the James E. Walker Library at 615-898-2772.

APRENDA CON ME--The University School of Nashville is hosting MTSU’s 2010 Summer Language Institute, where you can learn Spanish in a fun, low-stress environment. The methods employed are Total Physical Response (TPR) and Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS). These methods mimic the way you learned your first language. Movement, games, songs and storytelling are all part of the instruction. Brian Roberts will teach Spanish I for ages 16 and up from Aug. 2-6 at the O’More School of Design in Franklin. The cost is $350 with a $20 materials fee due on the first day of class. Contact Dr. Shelley Thomas at 615-898-5757 or shthomas@mtsu.edu.