Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

The fiscal future

Dr. David Penn, director of MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Center, will be one of the participants in a panel discussion on “Nashville’s Economic Forecast” at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 12, at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville. Other scheduled participants include Doug Brandon, managing principal, Cassidy Turley, and president of the Leadership Middle Tennessee class of 2010; Rob McNeilly, president and CEO, SunTrust Bank; and Christopher Parks, co-founder and CEO, change: healthcare. This discussion, which is co-sponsored by the Nashville Business Journal and Colliers International, is part of NBJ’s “Shaping a Greater Nashville” series.

To register, go to http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/event/27811.

The paper chase

It has been a truism of American journalism for the past several years now that the newspaper, at least in its current format, is dying. But Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism, says newspapers are still very popular in Japan, home of so much of the technology that spurred the digital revolution. Why? Burriss says, “Japan’s dailies do better than ours because they put more news in their newspapers. They are more reader-friendly and fair. They are more polite in their editorial comments or criticisms. … Over the years, more and more American businesses have come to adopt Japanese theories of management and productivity. Maybe we need to take a look at Japanese newspapers, as well.”

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

Drink responsibly as you ogle.

Strip clubs that don’t serve hard liquor? A federal appeals court ruled recently that a Virginia law banning strip clubs from serving mixed drinks is not at odds with the First Amendment. The idea behind the state law is that serving mixed drinks could lead to more heavily intoxicated clients and, therefore, more crime. David Hudson, adjunct professor of political science and First Amendment Center scholar, says, “The clubs contended that the state had failed to show empirical proof that the drinking of distilled spirits at the clubs led to greater crime. But the Fourth Circuit said that didn’t matter, writing that ‘we disagree that empirical support is needed for the perfectly sensible legislative proposition that someone drinking liquor at a strip club will get more intoxicated’ than someone drinking beer and wine.”

Contact Hudson at 615-727-1342.
dhudson@fac.org

TR EXTRA

GRITS ARE GOOD FOR YOU.--The GRITS Collaborative Project and MTSU invite you to participate in their 2010 forum from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12, in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building. The keynote speaker will be Lee Rennick, executive director of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce’s Business Education Partnership. Her address is titled “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.” Guest speaker Donna M. Inch, newly appointed Chairman and CEO of Ford Land, will discuss the importance of attracting and retaining women in the engineering and science pipeline. GRITS stands for Girls Raised in Tennessee Science. Its collaborative project brings together organizations and individuals committed to informing and motivating girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The registration fee is $10. Students may attend for free. Contact Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross at 615-904-8253 or jiriarte@mtsu.edu.

“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.