Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Metro matters

The five percent increase in sales tax collections in the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area over last June are consistent with job gains in retail and wholesale trade, says Dr. David Penn, director of MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Area. Penn presented the latest economic indicators for the Nashville MSA to the Nashville Apartment Association on Aug. 17. He says May was cool as housing construction declined. Single-family housing permits are down from a year ago, reflecting the whipsaw of the home buyers’ tax credit. How the activity will go in the absence of the tax credit is uncertain. In addition, the unemployment rate is down more than a point since January. However, the labor force is 12,000 lower than when it was at its peak in Oct. 2008.

Contact the Business and Economic Research Center at 615-898-2610.

Great review!

The Princeton Review recently placed MTSU in the “Best of the Southeast” section of its website feature “2011 Best Colleges Region by Region.” The education-services company asked students to rate their schools based on the accessibility of professors, the quality of food and campus life in general. The company’s staff also based the evaluation on the quality of academic programs and observations during visits to campus over the years. Collectively, the 623 colleges named “regional best” constitute about 25 percent of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges. MTSU also won the honor in 2008. Forbes magazine ranked MTSU as the number one public institution in Tennessee, as well as one of the Top 50 higher-education “Best Buys” in the nation and one of the top 100 U.S. public universities, in its 2009 “America’s Best Colleges” listing.

Contact the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919.

You gotta believe.

Irony of ironies, an e-mailer with an attitude recently accused Dr. Rami Shapiro, adjunct professor of religious studies and an ordained rabbi, of being a “nonbeliever.” Shapiro replies, in part, “A nonbeliever is simply a person who doesn’t believe as you believe. There is no absolute standard for belief or nonbelief, and labels such as ‘believer’ and ‘nonbeliever’ are relative to the particular standard held by the person doing the labeling. The only value such labeling has is to make the person doing the labeling feel a bit more secure in her position. It is totally self-serving and without any objective truth value whatsoever. The whole thing saddens me. I would like to retire the words ‘believer’ and ‘nonbeliever’ in favor of ‘different believer.’”

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

TR EXTRA

IF YOU YEARN TO LEARN—“Adventures in Learning,” the annual mini-school for adults age 50 and above, will take place from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sept. 13, Sept. 20, Sept. 27 and Oct. 4 at First United Methodist Church, 265 W. Thompson Lane in Murfreesboro. The purpose of the event, which is planned by an interfaith coalition, is to provide a program by and for older adults in which they can shore knowledge, talents and skills for lifelong learning and personal growth. As usual, retired and active MTSU faculty will play prominent roles in the event. A highlight will be “Mount and Mountain,” a dialogue between Dr. Rami Shapiro, adjunct professor of religious studies and an ordained rabbi, and Dr. Michael A. Smith, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro. This class will be based on online conversations Shapiro and Smith conducted about the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. To register, or for more information, contact Mary Belle Ginanni at 615-895-6072.

“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.