Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Expressing how they felt

Brilliantly colored, soft, fuzzy mobiles recently arrived from the United Kingdom at MTSU’s Ellington Human Sciences Building. These connected fabric swatches also connect artisans who are a desire for less violence and warfare in the world, giving a new meaning to the phrase “soft power.” Thirteen students in the Textiles, Merchandising and Design Program in the Department of Human Sciences received the felt crafts from their giving partner, The Herd Arts Drive, as part of Peace Felt 2010. The organization was created to promote love and peace through textile art. It was MTSU’s first year of participation in the project, and Assistant Professor Nancy Oxford intends to make sure it will be an ongoing endeavor. Oxford’s students made their own felt peace crafts for their receiving partner, Atelier Filt, in the Netherlands. The concept is designed to indicate a continuous circle of peace and brotherhood that has no beginning and no end.

Felt artworks are on display in the Ellington Building. Contact Oxford at 615-898-5689.
noxford@mtsu.edu

Penn’s prognostications

Gazing into his crystal ball, Dr. David Penn, director of MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Center, expects there to be 1.5 percent job growth over the next 12 months in the Nashville area. With an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent now, Penn believes the jobless rate will drop to 7.9 percent over the year. However, he says growth in housing construction is questionable and home prices will be flat. All of these predictions are based on the presumption that job growth in the country as a whole will be moderate. Penn presented the economic estimates to Independence Trust in Franklin on Oct. 18.

Contact Penn at 615-898-2610.
dpenn@mtsu.edu

The gridiron and the Great White Way

Dan Lauria, best known as the father in the TV series “The Wonder Years,” is starring on Broadway in “Lombardi,” a play based on the life of the legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. This puts the NFL in the unique position of being a Broadway “angel”—a financial backer of a stage production. Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing, says, “If you own a business or are responsible for marketing a brand (which includes all of us since we are managers of our personal brand), is telling your brand’s story part of your branding platform? … Perhaps there is heritage to share, stories from the past like the Vince Lombardi story. The stories are there. Why not share them? People are more likely to connect with your brand through the emotions wrapped in a story than they are the features built into a product. Leave no brand story untold.”

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

TR EXTRA

EXPLORE THE WAR--After two excursions to the South Pacific to expose students to some of the critical sites of World War II, an MTSU historian prepares to embark on a tour of some of the pivotal sites of the European Theater of Operations for his “Warfare and Public Memory in Western Europe” class (HIST 3070). Dr. Derek Frisby, associate professor of history, will escort students across the continent May 19-June 3, 2011, in tracing the war’s “Great Crusade.” The 16-day tour will include an examination of Normandy; Bastogne; Dachau; Operation Market Garden, a campaign fought in Germany and the Netherlands; and the “Eagle’s Nest,” Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s retreat in the mountains above Berchtesgarden. Students also will follow the route of the 101st Airborne Division’s “Band of Brothers.” Tours of Omaha and Utah beaches, Arnhem and the “Battle of the Bulge” site are on the itinerary, as well as the Bayeaux Tapestry, Paris, Verdun and Waterloo. For more information, contact Frisby at 615-904-8097 or dfrisby@mtsu.edu. Financial aid is available. Apply as soon as possible. Contact the Office of Education Abroad and Student Exchange (MT Abroad) at 615-898-5179 or mtabroad@mtsu.edu.

IT WAS THE BUST OF TIMES—The Textiles, Merchandising and Design Program at MTSU will hold a celebration party for the “Bras for a Cause” campaign from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, in the Georgetown Park Shopping Center, across the parking lot from Penny’s Closet, 1602 West Northfield Blvd. in Murfreesboro. Students in Dr. Teresa Robinson’s introductory fashion courses have lent their creative efforts to this activity during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The bras are on display at Penny’s Closet, where customers are invited to vote for their favorites with donations of $1 each. The top 13 bras will be published in a 2011 calendar, which will be available for purchase next month. At the celebration party, voting will continue and winners will be announced. In addition, there will be a silent auction consisting of items and services donated by local businesses. All proceeds will benefit cancer research. For more information, contact Robinson at 615-898- 2156 or trobinson@mtsu.edu or Penny Bolton at 615-890-0415 or pennybolton@comcast.net.

WHERE TO BECOME AWARE--“Project AWAREness,” a Domestic Violence Awareness Month event, will start at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 27, in Cantrell Hall in MTSU’s Tom H. Jackson Building. Information about various causes, including sexual assault and HIV/AIDS prevention, will be available amid displays and distribution of educational resources. Statistics quoted by the Domestic Violence Resource Center (www.drvc-or.org) indicate one in four women has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime and nearly three out of four Americans personally know someone who is or has been a victim of domestic violence. Purple ribbons, signifying the cause of domestic violence awareness, are available at the June Anderson Center, the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership and the information desk on the second floor of Keathley University Center. “Project AWAREness” is free and open to the public. For more information, call 615-898-5989.

TUNNEL VISION--The Department of Health and Human Performance and Student Health Services will host the 10th annual Tunnel of Terror from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. today, Oct. 26, in the Tennessee Room of MTSU’s James Union Building. The tunnel is a sexually transmitted infection education event for all students, faculty and staff. Two-thirds of all STIs occur in 16-24-year-olds. This is a self-guided event, which is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Casie Higginbotham at 615-904-8274 or chigginb@mtsu.edu.

I ONCE WAS LOST, BUT NOW AM FOUND--Dr. David Lavery, professor of English at MTSU, will discuss “What Was ‘Lost?’ Where Television’s Most Extraordinary Series Came From and Where It Took Us” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building. Lavery is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of more than 20 books about television, two of which are about “Lost.” A 2006 winner of MTSU’s Distinguished Research Award, he has organized conferences on “The Sopranos” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and is a founding co-editor of the journals Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies and Critical Studies in Television. This event is presented by the James E. Walker Library and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Kristen Keene at 615-898-5376 or kkeene@mtsu.edu.

KEEPING IT COOL--Journalist, activist and political analyst Bakari Kitwana will lead a town hall meeting on the intersection of Islam, hip-hop and identity among a new generation of American youth with a panel discussion and viewing of the documentary film “The New Muslim Cool” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, in Room 221 of MTSU’s Learning Resources Center. The 2009 film follows Puerto Rican rapper Hamza Perez as he steers away from his former life as a drug dealer and embraces Islam. Following the screening, Kitwana will moderate an interactive panel discussion about the film with Perez and Nura Maznavi, staff attorney with Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization. Kitwana is Senior Media Fellow at The Jamestown Project, a think tank based at Harvard University Law School. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Felicia Miyakawa at 615-904-8043 or miyakawa@mtsu.edu.

A RADICAL IDEA--A series of six Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) classes will be offered at no charge from 6-8 p.m. each Thursday through Dec. 2 at MTSU police headquarters, 1412 East Main St. in Murfreesboro. The class will be open to all female MTSU students, faculty and staff, as well as to the general public. A workbook/training manual will be provided to each student. Enrollment is limited. For more information or to enroll, contact MTSU RAD instructor Sgt. David Smith at 615-692-2424 or 615-494-7858.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS--It’s time again for “Operation Christmas Care,” the project that sends holiday cheer to wounded warriors. The service, which was started in 2006 by Lee Ann Newton, executive aide for the Tennessee Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Center, has sent more than 20,000 Christmas cards to hospitalized military personnel. “Unfortunately, our soldiers’ individual support systems often dwindle after the life-threatening danger has passed,” says Norton, “and yet their painful daily regiment toward recovery continues. E-mails are nice, and they’re appreciated, but a colorful card or letter with a heartfelt message of support and encouragement can beam from the walls of their hospital rooms until they leave.” Contact Newton at 615-904-8573 or lnewton@mtsu.edu.