MTSU’s first study-abroad class to Vietnam unexpectedly encountered a busload of North Vietnamese army veterans on their stopover at Khe Sanh. For more information about the trip, go to http://mtsunews.com/vietnam-visit-2013.
MTSU researcher Ricketts receives Silver Column Award (video)
May 17, 2013 By
MTSU professor Cliff Ricketts capped off an eventful and historic spring 2013 semester by receiving the President’s Silver Column Award from Dr. Sidney A. McPhee and learning that news reports on his 2,600-mile coast-to-coast drive — using no gasoline — generated more than 2.2 million viewers across the country, according to Metro Monitor, a news and media monitoring service.
Ricketts, a 37-year faculty member in the School of Agribusiness and Agriscience, has spent much of his career in alternative fuels research. You can read the complete story at mtsunews.com/ricketts-silver-column-award-2013 and watch a brief video from the event below.
MTSU Commencement Spring 2013 (video)
May 11, 2013 By
More than 2,640 MTSU students joined their family, friends, professors and other supporters in Murphy Center May 11 to celebrate one of their greatest and most challenging accomplishments: earning a university degree.
And for the first time in its history, MTSU bestowed honorary doctorates on two of its most esteemed alumni: former Congressman Bart Gordon and the late Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan.
Gov. Bill Haslam told the graduates at the morning ceremony of MTSU’s spring 2013 commencement exercises that Tennessee needs their “brainpower” and “work ethic.” Afternoon speaker Pete Fisher, an MTSU alumnus and vice president/general manager for the Grand Ole Opry, encouraged the graduates to remember and exercise the values that helped them reach such a pinnacle.
Get more details about MTSU’s spring 2013 commencement at mtsunews.com/spring-commencement-2013.
MTSU ROTC Spring 2013 Commissioning Ceremony (video)
May 10, 2013 By
Eleven cadets in MTSU’s military science program were commissioned as U.S. Army second lieutenants in a ceremony on Friday, May 10, at the Tom H. Jackson Building.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Terry A. Ethridge, an MTSU alumnus, served as guest speaker. He is director of the Joint Staff for the Tennessee Army and Air National Guard.
Each of the students was scheduled to graduate during the university’s spring 2013 commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 11.
The new U.S. Army second lieutenants and their new academic degrees are:
- Jared Blanchett, Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Language (French).
- Anita Booker, Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.
- Dalton Bowersox, Bachelor of Arts in History.
- Joshua Dempsey, Master of Science in Aviation.
- Juan Figueroa, Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.
- Michael Graham, Bachelor of Arts in History.
- Chase Morris, Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Food Science.
- Arthur Powers, Bachelor of Science in Plant and Soil Science.
- Elliott Ralston, Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.
- Christopher Smith, Bachelor of Science in Professional Studies.
- Sadi Swaney, Bachelor of Science in Organizational Communication.
MTSU Receives Buchanan’s Nobel Prize and $2.5 Million (video)
May 9, 2013 By
A $2.5 million bequest from the estate of economist James M. Buchanan to the Middle Tennessee State University Honors College was announced May 9 in special ceremonies outside the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building.
Buchanan family member Jeff Whorley of Indianapolis, Ind., made the formal gift announcement to MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, Honors College Dean John Vile, invited guests, the campus community and alumni and friends of the university.
The gift announcement came near the end of the celebration of life held for Buchanan (1919-2013), a Rutherford County native, 1940 graduate from Middle Tennessee State Teachers College, World War II veteran and 1986 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Buchanan died Jan. 9 in Blacksburg, Va., at the age of 93.
For more details about Buchanan and his family’s gift to MTSU, visit mtsunews.com/buchanan-honors-college-gift-2013.
MTSU alumnus Morris returns to Vietnam (video)
May 8, 2013 By
QUANG TRI PROVINCE, Vietnam — The Vietnam odyssey of MTSU alumnus William “Bud” Morris came full circle in March. The Murfreesboro native called his sojourn with the university’s Vietnam study-abroad class “the greatest experience of my life.”
Nine students signed up for a pioneering history course that required them to compare Vietnam and the Vietnam War as depicted in American media with what they learned on a 14-day tour of the country this spring.
Morris, now an insurance agent who bleeds State Farm red and MTSU blue, returned March 21 to the area where he served with the First Brigade, Fifth Infantry Mechanized Division of the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. To read the full story, go to http://mtsunews.com/mtsu-in-vietnam-morris.
MTSU-Columbia State Pact Helps Education Majors (video)
May 3, 2013 By
An agreement signed May 2 between Middle Tennessee State University and Columbia State Community College will help students majoring in early childhood education turn their associate degrees into bachelor’s degrees at MTSU’s Murfreesboro campus.
The agreement brings more transfer students into MTSU’s 101-year-old tradition of training Tennessee’s best teachers by easing Columbia State students’ access to the Bachelor of Science degree program in early childhood education at MTSU.
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee and Columbia State President Janet F. Smith formally signed the agreement inside MTSU’s Student Union.
For more details on the agreement, visit mtsunews.com/mtsu-columbia-state-education-pact-2013.
MTSU ‘Employees of the Year’ unveiled at reception (video)
May 3, 2013 By
Four of MTSU’s finest are celebrating recognition as the “Employees of the Year” after a special ceremony and reception in the university’s James Union Building on April 24. Honored were Classified Employee of the Year Barbara Money, Secretarial/Clerical Employee of the Year Peggy Slater, Administrative Employee of the Year Jamie Brewer and Technical/Service Employee of the Year Forrest Higginbotham. See a video report from the reception below.
Economist Discusses MTSU Alumnus Buchanan’s Work (video)
April 30, 2013 By
Donald Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason University who also blogs at CafeHayek.com, delivered an April 22 lecture on the life and contributions of Nobel Prize winner and MTSU alumnus James M. Buchanan.
Buchanan, who passed away Jan. 9, was a professor emeritus at George Mason and a leading proponent of public choice theory, which assumes that politicians and government officials are motivated by self-interest. Boudreaux’s visit was sponsored by the Department of Economics, the Economics Club and the University Honors College, which awards the James Buchanan Fellowship to 20 undergraduate applicants each year in his honor.
You can watch a portion of Boudreaux’s special lecture below.
MTSU inducts 6 into Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame (video)
April 29, 2013 By
Representing nearly three centuries of combined journalistic excellence, the first members of the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame proudly stood before family, friends and colleagues at MTSU April 26 to encourage the next generation of media professionals.
The hall’s inaugural inductees include Chris Clark, retired chief news anchor for WTVF-TV NewsChannel 5; Anne Holt, a 30-year veteran and three-time Emmy winner at WKRN-TV News 2; the late Dan Miller, longtime chief news anchor and multiple Emmy Award winner at Nashville’s WSMV-TV Channel 4; John Seigenthaler, chairman emeritus of The Tennessean and founding editorial director of USA Today; Dean Stone, editor of The Daily Times in Maryville and former president of the Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors; and William Bryant “Bill” Williams Jr., publisher emeritus of the Paris (Tenn.) Post-Intelligencer. You can watch an excerpt of the ceremony and their remarks below.
For more details on the inductees and the new Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame, visit mtsunews.com/journalism-hall-of-fame-inaugural-class.
