MTSU is gearing up for the 2008-09 Week of Welcome, and despite the warm weather, all the excitement of a new academic year makes it seem a little like Jan. 1.

“Starting a new academic year is always an exciting time, that feeling of a new beginning, much like New Year’s Day,” said President Sidney A. McPhee. “I hope all our faculty and staff and returning students will make a resolution to welcome all of our incoming freshmen and new employees.

“The Student Affairs Division has been working hard in preparing a variety of activities to welcome everyone back to campus. Enhancing academic quality and fostering a student-centered learning culture are two pillars of our academic master plan. Helping our students reach their full potential is vital, and it begins with the commitment of the entire university community to making them feel at home at MTSU. I know we will all strive to make 2008-09 our best year ever. ”

The university’s 10-day Week of Welcome calendar of events, launched on Friday, Aug. 22, should have something for everyone, said Gina Poff, director of the Office of New Students and Family Programs.

“The two best weeks of college are generally the first one and the last one, so we don’t want anyone to miss out on the fun,” Poff said. “We have 10 days of fun activities planned, many of them free and open to the entire campus community. We hope everyone will help us greet our new freshmen as they join the MTSU family.”

The Week of Welcome activities begin with We-Haul—helping students move into dormitories—and conclude Wednesday, Sept. 3, with a Student Organization Fair in the Keathley University Center courtyard.

The days between will feature plenty of activities to celebrate the 2008-09 academic year, including the MTSU Department Fair on Monday, Aug. 25, in the KUC Courtyard; Meet Murfreesboro Aug. 26-27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily in the KUC Courtyard; and a grand opening festival at the newly renovated Student Health, Wellness and Recreation Center from 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27.

See page 4 for more events, or visit www.mtsu.edu/~nsfp/welcome.htm.

ARAMARK Food Services also is offering discount drinks for everyone on campus during the Week of Welcome with an “I’m One” button. For details and to print out a button if you’ve misplaced yours, visit www.mtsu.edu/marketing.

If you’ve let your fitness goals slide this year because you couldn’t find an open space to work out, you no longer have an excuse.

From the weight room that’s doubled in size to the second-floor cardio room with one of the best views on campus, MTSU’s $20 million, 18-month Student Health, Wellness and Recreation Center renovation and expansion is ready to serve the university’s fitness needs.

“The new cardio room and weight room are just incredible,” says Jenny Crouch, marketing and accessibilities coordinator for the facility. “We now have two fitness/aerobic rooms, so our aerobics class offerings for fall have easily doubled. There’s more space all around, so we can offer more services and be an even more fun place to hang out. ”

University officials broke ground Feb. 23, 2007, at the center on Blue Raider Drive for the expansion, adding 22,000 square feet of workout and meeting space to the Rec Center's footprint and creating a brand-new Student Health Services facility at the west side of the existing facility.

The new main entrance lobby of the combined facilities is set up with a reception area to allow visitors and students to ask questions or sign up for Campus Rec activities without passing through the secure ID area, which boasts six entries with new BlueID hand scanners to admit users.

“We created that (reception area) so students won’t have to go upstairs or through the turnstiles at the last minute to sign up for intramurals or classes,” Crouch explained.

The outdoor equipment rental area, also in the new lobby, is set up like a store with equipment displays and staff available to answer questions. Outdoor equipment storage also was expanded to provide more choices for users.

The Campus Recreation Center, built in 1995, serves an average of 2,200 visitors per day and now houses six basketball or volleyball courts, six racquetball courts, a three-lane indoor track, two aerobic/fitness rooms, an expanded free-weight room, a cardio room with selectorized machines, an indoor swimming pool with water slide and diving board, equipment checkout, locker rooms, a family changing room, a rock-climbing wall, a four-foot-deep outdoor swimming pool and sun deck with sand volleyball courts, a challenge course that also includes an alpine climbing tower, and intramural fields. The expansion also moved the Campus Rec offices to the first floor.

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WORKOUT ROOM WITH A VIEW—Users of the new second-floor cardio room in the Student Health, Wellness and Recreation Center work up a sweat while glancing up at the bank of televisions or down at their machines, some of which include virtual workout screens. The view out the north windows shows the new traffic roundabout. photo by Andy Heidt

The staff of MTSU’s Student Health Services will welcome the community to its sparkling new facilities in the Student Health, Wellness and Recreation Center with a 4 p.m. ribbon-cutting and grand opening slated for Wednesday, Aug. 27, designed to put the “fun” back into the fundamentals of fitness.

“We’re bringing in a stage,” says Richard Chapman, Health Services director. “We’re going to have some bands. We’ve booked some inflatables for activities. We’re trying to work on getting some steppers from the Panhellenic Council; those are entertaining groups to watch. We’re working on a hot-air balloon for the event. We’re going to make it a real carnival/festival-type activity.”
The new clinic is an attraction all its own. With 18,000 square feet and 22 examination rooms, it is an improvement over the McFarland building, which provided only 10 functioning exam rooms. For the first time on campus, X-ray services will be available, as well as travel medicine to support study-abroad students.

Another first, and perhaps the main attraction, will be the drive-through pharmacy, which could be up and running as early as Oct. 1. Until then, the dispensary will remain in operation. MTSU’s new pharmacy director, Tabby Ragland, already is on board and working to fulfill all the necessary requirements, including licenses and arrangements with insurance companies. Ragland, an MTSU alumna and 1994 graduate of the pharmacy school at the University of Tennessee at Memphis, says she welcomes the chance to be a part of the expansion.

“What attracted me the most was the opportunity to do something brand new, to develop something from the ground up, from the very beginning and make it my own and grow it to fit this environment, this college campus,” Ragland says.

For now, plans call for the pharmacy to have the same hours as the clinic, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Chapman says customers will drive in the recreation center’s main entrance, turn to the right and curve around the building, where they will encounter an ATM-type kiosk with a pneumatic tube system.

“With parking on any college campus, it’s a little bit of a challenge at times,” Ragland says. “So with the drive-through feature, that makes it very nice for people to get their prescription on their way into class or on their way home if they want to. If they want to call in or e-mail or fax in their request, then they can just pull in the drive-through and pick it up that way.”
As with all medical services, Chapman and his staff will strive to keep costs low by charging minor fees for lab work, blood tests, medications and specialized exams such as the Federal Aviation Administration exam for aerospace majors. However, as usual, there will be no charge for routine office visits for students.

“It is a student-funded facility, so we are interested to hear the comments and feedback from the students and certainly try to listen to their needs,” Chapman says. “I think with our expansion of pharmacy services, expanding our X-ray offerings and the travel clinic, hopefully we’re really striving to meet student needs.”
Meanwhile, Chapman is looking forward to expanding Health Services’ outreach programs, highlighting such areas as alcohol and drugs, nutrition, healthy lifestyles, sexual health, smoking, sexually transmitted illness awareness, and suicide and depression.

Eventually, the McFarland building will house the Academic Support Center, Transfer Student Services and a satellite office of the Department of Public Safety.

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STATE OF THE ART—X-rays are now available in Student Health Services for the first time, thanks to a machine in the new location. photo by Andy Heidt

Significant new features have been added to the Rave Wireless Emergency Alert system on campus, enabling MTSU’s emergency text-messaging service to keep friends and family of students on campus informed of emergency situations that may occur.

New features of the Rave text-messaging system allow users to add up to three total numbers and e-mail addresses in the database on the MTSU Web site.

“You can enter a friend, spouse, parent or a child’s e-mail address and now they can receive that same alert,” said Steve Prichard, director of Telecommunication Services. “If you have multiple e-mail addresses … (such as) if you use Yahoo or AOL or something else that you check more frequently than your MTSU e-mail, then you can enter that.”

The Rave Alert service requires a campus e-mail for authentication into the system. The new features make it easier for family and friends who do not have an MTSU e-mail address to be notified of emergencies.

Other features added to the emergency text-messaging service allow administrators of the system to send a text message or an e-mail rather than both at the same time with the older system.

“You would send to both; you wouldn’t have a choice. If you did want to use just one of those methods, we can do that now. It gives us just a little bit more control and flexibility,” Prichard said.

“Mainly, I would just encourage people to sign up so they can be informed about emergency events. The system works very quickly, sending a message within minutes,” he added.

A three-person committee—Prichard, News and Public Affairs Director Tom Tozer and MTSU Police Chief Buddy Peaster—plans to send a test message (text and e-mail) to all users signed up for the service this fall semester.

“We do want people to be aware of the system and to know that it works. If it never gets used, people will forget about it. They will not be familiar with the format of the messages. They will not recognize it as official emergency messages,” Prichard said.

For those not yet aware of the Rave text-messaging service, signing up is easy. Students, faculty and staff may sign up for the service at no charge at www.getrave.com/login/mtsu. There also is a red-lettered link on the left side of the PipelineMT page that leads to the Rave sign-up page.

Prichard said the text-messaging service also is utilized by campus police because of the 24-hour nature of their service.

“They are the first responders to emergency events, and this is just one more way of notifying the campus community about an emergency event,” he explained. “The … work week is a small fraction of the actual hours in a week (and this campus) is like a small city running 24/7. ... We want them to be aware so that they can respond.”

For more information about Rave Wireless Emergency Alert, please visit www.getrave.com/login/mtsu.

Alumni Drive from Blue Raider Drive west to Friendship Street will be closed for the fall semester for road improvement. This road closing means no access to the south library parking lot, and there will be changes to the Blue and Red Routes for the Raider Xpress shuttle. An updated map is available at the Parking and Transportation Services Web site, www.mtsu.edu/~parking, or you may call 615-898-2850.

With the November presidential election one of the most critical in our nation’s history, the University Honors College will offer something you won’t be able to find this fall on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC or any other news outlet.

It’s the fall Honors Lecture Series “Politics and the Press: The Relationship Between Government and the Fourth Estate.”
The one-hour pass/fail UH 3000 course will be held every Monday from 3 until 3:55 p.m. (except Sept. 1 for the Labor Day holiday and Oct. 13 for fall break) during the fall semester.

The class is held in Room 106 of the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Students and the public can see and hear the full spectrum—history, economics, past and modern media, political science and more—from MTSU’s vast array of academic experts.

To learn more, call 615-898-2152 or visit http://honors.web.mtsu.edu/lecture_series.htm.

The fall 2008 schedule, complete with lecture topics and speakers, also is shown on page 2 of this edition of The Record (see PDF, page 2) .

The unveiling of MTSU’s new commercial construction management concentration in MTSU’s Department of Engineering Technology will take place when fall semester classes begin Aug. 25, department chairman Dr. Walter Boles announced.

“Our first class, the introduction course, has 10 students signed up for this fall,” said Boles, who added that these students have heard about the program by word of mouth or other means, since the concentration has not been advertised.

“There are probably that many more students who have expressed interest and will not have to take the intro course, either due to transfer credit or existing students transferring over to the commercial program,” Boles said. “I expect we will have 20 to 30 students ‘declared’ as commercial construction students this fall.”
The Tennessee Board of Regents heard MTSU’s program proposals and then approved the concentration in summer 2007.

“Current construction management programs in Tennessee are unable to supply enough graduates for the region,” Boles said. “The commercial construction management program is designed to prepare graduates for entry-level supervisory and estimating positions with commercial construction firms, material manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.”

Boles added that the vision “is to become a leading program graduating 50 to 100 entry-level managers per year who would stay in Tennessee. However, our focus is on a quality program. The numbers are secondary.

“We want to create strategic regional partnerships that will provide employers with a new source of construction management professionals,” he added. “Advantages for potential employers will include early access to students and graduates and positions on our advisory board to help guide the program in mutually desirable directions.”
Since January, a fundraising drive for the program has generated nearly $150,000 toward an initial goal of $500,000, Boles said.

“Ideally, we’re trying to get to $500,000, with $300,000 to support the recruiting of a nationally renowned commercial construction management program director and a $200,000 goal for scholarships.”

Companies or individuals who have made commitments include J.E. Crain & Son, Brassfield & Gorrie, Skanska, Turner Universal, ETIS, Orion, The Comfort Group, Actus Lend Lease, Messer, ABG Caulking, American Constructors, TDK, Debbie and Joey Hatch, RG Anderson, Hardaway Construction, The Building Group, Lee Adcock, ABG Caulking and Carden Construction.

Prospective donors can contact Boles or Jennifer Allen (jallen@mtsu.edu), development director for the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, at 615-898-5003 or 615-804-5347.

Boles said nearly 50 construction and industry professionals have agreed to serve on the Commercial Construction Management Advisory Board.

“I think we have a very high-quality advisory board,” Boles said. “The (board) members are very knowledgeable of the other prestigious construction management institutions and their curricula.”
Industry leaders are touting the concept and the need for such a program.

“The new MTSU construction management program is a wonderful idea,” said Thomas Reed, safety director for Associated General Contractors of Middle Tennessee. “It will train the next generation of managers and supervisors. It will also help the area retain quality students and bring in individuals from other areas.”

Added Terry Ruppel, director of education for the Mid-Tennessee Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., and a member of the program’s advisory board: “Tennessee needs and deserves a major program in commercial construction management. I want to express my support of this effort and look forward to our chapter and member companies forming strong partnerships with the program.”

Dr. Al Carter, professor of engineering technology, is the coordinator of the commercial construction program, Boles said.

Prospective students can learn more about the program by contacting Carter at 615-898-2096 or acarter@mtsu.edu or chairman Boles at 615-898-2776 or wwboles@mtsu.edu.

MTSU’s Institutional Review Board has set its fall 2008 meeting schedule.

All meetings will take place the first Wednesday of each month at 2 p.m. Meetings are set for Sept. 3, Oct. 1, Nov. 5 and Dec 3.

Protocol applications must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. two weeks before each review meeting date.

All meetings will be conducted in the Sam Ingram Building’s garden-level conference room.

The MTSU Institutional Review Board reviews all research involving human subjects at MTSU.

The Office of Compliance is located in the Ingram Building in Room 011B. For more information, please contact the Office of Compliance at 615-494-8918 or irb@mtsu.edu, or visit the IRB Web site at www.mtsu.edu/~irb.

Drivers traveling on MTSU Boulevard and Blue Raider Drive this semester will notice one significant absence at that busy intersection: a backlog of traffic from the four-way stop.

A new traffic roundabout at the intersection allows motorists from each direction to loop around to continue on their desired route after yielding to any vehicles already in the loop. The change is part of the four-phase $30 million traffic master-plan construction project at MTSU, designed to improve traffic flow, safety and access around campus, and MTSU’s roundabout is the first of its kind at a Tennessee public university.

“To date, the project has completed new parking lots, improved campus entry, improved roadways, added shuttle bus lanes, sidewalks and lighting,” says Ron Malone, assistant vice president for events and transportation services.

“The Roundabout is the latest of these improvement and will certainly help our students, faculty and staff navigate their way through campus more efficiently, effectively and, most importantly, safely. “

Roundabout construction began this summer, when traffic at the intersection was diverted to a route through the University Honors College parking lot. The route opened Aug. 11, and work continued the next week to create dedicated shuttle and bicycle lanes along MTSU Boulevard in front of Cummings Hall.

Officials decided to turn the MTSU Boulevard-Blue Raider Drive intersection into a roundabout after studying a safety report that indicated that roundabouts are safer than traditional traffic circles and intersections, with 40 percent fewer collisions and 80 percent fewer injuries to drivers and pedestrians. Other universities with traffic roundabouts include Stanford University, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland.

“We are extremely proud of the finished product,” Malone adds. “Lose and Associates, our project architects, have done a great job of converting a difficult intersection into one that functions very well and is also aesthetically pleasing.”

The roundabout also features an historic component: portions of limestone columns, more than 160 years old, from the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. The four-foot-diameter columns, which were erected at the capitol building during its 1845-1855 construction, weathered badly and were replaced during an exterior renovation project in the 1950s and stored at the old state penitentiary in Nashville.

Portions were later used in a reliquary on Capitol Hill honoring the stonemasons who carved the columns and in green space at the Bicentennial Mall. U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon and his staff suggested that the MTSU roundabout also include the columns.

“After I learned about them, I asked the state to donate some of the columns to the university,” said Gordon, an MTSU alumnus. “Murfreesboro served as the state capital from 1818 through 1826, so I thought it seemed right to have a few of these columns on our campus. When MTSU got ready to do the roundabout, it was suggested that would be a good place for them. They are decorative and artistic and a part of our Tennessee history.”

Those with no experience navigating a roundabout can study a two-minute instructional video produced by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety at http://video.google.com/ videoplay?docid=-7384786155754120811&pr=goog-sl.

The real secret to getting around in a roundabout, Malone says, is simple.

“Slow down, yield to traffic already in the roundabout, and remember that traffic always flows to the right, or counter-clockwise,” he says.

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WHICH WAY IS UP?—Navigating the new traffic roundabout at MTSU Boulevard and Blue Raider Drive, shown above, will work if you “slow down, yield to traffic already in the roundabout, and remember that traffic always flows to the right, or counter-clockwise,” says Ron Malone, assistant vice president for events and transportation services. The limestone column pieces in the roundabout’s green areas originated at the Tennessee State Capitol, shown in the 1934 inset photo. They now visually link MTSU’s east side with the historic columns of Kirskey Old Main on the west. Roundabout photo by Andy Heidt; south face of State Capitol 1934 by J.E. Butterworth/Library of Congress

MTSU has the lowest square footage per student for classrooms, labs and offices of all universities in the state. Yet the university is committed to maintaining academic quality and ensuring that students and faculty have the best possible learning and teaching environment.

Several offices and departments have been relocated on campus to make room for other activities and to consolidate areas that share common interests and audiences.

In some cases, relocation has allowed for vacated areas to be renovated, which, in turn, provides newer and improved office or classroom surroundings. While relocation may cause some temporary confusion, the ultimate purpose is to improve services and promote efficiency.

The following offices and departments have found new homes as we begin the 2008-09 fall semester. We suggest that you attach this list (see PDF, page 6) to your campus directory and keep it for reference.

Dr. Newtona “Tina” Johnson, professor of English and chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women at MTSU, is the new director of the university’s Women’s Studies Program. Johnson took over the job Aug. 1.

She succeeds Dr. Elyce Helford, also an English professor, who served as director for the past eight years.

Johnson joined MTSU in 1998. She has been a member of the Women’s Studies Council since then and has served on many committees, including the curriculum committee. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English language and literature with honors from the Fourah Bay College of the University of Sierra Leone; a master’s in English from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia; a master’s in applied linguistics from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec; and a doctorate in literary and cultural studies from Emory University in Atlanta.

In her vision statement, Johnson wrote, “I will use my collegial relations with faculty and administrators across MTSU’s campus and my experience in recruiting faculty from diverse disciplines to create more disciplinary diversity in our curriculum, to solicit more faculty involvement in the program and to promote the program to faculty, students and administrators as a community of scholars that prides itself on its inclusiveness as it fosters a global feminist perspective.”
The Women’s Studies Program provides undergraduates with an opportunity for an 18-hour interdisciplinary minor with tracks in women’s studies and gender studies. In addition, the program provides travel grants, student awards, an annual scholarship and a library of more than 1,000 volumes for research.

The program sponsors research lectures by faculty members, assists with National Women’s History Month events on campus each March, and coordinates a biennial interdisciplinary conference in Women’s Studies.

For more information on the Women’s Studies Program, call 615-898-5910, send an e-mail to womenstu@mtsu.edu or visit the Web site at http://womenstu.web.mtsu.edu.

The Blue Raiders’ 2008 football schedule is ready to roll! Home games are in BOLD and Sun Belt Conference games are starred.

2008 MT FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 28: TROY (ESPN Regional), 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 6: MARYLAND (Second Annual Kidfest), 6 p.m.
Sept. 13: @ Kentucky, time TBA
Sept. 20: @ Arkansas State*, 6 p.m.
Sept. 30: FLORIDA ATLANTIC* (ESPN2; “Black-Out” night), 7 p.m.

Oct. 4: Open Date
Oct. 11: @ Florida International*, 6 p.m.
Oct. 18: @ Louisville, time TBA
Oct. 25: @ Mississippi State, time TBA

Nov. 1: Open Date
Nov. 8: @ LOUISIANA-MONROE* (Homecoming), 2:30 p.m.
Nov. 15: @ Western Kentucky, noon
Nov. 22: NORTH TEXAS* (Salute to Veterans/Armed Services), 2:30 p.m.

Dec. 3: @ Louisiana-Lafayette* (ESPN Regional), 6 p.m.
Dec. 19: New Orleans Bowl (ESPN2), 7 p.m.

For ticket information, visit www.goblueraiders.com.