Well, Rudy Johnson, project architect, has provided the university with preliminary renderings of our new Math & Computer Science Building. I couldn’t be more pleased. Construction on the new building should start next fall. The building will be located on 8th Street next to the Hemlock Semiconductor Building and across the street from the Sundquist Science Building.
Austin Peay State University’s yearbook, The Monocle, was named a first-place winner in the American Scholastic Press Association’s 2011 Scholastic Review and Contest. Joining other 1st place winners such as yearbooks from Clemson University and Michigan State University, the Monocle earned recognition for excellence in elements such as design, writing, and photography. Racheal Yeats, editor in chief of the 2010 Monocle, has every reason to be pround. I know I am.
Local architect Rudy Johnson unveiled preliminary plans for APSU’s new math and computer science building today. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the work he and his colleagues have done in collaboration with Dr. Tristen Denley, Dean Jaime Taylor, and other academic leaders at the university. They’ve produced a design which hamonizes with the Sunquist Building and our new Hemlock Semiconductor Building, but which stands on its own as well. The university is paying for this building out of its own resources, and I think everyone is going to be very pleased when it finally opens.
Governor fans had a big weekend, owning to the BIG win of our men’s basketball team over the UT Vols at Knoxville. A university has to be hungry for relentless improvement, and this first-ever victory over the Vols represents a solid step forward for our men’s basketball program. The win was all that anyone, including a proud university president, could ask for. I love it when people underestimate the Govs and we defy their expectations. Though we’ve struggled with a difficult road schedule, the team seems to be finding its rhythm right before conference play is scheduled to begin. It’s sad to know that Anthony Campbell is out again, but a great relief to see John Fraley back in the game after his concussion.
We’ve started raiding the Knoxville area of students in the last few years, and the high-profile upset we handed the Vols ought to make more students from east Tennessee give Austin Peay a closer look as their college home. That’s the way of athletic victories: they tend to help us recruit not simply student-athletes, but students generally.
Congratulations on the win, guys! We’ll be defending the Dunn with you in the coming weeks.
On December 14, 2011, Austin Peay State University will inauguarate a new tradition when it presents a recently-designed APSU military coin to December graduates who are either active-duty military or veterans. Graduates will receive the coin in a special recognition ceremony scheduled for 5 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 14 in the Music/Mass Communication Building Concert Hall. The public is welcome to attend the event.
Designed by the APSU Office of Public Relations and Marketing, the coin is antique bronze in color with a black finish. One side of the coin depicts an eagle with the motto, “All Hail to Those Who Serve,” echoing lyrics from Austin Peay’s alma mater. The other side of the coin depicts the clock tower at the top of the Browning Building.
We couldn’t be more proud of our military students and veterans, and the new coin is a small token of that pride.
I need to stop being amazed at the talent of our Austin Peay students and faculty, but amazement just keeps slipping up on me. My wife and I attended a show at the Ryman recently, when we went to Nashville to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. So I had a solid benchmark in my head about what to expect from a professional production (as in–I spent some real money on the tickets). Then I attended the percussion Christmas concert and the choral holiday dinner put on by our music department. The percussion concert was essentially free (i.e., two cans of food) and the choral dinner cost no more than a nice dinner. I expect a college-level production: these are mostly students performing, right? But half-way through the first number, amazement sets in. These were fantastic productions! Completely professional! The scripting and directing done by Dr. David Steinquiest (for the percussion concert) and Dr. Korre Foster (the choral dinner, with assistance by music department chair Dr. Douglas Rose) were stunningly creative and absolutely entertaining. The talent of our students and, in the case of the percussion concert, our alums was amazing. Better, in each case, than the expensive show I had just seen in Nashville.
Oh, right. I keep being amazed. Maybe I should know better by now.
In less than a year, APSU has made tremendous strides in mobile technology development. The APSU iPhone app developed last fall was later reincarnated for the Android. Today, APSU continues its success with the creation of the APSU Mobile Technology Center. This mean any organization can receive help in developing mobile apps for smartphones and tablets.
News link:
http://www.apsu.edu/news/apsu-opens-new-mobile-technology-center-app-development
Higher education leaders in Tennessee have been so impressed with an advising program created by APSU Provost Tristan Denley, that they used it as a centerpiece of a $1 million grant application to Complete College America. This week, Governor Haslam announced that Tennessee had received the grant. Half of the award will go to APSU to help make its advising program available to two other Tennessee universities and one community college. Dr. Denley’s program works along the lines of Netflix or Amazaon.com. It compares a student’s record with tens of thousands of other records to suggest courses in which a student is more likely to succeed and which count toward the student’s degree plan. Way to go, Dr. Denley!
In the photo, Dr. Tristan Denley is pictured at the podium beside Governor Haslam.
APSU is taking higher education to Springfield! At the new Highland Crest Campus in Springfield, APSU now offers bachelor’s degree programs in professional studies and criminal justice/homeland security. Courses follow an eight-week term schedule and, for the fall, include Organizational Team Building, Constitutional Law, Management of Organizations, Organizational Ethics, Criminal Law and Terrorism and the Law.
We are proud of our students in Dr. Becky Starnes’ Public Management 3250 Urban Planning course for producing a monograph, titled “The Civic Art of Clarksville: The stories behind the pieces.” Their articles and photographs tell the history of the community’s statues and other public art pieces. The monograph, funded by a Student Academic Success Grant, also was an interdisciplinary project involving APSU communication students. They copyedited the written material and some of the layouts, offering suggestions for improvement.