President Tim Hall

I discovered jazz standards only in mid-life, but have been hooked on them ever since. A colleague of mine at the University of Mississippi introduced me to them in the early 1990s and today, if you walk into my library at home, there’s a good chance you will hear Miles Davis, Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, or Michael Feinstein. So, you can imagine my pleasure at discovering that Austin Peay has the VocalEase ensemble. Last Friday night, my wife and daughter and I enjoyed the ensemble’s spring concert, which included one of my favorite songs, “Here’s that Rainy Day.” Our students, directed by Valerie Oyen-Larsen, put on a fine performance. I still can’t get over living two-minutes away from a fabulous concert hall, filled virtually every week with the performances of students, faculty, or visiting musicians.

After serving at Austin Peay for a year and a half, I am already identifying some of my favorite events. The opening of our annual student art show is one of these. Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing some of the work our our students. The exhibit in our Trahern gallery is fantastic, definitely worth visiting. You’ll be proud of the accomplishments of our students when you see the show.

I enjoyed a brief walk across campus last night, on a delightful spring evening, to enjoy visiting pianist Ilya Poletaev’s recital in the Music and Mass Communications Auditorium. What a treat! Poletaev delivered an amazingly expressive performance. I had planned to leave at intermission so that I could stop by Austin Peay’s annual Tacky Prom, but couldn’t resist hearing the second half of the recital. I was not disappointed, although the Tacky Prom had just ended when I finally arrived at 9:30 p.m.

We cut the ribbon today at the opening of Austin Peay’s new facility at Ft. Campbell. APSU President Emeritus Sherry Hoppe and Gerald Beavers, former director of Austin Peay’s Ft. Campbell campus, were on hand to see the realization of a dream they conceived seven years ago. With smart classrooms and much-needed faculty offices, the new APSU Center at Ft. Campbell arrives not a moment too soon. Our enrollment at Ft. Campbell continues to climb, as more and more soldiers and their family members, as well as civilians, choose to pursue their university careers with Austin Peay.

This past weekend, the Mathematical Association of America Southeastern Section held a conference. One of the spotlight events of the conferences is The Math Jeopardy contest, which consisted of 24 teams from 22 schools. Austin Peay was ably represented by students Jonathan Fisher, Casey Mcknight, Michael Northington, Emily Stone and faculty sponsor, Yuriy Bulka.

APSU’s team triumphed over the field with a final team score of 2700, compared to the second place score of O!!

The final jeopardy question wasn’t really necessary, since APSU was the only team with a positive score, but the moderator decided to ask the question just to give the other teams a little bit of a chance. The answer was “The number of hands that contain two distinct pairs that can be dealt in five cards from a deck of 52 cards.” Austin Peay produced the only correct answer to the question. (Don’t ask me what it is, because no one has told me, and I can’t figure it out on my own.)

Way to go Team APSU!

After their stunning win of the OVC tournament, the Lady Goves are headed to East Lancing, Michigan to face Duke this coming weekend for the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. The Governor’s Club sponsored a pairing party Monday evening, where Coach Daniel, her staff, and the Lady Govs were joined by a room full of fans to discover who they would face.

I couldn’t be more proud of our lion-hearted team, who never gave up during season and tournament play and defied every expectation of how well they would perform. Way to go, Lady Govs!

This past Saturday evening, Austin Peay hosted its 25th annual Candlelight Ball at the Hermitage Hotel in downtown Nashville. Over two hundred guests were on hand for a fine evening of dining and dancing.

My wife, Lee, and daughter, Amy, joined me on the dance floor, calling on the kind of stamina no one informed me I would need as a president! But we all had a grand time. I’ve looked forward to the event all year long and will do so again this coming year. Many, many thanks to Dr. Jeannie Beauchamp and Susan Thomas, who co-chaired the planning for the event, and to the members of the Candelight Ball committee.

I spent most of the week in Washington, visiting our congressional delegation about various Austin Peay projects and then joining with the friends of Ft. Campbell to support some of the base’s spending requests.

It was a pleasure in particular to visit with Austin Peay’s first alumnus in Congress, Dr. Phil Roe. Congressman Roe is already hard at work. He is especially interested in the subject of health care, as one might imagine, and was also anxious to support Austin Peay State University in his new role.

Austin Peay’s department of history and philosophy hosted the 2009 Tennessee Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference this past weekend. Professors Minoa Uffelman and David Nelson did a great job of organizing the event, which provided an opportunity for students from Austin Peay and other universities in the region to present papers based on their historical research. Several of our students were recognized for outstanding papers.

The keynote speaker on Saturday was a former colleague of mine from the University of Mississippi, Dr. Ted Ownby, professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. He gave an interesting talk about images of family life in the south in the 1970s.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of reading Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Hamto some kindergarten and first-grade students at Fort Campbell’s Barkley Elementary School.

When I was introduced as “President Hall,” one of the children in the group noted that he had never seen a president before. I hope he wasn’t confusing me with someone REALLY important. The kids were delightful as I read. Most of them–especially the first graders–knew the book virtually by heart and repeated lines with me. “I DO NOT like green eggs and ham. I DO NOT like them Sam-I-am!” The group roared with distaste.

Always the college recruiter, I talked with my audiences about going to college when they graduated and believe I may have steered at least a few towards Austin Peay.