[123]MTSU HONORS COLLEGE BOARD OF VISITORS CONVENES OCT. 2-3

Release date: Sept. 29, 2008


News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-2919
University Honors College contact: Dr. John Vile, 615-898-2152


MTSU HONORS COLLEGE BOARD OF VISITORS CONVENES OCT. 2-3


(MURFREESBORO) — The University Honors College will welcome its Board of Visitors for the second time when members gather Oct. 2-3 in Murfreesboro, Dean John Vile said.
“This is our second meeting and the first that I will attend, so I am particularly excited to meet the board members to whom I have not yet been introduced,” said Vile, who was named dean in late May, replacing Dr. Phil Mathis, now professor emeritus.
Vile said Mathis will be “announcing a special ‘challenge’ to raise money for a fund that he is establishing to help students with expenses to conferences.”
“We also are going to brainstorm over possible ways that board members can help with recruiting,” Vile said. “We will be introducing some of our students to board members, and we anticipate that some board members also will stay for the Buchanan Inauguration (Friday night).”
All Thursday, Oct. 2, activities will be held at the new Embassy Suites Hotel. Dr. David Rowe of the history department will give a short presentation on his new book on William Miller, an important 19th-century religious figure.
After dinner, Board Chairman Jeff Whorley—a nephew of MTSU alumnus James M. Buchanan, the winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in economic sciences for whom the Buchanan Fellows are named—will preside over the meeting.
Vile said he plans to share his vision for the Honors College and will introduce sophomore Michelle Eble, a Buchanan Fellow, and Taylor A. Barnes, a Goldwater Scholar, who will give a brief welcome on behalf of fellow students.
Vile said he anticipates that Whorley will share his ideas on how board members can help recruit students by sharing the news of the quality education available through the Honors College.
Along with Vile’s vision and Mathis’ fundraising challenge, the Honors dean said the student-recruiting angle again would be part of the Friday agenda when the group gathers in subcommittees in the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building.

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Honors College Board of Visitors/Page 2


Gregg F. Morton, president of AT&T Tennessee and the board’s newest member, will be introduced. He replaces James A. Thorpe, vice president and general manager of Kentucky-Tennessee AT&T. Also moving off the board is alumnus Vincent Windrow, MTSU’s new director of the Office of Intercultural-al and Diversity Affairs.
Other board members are Don R. Ash, James H. Bailey III, Albert Cauz, Emily Ellis, Mark A. Hall, Emil Hassan, Debra H. Hopkins, H. Lee Martin, Paul W. Martin, Chasity Wilson Nicoll, Utpal P. Patel, Byron Smith, Holly Thompson and Jim Tracy.
The Distinguished Board members are Buchanan and Dr. June Hall McCash, who was the founding director of the MTSU Honors Program and professor emeritus in foreign languages and literatures

For MTSU news and information, go to mtsunews.com.

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