[405] MTSU academic colleges ramp up Scholars Week events on campus

Annual showcase features undergrad, graduate research

MURFREESBORO — Four days of MTSU Scholars Day events will lead to the universitywide finale from 12:40 to 3 p.m. Friday, April 1, in the Student Union Ballroom.

The annual MTSU Scholars Week emphasizes the research, scholarly efforts, creativity and collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty within the university’s academic colleges.

The various colleges within the university have stepped up with their own activities to showcase academic achievement across campus.

Andrienne Friedli, MTSU’s vice provost for research, said all of the university’s academic colleges “have established high-quality, exciting annual events for the individual college Scholars Days to showcase research, scholarship and creative accomplishments according the traditions of their fields of study.”

Scholars Week activities are open to the public. For more information and complete schedule, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/scholarsweek/. A searchable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.

Visitors attending Scholars Day activities between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. March 28-31 or the April 1 finale should obtain a special one-day permit from MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation, 1403 E. Main St. Permits can be obtained in advance online at http://www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.

Scholar’s Week at MTSU is always one of the most important events for students and faculty, said Provost Brad Bartel, because it demonstrates the “high-quality devotion” to student research and cooperation between students and faculty for such scholarship.

“Over the years, the quality and quantity of research displayed at Scholar’s Week has increased significantly. I am proud of all of the accomplishments by our students throughout all colleges,” he said.

College Scholars Days’ activities include talks, performances, posters, panel discussions, a business plan competition trade show, and invited speakers, Friedli said. 

Scholars Day highlights will include:

• College of Education guest speaker Inge Meyring Smith, who fled Nazi Germany with her parents, barely escaping the Holocaust, and became the founder of Head Start in Tennessee and Battle Ground Academy’s Lower School, and Harpeth Academy’s first headmistress. She will speak at 6 p.m. March 28 in College of Education Room 160.

• Scholars Week keynote speaker Bill Ivey, a folklorist, former National Endowment for the Arts chairman and first full-time director of the Country Music Foundation and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. He’ll discuss “Creativity, Career and Public Education” at 7 p.m. March 28 in the Student Union Ballroom.

• “Determined to Rise: Black Female Students in Higher Education,” a National Women’s History Month presentation and panel discussion. Event is scheduled for noon March 30 in Student Union Building Room 224.

• The College of Media and Entertainment’s Les Paul’s Big Sound Experience will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 30-31.