Top News 

SOUTHWESTERN RECEIVES $461,340 GRANT FOR TEXAS LIFE-SCIENCES COLLABORATION CENTER

Southwestern has received a $461,340 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to purchase laboratory equipment for the Texas Life-Sciences Collaboration Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit educational entity that is a partnership between Southwestern, the City of Georgetown and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce.

The funds will enable the TLCC to equip a full-service biotech wet lab, tissue culture labs and nanotech clean room for use by researchers at its member companies. 

“This grant is the beginning of the next chapter for the TLCC,” said Mel Pendland, president of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce. 

Read the rest of the story here. 

SOUTHWESTERN STUDENTS TAKE TOP HONORS IN INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICAL MODELING CONTEST

A team of Southwestern students was named one of nine “Outstanding Winners” in a recent international competition. As a result of their performance in this competition, they also were selected to receive a prestigious international award.

The competition was the 25th annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP). Students participated in the competition via computer from Feb. 5-9. During this period, they had to research, model and submit a solution to one of two modeling problems. More than 1,675 teams from 14 countries participated in the contest.

The Southwestern team consisting of Stephen Foster, Bobby Potter and Tommy Rogers modeled “Problem B,” in which students were asked to design the phone infrastructure for a new country. The 17-page paper Foster, Potter and Rogers submitted was titled “America’s New Calling.” This paper, along with the papers of the other eight teams that were designated “Outstanding Winners” in the contest, will be printed in an upcoming issue of UMAP. Other “Outstanding Winners” in the contest this year included teams from Cornell, Harvard and the University of Colorado.

Foster, Potter and Rogers also won the prestigious SIAM Award in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), for their solution to Problem B. The SIAM Award is given by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Read the rest of the story here. 

SOUTHWESTERN STUDENT DEVELOPS PROGRAM TO HELP STUDENTS IN TAYLOR EXPERIENCE FINE ARTS

During his first year at Southwestern, Tyler King taught acting to children in the Taylor Independent School District’s afterschool program called Duck University. The experience, which earned him credit for an Independent Study class, also gave him a passion for bringing the fine arts to grade-school children. 

With help from administrators at Southwestern, Duck University and Taylor ISD, King created a new program to do just this. It is called the Taylor Academy. 

Read the rest of the story here.

Events

STUDENT WORKS SYMPOSIUM TO BE HELD APRIL 15

More than 100 students from Southwestern will showcase their talents on Wednesday, April 15, as the university hosts its 10th annual Student Works Symposium titled “From Every Voice.”

The event begins at 5 p.m. in the Red and Charline McCombs Campus Center and the Alma Thomas Fine Arts Center. The symposium is an opportunity for students to present research and creative work in a professional atmosphere. It is free and open to the public. 

Read more about the symposium here. 

OPERA THEATRE TO PERFORM APRIL 17 AND 19  

The Southwestern University Opera Theatre Ensemble directed by Bruce Cain will present four scenes from popular operas on Friday, April 17, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 19, at 3 p.m. Both performances will be held in the Alma Thomas Theater in the Fine Arts Center. They are free and open to the public.

The four scenes to be performed are from Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” and “The Marriage of Figaro,” Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment” and Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel.”

The program will be about an hour in length and all scenes will be performed in English.

WIND ENSEMBLE TO PERFORM APRIL 18

The Southwestern University Wind Ensemble conducted by Lois Ferrari and student conductor Michelle Perrin will give a concert on Saturday, April 18, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater.
The program will feature Mozart’s Serenade No. 11, Overture to “The Abduction from the Seraglio” and Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro”; Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra” Overture; Giuseppe Verdi’s Prelude to Act I from “La Traviata”; and Jacques Offenbach’s “La Belle Héléne” Overture.

Media Coverage

The Wall Street Journal printed a letter from President Schrum about the costs of public vs. private college tuition. Read the letter here.

The Austin Business Journal and Community Impact News ran stories about Southwestern getting a grant for the Texas Life-Sciences Collaboration Center. Read the ABJ story here.  Read the Community Impact story here.

The Austin American-Statesman ran a review of the Color of Dissonance.

The Odessa American did a feature story on senior art major Ricardo Levario. Read the story here.

The Williamson County Sun ran a story about the winners of the Brooks Prize Debate.

The Williamson County Sun ran a story about students from Operation Achievement visiting campus.

The Williamson County Sun ran a story about the debate over whether people should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.

The Williamson County Sun ran a story about the three students who won the COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

Notables

Michael Cooper, associate professor of music, published an article dealing with Mendelssohn’s final choral compositions, the three choruses informally known as his Op. 69, in the April issue of The Choral Journal. Cooper also gave two lectures on the campus of Montana State University (Bozeman) during the week of March 26-30. The first was titled “‘Childhood Recaptured at Will’: Thoughts on Mozart, Mendelssohn, and the Nature of Musical Genius,” and was given on March 26 as part of the MSU President’s Fine Arts Series. The second was titled “Dangerous Youth: Mozart, Mendelssohn, and the Myth of the Eternal Child,” and was given as part of a three-day Mendelssohn symposium titled Mendelssohn in Montana.

Helene Meyers, professor of English, has had a chapter of her book Femicidal Fears: Narratives of the Female Gothic Experience (2001) reprinted in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 202 (2008).

Tom Oliver, vice president for enrollment management services, received the Founders Award from the Texas Association for College Admission Counseling. The award recognizes members whose contributions to the association and profession are “above and beyond the call of duty” and exemplary of exceptional talent and devotion to students. The award was presented at the organization’s annual conference in Fort Worth March 29-31.

Mary Young, professor of economics, and economics students Wes Rivers and Eric Franco, will present a poster about their research on smoking for the Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD) at a meeting of the Texas Public Health Association in Austin April 15-17. David Bastis, an epidemiologist from WCCHD, also will participate in the presentation.

The Office of Creative Services won seven awards for writing and design from District IV of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), including two Grand Awards (the highest honor) for the Sarofim School of Fine Arts dedication program and the Admission search piece/viewbook.

Five students from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology presented papers on their research at the annual meetings of the Southern Sociological Society in New Orleans April 2-4.

Tristine Baccam presented a paper titled “That Synergy of People: Fortifying Social Networks and Collective Identity to Build a Straight-Gay Coalition.”

Lauren Hamlett presented her research on “State Health Indicators and the Hispanic Population.”

Jessica Herbst presented apaper was on “Factors in Opinions on Childcare: Effects of Life Experiences on Views of Spanking and Child Maltreatment.”

Nicole Powell presented a paper on “Little Gay Gandhi’s: Providing a Safe Space and Empowering Sexual Minorities.”

Grace Stafford presented a paper titled “From Bra Burning to Bible Study: Motivation for Political Activism and Polarization Among Local Women Activists.”

Baccam, Powell and Stafford did their papers as part of their capstone course under the direction of Maria Lowe, professor of sociology. Lowe also presented a paper at the conference titled “The Impact of Race, Gender and Social Networks in Mississippi’s Struggle for Racial Equality: An Analysis of Pro-Integrationist Tougaloo College and Millsaps College Students, 1954 to 1965.”

Hamlett and Herbst completed their papers for the Research Methods course taught by Edward L. Kain, professor of sociology. Kain will receive the 2010 Southern Sociological Society Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award at next year’s meetings in Atlanta.

Sandi K. Nenga, assistant professor of sociology, chaired a session at the recent Southern Sociological Society meeting on Youth Culture and Behavior. She also presented a paper that was co-authored with Tristine Baccam titled “Monsters and Rockstars: The Gendered Underground Economy of a Middle School Summer Camp.”