NEWS & CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

Abraham Lincoln’s rise to the nation’s most popular president and a representation of America worldwide was explored Thursday during a symposium at Tusculum College.

“Lincoln’s meaning has evolved and grown from generation to generation,” said Thomas Mackie, one of the presenters. “Each generation draws on a different portion. He is recognized as the quintessential American figure.”

Three presenters shared their expertise about the Lincoln legacy and the 16th president’s connections with William Seward and Carl Sandburg during the symposium, hosted by the Museums of Tusculum College. About 75 people attended the event including a group of eighth grade students in the Greene County School System’s gifted program.

Mackie, director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum at Lincoln Memorial University, said that although the 16th president’s legacy is prevalent in American culture, the man himself remains a “great enigma” one of the reasons he remains so popular.

He described the growth of the Lincoln myth, but cautioned the audience to not interpret his use of the word myth as an untruth but as something that is true and big in the culture.

After Lincoln’s death, memorials were held around the country, and those giving the eulogies were charged with giving meaning to his death and the tragedy of the Civil War, Mackie said. The Victorian cultural norms of the time also dictated that even Lincoln’s enemies had a duty to show respect to his passing.

The corporate memorial services for Lincoln saw the combination of religious and patriotic sentiments to create a civic religion that has been integral to the increasing of the Lincoln myth, Mackie continued.

At first, most of the commemorations of Lincoln focused on his role as the emancipator of the slaves. Scores of books were written about Lincoln in the decades after his death, and by the 1880s, sites associated with Lincoln became pilgrimage destinations. The meaning of some of these sites changed. For example, he said, Lincoln’s frontier beginnings were initially seen as a challenge he overcome but over time was considered the place that made him a great man.

Items Lincoln may have owned or even touched grew in value, and the number of collectors has resulted in no site or museum having a definitive collection, Mackie said.

Peter Wisbey, director of the William Seward House in New York, discussed the legacy of Seward and Lincoln. Seward was a well-known and popular politician, having served as governor of New York and as a U.S. Senator. In 1860, he was a favorite to win the Republican nomination for president, but was out-strategized by the up-and-coming senator from Illinois, Wisbey explained.

Despite his disappointment of losing the nomination, Seward campaigned for Lincoln. After his election, Lincoln appointed Seward as secretary of state. Writings by Seward’s son at the beginning of the presidency reveal that there was not a great deal of faith in the new president among the Sewards, Wisbey said.

However, in time, the president and secretary of state developed a strong friendship and relationship of trust, he continued. When Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the only other people in the room were Seward and his son, who was serving as his assistant.

Lincoln was known to almost daily visit the Seward home, which was near the White House, Wisbey said. The two men shared a love of reading and the theater.
The assassination of Lincoln has obscured an attempt on Seward’s life on the same night Lincoln was shot, he noted. After recovering from his serious stab wounds, Seward continued to serve as secretary of state in Andrew Johnson’s administration out of respect for Lincoln and to work to see his ideas for Reconstruction implemented.

Charles Byrd, a volunteer at the Carl Sandburg home in North Carolina, addressed the commonalities between Lincoln and Sandburg, who won a Pultizer Prize for his biography, “Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.”

Byrd, a retired school administrator who taught about Sandburg as an English instructor, said that both men shared humble beginnings, a great degree of self-education and were champions of the common man.  Lincoln and Sandburg also shared a love of stories and humor.

Sandburg, who also won a Pultizer Prize for his poetry, was a lover of words and phrases, Byrd continued, and considered Lincoln’s writing and oratory as poetry although it was written as prose.

After the individual presentations, a lively panel discussion between the presenters and audience was moderated by Chris Small of the Lincoln Project, a locally well known first person impersonator of Lincoln.

A matter of debate was the reasons for Lincoln being consistently ranked in polls of historians as the president that has had the most impact on the nation and ranked in recent polls of the populace as the favorite president. Some of the responses included sympathy based on the trials of his presidency, admiration for his character, his leadership skills, his role in the emancipation of the slaves and his embodiment of the American ideal of “lifting yourself up by your boot straps to accomplish great success.”

Also discussed was the relevance of Lincoln in today’s society with answers ranging from his example of leadership in building consensus with those who disagreed with his ideas, his character and integrity and his rise to prominence from obscurity.

The Museums of Tusculum College administer the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library and the Doak House Museum on campus. The Doak House Museum hosts thousands of school children from the region for a variety of educational programs related to the 19th century and CHARACTER COUNTS! The President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library houses a special collection of items relating to the 17th president, the college’s archives and volumes from the institution’s original library. The museums are also two of the 10 structures on the Tusculum campus on the National Register of Historic Places.

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An article about the underpaid, resource deprived Afghan Police by Anup Kaphle ‘07 , a digital media fellow with The Atlantic, was published online last week.

“Without a doubt, eventual success in Afghanistan will rest on a foundation of robust security, safeguarded by the police. But the vast majority of the police force today complains about paltry salaries and a complete lack of benefits. The lucky ones get a uniform, a grey shirt and a pair of cotton or polyester slacks, along with slightly advanced machine guns. Others carry rusty old AK-47s across their chests and wait for the Taliban in their Pathani salwaars. Even during patrols, it is not rare to find a policeman running in his sandals,” Kaphle wrote.

Kaphle, who has earned a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism, was editor of the student newspaper while at Tusculum among his many activities. Kaphle’s trip to Afghanistan was supported by a grant from the South Asian Journalists Association. Read Kaphle’s article.

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The Thomas J. Garland Library at Tusculum College will once again host the Tennessee Department of Education public school textbook review collection at its main facility on the Greeneville campus.

Area teachers and school administrators are invited to view the titles under consideration for adoption in the subjects of reading, writing and foreign languages. The exhibit is open during regular library hours through September 22.

An open reception to review the materials will be held on Tuesday, September 22, from 3-5 p.m. on the second floor of Library. The Tusculum College community and the public are also invited, and according to Director of the library Jack Smith, the exhibit would be of particular interest to education faculty and student education majors.

For more information contact Smith at 423-636-7300 or visit the library Web site at http://library.tusculum.edu/.

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Learning about the tools and technology available with the use of the Sakai program and discussing inter-school collaboration were highlights of a recent trip to Wheeling, WV, for seven Tusculum College faculty and staff members.

The group recently returned from the Learning Asset Management Project (LAMP) summer Pedagogy and Technology workshop, held this year at Wheeling Jesuit University, one of 15 Appalachian College Association schools who make up the LAMP, which also includes Tusculum College. Through the College’s participation in LAMP, the Sakai program is available to all staff, faculty and students.

Attending the workshop were B.J. Roberts ‘04, instructional technology specialist; Gary Quinton, instructional technology specialist; Barth Cox, assistant professor of film and broadcasting; Corinne Nicolas ‘95, associate professor of English and director of the Gateway Program; Dr. Rhonda Smith, director of the School of Business and assistant professor of management; Amanda Waddell, director of career development, and Heather Easterly ‘00, director of faculty services for Graduate and Professional Studies.

According to Roberts, the workshops are a valuable opportunity to sharpen skills in teaching with technology, to develop a course, to investigate collaborative projects with faculty from other schools and to become a more integrated member of the LAMP community.

“There were a variety of workshops that were aimed at helping both staff and faculty learn more about Sakai and its tools,” said Roberts. “As a group we came back felling like we had learned a lot and are excited to share what we learned with our colleagues.”

The workshops were structured to maximize interaction among faculty from across member schools, to have them work together in teams (often discipline-related teams) with the goal of energizing them toward working collaboratively through LAMP even after the workshop is over.  Roberts added that this was facilitated by workshops that included shared meals and various non-traditional experiential learning activities that further solidify the camaraderie and collaboration.

Others that attended the conference also felt it was a good investment of their time and effort.

“Prior to the Pedagogy and Technology workshop, I was unaware of several tools and features at our disposal through Sakai,” said Waddell. “Many of these have the ability to make our work more accessible and student friendly.”

She added, “I had always thought of Sakai as a data management tool, rather than a true teaching tool.  But, by the end of the week I had numerous ideas about how to utilize Sakai in my own day-to-day activities, ideas that were simple and easy to implement and can increase student learning.”

According to Roberts, all expenses (with the exception of travel) were covered by the College’s participation in the LAMP coalition. Faculty and staff of LAMP member institutions attend the workshops at no charge, including the cost of instruction, lodging and meals. The College covered transportation for the group to attend.

“This was a good opportunity for faculty and staff, regardless of whether they were beginners, at medium level or advanced users of Sakai, to increase our awareness of Sakai’s capabilities,” said Roberts, “And, as Tusculum is the largest user of Sakai in the consortium, it was great that we had such good representation at the workshop.”

In fact, one of the biggest users at Tusculum College, and at one time the largest user of Sakai in the entire LAMP consortium was Cox, who was using Sakai in all his film and broadcasting courses. As a result, Cox was asked to be one of the presenters at the workshop, and his presentation focused on the Mneme (Test Center) tool.

Cox said Test Center is a powerful tool on Sakai that allows for more flexibility in the ways educators are able to use it, particular in creating randomized tests.

“I use it that way in all my classes, and it allows me to create pools of hundreds of questions and then generate multiple short tests that students can retake. It exposes them to more information each time and also serves as a review,” said Cox.
In addition, there were a variety of workshops provided, including special sessions on the tools available on Sakai and a sneak preview session on the newest version, Sakai 3.

Cox is also excited about the rolling out of Sakai 3 next year. “There are some great features that I’m really excited about,” he said, including the currently on-hold portfolio tool that would allow students to manage an online portfolio for professor review in areas like the learning outcomes used at Tusculum College.

“It’s more like the look and feel of Facebook or other similar social networking sites that people are familiar with,” Roberts added.

“Overall there was a lot of useful information presented,” Cox said, “Much of it is actually very simple to use.”

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Flags that have flown over the State Capitol in Nashville are now part of the Tusculum College campus thanks to State Representative David Hawk, who represents Unicoi and a portion of Greene County. Hawk, a 1989 alumnus of Tusculum College, secured the flags for the College after they had been flown over the State Capitol building. One set of flags has been placed in the Pioneer Arena located in the Niswonger Commons. A second set is now flying over Pioneer Field at the heart of the Niswonger Sports Complex. With the state flag in the Arena are, from left, Tusculum President Dr. Nancy B. Moody; Hawk; Deborah Davis, associate athletic director and compliance officer; and Frankie DeBusk, athletic director and head football coach.

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Tusculum College and the Pioneer Pride Team are showing their support for the fight against breast cancer by wearing their jeans on Friday, October 2.  With the support of President Nancy B. Moody, Tusculum College is participating in the Lee National Denim Day, and with just a $5 donation, any Tusculum College employee can buy the right to wear their jeans and support the fight against breast cancer.

One in every eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime - that’s one every three minutes! “Lee National Denim Day” is one of the largest single-day fundraisers for breast cancer. To help raise money to fight the disease, on Friday, October 2, millions of people nationwide will slip into their favorite jeans and make a $5 donation to support the Women’s Cancer Programs of Entertainment Industry Foundation, who are bringing together world-class scientists to develop an early detection blood test and working in Lee Labs nationwide to find less toxic, more effective treatments for breast cancer patients.

Tusculum College encourages support for this worthwhile cause and will allow those who wish to evidence their support to wear appropriate jeans to work that day as they get together with the Pioneer Pride team who have made the following request:

There’s something you can do to fight back against this disease, and I’m asking for your help.
Pioneer Pride is proud to support this event and the fight against breast cancer. Call us to find out how you can participate, or you can go to the Web site. Search by the Pioneer Pride team ID number 234777.

For more information on participation call or email one of the following:

Diane Hensley, Campus Nurse at 423-636-7499 or dhensley@tusculum.edu

Connie Kretchmar-Sitz, Counselor at 423-798-7821 or csitz@tusculum.edu

Tiffany Leach Rife, Upward Bound at 423-636-7325 or tleach@tusculum.edu

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