NEWS & CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

All evening classes at all sites and campuses at Tusculum College have been canceled for Tuesday, January 11, 2011.

Tweet This Post

The future of the church worldwide and how mainline denominations in the United States can be faithful and creative during a time of change will be explored in the 2011 Theologian-in-Residence lecture series in February at Tusculum College.

Rev. Gradye Parsons, current stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian (U.S.A.), and the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, his predecessor as stated clerk, will lead the annual lecture series, co-sponsored by the Holston Presbytery and Tusculum College.

This year’s series will take place on February 1, 8 and 15 in the Chalmers Conference Center of the Niswonger Commons on the Tusculum campus. Dr. Kirkpatrick will lead the first two sessions with the concluding session led by Rev. Parsons.

A native of Tennessee, Rev. Parsons joined the Office of the General Assembly in 2000. Previously, he served congregations in Newport and Bristol for 15 years before becoming the executive presbyter and stated clerk of Holston Presbytery in 1994. He was elected stated clerk in 2008.

Rev. Parsons graduated from the University of Tennessee and received his Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He did post-graduate work at Columbia Theological Seminary, with Edwin Friedman and with the Alban Institute. He was ordained in 1979 by Holston Presbytery.

Dr. Kirkpatrick is a visiting professor for ecumenical studies and global ministries at Louisville Seminary. He is one of the major leaders in the global ecumenical movement having just completed a six-year term as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) - now the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he served from 1996-2008 as Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. His service as stated clerk was preceded by 15 years of service as the director of the Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

On Feb. 1, Dr. Kirkpatrick’s topic will be “The Changing Center of Gravity of Christianity from the Global North to the Global South.” Explored in this session will be the transformation of Christianity over its 2,000 year history as its cultural home has moved form the Middle East to the Hellenistic world to Europe and the Americas and now to Africa and other parts of the “global south.” The implications for Americans to be faithful as the “minority” expression of the Christian faith and how to maintain vital partnership with the new “majority” in Africa and Latin America will also be explored.

Dr. Kirkpatrick’s topic for Feb. 8 will be “The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Other Mainline Churches in North America in the 21st Century.”  To be explored will be the dramatic changes that have happened in the religious landscape in North America in the last fifty years and the impact of those on the ministry of mainline churches (with a special focus on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The series will conclude on Feb. 15 with Rev. Parsons’ session, “Trends Beyond the Mainline Protestants.” Drawing on insights from Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the future for church experience will be considered. There are no concrete answers to where the church is going but there is the adventure of walking by faith into the future.

Each session will begin at 10 a.m. and conclude at about 1:30 p.m. Lunch is included. There is no admission fee to the sessions but reservations are required.

To make reservations or for more information about the series, please contact Eugenia Estes in the Office of Church Relations at 423-636-7304 or e-mail her at eestes@tusculum.edu.

Tweet This Post

GED testing is cancelled at Tusculum College for January 11 and 12, 2011.  It has been rescheduled for January 19 and January 20, 2011.  Please contact Debbie Fillers at Greeneville/Greene County Adult Education 423.638.2512 or Melissa Ripley at 423.636.7374 for any questions and more information.

Tweet This Post

Tusculum College’s Financial Aid staff will be traveling to each of the local high schools in January to help students and their parents learn more about available funding for higher education.

As a community service, the Financial Aid staff will host “FAFSA Frenzy” events will be held at the high schools to provide free assistance to students and their parents in filling out FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) forms as well as providing general information about financial aid for college.

Events are scheduled Jan. 18, 20, 24, 27 and 31. FAFSA Frenzy at Chuckey-Doak will be from 3:30 - 6:30 p.m. Jan. 18.  The event at South Greene will be Jan. 20 from 5 - 7 p.m. At North Greene, the event will be from 4 - 7 p.m. on Jan. 24. West Greene’s FAFSA Frenzy will be 3:30 - 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 27. FAFSA Frenzy concludes with an event Jan. 31 at Greeneville High School from 5 - 7 p.m. In case of school closures due to inclement weather on any of those days, the events will be rescheduled.

Whichever event they attend, students and their families are welcome to drop in anytime during the scheduled period to receive assistance.

“The financial aid process can appear daunting for students and parents who are new to the process, and we want to help all families with the necessary steps they need to take to obtain the financial aid they need,” said Melissa Ripley, director of operations and marketing for admission at Tusculum College. “The college is pleased to be able to provide this resource to our community, to share the expertise of the Financial Aid staff with parents and students, and help them learn more about the variety of funding available.”
           

Students and parents are encouraged to bring their 2010 tax returns and receive assistance in filling out the FASFA during the event.  If the 2010 federal income tax return is unavailable, the students and parents should bring their year-end paystubs, w-2 forms, and the previous year’s federal income tax return.

FAFSA forms are used to determine eligibility for federal and state funds such as Pell grants, Stafford loans, PLUS loans and work-study programs, and must be completed each academic year for which a student wishes to seek aid.

Students and parents are encouraged to apply for financial aid as soon as possible. Individuals can apply for aid for the upcoming year as early as January 1. Tusculum’s Financial Aid Office recommends that students apply prior to February 1 to assure that their applications will be considered for aid types that typically become limited or exhausted long before school begins in August.

For more information about FAFSA Frenzy, please contact Ripley at 636-7374 or mripley@tusculum.edu or contact Clay Wilkerson, senior financial aid counselor, at 636-7312 ext. 5157 or cwilkerson@tusculum.edu.

Tweet This Post

Due to continuing icy road conditions, Tusculum College will be opening on a two-hour delay for Tuesday, January 11, 2011. The delayed opening is in effect for all sites and campuses, with the exception of the Morristown site, which will remain closed for Tuesday. Evening classes in Morristown will not be held.

Tweet This Post

The Tusculum College Graduate and Professional Studies Center in Gray invites the community and the region to an Open House event at the Gray site at 104 Dillon Court on Wednesday, January 19. 

Prospective students will have an opportunity to meet with Tusculum faculty, students and alumni of the undergraduate and graduate programs.  These programs, designed with the working adult in mind, offer one course at a time with once-weekly class meetings. 

Offerings for Graduate and Professional Studies students include the bachelor of science in business administration or organizational management, the bachelor of arts in education, the master of arts in education with concentrations in curriculum and instruction or human resource development, the master of arts in education: teaching and the master of arts in organizational management. 

Potential students can drop in and meet with enrollment staff, current students and graduates between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. and hear from program faculty and a financial aid counselor from 5:30-6:30 p.m. 

Refreshments will be served.  For more information, contact Ashley Derbyshire, at 888-488-7285 or aderbyshire@tusculum.edu.

Tweet This Post

Two women from Tusculum College were among the featured program presenters at the October conference of Women in Higher Education in Tennessee (WHET) at Vanderbilt University. 

Jacquelyn D. Elliott, vice president for enrollment management at Tusculum College, was the keynote luncheon speaker on Saturday.  Her doctoral dissertation research on the history of the Office of Women in Higher Education of the American Council on Education provided those in attendance with her well-received story of the women leaders in this office and their contributions to leadership in higher education.   

Dr. Cindy Solomon, associate professor of education and chair of the master’s of arts in education human resource and development concentration for the college’s Graduate and Professional Studies program, presented one of the Friday professional development programs entitled “Lessons from the Ceiling –  Leadership Lessons from Corporate American for Women in Higher Education.” 

Solomon’s program was the result of an eight-woman panel, on which she was a participant. Each of the women worked in senior-level corporate positions and then transitioned to teaching and administrative roles in higher education in Ohio.  They convened the panel at the invitation of Ohio University’s Symposium on Leadership in Higher Education to pass along the corporate challenges and “lessons” they learned and what they found most valuable for leadership in higher education. 

In addition, Dr. Solomon is a member of the Board of Directors of WHET and part of the conference planning committee.

Tweet This Post

The Museums of Tusculum College will be open by appointment only during the month of January 2011. Visitors who wish to access the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library or the Doak House Museum for tours, research or educational programs are asked to contact the staff to schedule an appointment.

The staff of the two museums will be using this time to engage in routine maintenance and care of the collections housed by the museums.

“Many historic houses and museums close during months of harsh weather and low attendance to clean and care for their collections,” said Interim Director Dollie Boyd. “With a little advance notice, we would be happy to have visitors this month, however.”

If you wish to visit either museum or Tusculum College’s archives during the month of January please call 800-729-0256 ext. 5251 or email Dollie Boyd at dboyd@tusculum.edu.

Tweet This Post

Research of a Tusculum College professor indicating that using a low-fat diet could be more cost effective in preventing breast cancer and ovarian cancer compared to what health insurance companies would otherwise pay to treat the diseases, will be published this month in the “Journal of the American Dietetic Association,” in the January 2011 issue.

 The research paper, titled “Cost-effectiveness Analysis of a Low-fat Diet in the Prevention of Breast and Ovarian Cancer” is authored by Dr. Antonio Bos, professor of business administration at Tusculum College.

 ”This is my most important scholarly work of date,” said Bos. “It has taken a substantial time commitment over the last few years. Needless to say, I am very pleased to have it published in such a prestigious journal, and I am appreciative of the support I received from Tusculum College during this project.”

 Bos was the lead author of the research paper, along with co-authors Dr. Barbara Howard of Georgetown University; Dr. Shirley Beresford of the University of Washington; Dr. Nicole Urban of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Dr. Lesley Tinker, also from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Dr. Hugh Waters of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Ângelo Bós, from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, and R. Rowan Chlebowski, from the Harbor/University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center.

 The researchers assessed how cost effective the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial (WHI-DM) would be if implemented as a public health intervention and under the sponsorship of private health insurers and Medicare.

 According to the paper, breast and ovarian cancers were the health outcomes of interest. Two groups of WHI-DM participants formed the target population for this analysis: (1) participants with more than 36.8 percent of energy from fat at baseline and (2) participants at high risk for breast cancer with 32 percent or more of energy from fat at baseline.

The Journal of the American Dietetic Association is the premier source for the practice and science of food, nutrition and dietetics. The monthly, peer-reviewed journal presents original articles prepared by scholars and practitioners and is the most widely read professional publication in the field. The Journal has been ranked 16th in Impact Factor in the Nutrition and Dietetics category of the Journal Citation Reports 2010, published by Thomson Reuters, with an impact factor of 3.128. The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the “average article” has been cited in a particular period.

Tweet This Post