Top News

SOUTHWESTERN TO BECOME THE NEW HOME OF GEORGETOWN’S SENIOR UNIVERSITY

Southwestern will become the new home for Georgetown’s Senior University program following the signing of an agreement between the two institutions Feb. 10.

Senior University, which is currently headquartered in Sun City, will move its administrative offices to the first floor of Southwestern’s new Prothro Center for Lifelong Learning, which will be opening in March.

The two organizations will remain independent, but will collaborate on programs of mutual interest.

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SOUTHWESTERN KINESIOLOGY PROFESSOR HELPS GIVE U.S. BOBSLED TEAM AN EDGE FOR THE WINTER OLYMPICS

Kinesiology professor Scott McLean always watches the Olympics, but this year he will be watching them even more closely.

That’s because he had a small role in helping the U.S. Olympic bobsled team prepare for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 12 in Vancouver, Canada.

McLean spent four days last spring working with the team in Park City Utah, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. McLean’s work didn’t focus on the athletes, but rather on the sleds they will be driving – specifically the suspension on those sleds.

McLean was asked to go to Utah because he has a high-speed video camera that can shoot 300 frames per second, compared to 60 frames per second with a typical video camera. He normally uses the camera to help swimmers fine-tune their starts.

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SOUTHWESTERN GRADUATE COMPETING ON ‘THE AMAZING RACE’

 
Southwestern graduate Shannon Foster and her grandmother, Jody Kelley, will be among the teams competing in the new season of CBS’ “The Amazing Race.”

  Foster and Kelly decided to compete in the show together because of their love for traveling. During her time at Southwestern, Foster studied abroad in China. She also lived in Saudi Arabia for almost 10 years when she was a child.    “I have always had the traveling bug,” Foster said. “My grandmother and I share that passion and doing this together was that new adventure we were both looking for.”

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GRAMMY AWARD-WINNER COMMON TO PERFORM AT SOUTHWESTERN FEB. 26

Southwestern’s 5th annual Large Act Concert will feature Grammy Award-winning rapper Common on Friday, Feb. 26th, in the Corbin J. Robertson Center (Building #17 on the campus map). The doors will open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the concert are $10 for Southwestern students and $15 for Southwestern faculty and staff. Tickets for the general public are $20.

Common will perform during the Student Peace Alliance 2010 National Conference, which is being held at Southwestern University Feb. 26-28. For more information about the concert, visit www.southwestern.edu/studentactivities/concert or call the Office of Student Activities at 512-863-1345.

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Events

CELLIST, PIANIST TO PERFORM GUEST RECITAL FEB. 16

Cellist Brinton Averil Smith and pianist Evelyn Chen will present a guest recital titled “A Tribute to Emanuel Feuermann” on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater.

Smith is principal cellist of the Houston Symphony and a member of the faculty at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Chen is an associate professor of piano at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City, and a co-founder of the Restoration Chamber Music Concert Series in Galveston, Texas.

The event is free and open to the public.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH LECTURE SERIES

The Black History Month Lecture Series continues with lectures by Alicia Moore, associate professor of education, on Wednesday, Feb. 17, and Carina Evans, assistant professor of English, on Wednesday, Feb. 24.

Moore will present a lecture titled “The Quest for Black Citizenship in America: From Picking Cotton to Picking Presidents” and Evans will present a lecture titled “The Legacy of Slavery in ‘Post-racial’ America.”

Both lectures will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Marsha Ballroom on the second floor of the Campus Center.

2010 FLEMING LECTURES IN RELIGION WILL FOCUS ON RETHINKING ANIMALS AND THE LIBERAL ARTS

The Religion Department will host its annual Fleming Lectures in Religion Feb. 17-18. The lecture series will be titled “Real” Animals and the Liberal Arts: Rethinking Animals, Ethics, and Liberal Education.

Speakers from various disciplines will pose questions about how “real” animals (defined as real, embodied, living beings) impact the liberal arts.

“Animals are frequently considered as symbols or signs, but rarely have the actual living, breathing animals been taken seriously, particularly in the humanities and social sciences,” said Laura Hobgood-Oster, professor of religion and organizer of the lecture series. “The scholars we invited all help to build bridges for the liberal arts disciplines to consider real animals as well.”

Speakers Hobgood-Oster has invited include Marc Bekoff, professor of biology and animal behavior at the University of Colorado (Boulder); Paul Waldau, former director of ethics at the Tufts Veterinary School at Harvard University; and Carol Adams, an independent scholar at the Perkins School of Theology and author of The Sexual Politics of Meat.

FOUNTAINWOOD OBSERVATORY TO HOLD PUBLIC VIEWING NIGHT FEB. 19

The Fountainwood Observatory will host a public viewing night on Friday, Feb. 19, from 8-10:30 p.m.

The evening will begin with a waxing crescent moon high in the Southwestern sky and tiny but bright Mars in the Eastern sky. Between these two will appear the Winter Hexagon, a colorful ring of the stars Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Castor, Pollux and Procyon. Centered in this will be the orange-red supergiant star Betelguese, a star so big that it could fit the orbit of Jupiter in it.

Fountainwood Viewing Nights are always free and open to the public. The observatory is located on the northeast side of campus adjacent to the Rockwell Baseball Field (see #6 on the campus map at  http://www.southwestern.edu/map). Faculty members from the Physics Department at Southwestern as well as observers from the Williamson County Astronomy Club will be on hand to guide viewing.

For weather-related updates about viewing nights, call the Fountainwood Observatory hotline at 512-863-1242.

AUSTIN CIVIC ORCHESTRA TO PERFORM AT SOUTHWESTERN FEB. 20


The Austin Civic Orchestra will present its Winter Concert at Southwestern on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater.

The orchestra, conducted by Lois Ferrari, will perform Grieg’s “Holberg” Suite with the Southwestern University Orchestra. Also featured on the program will be Debussy’s “Premiere Rhapsodie for Orchestra and Clarinet” with clarinetist Richard MacDowell; Strauss’s Serenade, Opus 7 for chamber winds and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Opus 88.

Tickets for the concert are $10 for adults, $8 for students and $3 for children under 12. For more information visit www.austincivicorchestra.org

Media Coverage

The Williamson County Sun ran a preview of the 2010 Brown Symposium.

The Williamson County Sun ran an article on the annual Internship Dinner sponsored by Career Services.

Elizabeth Green Musselman, associate professor of history, was interviewed for a program that aired Feb. 11 on KPSI radio in Palm Springs, Calif., about Charles Darwin and why his ideas are still controversial today.

Notables

Lois Ferrari, associate professor of music, led the Austin Civic Orchestra in two concerts for the entire Pflugerville ISD 5th grade at Connally High School on Monday, Jan. 25.  Ferrari led a question-and-answer session in order to bring students up on stage to sit within the orchestra as it performed symphonic arrangements of popular film music.