Presidential Inauguration 

President Edward Burger was presented with the University Mace as part of his inauguration ceremony March 25. See more photos from all the events that took place during inauguration week here. (Photo by Lance Holt)

Top News

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE WORKS SYMPOSIUM TO BE HELD APRIL 8

For the past 14 years, Southwestern has held an annual symposium to showcase research and creative work done by students. But one evening was just not enough time to schedule all the work that students wanted to present.

So for 2014, the symposium has been redesigned as a full-day event. And it won’t just feature the work of students. Several faculty and staff members will be participating in addition to more than 300 students.

In all, the symposium will feature more than 200 posters, presentations and creative works from 33 different disciplines or departments. Classes have been cancelled for the day to allow members of the campus community an opportunity to see the wide variety of works that will be presented.

Read more here.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES CAPSTONE CLASS IS CALCULATING  SOUTHWESTERN’S ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Southwestern has already made major strides toward becoming an environmentally friendly campus. It has built two certified “green” buildings and signed a contract to get all its electricity from wind power for 18 years. The latest sustainability project on campus is a series of water bottle filling stations that have eliminated the need for plastic water bottles.

But could Southwestern do better?

That is the question that the 16 students in Josh Long’s Environmental Studies capstone class are asking this semester. Their goal is to come up with a comprehensive “sustainability strategic plan” for Southwestern.

“We want to make Southwestern the greenest school in Texas,” said Long, who is Southwestern’s first environmental studies professor.

Read more here.

Events

THE MOWGLI’S TO HEADLINE APRIL 6 MUSIC FESTIVAL AT SOUTHWESTERN

The Mowgli’s, an alternative rock band from southern California, will be the featured performer at Southwestern University’s fourth annual Clusterfest music festival, which will take place April 6 in the Robertson Center.

The Mowgli’s was formed in 2010 and self-released their first studio album, “Sound the Drum,” in 2012, and later released their first major label album, “Waiting for Dawn,” in 2013. Their hit single “San Francisco” was released under this album and reached #11 on the U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs chart and hit #3 on the Adult Album Alternative (AAA) charts.

Other artists scheduled to perform at this year’s Clusterfest include The Jane Doze, Bart Crow, Radical Something and several student groups.

Tickets for Southwestern students are $15, faculty/staff/alumni tickets are $20, and general admission tickets are $25. All tickets sold the day of the festival are $25.

Read more here.

WIND ENSEMBLE TO PERFORM APRIL 5

The SU Wind Ensemble will give a concert on Saturday, April 5, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater. The concert will include works by Leonard Bernstein, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Yasuhide Ito, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Guy Woolfenden, Wilhelm Richard Wagner, Giovanni Gabrieli and John Philip Sousa. The concert will feature two student conductors − senior Rachel Childers and junior Michael Martinez.

This concert will be dedicated to George Nelson, who served as band director and professor of music at Southwestern for 32 years. It is free and open to the public.

Additional information is available here.

OBSERVATORY TO HOST PUBLIC VIEWING NIGHT APRIL 5

The Fountainwood Observatory will host a public viewing night on Saturday, April 5, from 8 to 10:30 p.m.

Viewing nights are free, but donations are encouraged to help maintain the observatory. 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 observatory hotline at 512-863-1242.

SENIOR EXHIBITS TO BE ON DISPLAY IN GALLERY APRIL 7-13

An exhibit featuring the work of graduating seniors Sarah Kinney, Erika Clugston and Carmen Gadt will be on display in the Fine Arts Gallery April 7-13. The gallery is open from 1-5 p.m. daily.

An opening reception for the exhibits will be held on Thursday, April 10, from 4-6 p.m. 

Additional information is available here.

APRIL 10 SYMPOSIUM WILL FOCUS ON ‘NATIVE TEJAS’

Southwestern is hosting a symposium titled “Native Tejas: Bridging the Past, Present, and Future” on Thursday, April 10, from  4-6 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballrooms.

The symposium has been organized by Dustin Tahmahkera, assistant professor of communication studies, and students in his Paideia cohort on Indigeneity. It will feature presentations by speakers from three different native American nations.

Read more here.

APRIL 10 RECITAL WILL FEATURE WORK FOR TRUMPET AND PIANO

Faculty members Kyle Koronka and Kiyoshi Tamagawa will give a faculty recital on Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater. The program includes works by Kent Kennan, Gustav Mahler, Joseph Turrin and Eric Ewazen.

Koronka teaches applied trumpet at Southwestern and is a member of the Austin City Brass Quintet. Tamagawa is a professor of music at Southwestern and teaches piano.

The performance is free and open to the public.

STUDENT-DIRECTED PLAY TO BE PERFORMED APRIL 10-13

Senior Stetson Gilchrest will direct performances of Martin Sherman’s play “Bent” April 10-13 in Heather Hall. Performances will be given at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

“Bent” is the story of two gay men in 1930s Berlin who are caught in a scandal that exposes their relationship. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased online at www.southwestern.tix.com or by calling the Box Office at 512-863-1378.

Additional information is available here.

Media Coverage

The Williamson County Sun did a feature story on the inaugurations of past Southwestern University presidents.

Religion professor Laura Hobgood-Oster was interviewed by the Williamson County Sun for a story about a planned anti-Islam protest in Georgetown.

The Williamson County Sun ran a front page photo of President Burger getting robed for his inauguration and a page of photos of The Big Event.

Notables

Seven students from Southwestern attended the Texas Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting at TCU in Fort Worth Feb. 27-28. Kyle Allen and Emily Ammon presented a poster and a manuscript titled “Effects of Stride Rate Manipulation in Shoes with Different Drop Heights.” Their poster was chosen as a finalist in the undergraduate research presentation category and their manuscript won second place in the manuscript competition, and was the only undergraduate manuscript submitted. Rachel Sellari presented a poster titled “The Effects of Shoulder and Knee Angular Velocity on the Performance of a Volleyball Forearm Pass.” The students conducted the research for these presentations with kinesiology professors Scott McLean and Jimmy Smith. Other students who attended the conference were Tamara Bellilove, Kara Curley, Jacob Freed and Michael Nguyen.

Shana Bernstein, associate professor of history, presented a paper on March 15 at the American Society of Environmental History conference in San Francisco. The paper is titled “The Garbage Ladies of the Settlements: Environmental Health in Progressive-Era Chicago.” 

2008 graduate Dominique (Niki) Bertrand has received a Fulbright Fellowship that will enable her to conduct research for her Ph.D. thesis in Indonesia. Bertrand will be leaving for Indonesia in October to spend a year conducting research on an endangered species of black ape that lives in the Tangkoko Nature Reserve. Read more here.

A paper written by Romi Burks, professor of biology, and seven others who have been involved with the SMArT program was published in Science Education and Civic Engagement: An International Journal. The paper is titled “Staying SMArT: Introduction, Reflection, and Assessment of an Inquiry-based Afterschool Science Program for Elementary School Students.” Other authors of the paper were Anna Frankel, Meredith Liebl, Megan Lowther, Amanda Mohammed, Erica Navaira, Kate Roberts and former staff member Suzy Pukys. The paper is available here.

2012 graduate Caitlin Ferrell has received a Marquand Scholarship to attend Yale Divinity School. The scholarship covers the full cost of tuition and a $5,000 stipend annually.

Melissa Johnson, associate professor of anthropology, has had her article titled “Creolized Conservation: A Belizean Creole Community Encounters a Wildlife Sanctuary” accepted for publication in Anthropological Quarterly. It will appear in an issue in late 2014 or early 2015.