Monthly Archives: March 2014

EVENTS, NEWS

Bridgestone Director to Lead off TSU Supply Chain Executive Leadership Lecture Series March 17

SupplyChainExLeader-LectureSeries_GardenhireNASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Global leadership and how to develop a customer-centered focus in industry will be the topic when the Supply Chain Management program in the College of Business at Tennessee State University holds its bi-annual Executive Leadership Lecture Series March 17.

The featured speaker is Robert L. Gardenhire, director of Logistics at Bridgestone Americas Tire Operation. Gardenhire, a longtime Bridgestone executive, oversees transportation, factory warehouses, distribution centers and public storage for finished goods in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and additional export markets.

Prior to the Executive Lecture Series, which begins at 5:15 p.m. in the Avon Williams Campus auditorium, Gardenhire will conduct a one-hour Executive Leadership Roundtable exclusively for MBA students in the new Executive Conference Room beginning at 3:30 p.m. RSVP at lsmith11@tnstate.edu is required to attend.

With the goal to enhance the supply chain curriculum, organizers say the lecture series is aimed to expose students to experts and thought leaders on proven capabilities in leadership that are based on competencies outlined by the SCM Governing Board. The Board is comprised of some of industry’s “most progressive” corporate leaders.

According to Lisa Smith, director of the SCM program, the series emphasizes the following focus areas:

  • Thought Leadership – The ability to make sound and informed decision in using accurate information to understand and resolve issues
  • Result Leadership – Developing a Customer-Centered Focus in meeting and understanding the customer’s needs
  • People Leadership – How to increase commitment through engagement, influence, and communication to inspire others to actively support the organization
  • Personal Leadership – How to demonstrate and manage ethics and compliance

The Executive Leadership Lecture Series is free and open to the public. For more information contact Lisa Smith at (615) 963-7137 or lsmith11@tnstate.edu.

 

 

 

Department of Media Relations
Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

 

 

About Tennessee State University

With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

EVENTS, NEWS

10-Day International Symposium to Pair TSU, Colombian Students in Cultural Immersion Exercises

ODIANASHVILLE (TSU News Service) – For the second year in a roll, the Office of Diversity and International Affairs will host a weeklong symposium on global perspectives and cultural awareness, under the theme “TSU Without Borders.”

The symposium, to be held on the main campus in the Research and Sponsored Programs Building March 8-17, will bring together 10 university students from Colombia, in various disciplines, who will be paired with 10 TSU students on research projects to be presented at the symposium.

According to organizers, the symposium is part of the University’s “cultural immersion initiative” also called CI2, intended to challenge the students through 10 days of intense research, studying, sharing and social activities.

As the second phase of a research project under the Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship Program, the symposium follows a Jan. 10-19 visit by 10 TSU students to Medellin, Colombia, where they were paired with their South American counterparts on a joint-research project.

“The purpose of their research was to outline the need to consider cross-cultural dialogue about competing conceptions of leadership, creativity and sustainability,” said Mark Brinkley, director of International Education at TSU.

Calling it an innovative collaboration between higher education institutions, Brinkley said the project is aimed to promote academic exchange and collaboration between TSU and Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia.

The South American students, mostly of indigenous Afro-Colombian heritage, are from the University of Antioquia, the National University in Medellin, and the Technological University of Chocó. They were paired according to their gender and research area of interest, according to Brinkley.

As part of their U.S. visit, the Colombian students will tour cultural sites in Memphis, including the Civil Rights Museum, to be sponsored by The Links, historic Peabody Hotel, Beal Street, as well as tour the Gaylord Hotel and the mall at Opry Mills in Nashville.

For more information go to https://www.tnstate.edu/diversity/ or call 615-963-5640.

 

 

Department of Media Relations
Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

 

 

About Tennessee State University

With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

NEWS

From Death Row to Artist…Former Inmate Displays Artwork At Avon Williams Campus Library Feb. 28-April 11

Ndume Olatushani turned to painting as a way to escape the tedium and depression of serving a death sentence. Now a free man living in Nashville, his paintings will be on display at TSU's Avon Williams Campus Library Feb. 28 through April 11.
Ndume Olatushani turned to painting as a way to escape the tedium and depression of serving a death sentence. Now a free man living in Nashville, his paintings will be on display at TSU’s Avon Williams Campus Library Feb. 28 through April 11. (courtesy photo)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Freedom was only a dream for Ndume Olatushani, a man who spent 28 years behind bars in maximum-security prisons. Wrongly convicted of murder, he spent 20 of those years on death row.

To escape the tedium and depression of life behind bars Olatushani began painting, by turning to canvas to “live outside of prison” as a way of freeing his mind and spirit.

The paintings, on display at the Tennessee State University’s Avon Williams Campus Library Feb. 28 through April 11, demonstrate the products of his incarceration and the will to change his life after hitting rock bottom.

“I was truly a broken man and the lowest I’ve ever been,” said Olatushani, recounting how he began painting following his mother’s death two years into his prison sentence. His mother Moosie, who never wavered in her belief of her son’s innocence, was killed in a car accident that also claimed the life of his 8-year-old niece.

“After my mom’s death, I decided I couldn’t be hurt anymore,” he added. “I started drawing and eventually taught myself to paint. Through my artwork I lived outside of prison and didn’t paint my surroundings, but instead the people from outside the prison walls I would like to meet.”

Born Erskine Johnson in St. Louis, Olatushani’s troubles began Oct. 26, 1983 while celebrating his mother’s birthday with about 30 relatives. While the family was celebrating, nearly 300 miles away in Memphis, a grocer named Joe Belenchi was murdered while working in the supermarket he owned.

Day Dreaming, oil on linen
Day Dreaming, oil on linen

Within several months following the murder, Johnson, who legally changed his name to Ndume (Swahili for masculinity) Olatushani (unifier), was tracked down, charged, convicted and sentenced for the crime—even though he never before set foot in the state of Tennessee. In 1985, at the age of 27, he was sentenced to death.

For nearly three decades, Olatushani spent his time moving from different levels of incarceration, including from Level C – where he spent 23 hours-a-day in forced solitude, with hands and feet shackled during the remaining hour – to Level A, which allowed up to three hours a week for visitations, outdoor time with other convicts in a 12-by-12 cage, and the opportunity to have odd jobs.

In 1991 he started corresponding with a young college student, Anne-Marie Moyes, who had dedicated herself to social justice issues. She began working with Death Penalty Focus, a California-based nonprofit similar to Tennesseans for Alternatives for the Death Penalty. The two met after months of corresponding, and she was so convinced of his innocence, Moyes enrolled in Vanderbilt Law School where she was awarded the law school’s Founder’s Medal – the highest honor bestowed on a single graduate out of every graduating class. The two would spend nearly two decades filing appeals.

Black Man Rises Up Boldly, oil on linen
Black Man Rises Up Boldly, oil on linen

In the meantime, a large international firm in New York decided for the first time to take on a death penalty case and filed appeal after appeal on his behalf. Finally in Dec. 2011, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Olatushani’s murder conviction due to faulty witness testimony and demanded a new trial. On June 6, 2012, Olatushani walked out of prison after accepting an Alford Plea to avoid potentially serving several more years in the Shelby County Jail awaiting a new trial and taking his chances with another jury. This deal required that he plead guilty to second-degree murder, while, at the same time, allowed him to maintain his innocence. In exchange, he was sentenced to time served and was released.

Today, at age 54, Olatushani is a free man living in Nashville with his now wife, Anne-Marie, and their adopted child. Now just two years shy of being released and starting a new life, he is still painting, growing a small vegetable garden and learning about all the advances that did not exist when he was first incarcerated.

“The only real struggle is trying to get used to all these technological advances that have been made,” he said, listing on his fingers all the inventions that didn’t exist when he went to jail in 1983: computers, cell phones, the Internet.

Olatushani’s art exhibit will be on display at the Avon Williams Campus Library Feb. 28 through April 11 and is free and open to the public. The library is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sunday noon until 8:30 p.m.

For more information call 615.963.7188.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Department of Media Relations
Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

 

 

About Tennessee State University

With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

EVENTS, FACULTY, NEWS, SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

36th Annual University-Wide Research Symposium set for March 31-April 4

Noted theoretical physicist Dr. Sylvester Gates Jr. to deliver keynote address

 

NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) – Every year, Tennessee State University students present their best works of exploration, research and invention to fellow students, faculty and the community at the Annual University-Wide Research Symposium. Now in its 36th year, the symposium will take place at the University March 31 – April 4.

Since 1979, TSU has held an annual research symposium – a University forum to recognize and commemorate excellence in student and faculty research, largely science, engineering, business and humanities disciplines, and a platform for students conducting hypothesis-driven research to gain exposure as either oral or poster presenters in an evaluative setting.

The symposium serves as a foundation to provide students with authentic experiences in presenting their research before advancing to regional, national and international research symposia; and before beginning early years as professionals in life-long careers and disciplines.

The Symposium is comprised of a week of interdisciplinary presentations by students and faculty members with students seeking competitive awards for their deliberative innovation that showcases the research process from laboratory to solution.

Continually themed “Research: Celebrating Excellence,” the Symposium will be divided into oral presentations and poster presentations. This year, 147 graduate and undergraduate oral and poster presentations are expected to take place, along with 21 faculty oral and poster presentations.

Oral presentations will take place throughout the week in the Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 161,163 and 209. Poster presentations will take place in the Jane Elliot Hall Auditorium, Tuesday, April 1 through Thursday, April 3. Judging for poster presentations is scheduled to take place Thursday, April 3 from 9 until 11 a.m. for graduate posters, and 1until 3 p.m. for undergraduate posters.

Noted theoretical physicist and John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland – College Park Dr. Sylvester Gates Jr. will be the featured keynote speaker officially opening the Symposium. The event takes place Monday, March 31 beginning at 2 p.m. in the E.T. Goins Recital Hall, located in the Performing Arts Center on the main campus. The keynote address is free and open to the public.

Other events taking place during the week include:

Monday, March 31 

*Division of Nursing Research Day
7:30 am – 1:00 pm
James E. Farrell – Fred E. Westbrook Building, room 118
Poster Sessions and Awards Ceremony
Luncheon Speaker, Grace S. Smith, LMSW, Program Manager, Meharry Consortium Geriatric Education Center

*Orals – Graduate Engineering I
9 – 11:30 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 163

*Orals – Graduate Sciences I
9 am – 12:30 pm
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 209

*Orals – Graduate Education and Health Sciences
9 – 10 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 161

*Orals – Preliminary Research: Graduate Engineering
10:30 – 11:15 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 161

*Opening Ceremony and Plenary Session
2 pm
E.T. Goins Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center
Symposium Keynote Address: Sylvester James Gates, Ph.D.


Tuesday, April 1

*Orals – Graduate Sciences II
9 am – 12:30 pm
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 163

*Orals – Graduate Engineering II
9 – 11:30 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 209

*Orals – Graduate Sciences III
1 – 4:30 pm
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 163

*Orals – Undergraduate Engineering
1– 2:15 pm
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 209

*Psychology Research Day
2:30 – 5:30 pm
James E. Farrell – Fred E. Westbrook Building, room 118
Oral and Poster Sessions and Awards Ceremony
5:30 pm, Guest Speaker, Neil Woodward, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine


Wednesday, April 2

*Orals – Undergraduate Sciences
9– 11:30 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 163

*Orals – Preliminary Research: Graduate Education and Health Sciences
9 – 10 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 209

*Orals – Undergraduate Social Sciences
11 – 11:30 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 209

 

Thursday, April 3

*Poster Presentations – Faculty, Graduate, and Undergraduate
All posters will be displayed in the Jane Elliott Hall Auditorium, April 1-3

*Poster Judging – Graduate
9 – 11 am

*Engineering Research Day
11:30 am – 1 pm
James E. Farrell – Fred E. Westbrook Building, room 118
Luncheon Speaker, William H. Robinson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering, Director of Undergraduate Studies for Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University

*Poster Judging – Undergraduate
1 – 3 pm

 

Friday, April 4

*Orals – Faculty
9 – 11:15 am
Research and Sponsored Programs Building, Room 163

*Awards Luncheon and Closing Ceremony
Noon – 2 pm
James E. Farrell-Fred E. Westbrook Building, room 118
Luncheon speaker: Mark A. Hardy, Ph.D., TSU Vice President for Academic Affairs.

 

Posters will be displayed in the Jane Elliott Hall Auditorium, April 1-3.

For more information on the Research Symposium, visit www.tnstate.edu/research or contact Nannette Carter Martin, co-chair at 615.963.5827, or Tamara Rogers, co-chair at 615.963.1520.

 

 

 

Department of Media Relations
Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

 

About Tennessee State University

With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.