The week will kick off with the fourth annual Innovative Professor Conference on Monday, Nov. 9 and Tuesday, Nov. 10. Online faculty will be able to take advantage of a variety of workshops and concurrent session presentations specifically for the distance-learning professional.

Throughout the week, all registered APSU students are invited to participate in the Student Scavenger Hunt. Students who find everything on the list will have an opportunity to qualify for prizes. The hunt closes at noon, Friday, Nov. 13, with the winner to be announced at 4 p.m.

The Distance Education Showcase will be from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 11 in the Morgan University Center lobby. Everyone is invited to learn more about distance education.

On Thursday, Nov. 12 in the Morgan University Center Ballroom, the Online Faculty Luncheon will be held to show appreciation for APSU’s online faculty. The event, by invitation only, will include the announcement of the 2009-10 Innovative Professor Award recipient.

NDLW will conclude Friday, Nov. 13 with the Multimedia Lab Open House from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the lab’s new location in the McReynolds Building, Room 102. Those attending will be able to explore the new facility, see what new tools are available and meet the distance education staff.

For more information, call the APSU Center for Extended and Distance Education at (931) 221-7816 or go online to http://www.apsu.edu/ext_ed/NDLW_Week_Schedule_2009.aspx.

Kayla Mikel

What happened to Austin Peay State University student Kayla Mikel back in July? The 20-year-old nursing major isn’t saying much. Among the few details she’s let slip out is she took a trip to California to visit family, and while on the west coast, she attended a taping of “The Price is Right.”

When she speaks about her experience on the TV game show, her words are halting and cautious, but her voice grows a pitch higher. She is legally obligated not to say how she did on the show until it airs at 10 a.m., Oct. 27. But Mikel is gathering friends and family to watch the broadcast that day on the big screen at Einstein Bros. Bagels inside the APSU Morgan University Center.

“I’m excited it’s finally going to air,” she said. “I’ve started counting down the days.”

Mikel traveled from her hometown of Cleveland, Tenn., to California this summer to visit her sister and brother-in-law. Before leaving, her mother, Sheryl Taylor, went online and ordered tickets for the family to be audience members on “The Price is Right.”

“It’s something we’ve always wanted to do,” Taylor said. “We’ve always watched it, from (host) Bob Barker to Drew Carey.”

Tickets to “The Price is Right” are free, but potential audience members must show up before sunrise and spend hours waiting outside for a chance to get near the set.

“We were kind of getting tired, but as soon as they opened the doors and let us file in, we were all, ‘oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening,’” Mikel said. “When we saw the inside, I think we were shocked and nervous and excited. You’re on national TV, you hope you look good.”

But making it into the audience doesn’t mean you’ll be a contestant. Everyone is given name tags and interviewed before the show begins. Then, as anyone familiar with “The Price is Right” knows, a select few audience members are called throughout the program to “come on down” and participate.

Sitting in the audience that day were Mikel and her mother, Mikel’s boyfriend, APSU student Chris Head, her sister and brother-in-law, Stephen and Natoshia Bunger, both APSU alumni, and her other sister and brother-in-law, David and Misty de Lamare, both of California. The show’s interviewer talked with the family, and he seemed impressed that Mikel was a nursing student at Austin Peay. She even wore a specially made T-shirt that said “RN 2010” on the back.

So was that enough to get her name called? Mikel isn’t saying, but she’s looking forward to watching “The Price is Right” on Oct. 27 with her family and friends. Actually, she seems very excited. She’s pretty sure she’ll see herself on TV, which can lead to some worrying.

“We’d been up since 4, so we all don’t look our best,” she said. “I’m like, ‘what did I look like?’”

Just a couple more weeks and she’ll find out.

Phillis Levin, of New York, and Kate Gleason, of New Hampshire, will visit Austin Peay State University that day for a 7 p.m. poetry reading at the Morgan University Center.

Both women share a talent for the written word, but they recently forged a new connection. Levin, in her role as contest judge, selected Gleason’s poetry collection, “Measuring the Dark,” as the winner of the First Book Award at Zone 3 Press.

Zone 3 Press is a nonprofit literary press supported by the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University.

Finding someone as esteemed as Levin to select the winning manuscript for the 2008 award ensured the press would produce a book noted for its high artistic and literary attributes. Levin is currently a professor of English and poet-in-residence at Hofstra University, and she also teaches in the graduate creative writing program at New York University.

She attended Sarah Lawrence College and the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of the poetry collections “Temples and Fields,” “The Afterimage,” “Mercury” and “May Day.”

Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Grand Street, Poetry, The Nation, Agni, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, Poetry London, Literary Imagination and the Paris Review.

After combing through numerous manuscripts submitted to Zone 3, Levin chose Gleason’s “Measuring the Dark” to win the press’ coveted prize. Gleason is the former editor of Peregrine literary journal. She earned a Bachelor or Arts from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and attended writing workshops at Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project and Amherst Writers and Artists.

Gleason is the recipient of several writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. She also won the Outstanding Emerging Writer Award from the New Hampshire Writers’ Project and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Boomer Girls, Claiming the Spirit Within, Crab Orchard Review, Ekphrasis, Green Mountains Review, Lost Angeles Times Book Review, Sonora Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review and Zone 3.

The poetry reading, which brings these two talented poets together, is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Susan Wallace with the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at 931-221-7031 or .

This year the parade theme is “Honoring all who served,” a tribute to veterans past and present. The parade will begin at 10 a.m. at the corner of N. Eighth and College Streets, next to the Sundquist Science Building at Austin Peay State University, with the reviewing stand at Public Square in front of City Hall. The deadline for parade entries is Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Entry forms and maps of the parade route can be obtained from the Veterans Service Organization in Veterans Plaza, 350 Pageant Lane, Suite 308, Clarksville.

A Veterans Day breakfast, 7:30 a.m. at the Morgan University Center at APSU, will kick off the day’s celebration.

For more information, contact the Veterans Service Organization at 553-7173.

The brunch will be at 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 31 in the Morgan University Center Ballroom. Cost is $25 per person, and advance reservations are required by Wednesday, Oct. 28. The event is open to the public.

For more information or reservations, call the Alumni Relations Office, (931) 221-7979 or 1-800-264-2586.

The following individuals, with information about each provided, will be presented with outstanding alumni awards:

Outstanding Young Alumnus – Robert James “Jamie” Spicer, M.D. (’94)

Robert James “Jamie” Spicer, M.D. (’94)

Dr. Jamie Spicer, of Gainesville, Fla., may best be remembered around campus for his days playing football with the APSU Governors. He came to the University from Waverly Central High School in Waverly, on a football scholarship and quickly made a name for himself.

After graduating in 1994, he traveled to Europe, where he played football for one season in Nurnberg, Germany, for the Nurnberg Rams. But while a student at APSU, he built the foundations of his future career as a physician, majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry. Upon his return to the United States, Spicer resumed those studies by earning a Master of Science degree in biology from Tennessee State University.

He then combined his two interests and took a job as a science teacher and assistant football coach at Joe Shafer Middle School in Sumner County. The following year, Spicer again found himself as a student at Meharry Medical College, where he graduated in May 2005 with a 3.4 GPA.

From there, he traveled to Johnson City, and began an internship in internal medicine at East Tennessee State University’s James H. Quillen College of Medicine. A year later he headed west, where he entered residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He completed this training in June 2009 and was accepted into a fellowship training program in interventional spine, musculoskeletal and sports medicine.

Spicer now lives with his wife, APSU alumnus Benita (Lester) Spicer, in Gainesville, where he works for the University of Florida’s Shands Hospital. He also works in Valdosta, Ga., evaluating personal injury claims.

Spicer is a licensed physician in both Florida and Georgia.

Outstanding Young Alumna – Bethany McKinney Froboese (’00)

Bethany McKinney Froboese (’00)

Seven years after graduating from APSU with a Bachelors of Science, Dr. Bethany McKinney Froboese found herself back on campus in a very familiar setting. She was in the University’s athletic training room, where she once worked as a student athletic trainer.

She had returned to campus, having earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Belmont University in 2003, to volunteer her time to assist with sports physicals.

This idea of helping out APSU is nothing new to her. In 2003, she gave talks for the APSU National Alumni Association for new student recruitment, and in 2005 and 2006, she volunteered to help with the APSU annual job fair.

Froboese first arrived on campus as a freshman in 1996 and became a student equipment manager for the football team. Knowing she wanted to pursue a career in physical therapy, she became a student athletic trainer the next year – a post she held until graduating in 2000.

From there, it was off to Belmont. After receiving her Doctor of Physical Therapy, she took a job as a physical therapist with Inmotion Rehabilitation. Three year later, she joined Premier Medical Group and, in 2007, she found her current position as a physical therapist with Tennessee Orthopeadic Alliance.

Froboese is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the Tennessee Physical Therapy Association and is a Susan G. Komen lymphedema treatment provider. She is a certified Lymphedema therapist, a certified clinical instructor and a certified sole supports provider.

Her volunteer work also extends into her community, such as assisting in a one-day teaching experience for Clarksville-Montgomery County School System anatomy and physiology AP classes about physical therapy and physiological principles used for her profession.

Outstanding Service – Mark R. Briggs (’78)

Mark R. Briggs (’78)

Mark Briggs doesn’t have much free time. As CEO of Premier BPO Inc., a global outsourcing company headquartered in Clarksville, he oversees around 800 associates in China, Pakistan and the Philippines who provide services for U.S. and Canadian companies including accounting, purchasing, IT and customer services.

But remaining busy is a way of life for the Clarksville native. After graduating from APSU in 1978, he went to work with the accounting firm KPMG. He then took a job with Ingram Industries, going on in his 11-year career to hold positions of COO and CFO with Ingram Micro.

Briggs went on to serve as CEO of the distribution business Intelligent Electronics, a $4 billion computer reseller. He later founded and served as CEO of ClientLogic Corp., headquartered in Nashville. ClientLogic, now called Sitel, is one of the top three customer relationship outsourcing companies in the world with around 60,000 associates.

In 2003, he founded Premier BPO, but throughout his career, he’s consistently kept busy with other obligations. Briggs is a past chairman of the APSU Foundation. He serves on the board of directors of En Pointe Technologies and SpeechCycle Inc., a privately held speech recognition software company.

He is on the advisory board of Salvation Army of Clarksville and he also serves on the National Gas Acquisition Corp. board and the Montgomery County Industrial Development Board.

In his few remaining off hours, he teaches Sunday school at First Baptist Church and spends time with his wife of 31 years, Beverly, and their two sons Griff, 22, and Alec, 9.

Outstanding Service – Jim Roe (’65)

Jim Roe (’65)

While living in Alabama, Jim Roe thought it’d be nice to get together with some fellow graduates of his alma mater. Rather than traveling all the way back to Clarksville, he opted to seek out those living nearby.

Roe led an effort to establish APSU alumni chapters in Birmingham and Huntsville, serving as president of both chapters and eventually as alumni director for District XI.

The Clarksville native graduated with a physics degree from APSU in 1965 and later did graduate work at the University of Florida and earned an M.B.A. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Roe’s professional career began by working on NASA projects during the height of the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Among his many assignments, he simulated propulsions for the Saturn V rocket and conducted reliability studies on Saturn V systems.

He eventually moved into academia, accepting the position of computer services director and instructor in computer science at Athens State University. While at the school, he co-designed the curriculum for a computer science minor and a computer science concentration for the technical management major.

Roe returned to the aerospace industry as project manager for Intermetrics, where he developed software for the Space Experiments Particle Accelerators (SEPAC) for NASA. He moved back and forth between academia and the aerospace industry in the years that followed, working as the manager for the Macy Center for Academic Computing at UAB and later leading the development of electronic commerce solutions for NASA, including an electronic data interchange system.

He ended his illustrious career, after having garnered numerous awards and authoring several academic papers, working in business development for Lockheed Martin.

Throughout those years, he found time to promote his alma mater. Aside from forming new alumni chapters, he is a member of the Governors Club and serves as a board member for the APSU Foundation. He also played a key role in developing an on campus “Career Day” in which APSU alumni mentor undergraduate students.

Outstanding Alumnus – Larry W. Carroll (’76)

Larry W. Carroll (’76)

In 1980, Larry Carroll took a chance and opened his own financial planning firm. He left a good paying job and placed his success on a simple concept – “The best interest of the client is the only interest that matters.”

Almost three decades later, the decision has more than paid off. The APSU grad is president and CEO of Carroll Financial, which currently manages or supervises more than $1 billion in advisory and brokerage assets and employs 10 certified financial planner practitioners.

The firm’s astounding success has led Carroll to be featured regularly in many of the country’s top financial publications. He has been named to Worth Magazine’s listing of The Nation’s Most Exclusive Wealth Managers 12 times. In 2007 and 2008, he was listed on Barron’s first two annual lists of “the Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors.” In 2007, he was also honored as one of the 10 “Outstanding Advisors of 2007” by Registered Rep magazine.

Carroll has also been interviewed in Money, Newsweek, The New York Times, Medical Economics, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, U.S. News and World Report, American Banker and other magazines. He also appeared on “The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.”

He is a past national chairman of the 24,000-member Financial Planning Association, and his firm continues to build off the success of that basic premise of serving the client’s best interest.

“I think our clients find comfort in the fact that while they will only retire once, we’ve been through the process many times,” he has said.

Carroll also serves as chairman of the board of Park Sterling Bank. He and his wife of 36 years, Vivian, are committed to numerous charities, including the YMCA, the American Red Cross and the Cultural and Heritage Foundation of York County.

Outstanding Alumnus – David Alford (’89)

David Alford (’89)

Shortly after graduating from Austin Peay State University, David Alford packed his bags and headed to New York City.

He was joining the thousands who flock to that city each year in the hopes of pursing a career as an actor. But unlike some of his fellow travelers, Alford had a leg up – he was accepted into the esteemed Juilliard School of Drama at Lincoln Center.

It was a smart move for the Adams native. After being awarded the Saint-Denis Prize upon graduating in 1991, he embarked on a long, successful career in the field of drama as an actor, writer, director and producer that continues to flourish today.

In the years that followed, Alford has appeared in more than 50 professional theater productions, including David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” and Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Tempest.” He also received an Ingram Fellowship for Acting through the Tennessee Arts Commission in 1996.

In the early 1990s, he co-founded the Mockingbird Theatre in Nashville, a professional nonprofit company, and he served as its artistic director until 2004.

For the next three years, he worked as executive artistic director of the Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville, and in 2007, he became the Rep’s first artist-in-residence.

But his talents haven’t been relegated to only the stage. He’s appeared in numerous films, such as the 2001 Robert Redford movie “The Last Castle” and the 2006 Michael W. Smith feature “The Second Chance.”

When not acting, he can often be found working behind the scenes as both a writer and director. His film “Prisoner,” which he wrote and directed, was a finalist in 2004 for HBO’s “Project Greenlight” competition.

He recently finished work on his first musical, “Smoke,” which focuses on the tobacco wars that took place in northern middle Tennessee early last century, and he intends to direct and appear in the project in the coming months.

He is the author of the novel-in-stories Other Electricities (Sarabande Books, 2005), a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award and winner of the John C. Zacharis First Book Award in Fiction. He is also the author of the poetry collection Vacationland, which won the fourth Annual Tupelo Press First Book Editors’ Prize in 2005.

An essayist, poet, and fiction writer, Monson earned an MFA from the University of Alabama. He teaches creative writing at the University of Arizona and is the editor of the magazine DIAGRAM and the New Michigan Press.He lives in Michigan His forthcoming collection of essays Vanishing Point (Graywolf Press) and his poetry collection The Available World (Sarabande Books) will both be released in 2010.Visit his web site at www.otherelectricities.com/neckdeep.

The Graywolf Press had this to say about Ander Monson’s Neck Deep:

“In this sparkling nonfiction debut, Monson uses unexpectedly nonliterary forms—the index, the Harvard Outline, the mathematical proof—to delve into an equally surprising mix of obsessions: disc golf, the history of mining in northern Michigan, car washes, topology, and more. He remembers the telegram, a disappearing form, and reflects on his outsider experience at an exclusive Detroit-area boarding school in the form of a criminal history.”

The Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize is funded in part by endowed gifts from the Arsham Ohanessian Charitable Remainder Unitrust and the Ruth Easton Fund of the Edelstein Family Foundation.

More praise for Neck Deep and Other Predicaments

• “Puts most memoirs to shame.” — Time Out Chicago
• “Monson’s subjects are engaging and engaged.” — Water-Stone Review
• “A surprising alloy of caper and elegy.” — Frieze
• “Strange and delightful…cutting edge.” — Star Tribune
• “Neck Deep should be read by anyone who cares about new developments in nonfiction…” — The American Book Review
• “In this often amusing, inventive, and unconventional approach to autobiography, Monson comes at us sideways with personal revelations and observations that are alternately filled with infectious enthusiasm and shamefaced contrition.”­ — Rain Taxi Review of Books
• “A delightful read…the genius in Monson’s writing is in synchronistic balance of word crafting and visual form.” — Grand Rapids Press
• “The interrelated stories, set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the bleakest midwinter, represent a sort of inventory that drifts again and again into stretches of purely poetic language.” — The Rake
• “Wonderfully recondite and cunningly executed, Monson’s work will make a brilliant discovery for open-minded fans of narrative nonfiction.” — Publishers Weekly
• “Elizabeth Bishop often remarked that she wanted poems and prose that register the mind in motion rather than at rest. Bishop would have loved the work of Ander Monson, as much for his yearning mind as his quick, restless, precise motion…For Monson the essay is something like a schematics for our fiercest longings and most ecstatic inventions. Every time I turn to it I’m astonished all over again by the majesty of this book.” — Robert Polito, Judge

Allison Joseph is the author of five books of poetry: Worldly Pleasure (Word Press, 2004); Imitation of Life (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 2002); Soul Train (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1997); In Every Seam (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997); and What Keeps Us Here (Ampersand, 1992). Joseph is an Associate Professor of English at Southern Illinois University and editor of Crab Orchard Review.

A book signing and reception will follow the reading. This event is free to the public. Parking is free.

Joseph has authored six collections of poems. Her most recent work, titled “My Father’s Kites,” is a sequence of 34 sonnets about her father. Her first book of poems, “What Keeps Us Here,” won the Ampersand Press Women Poets Series Prize.

Additionally, Joseph is the recipient of other awards and honors including an Individual Artist’s Fellowship in Poetry from the Illinois Arts Council, fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers Conferences, an Academy of American Poets Prize, a Ruth Lily Fellowship and a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council.

For more information about the reading, contact Susan Wallace in the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, 221-7031 e-mail .

Brenda Miller

Brenda Miller, the recipient of five Pushcart Prizes, will be at Austin Peay State University near the end of the month to read from her newest collection of essays.

Miller will read from “Blessing of the Animals” at 8 p.m., Jan. 29 in the Kimbrough Building, Gentry Auditorium. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

In addition to the reading, Miller will hold an informal discussion with APSU students, faculty and staff at 12:20 p.m., Jan. 29 in the Morgan University Center, Room 303.

“Blessing of the Animals” is scheduled for release in late January by Eastern Washington University Press. Miller’s new collection includes two Pushcart Prize-winning essays, “Blessing of the Animals” and “Raging Waters.” Another essay, “Table of Figures,” was selected for inclusion in The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume 3, to be published in 2009 by W.W. Norton.

A resident of Bellingham, Wash., Miller is an associate professor of English at Western Washington University and serves as editor-in-chief of the Bellingham Review.

For more information about the reading, contact Susan Wallace in the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts by telephone at (931) 221-7031 or by e-mail at .

Join us in the  University Center Ballroom for snacks and drinks to watch this monumental moment in history as Barack Obama is sworn in and becomes the 44th President of the United States. The Inaugural Parade begins  at 11:00 p.m. and the Inauguration will begin at 1:00 p.m.

Sponsors of this event are SGA & NPHC (Sigma Gamma Rho, Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Phi Beta Sigma). APSU is located at 601 College Street Clarksville, TN.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Austin Peay State University Governors football team will be featured on the cover of the 2008-09 AT&T Real Yellow Pages directory serving Clarksville.

“We’re excited to have our football team on the new directory covers. The team is forging a new tradition of success on the field, just as Austin Peay is committed to assuring the success of our students in the classroom,” APSU President Tim Hall said. More than 137,000 copies of the directory have been produced for distribution in the area this year. The directory also will be available to new residents and businesses throughout the year. Deliveries of the directory will begin Wednesday, Nov. 19.

The 24th annual Ohio Valley History Conference continued on a high note with the banquet dinner on Friday night, October 30th. The keynote address was given by John Seigenthaler Sr. in the Morgan University Center Ballroom. Seigenthaler shared his remembrances of Bobby Kennedy and the Kennedy Presidential era in his address, “Conversations with Bobby Forty Years Later.”

Among his many remembrances, he recounted the young attorney general’s zeal in pursuing union corruption and the tumultuous tension of the Civil Rights struggles, particularly in Alabama and Mississippi; the Selma Bus Boycott, and the lead-up to the March on Washington. When U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy agreed to speak at the Law School of the University of Georgia, following their confrontational desegregation battle the year before, the university administration did not want him to meet with either of the two Black students that had been admitted in its desegregation battle. However Bobby did precisely that and met with Sharlene Hunter Galt.

In another anecdote, Seigenthaler spoke of the relationship between Bobby Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Theirs was a strained relationship at best however, the story of how Sarah Hughes came to be appointed to federal bench showed how prophetic fate’s hand came play. Vice President Johnson interceded on behalf of Sam Rayburn and asked Attorney General Robert Kennedy to appoint Sarah Hughes to the federal bench. Apparently, Bobby was not disposed towards her appointment but relented at the vice president’s request. Later, Judge Hughes would administer the oath of office to Johnson following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Seigenthaler also shared the surprising desire of Robert Kennedy to serve as vice-president under Lyndon Johnson, had he sought a second term as president and the disappointment he felt when Johnson announced his decision not to pursue a second term. At the conclusion of his presentation, Professor Uffleman presented Mr. Seigenthaler with both, an OVHC conference T-shirt and a personalized framed conference poster.

The conference dinner also served as the official recognition of Dr. Richard P. Gildrie’s retirement, after a 38 year career in history. Dr. Glidrie now joins the ranks of professor emeritus status at Austin Peay State University. He will concentrate on continuing research and writing, along with his other pursuits.

The conference’s smooth flow can be attributed to the many hours of organizing detail performed by Assistant Professor Minoa Uffleman who coordinated this year’s event. David Nelson, also shared in the conference’s coordination and set-up. He served as the logistics director, including designing the conference’s website. It was announced that the Phi Alpha Theta Conference would be held in Spring 2009, which, Professor Uffleman is also coordinating as well. The 2009 Ohio Valley History Conference will be held on October 1-3, in Richmond, Kentucky hosted by Eastern Kentucky State University.

The Second Day

Saturday’s schedule continued with the high level of presentations established on the opening day’s agenda. panel Topics included “Civil Rights, 19th Century Religion and 20th Century Secular,” Civil War Soldiers: Identities and Memory;” “White and Native American Conflict on the Frontier,” “Race and Violence in Southern History;” “Women who changed American Society,” “Civil War and Indian Warfare Topics” including “The Battle for Public Health in Civil War Memphis,” “From Confedeate to Camanche: U.S. Army Strategy in Post-Civil War Indian Conflict,” and “Civil War Historiography: An Empty Cult of Violence?”; Regional Women’s Writes Roundtable-Diaries, Novels and Advice Columns, and ” Kentucky: Southern Identity and Interracial Challenges.”

The Phi Alpha Theta Luncheon featured the induction of new members of the History Honor Society. New members include Hunter Hayes Ard, David B. Britton, William E, Greenhill, Jacqueline K. Krantz, Andrew Burton Lewis, Jennifer S. Montgomery, Asia Dawn Parker, Stefanie Castleman Porter, Christina M. Parrish, Naomi Rendina, Brian Alan Richards, and Amber J. Traghber.

As the luncheon speaker, Michael Betrand, Tennessee State University, gave his presentation, “‘ This Ain’ t No Vaudeville: Popular Music, The Civil Rights Struggle and the 1956 Assault on Nat ‘King’ Cole’” Among the highlights, the Post-War transformation of the popular music scene heralded an unraveling of the Southern segregationist attitudes of Blacks in the society. They wee concerned for the unshackling of the segregationist view of culture, with white supremacy firmly proclaimed, being underminded by white youth’s gleeful acceptance of music by Black performers and their musical style. Segregationists were mortified by Elvis Aron Presley, a white boy acting like a Black man, exciting white youth and demeaning the white race. The 1956 assault on Nat ‘King’ Cole before an all-white Birmingham, Alabama audience spotlighted the segregationists intolerance and resentment of the changing social attitudes about Blacks position in society and their elevation to esteemed roles in entertainment. While newspapers bemoaned the assault on Mr. Cole as an isolated act, not one audience member moved to prevent nor stop the attack. None came to his defense. Along with this time, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was just starting his campaign for civil rights and equality in the South and staging demonstrations that culminated in his repeated arrest. These demands for social, judicial and economic change were a direct affront to the South’s segregationist mindset of an orderly society.

In Panel 42, “Kentucky: Southern Identity and Interracial Challenges,” presentations focused on the unique character of Kentucky allegiance to its Union leanings and Southern regional connections. In “So Goes Democracy in a Democratic State,” Patrick Lewis, University of Kentucky, examined Racial Violence and White Discomfort with Black Participation in Political Power. Starting with the disillusionment of Kentucky unionists by Lincoln’s Emancipation of slaves and its dooming of slavery, he reviewed the state’s unique take on having a foot in both houses of the conflict. Kentucky never became Pro-Confederacy so much as it became more so Anti-Republican. This anti-republican bent found virulent expression through the Kentucky National Legion. The KNL was the official state agency empowered to thwart Black liberation. Republicans were out of favor because of President Lincoln’s emancipation maneuver and the Democratic Party governments that came to power did little to abate or curtail the deadly actions of the Klu Klux Klan and its efforts to protect white supremacy.

1870 marked the prospect of Black men being able to vote in elections. Whipping up fears of racial retaliation by the freed Blacks, Democrats quickly denounced the advance of Black enfranchisement in Kentucky. The Kentucky National Legion used violence to suppress the Black vote, and since the newly freed Blacks supported the Republican Party, the violence also suppressed the Republican Party.

The election of 1873 saw the eventual relegation of the Kentucky National Legion to oblivion with the imposition of the cursed poll tax. This was a new means to suppress Black voters and protect white supremacy.

“The Interracial Work of the Young Women’s Christain Association in Kentucky,” examined the nature of the racial prejudices and jealousies that operated in Kentucky in the establishment of YWCA in the late 1800’s and early 1900s. Presented by Althea Webb, Berea College, the presentation traced the start of the YWCA as a prayer group of women in England. It grew into an organization of women organized to improve conditions of women. It spread across Europe and in 1879 White women in Louisville formed a chapter. Their focus was on doing good works among the poor and less fortunate of the community. They concentrated on the newly arrived immigrant communities, focusing on speeding their assimilation into American culture. They conducted English language classes, taught the immigrants about hygiene and sanitation, housekeeping skills and citizenship.

In 1881, Black women of Louisville formed their separate YWCA chapter. The two racial groups did not mix or intermingle their activities. The Black women were all from the Black Middle Class of Louisville, consisting of teachers, doctors’ and ministers wives. These women conducted their self improvement activities within their own Black community. Their focus was educational advancement, learning foreign languages, advanced math, philosophy, as well as civics and they also conducted what amounted to a charm school.

These women received no administrative support for start-up from the national headquarters. They had to secure a building and handle their own funds in accordance with the organization’s standards. They did this in Louisville’s segregated atmosphere which limited Black property ownership to Black sections of town which were often less than desirable parts of town. Their programs proved more popular and successful than the White YWCA. This led to the White YWCA complaining to the national YWCA headquarters in New York. Their reply was for the two chapters to form a supervisory-affiliate relationship. The White YWCA did not want to associate with the Black YWCA but they were intimidated and felt shamed by the popularity and success of Black women’s efforts.

The New York headquarters did not appreciate the racial undertones of the complaints and thus was slow to effectively recognize the true cause of the unrest and implement a remedy. One such step was for all Black YWCA chapters to change their names to Alice Weakly YWCA chapters and follow a separate chain of authority which was itself supervised by the White YWCA authority. Advances in social consciousness and racial political empowerment doomed this gerrymandered quasi-servitude apparatus to eventual collapse. By the late 1950s, most of the Alice Weakley chapters had closed.

The two-day conference was filled with over 120 essays and presentations covering a wide range of history topics and subjects. Presenters came to Austin Peay State University from across the country for this intense and detailed conference.

APSU Dr. Greg Ribidoux moderated the panel on Development of the Constitution in American History. APSU President Tim Hall gave a engrossing presentation in this session. His topic, “Against Ecumenical Impulse: Religious Separatism and the Value of Factions” was a revelatory review of the thoughts and beliefs of the early leaders of the new nation, the United States of America and how to best deal with the feared tyranny of the majority that could result under democratic rule.

James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and Sam Adams all felt that religious sectarian diversity would be the best means by which to frustrate the tyranny of a religious majority in a democratic style government. Research shows that claims that ours is a Christian nation are well off the mark, as the early settlers showed themselves to be equally guilty of religious intolerance as it had been practiced against them in England. In terms of government, many of our founding leaders believed that religious separatism ensures liberty for others in the pursuit of a civic toleration of differing perspectives.

Garret Spivey, Lee University, spoke on Justice Hugo Black in , “From Southern Populist to Constitutional Champion: Hugo Black and the Wage Hour Bill.” Black, being from Alabama and a strong Southern Populist, waged a dedicated struggle to alleviate low wages and pursued that effort all the way into the U.S. Senate and the on to the U.S. Supreme Court. Black sought to improve the plight of the working class by improving their wages. He was held in high regard by union leaders for his stance in support of a minimum wage and the thirty-hour work week. He tried several legislative efforts at setting a hourly minimum wage and weekly maximum hours. His fellow Southern Democrats however, did not share his perspective. In his struggle to secure this legislation he proved to be a strong adherent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s progressive agenda. Provoked to a rare display of emotion, Senator Black defended his bill against his fellow southerners.

“I subscribe,” he shouted in the Senate, “to the gospel that a man who is born in Alabama and who can do as much work as a man born in any state in New England is entitled to the same pay if he does the same work.” [1]

The Black-Connery bill passed the Senate on August 1, only to become stalled in the House. * In the end, he finally saw success with the passage of the Fair standards Labor Act of 1938. [2]

Paul Beezley give his presentation during the Re-imaging the Past, Imaging the Future in the Late 19th Century Panel session

With his nomination to the U. S. Supreme Court, Black’s past association with the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) would came to haunt him. While never an ardent member, he would remark later in his judicial career that having been exposed to the Klan helped he to understand and counter bigotry and intolerance.

Other topics covered in the first day included Panel 1 – Democracy and Knowledge in the Early Republic: “Richard Hildreth and the Whig Quest for a Philosophy of Democracy,” “The Problem of ‘Authority’ in Spiritualist Discourse, 1848-1865.”; Panel 3 – Roundtable on American Crisis, Southern Solutions: From Where We Stand, Promise and Peril; Panel 4 – Native American Cultural Identity: From Its Origins to European Influences; Panel 7 – Just War and the United Nations Policy for Authorizing Military Intervention; Panel 10: Female Imagery; Panel 14 – History on the Internet; Panel 20: Africa Post-Colonization; Panel 22: Reimaging the Past, Imaging the Future in the Late 19th Century and Panel 25: Phi Alpha Theta Documentary Film- “War and the Larkin Family.”

For this event, the third floor of Morgan University Center was the staging area for the conference as presenters conduct concurring sessions to discuss their various essays and papers. Registration was handled in the concourse area of the third floor. Vendors from various historical book publishing firms set up an extended sales area for those wishing to peruse their diverse selection of subject matter. Conference gift bags, buttons, posters and T-shirts were available for purchase. Professor Cynthia Marsh and her graphics art students gave demonstrations of the Goldsmith Printing Press using the Rare Type Collection. The conference logo was created by APSU art student Yvette Campagna and the gift bags and posters were printed using the printing press.

In addition to attendees from APSU students and professors, participants came from Ohio State University, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Murray State University, Western Kentucky State , Kentucky State University, University of South Alabama, Cumberland University, New Mexico University, West Virginia University-Morgantown, Purdue University, University of Cincinnati, Tennessee Technological University, Texas A&M University, Middle Tennessee State University, Hunter College of CUNY, Lee University, Marshall University, University of Chicago and Berea College, to name but just a few of the colleges and universities represented by the presenters.

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[1] & [2] – http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1968/3/1968_3_60.shtml

University faculty, staff and students will provide informational sessions and activities.

Check-in is from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the Foy Fitness and Recreation Center. Students and their parents will receive tickets for lunch in the campus cafeteria, located on the main floor of Morgan University Center. Also, during that time, guests will have opportunities to tour the campus and meet with professors and current Austin Peay students.

From 1-4 p.m., prospective students and their parents will meet with staff from the Admissions, Financial Aid, Housing/Residence Life and Student Life and Leadership offices. Students then will talk with the Student Government Association president and other students, while parents will hear from APSU President Tim Hall and other campus leaders.

Official AP Day activities end at 4 p.m., but guests can stick around to tour residence halls, talk with staff from financial aid, housing and admissions and check out the bookstore.

Guests are asked to park in the lot at the corner of Eighth and Marion streets or at the intersection of Henry Street and Jackson Alley. Signs will direct guests to the Morgan University Center.

For information about Clarksville restaurants and more, click on “Visitor Information” at www.clarksville.tn.us. Hotels located downtown and off Interstate-24 are closest to APSU.

For more information about AP Day, contact the Admissions Office by telephone at (800) 844-APSU or (931) 221-7661 or e-mail .

Candidates for queen are the following:

• Becky Burke, of Murfreesboro, is the daughter of Bob Burke and Pam Hutchison. She is sponsored by Govs Programming Council, Newman Club and Laurel Wreath.
• Nicole Head, of Springfield, is the daughter of William and Julie Head. She is sponsored by Alpha Delta Pi.
• Ginger Tucker, of Clarksville, is the daughter of Tony and Cindy Tucker. She is sponsored by Chi Omega Women’s Fraternity.
• Chelsea Burkhart, of Dover, is the daughter of Mark and Margaret Burkhart. She is sponsored by the History Club and Phi Alpha Theta.
• Casey Green, of Charlotte, is the daughter of Thomas Wade Green and Lori Ann Green. She is sponsored by Alpha Tau Omega.

Candidates for king are the following students:

• Ben Torres, of Erin, is the son of Benny and Carlatta Torres. He is sponsored by Sigma Chi.
• Chris Drew, of Clarksville, is the son of Scott and Ruthanne Drew. He is sponsored by Alpha Delta Pi.
• Clifton Horn, of Greenbrier, is the son of Cliff and Amanda Horn. He is sponsored by Kappa Sigma.
• Isaac Taylor, of Dover, is the son of the late Wallace Taylor and Kimberly Jo Taylor. He is sponsored by the Govs Programming Council.
• Will Moore, of Springfield, is the son of Bill and Patty Moore. He is sponsored by Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Anomaly will premiere at 7 p.m., Monday, April 7 in the Don Jenkins Gallery, located on the third floor of the Morgan University Center with a reception on opening night. The exhibition will remain on display until Wednesday, April 10 and is is free and open to the public. Matthews is an art major on track to receive his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture in May.

A resident of Clarksville, Matthews’s exhibition will consist of several large wood sculptures, which he describes as, “large ambiguous forms meant to entertain the eyes and create visual significance by arousing curiosity in the viewer.”

“I look to avoid much of the mental baggage that accompanies representational work to fashion a more direct dialogue between the piece and the viewer.” — Sam Mathews

Matthews works primarily with found wood and steel. “To add to the appeal and dynamic of my piece, I look to affix a sense of movement or the possibility of rearrangement in the hopes of adding another dimension of interest. Each piece is meant to be one of a kind, foreign, something the viewer has never seen before and probably won’t see again,” he said.

“Statistically a person in an art museum looks at each piece for an average of three seconds; I look to gain that fourth second, a moment of contemplation and disorder. I don’t want the viewer to have to be an artist to appreciate or analyze my work. I don’t want to try to tell people what they see or how they should look at it. My work is a dialogue between the sculpture and the viewer, not the artist and the viewer.” — Sam Matthews

For more information about Anomaly, contact the art department by telephone at (931) 221-7333.