by Emily Snell | Sep 26, 2012 | Opinion
You’re driving down Woodmont Boulevard, heading back to campus. As you pull up to the traffic light at Granny White, you look up and slam on your brakes, realizing the car in front of you is just a few inches away. You let out a sigh of relief and finish the text you were just sending. I would bet almost all of us have been guilty of texting and driving. Most people say they know it is unsafe, but an unfortunately high number of them admit they do it anyway. Until last Thursday, I was one of those people. On Thursday in women’s chapel, a former Lipscomb student shared her testimony about how she killed a man because she was driving drunk. She spent three years in prison because of it. Now she’s just 23 years old and has to live with the fact she took someone’s life. No, texting and driving isn’t the same thing as drinking and driving. It’s actually worse. Did you know that some studies show it’s even more dangerous? Think about that next time you see someone who you believe is obviously under the influence and is drifting across lanes. Then realize that what you are doing when texting and driving is probably even more hazardous. That means you could be forced to live life knowing that you took someone else’s … because you just had to send that text. Rolling your eyes about this? Stop and pay attention. This is serious stuff. Just last Wednesday, I read an article by Lipscomb’s own Professor Debi Tate about the prevalence of texting and driving and...
by Emily Snell | Sep 20, 2012 | News Slider
A former student, who was wanted for an on-campus burglary that took place in February, was arrested on campus Thursday morning. Around 10 a.m., Lipscomb Security recognized Shaun Immanuel Saunders, 27, thanks to a “be on the lookout” alert related to his previous offense. Hunter Patterson, a May graduate who happened to be on campus, witnessed the event. “I was in the amphitheater and saw two Lipscomb security guards escorting a restrained individual across campus,” he said. “They were about to go through the square, it looked like.” Saunders was turned over to Metro Police officers soon after. His bond was set at $25,000. According to an affidavit from Metro Police, Saunders had not attended Lipscomb for a year prior to the burglary. The report said surveillance video from Feb. 16 showed Saunders in the student center and then showed him in a classroom, stealing an iMac computer. He also appeared on surveillance video with the iMac and a flat screen TV near the loading dock, where he was putting the items in a silver vehicle. This is the second arrest that Metro Police, with help from campus security, has made on campus within the past seven days, including a man who was arrested on campus Saturday afternoon for public intoxication. Brad Wyatt, director of security, said in his five years at Lipscomb, campus security has never needed to call Metro onto campus for an arrest prior to this week. Continue to follow Lumination as this story develops. Sydney Poe, Nicolette Carney and Cory Woodroof contributed to this...
by Emily Snell | Sep 20, 2012 | News Slider
Heightened unrest in the Middle East — including a deadly attack on a U.S. ambassador and three other staff members in Libya last week — is being blamed by many on a short anti-Islamic film, which was posted on the Internet a few months ago. But some Lipscomb professors say the 14-minute film is just an excuse. “I think it becomes a convenient handle for people to seize upon, both in the Middle East and in America,” said Dr. Howard Miller, visiting professor of history. “It’s a way of minimizing the failure of our government to address this problem.” Miller earned his doctorate in medieval studies at Yale and served four years in the military as an Arabic translator. He teaches classes about Islam and Christianity, as well as history and politics of the Middle East. Miller said blaming the film for the violence is an easy out for some leaders. “It allows the rulers in Egypt, the rulers in Libya to kind of slough off their own responsibility,” he said. “If you believe government is a responsibility to set conditions for economic success, then by any token, the Egyptian government has failed … So, in a sense [the film] becomes a clever pretext for rioting,” Dr. Tom Seals, assistant professor of Bible, agreed, saying he thinks Islam, as a religion, is not really what is sparking the violence. “I think most of it is behind the cloak of a radical Islamic belief,” he said, “but I think it’s more political than it is religious. People desiring to promote their agenda, their lifestyles.” Seals is the faculty sponsor for...
by Emily Snell | Sep 18, 2012 | Uncategorized
When most college students imagine a chemistry professor, they don’t picture someone with a law degree. And they don’t picture someone who does creative writing and mixed martial arts for fun. But students at Lipscomb find exactly that in Dr. John Smith, assistant professor of chemistry. Smith, who started full-time at Lipscomb in 2007, said students seem to enjoy hearing about his unusual hobbies. “Some of my students think it’s amusing that I’ve taken up mixed martial arts,” Smith said, explaining that he picked it up because his 8-year-old daughter, Miranda, has been doing it for over a year. “I started that back in March. I’ve wanted to do marital arts since I was Miranda’s age, but my family couldn’t afford it. Now is my chance. It’s fun.” Beyond martial arts, Smith spends some of his free time writing. “I love writing,” he said. “I hate science writing; it’s incredibly formulaic and boring. I love creative writing.” Smith said he writes scripts for VBS drama presentations at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ, where he attends. He has also written poetry, short stories and parts of novels. “I’ve entered some competitions, but I never win anything.” Smith, who has a bachelor’s in chemistry from Drew University in Madison, N.J., said he began working at Lipscomb as an adjunct faculty in 2001 while he was getting his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt. During the 2001-02 academic year, Smith said he wrote his dissertation for his Ph.D., started classes at Vanderbilt Law School and began teaching at Lipscomb. “It was a busy year,” he said. “I don’t remember much. I remember sitting down every...
by Emily Snell | Sep 17, 2012 | News Slider
A man was arrested on campus Saturday afternoon because he had been “drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, eating mushrooms and taking acid.” Lipscomb’s Director of Security Brad Wyatt said the man, Jacob David Steele–who is not a Lipscomb student–drove his vehicle on to campus property and parked in a university parking garage. The man was charged with public intoxication, Wyatt said. “There was a Sodexo employee who observed this guy, and he let us know,” Wyatt said. According to an incident report from the Metropolitan Police Department, Lipscomb Security and Safety requested that Metro police send an officer. When police arrived, Steele was in handcuffs and leg restraints and “was slurring his words and was incoherent at times.” Steele told officers that he had been using the illegal substances previously mentioned. The report said Steele was “a danger to himself and others” and was taken into custody “without incident.” Wyatt said Lipscomb’s general policy is to call Metro police if an arrest needs to be made. “We can detain somebody,” he said, “but if somebody needs to be arrested, we’re going to call...
