by Kathryn Farris | Mar 20, 2021 | News, News Slider
A suspect was brought into custody and charged with murder a day after the March 16 Atlanta-area shootings that left eight massage parlor/spa workers dead. Six of the dead were Asian American women. Lipscomb’s Office of Student Life issued a statement via Instagram, offering support to the Asian American community amid an uptick in hate crimes nationally. “We see you. We hear you. We care for you. You belong,” read the statement that finished with the hashtag #stopasianhate. Anti-Asian attacks have been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic, and many of them have resulted in physical violence, particularly against older members of that community in big-city Chinatowns like in New York and San Francisco. The forum Stop AAPI Hate reports nearly 3,800 reported incidents of discrimination (AAPI stands for Asian American and Pacific Islander). Racial bias surrounding the origin of the COVID virus has been blamed as the primary reason for the uptick in hate crimes against Asian Americans. n for this uptick, most reported incidents consisted of verbal harassment and name-calling. The motive of the Atlanta shooter is under evaluation by local officials and the FBI. In the March 19 editions of The Washington Post newspaper, reporter Andrea Salcedo wrote that in February of 2020, just when the pandemic was beginning its still mortal attack on the world, the World Health Organization urged that terms like “Wuhan virus” or the “China virus” be avoided. They said continued use of those terms could spike antagonism and attacks against Asians. “President Donald Trump didn’t take the advice. On March 16, 2020, he first tweeted the phrase ‘Chinese virus,’ ”...
by Kathryn Farris | Mar 15, 2021 | News, News Slider
Washington, D.C., lawmakers are scuffling over solutions to student debt and the rising cost of higher education, and any resultant policies will hit home for Lipscomb students who take out more than $11 million in student loans each school year. Lipscomb’s financial aid office is awaiting changes on the federal level and advocating on behalf of students, according to school officials. Tiffany Summers, financial aid director, and Amanda Martin, director of the Office of Neighborhood, Community and Government Relations, are working within college associations to obtain information surrounding upcoming policy changes. “I would say there’s a lot that we’re watching right now, certainly higher education was an important part of the administration’s platform,” Martin said. “There can definitely be a difference between what is on the platform and what actually gets done when somebody gets in office,” she said. Platform issues are basically “pie-in-the-sky” campaign proposals that are altered by legislative reality. One of the hot-button issues surrounding Biden’s higher ed plan is student debt forgiveness. Opponents argue forgiveness would disproportionately benefit high-income individuals, while supporters maintain Biden could do more. “There’s definitely a lot of debate nationally around student loan debt. …So one of the pillars of Biden’s higher education plan was that he wanted to forgive $10,000 worth of student loan debt for everyone,” Summers said. “It’s certainly unclear what any actual student loan action is going to look like, there are some that argue Biden should by executive order forgive $50,000 in student debt for everyone or forgive all student loan debt which would cost somewhere around $1.5 trillion,” she said. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Sen....
by Camryn Given | Mar 12, 2021 | News, News Slider
On Feb. 25 Lipscomb held a Day of Giving to invite members of the community to help the school reach its fundraising goal. You can read more about what the events held here. On this single day, the university took in more than $850,000 from donors. At the beginning of 2019, Lipscomb created the LipscombLEADS program, an initiative to raise $250 million by the end of this year. Thanks to the 47,000 donors through LipscombLEADS and the money brought in on the Day of Giving, Lipscomb has reached its goal early. In response, President Lowry said. “We have successfully reached our $250 million campaign goal, which is the largest and most ambitious in our history, during one of the most challenging times in our world with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic. It is a testament to the passion of our donors to support Christian higher education and for Lipscomb University.” The funding will be used for scholarships, teacher recognition awards, a performance arts center, and more. The initiative won’t be over until Dec. 31 and LipscombLEADS will continue to fundraise for these programs. “And we aren’t finished yet, because there is still work to be done,” said...
by Kathryn Farris | Mar 12, 2021 | News, News Slider
A year ago, crowded nights in Allen Arena and smiling faces in Bennett Student Center used to be the norm. However, in the time since, the Lipscomb community has become all too familiar with masks, social-distancing and virtual learning. The changes from the past year are causing students and faculty to evaluate: What exactly awaits us in the future? Just one year ago, on Thursday, March 12, 2020, the university sent out an email to students officially extending spring break another week. Lumination covered this day as a part of a live update series. COVID was developing across the nation, across Nashville even, and no one expected the extended break would turn the campus into a ghost town for months to come. LIVE UPDATES: Lipscomb extends online instruction for rest of spring semester, cancels commencement and closes dorms The next weeks saw canceled Singarama, Mission Trips and live music events. Slowly the culture shifted, creating a new bubble of Tiger King and Zoom calls. COVID halts 57th annual Singarama, but participants discuss informal staging and the relationships they established Music gets muffled by COVID-19 pandemic; Festivals, clubs and even Rolling Stones silenced These changes left the Lipscomb administration reeling for solutions, even as information about the virus was confusing and scarce. “There was a huge cross-section of representatives from different disciplines in the university,” said Kim Chaudoin, Lipscomb’s vice president for public relations and a member of the “IMT” (the Lipscomb taskforce for incident management). “We were meeting to just decide, ‘OK; what do we do?’ about classes, employees and the management of this pandemic,” she said, as news...
by Erika Plunkett | Mar 12, 2021 | News, News Slider, Sports
Despite trailing for most of the game, Lipscomb was able to defeat Stetson 50-47 after forcing overtime late in the 4th quarter. Junior guard Jane Deason came out strong in the first quarter putting six points in the book for the Bisons in the first five minutes, but as has been the story for much of Lipscomb’s season, scoring droughts quieted the Lady Bisons for several minutes at a time, the longest of which occurred in the second and third quarters where Lipscomb had no points for 6 minutes, giving the Hatters their biggest lead of the afternoon at 10, 36-26. Luckily for the Bisons, although Stetson was able to take the lead for most of the game, scoring droughts of their own, as well as foul trouble from key contributors, kept the game low scoring. In the fourth quarter, Lipscomb slowly got into more of a rhythm and chipped away at the Lady Hatters lead. Junior Dorie Harrison and freshman Jordan Peete made several crucial free throws and layups to bring the game to one-possession before Deason’s three-pointer with one minute remaining in regulation forced overtime. Harrison, who finished the day as Lipscomb’s leading scorer with 18 points, kept her scoring going into the overtime period, getting all seven of the Bisons’ overtime points, and clinching the victory. The Lady Bisons will be in action again tomorrow at 1 PM against the reigning ASUN champion FGCU Eagles. Lipscomb is looking for their first-ever win against the Eagles and a spot in the ASUN championship game on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Lipscomb...
by Erika Plunkett | Mar 12, 2021 | News, News Slider, Sports
Coming into Thursday night, Lipscomb was undefeated in conference play this season. They remain undefeated after 110 minutes of hard-fought soccer that ended in a 0-0 draw against the Liberty Flames. Lipscomb leads their side of the conference in goals scored at 10 and features an all-star roster, including reigning ASUN player of the week sophomore midfielder Kelli Beiler, but on the other side of the pitch, Liberty leads the conference in goals allowed. Early in the game, it seemed that Liberty’s defense had met their match as several promising crosses entered the box from the Lipscomb attack. But when faced with the 50-50 balls within their own 18 Liberty found a way to win these matchups and clear the ball. However, a handball in the first half almost changed the dynamic of the game, as Lipscomb received a set-piece just outside the box that was beautifully placed by sophomore striker Molly Grant into the upper right corner of the net, but was even more skillfully saved by sophomore goalkeeper Melody Jayroe. Jayroe proved to be a thorn in the Bisons’ sides as she maintained a clean slate despite several promising attempts from Lipscomb. In the other net, freshman goalkeeper CJ Graham got her first conference start for the Bisons and did so masterfully, even while battling the 20 mph gusts. With the impeccable goalie prowess, the match remained scoreless forcing two golden goal overtime periods, where the play of both goalies continued to impress despite the physical and aggressive play of both offenses. With the tie, Lipscomb moves to 2-0-1 and Liberty moves to 2-1-1, giving Lipscomb the...
