Lumination Newscast, Feb. 22, 2013

In this semester’s seventh installment of Lumination News, Savanna Schubert and Nick Glende are behind the news desk to update you about what’s happening on campus. Nicolette Carney brings you up to speed with sports, Jessica Burke fills you in on the week’s top world news headlines, Brianna Langley gives the scoop on all things entertainment and Kage Sanderson delivers your weather forecast. This week’s newscast features a look at a dual-enrollment student who doubles as an amateur storm chaser, important information on the dangers of caffeine addiction, a few interviews with student from Egypt, some insight into this month’s celebration of Black history month, a few spring fashion tips, a look at the Star Wars Night that was held at a recent Bisons basketball game, highlights of the baseball and soccer teams and information about this week’s “Now That You Ask” event,  as well as our weekly Nashville Spotlight and Tweets of the Week. Be sure to stay tuned for future newscasts published every Friday here on...

Letter from the Editor – January 7th, 2013

Well, folks, the spring semester is upon us. With the mentioning of spring comes the thoughts of newness. New flowers grow in the wake of winter’s barren landscape, heavy coats are tossed aside in favor of lighter apparel and the joys of pollen return to torture those of us with allergies. While we’ve got a ways to go until March weather, the spring semester takes on that idea in the world of academics and social surroundings. We here at Lumination are experiencing our own changes, so to speak. Since our beginning in 2010, the official student news service of Lipscomb University has seen new redesigns, new writers, new readers and of course, new editors. Ever since I got here in 2011 (well, technically I’ve been here since 1997 since I’m a lifer – fun fact!), I’ve had the chance to work with two different editors – two people with tremendous talent and vision. Hunter Patterson ran the site from the time I arrived at the university until May of last year, and Emily Snell was the editor from then until just a few weeks ago. Both individuals have helped make this website a cornerstone of the Lipscomb experience – a source of vital information for students whenever news needs to be shared. I was blessed to have the chance to learn from both of them on how to be a good editor. Now, I get the chance to put those lessons to work. For the foreseeable future, I’ll be the guy making sure Lumination continues to be your number one source of news as a Lipscomb student. My two...

Lipscomb professors weigh in on using technology in the classroom

Over the past couple of years, social media and technology have reached an all-time high in daily usage. Many forms of technology are available almost everywhere via smartphones and laptops–including school classrooms. Because of this increase, teachers are struggling to keep the attention of their tech-savy students. At Lipscomb, technology can be found in many classrooms. While some professors utilize the media in capacities like Internet searches or PowerPoint presentations, there are still some that enjoy having no media in the classroom. Alan Bradshaw, chair of the physics department at Lipscomb, prefers for students’ laptops to stay in their backpacks. “It bugs the fire out of me when people use computers and cell phones in my class,” Bradshaw said. He is not completely against using technology, though. Bradshaw explained that he uses Lipscomb’s online blackboard to send questions to students so they can prepare for the lecture the next day. “I started doing this thing this year with my college physics class where I’ll do what’s called a JIT (Just In Time) quiz,” Bradshaw said. “They’re due the night before class, and it’ll be two very simple questions about what we’re going to cover in class and then a question that says, ‘What would you like to see covered in class?’ So, I can go through those and kind of get an idea of where everybody is. I like that a lot.” Bradshaw also explained that it is difficult to use technology in his classes because physics is a hard subject to teach using media. There are plenty of other subjects that provide the opportunity to use technology. One of these...

Student requests yield extra 15 minutes of breakfast time

After hearing from students, the dining hall has moved up its opening time to 7:15 a.m. instead of 7:30. At last month’s food committee meeting, students expressed their difficulty in eating a healthy breakfast and still making on time to 8 a.m. classes. Junior biology major Cristina Kelley said she never had time to get a balanced meal before her biochemistry class prior to the extra 15 minutes of eating time being added this month. “I still don’t know why they don’t go back to opening at 7, I mean, it’s only 15 minutes earlier. But at least they open at 7:15 now because there was no way I had time to eat breakfast with the old schedule.” In addition to the dining hall, Common Grounds, the coffee shop in Ezell, has also reworked their hours of operation. Common Grounds now will be open 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 7:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. Though changing the Common Grounds schedule never came up at the food committee meeting, general manager of Sodexo Wolcott Fary did have a reason for the change. “We found out that Tuesdays and Thursdays were more likely days when the graduate classes would need to have food and beverage options,” he said. Also for the month of October, Blue Coast Burrito and Auntie Anne’s will be offering specials. Customers can participate in “build your own soup and fish taco Fridays” at Blue Coast and purchase almond pretzels at Auntie Anne’s. The October specials listed in the email from Lipscomb dining sent out to the student body also include...
Charla Long applies theme park experience to education

Charla Long applies theme park experience to education

Roller coasters have been a part of Charla Long’s life for many years. Though no longer in the theme park industry, Long says her job as dean of the College of Professional Studies is “a roller coaster every single day.” Long, who previously worked with Silver Dollar City, Disney and Premier Park (which owns Six Flags), said the service mindset that was reinforced during her 10-year stint in the theme park business still influences the work she does. “I think that when you have a service mentality, that never leaves you whatever occupation you have,” she said.  “I’m all about, ‘what’s in the best interest of students, how can I better serve my students, how can I show genuine hospitality?’ That’s something that I’ve certainly learned as a Christian. That’s a faith calling for me, but certainly I had that reinforced at Disney. Although they’re not a faith-based company, we had a lot of common tenets about how we treat people.” Long taught in the College of Business from 2002-2003 before moving to Wisconsin with her husband, Allen, who was working with OshKosh B’Gosh at the time. After 18 months teaching employment law at the University of Wisconsin, Long said she felt drawn to return to Lipscomb. “I really missed the opportunity to serve in a different way at Lipscomb,” Long said, “although I love a public education environment because I’m light there. Students don’t seek you out for light here like they do at a public institution. They were always in my office for personal problems because they had no one to talk to. Here we don’t get...