by Erin Turner | May 1, 2015 | News Slider
Gathered around a table in Pat Boone’s house recently, Lipscomb University President Randy Lowry and the Lipscomb-educated ’50s pop icon drafted a new version of the university’s alma mater. “My wife and I went out to Los Angeles to Beverly Hills about six to eight weeks ago, and we actually sat around a table in Pat Boone’s house and looked at the old music and then started playing with new words for the new music,” Lowry said. Lipscomb eliminated “David” from its title 10 or 15 years ago, and that was one of the major changes made to the song. In the lyrics “David Lipscomb” has been replaced with “Lipscomb University.” In addition to that change, Lowry said there were two places in the lyrics that were not inclusive for this time period. “[‘Brotherhood’] was a word that a church community would use and they would talk about all the churches ‘in the brotherhood,’ but it’s not particularly inclusive of women,” he said. With the help of Boone an updated alma mater was crafted using alternatives words. “An alma mater really tries to articulate some sense of relationship with this institution, and I think that one [the updated version] has a lot of really good stuff in it. “My sense is we always want to be alert to those moments where we can be a little more relevant, a little bit more sensitive, a little bit more inclusive, and after singing the alma mater for 10 years it just dawned on me: this is one of them,” he said. Keeping the original tune, Boone and Lowry gave the new lyrics an...
by Mignonne Bryant | Mar 31, 2015 | News Slider
While traveling several years ago, Lipscomb president Randy Lowry ran across an Au Bon Pain and wanted to bring it to campus. That idea became a reality at the cafe’s grand opening this Tuesday. “We finally got to the point of having the place, having the time, having Sodexo’s support and having this little French cafe,” Lowry said. The grand opening of Au Bon Pain brought in a wave of students to the newly renovated portion of the Student Activities Center. Festivities included free food samples, games like corn hole and spike ball and a raffle for Predators tickets, food coupons, reusable cups and more. The cafe has been popular since it opened on limited hours last week. “It’s a perfect location for folks to be able to come over and spend some time relaxing in the dining area,” said Wolcott Fary, Sodexo general manager. “In conjunction with the Student Activity Center, it’s a powerhouse punch.” Au Bon Pain offers a wide variety of options including hot and cold sandwiches, pastries, coffee, soups and salads, plus a large seating area for students to socialize or do homework. “It’s very popular,” junior Lindsey Lang said. “The salads are on point, so they’re really delicious, and so far the pastries I’ve had are pretty good.” Lang said the wait to get her sandwich one day was long, but it was worth the wait. Sophomore Zack Eccleston said he loves the new cafe and bakery. “I love that it’s actually kind of a full service restaurant at Lipscomb, and it’s really, really good,” Eccleston said. One popular item among students is the reusable cup. Once...
by Erin Turner | Feb 18, 2015 | News Slider
Nashville’s wintry weather — that has disrupted classes and made it tough for many students and faculty to make it to campus — may continue into the weekend. Students returned to class Wednesday, Feb. 18, after two days of canceled classes, but a mixture of snow and ice is lingering on campus. And it’s not going to melt away on its own, with local TV meteorologists predicting temperatures to plummet into the negatives Wednesday night. Nashville hasn’t seen this much snow and ice since the largest snowfall of the century, when 7 inches of snow fell on Music City in January of 2003. Sure, some say this is the “sunny South,” but the Nashville area has had a few winter storms of epic proportions. The wintry mix the area received during this week reminded many Nashvillians of the brutal ice storm of February 1994, when electric transformers lighted the sky like lightning as they exploded. Tree limbs covered in heavy ice ripped down power lines. That ice storm left many Middle Tennessee residents without power and heat for more than two weeks. During that storm, many parts of Tennessee experienced more than 5 inches of rainfall, much of it frozen. “I remember we played Belmont the night that it started to snow,” said Kim Chaudoin, Assistant Vice President of University Communication and Marketing. “I lived in Murfreesboro at the time and commuted to Lipscomb for work. I tried to get home and had to leave my car along Tyne Boulevard. I walked back to my office and slept on my office floor that night.” And there have been other instances...
by Carly Bergthold | Jan 20, 2015 | News Slider
Business leaders from the Nashville area met Tuesday morning at Lipscomb for a discussion on workplace diversity in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Lipscomb University Department of Communication and Journalism hosted the event in Ezell Center partnering with the Council on Workforce Innovation and National Organization for Workforce Diversity. Guest speaker Anthony Carter, Chief Diversity Officer at Johnson & Johnson, shared his ideas about diversity over breakfast. Carter discussed his belief that corporations should concentrate more on social leadership and global well-being. “Diversity is who we are,” Carter said. “And inclusion is how we work together. The beauty of that is how we pull all of that together to make sure that we are of best interest to our customers.” Carter views diversity as a social justice imperative, and pointed to Martin Luther King Jr. as a hero worthy of emulation. “His work,” Carter said about King Jr., “in fact his life, illustrates so accurately diversity and social justice. Think about it, Dr. King dismantled the barriers of segregation and transformed a nation.” Breakfast attendees came from all over Nashville to learn how to better support diversity in their own businesses, corporations and organizations. “Diversity really means everything, Lori Adukeh, executive director of 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee said. “It gives people the opportunity to be different, and yet be the same, to collaborate, to be partners.” Attendees also discussed the increased productivity diversity brings. “Diversity, and workforce diversity specifically, really speaks to equality and opportunity,” said Jacky Akbari, director of employee services at the Nashville Career Advancement Center. “We’ve found that when there is a diverse...
by Aaron Schmelzer | Dec 14, 2014 | News Slider
A new class of alumni took the first step into the next phase of their lives this Saturday in Allen Arena. Over 200 students graduated, including doctoral students, masters students and undergraduate students. Lipscomb president Randy Lowry spoke at the ceremony, sharing his hopes for each graduate’s future. “It’s your job to out into the world and take the sense of confidence and take the sense of character that has been developed here, and literally go change the world,” said Lowry. Lowry also spoke about the community Lipscomb alumni are a part of. Even now that they have graduated, Lowry hopes they will be a part of future projects. “We want you to realize that you will always be a part of the Bison herd,” said Lowry. Concluding the ceremony, Lipscomb’s alma mater was performed by Christon Carney, a member of the graduating class. A few Lumination staff members received their diplomas, including Kage Sanderson, Travis Byrd and former editors-in-cheif, Logan Butts and Cory Woodroof. Woodroof served as editor-in-chief for a year and a half, then passed the torch to Butts, who served from summer 2014 up until his graduation in December...
