by Clay Smith | Apr 6, 2012 | News Slider
Lipscomb’s Department of Business presented its Entrepreneurial Pitch contest this week for students to present their business ideas to local entrepreneurs. Dr. Joe Ivey reported a great turnout at the preliminary Monday night competition, as well as a good showing at the Wednesday night finals. “The students have some extremely good ideas this year,” said Ivey. “We’re going to give these students some opportunities to win prizes, and we hope they’ll use these prizes to fund their ideas.” Students presented ideas ranging from a housing development powered by alternative energy to a website called dormads.com, which functions like an on-campus Craigslist. Bethany Hertrick won the non-profit category with her “international doll” idea, and Nate Underwood won the for-profit category with his food truck park. Each finalist received a cash prize, with both of the first place winners receiving $1,000 to put toward their business endeavors. “Basically, a food truck park will help solve the problem of connecting the customer to the truck,” Underwood said. “I want to do that through an actual location that food trucks can buy into with a membership fee.” Underwood said he also wants to have a web service that will allow the customer to preorder food and walk past the line to the front of the truck to pick up their order. Eight different entrepreneurs and businessmen from around Nashville judged the contests. Jerry Cover, a Lipscomb alumnus and dot com entrepreneur, spoke highly of the participants. “I was really impressed with not only the quality of the products that were presented, but also the quality of the presentations,” Cover said. “I think there’s a...
by Sydney Poe | Apr 5, 2012 | News Slider
Residents of Fanning Hall had a surprise Thursday evening when the fire alarm went off, leaving them to evacuate the dorm into the pouring rain. As of now no fire has been reported, and the cause seems to go back to the hot water heater. Students say that they knew it wasn’t a drill due to the rain, and that Head Resident Laurie Sain seemed a little confused as they evacuated. Because of the rain, students took cover in Burton or the student center before they were told they were allowed to return to the dorm. After about 20 minutes, they were told the dorm was clear and they could return, only to be turned away at the door because the fire alarms had gone off again. “I didn’t want to go sit in the basement of Burton,” said junior Amber Leach, “so instead I decided to go to Starbucks and wait it out in the student center.” At this point students were told that it would be a while until the problem was resolved and decided to wait in the student center or other areas of campus. Residents were allowed to return to the dorm after it was cleared just before 8 p.m....
by Caitlin Selle | Feb 29, 2012 | News Slider, Opinion
With unseasonably warm weather outside and the continued blast from the heating system indoors, students in Old Johnson not only can’t cool off, many of them say they can’t sleep. And not much can be done. Students will have to wait until mid-March, when the heating system is turned off and cooling switched on. Head Resident Caroline Gallagher said the heating system in Old Johnson is old-fashioned compared to other recently renovated dorms. It is a steam-based system, and that allows warm air to flow even though the units are off, leaving rooms stuffy and uncomfortably hot even as the weather outside is mostly warm this winter. Since the system is a bit antiquated, it cannot be easily turned off and on to account for the outside temperatures, and even when the process occurs, it takes several days, according to Gallagher. Gallagher said the university generally makes the switch from hot to cold air only once a semester, and this semester’s switch is expected to take place in March. All students asked said they were uncomfortable with the hot temperatures currently in Johnson. More than half of them said the heat interferes with a good night’s sleep. It has become more of a problem this year because outdoor temperatures have risen and remained among the 60s the last couple of weeks, so students come in from the warm to cool and then get…hot. In the past, a quick fix was to open the window and generate a nice breeze to cool things down, but now, opening the window offers little relief. Plans call for Johnson’s heating and cooling system to be updated...
by Crystal Davis | Feb 28, 2012 | News Slider
Namaste. I place my hands at my chest and bow. That’s how I begin my day. Meditation has always been something that has made my life easier. Classes, tests and projects can take such a toll on the mind and body. I realized through sickness that taking care of yourself is the sole important thing in life. If I don’t take care of myself, I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach. All things seem impossible in that moment. Sometimes I meditate in bed before I get up for the day, and sometimes I meditate at a stoplight. There’s no single place to find your peace; it can be anywhere you want. Yoga has been a form of meditation I’ve explored for years. The first day I walked into a small yoga studio in Franklin, I felt incredibly intimidated by this new activity, this new way of thinking that I was choosing to experience. Hoping to feel better, I explained to the yoga instructor that I wanted to de-stress and to slow my mind down. Thoughts raced through my head day and night – paying bills, walking the dog. Will I have time to work and do my homework before class? How am I going to sleep enough? Did I forget to eat? Anything and everything flashed in my mind. I wanted to feel the calm and hear the quiet. The instructor ensured me I could find it there and suggested I give it a chance, so I said OK. I greeted the other people in the class. I immediately noticed how quiet everything was. Everyone spoke...
by Sydney Poe | Feb 22, 2012 | News Slider
It may seem like a nuisance, but tornado warnings are meant to be anything but annoying. While students may be accustomed to wintertime classes being canceled for snow days, this semester they’ve been waiting out tornado warnings in basements across Lipscomb University’s campus. It may seem overdone and unnecessary, but the Lipscomb Crisis Center takes every threat very seriously. “We try and really monitor tornado activity,” said Kathy Hargis, the director of risk management. “We have several people who keep up with that so that we can give everybody an advance warning, specifically through LU alert.” While some students may find the alerts excessive, the crisis team tries their best to keep the campus informed. Hargis says when the Crisis Center sends out an LU alert there should be an action on the other end that ultimately keeps the person out of harm’s way. And it is especially important as Nashville enters into what has typically been the most intense part of the tornado season. Every spring, cities in the South and throughout the Midwest are wiped out by tornados. Last year, storms ripped through Alabama and southern Tennessee. Also, who can forget the powerful tornado that virtually wiped Joplin, Mo. off the map. While the storms themselves are somewhat predictable, tornados can pop up within a moment’s notice, not giving people in the area time to take cover. “There have been a lot of schools in the South that have had [tornados] hit their campus,” Hargis said. “So we really feel this type of thing will save lives if they take it [seriously],” said Hargis. It may seem ridiculous...
