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News Briefs

University adopts long-range strategic plan

Union trustees in December approved a long-range strategic plan for the university, “United in Spirit. Grounded in Truth.”

The plan emphasizes seven strategic themes that will guide the work of the university over the next five years: bearing witness to the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, expanding enrollment across the university, enhancing operational effectiveness and efficiency to advance the mission, revising the liberal arts core curriculum, supporting meaningful research among faculty and students, developing leaders for the future and bolstering student life and building community.

“The point of our planning process was to get us to strategically and intentionally think about how we can both unify and coordinate our efforts to accomplish the mission of the institution,” Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver said. “We have really talented and thoughtful people who have good ideas. This is a way for us to identify the things that we’ll be pursuing together over the next five years.”

Union partners with local colleges to launch ‘MentorU’ program for 6th graders

MentorU Union University and four other higher education institutions in Jackson have launched MentorU, a program that matches sixth graders with mentors from Jackson’s colleges and universities.

The MentorU program is a collaboration between all five higher education institutions in Jackson – Jackson State Community College, Lane College, Tennessee College of Applied Technology, University of Memphis Lambuth and Union. The program is designed to help the sixth graders consider future college and career opportunities.

“Sixth grade is when some young people’s views of their future start to diminish,” Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver said. “The idea is to catch these sixth graders at a moment when we can encourage them to pursue college. The ultimate idea is to lift young students’ aspirations about college attainment in Jackson and Madison County. We know that the earlier we can intervene, the better.”

Union, Lane presidents continue racial reconciliation dialogue

Oliver & Hampton dialogue Union University President Samuel W. Dub Oliver joined Logan Hampton, president of Lane College, for a Jan. 18 conversation about racial reconciliation at Agape Christian Fellowship in Jackson.

Hampton and Oliver discussed progress that has been made in racial reconciliation in Jackson over the last year and what steps need to be taken to continue reconciliation in the future.

The conversation, titled “Next Steps,” was organized in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The two presidents participated in a similar discussion on the holiday last year.

Citino addresses how German army lost World War II

Robert Citino speaking at Union Robert Citino, an award-winning modern military historian, spoke about the collapse of the German army in 1945 at the 19th annual Carls- Schwerdfeger History Lecture in October.

Citino said at the outset of World War II, the Germans did very well in Europe, but by 1945, their military was a shadow of what it was in 1939.

“It seems to me that no matter which battle I chose to talk about that the Germans had to fight in the winter and spring of 1945, the problem was the same,” Citino said. “The big problem was the disappearance of the German air force from the skies over Europe.”

Citino said the Germans had a state-of-the-art air force, the Luftwaffe, in the 1930s, and at the beginning of World War II it was vastly superior to any other country. But the Germans never manufactured enough operational, upgraded aircraft as the war went on.

“The allies were building newer, better planes every year, and they had the materials to make thousands of these things,” Citino said. “But the Luftwaffe in 1939 looked exactly the same as the Luftwaffe in 1945.”

New teachers with Union degrees fare well in education report card

Union University’s educator preparation program is providing effective new teachers, according to a recent report.

The “2015 Report Card on the Effectiveness of Teacher Training Programs,” released Dec. 1 by the Tennessee State Board of Education, is designed to provide the public with information about the effectiveness of teacher training programs in Tennessee. It measures the performance of new teachers who have been in the classroom from one to three years.

According to the report card, new teachers who graduated from Union performed equal to or better than all teachers (new or veteran) in the state. The report card measured the effectiveness of 138 Union graduates who completed either the traditional undergraduate licensure program, Union’s Master of Urban Education degree through the Memphis Teacher Residency program or a Master of Arts in Education degree while teaching on an alternative license.

“We are preparing good, effective teachers,” said Dottie Myatt, Union’s assistant dean for teacher education and accreditation. “We prepare teachers who know their content. They are scholars. They are also practitioners and know how to teach that content.”

New Van Neste book covers key snapshots in Union’s history

Ray Van Neste, professor of biblical studies, theology and missions at Union University, recently released a new book compiling Founders Day addresses from Union faculty members.

Van Neste said he hopes the book gives students, alumni and faculty at Union a better appreciation of the institution’s history.

“It’s easy to be a student or even work here and have no sense of where we came from,” he said. “We can’t know where we’re going if we don’t know where we came from.”

The book, entitled From the Cloud of Witnesses: Founders Day Addresses at Union University, includes a foreword by former Union University President David S. Dockery, who implemented the Founders Day celebration. It contains every Founders Day address given by Union faculty during Dockery’s tenure.

Current faculty members Van Neste, James Patterson, Jimmy Davis and Cindy Jayne contributed chapters to the book, in addition to former faculty members Gene Fant and Carla Sanderson.

Rogers’ grandson presented with collection of grandfather’s sermon tapes

Andrew Edmiston and his mother Janice Edmiston Baptist preacher Adrian Rogers’ legacy lives on in a collection of audio tapes given to his grandson, a current Union University student, during a recent presentation in the Union’s Ryan Center for Biblical Studies.

A giant in Southern Baptist life, Rogers was the longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee. He is remembered for bringing the Southern Baptist Convention away from liberalism back to the authority of Scripture and a conservative understanding of it.

Kay Wilkes discovered Rogers’ sermon tapes among the possessions of her late husband, Ben Wilkes, who was a student at Union when he was mentored by Rogers. After learning that Rogers’ grandson Andrew Edmiston is a sophomore at Union, Mrs. Wilkes worked with Union staff to present the tapes to him. Andrew’s mother, Janice Edmiston, and his sister, Breezy Edmiston, accompanied him.

“Andrew was just 9 when my dad died,” Janice Edmiston said. “But sometime later, I found out he was going to sleep listening to my dad’s sermons. He’s still living on through them.”

Austill receives second Fulbright grant to teach in Bulgaria

David Austill, a professor of accounting and business law at Union University, has received a Fulbright scholar grant to teach in Bulgaria next spring.

The Fulbright program is a government program designed to help build educational bridges with other nations through an exchange of academics and professionals. Austill will be teaching graduate business studies classes in forensic accounting and international business law at Sofia University in Bulgaria’s capital. Austill said he was attracted to the Fulbright program because it gave him the ability to do something different.

“There’s an altruistic part of it that’s helping others,” he said. “And then of course there’s the personal side of it. It’s exciting, with plenty of opportunity for travel, and it does enhance the career.”

Hamilton wins Rash Award for Poetry

Patricia L. Hamilton with students Patricia L. Hamilton, professor of English, was recently named the recipient of the 2015 Rash Award for Poetry for her work entitled “Trespass.”

Hamilton’s poem was chosen from a slate of 19 finalists by poet David Kirby, a professor of English at Florida State University and a 2007 National Book Award Finalist.

The Rash Awards in Poetry and Fiction were established in 2010 by Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. These awards honor distinguished poet and novelist Ron Rash, a North Carolina native and graduate of the university. In addition to a monetary prize, each year’s Rash Award winners have their work published in the Broad River Review, Gardner- Webb University’s literary magazine.

McClune lectures at Yale, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

David McClune, university professor of music, gave two lectures to the United States Coast Guard Academy Band during fall break in October. McClune then repeated the lectures at Yale University for their music graduate students.

McClune’s first lecture was about achieving excellence through humility. “We must balance the ego or confidence needed to perform for an audience with the humility to serve the music and not ourselves,” he said.

His second lecture, “Searching for the Holy Grail of Clarinet Mouthpieces,” was about the physics of how a clarinet mouthpiece works.

Union professors named on U.S. patent

Three Union University professors were recently listed on a patent for their work on a golf training aid.

Bryan Dawson, professor of mathematics; Georg Pingen, associate professor of engineering; and David Ward, professor of physics, worked as consultants with Brad Priester, a retinal surgeon in Jackson who invented the “multi-rotor apparatus and method for motion sculpting,” according to the U.S. Patent Office’s description.

Priester is officially the owner of the patent, but Dawson, Pingen and Ward are listed as coinventors because of their contributions.

“Our portion of the project has mainly been in helping with the equations and working with taking raw data and turning it into the information that he wants to be able to give to the golfer,” Dawson said. “It’s the geometry and the physics of that process that our team has worked with.”

The team has been listed previously on other patents related to the project, with more expected in the future.

Brooks encourages cultivating inner character

David Brooks speaking at the Scholarship Banquet New York Times author and columnist David Brooks said places like Union University are important in a culture of people who are increasingly self-interested and prideful.

“Universities like Union cultivate inner light,” Brooks said. “They have a focus on the soul.”

Brooks was the keynote speaker at Union’s 18th annual scholarship banquet in October. He spoke about the importance of virtues such as humility and gratitude in a culture that he said is becoming more narcissistic.

Union students win ‘Outstanding Delegation’ at National Model Congress for second year

Garrett Wilson Seven Union University students participated in the second year of National Model Congress February 24- 28 in Washington, D.C., where they proposed, debated and voted on mock legislation under assumed names of real U.S. Congress members.

The Union delegation won “Outstanding Delegation” for the second consecutive year for its work in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is the primary honor awarded at the conference to only one of the 13 schools in attendance.

Garrett Wilson, a junior economics major, received “Outstanding House Representative” as the first of three people in the entire conference to have a bill passed in the House, the Senate and then signed by the acting president.

The Union University Magazine
Spring 2016