August 2013

Transylvania University receives grant to attract science and math students

Posted on August 30, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—The National Science Foundation has awarded $593,869 to Transylvania University to attract and retain science and math students over the next five years. The largest portion of the grant—$520,000—will be applied to scholarships for deserving students from across the U.S. “Prospective students and their families have long recognized Transylvania’s excellence in math and science,” said Brad Goan, vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions. “The STEM Scholars Program builds on that outstanding tradition and provides even more opportunity here for talented and motivated students.” The focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines as part of an interdisciplinary education has recently gained widespread attention as a way to prepare students for a variety of twenty-first century careers. Transylvania professors Eva Csuhai (chemistry), George Kaufman (chemistry), Sarah Bray (biology), and Mike LeVan (mathematics) will manage the program. Application details are not yet in place. In addition to scholarship opportunities, the grant will fund guest lecturers who can talk to students about careers in science and math and present workshops on such topics as study habits and conducting research. A portion of the money is also designated for summer research to help prepare students for competitive opportunities outside Transylvania. “The main focus of the grant is to give scholarships to bright students who have a serious interest in science and math,” said Csuhai. “We want them to spend less energy worrying about financial issues and more energy on their

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Transylvania kicks off “Still Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness,” a year-long celebration of racial and ethnic diversity

Posted on August 28, 2013April 11, 2025 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—The year 1963 was a watershed for race relations—both nationally and at Transylvania University. Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. Around the same time, Lula Morton Drewes ‘67 became the first African-American student to enroll in the regular B.A. degree program at Transylvania, an act that heralded the beginning of desegregation at the university. Drewes will soon mark the 50th anniversary of her enrollment with a return to campus. She’ll speak at Transylvania’s fall convocation, which formally opens the academic year, at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 in Haggin Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. The convocation will kick off a year-long celebration and discussion at Transylvania titled “Still Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness.” The program will focus on the advent of a more enlightened attitude toward racial and ethnic diversity, which Drewes’s arrival on campus has come to symbolize, and on other events that have furthered this purpose over the years. Additional speakers, scholarly presentations, panel discussions, film screenings, and music and artistic programs are among the other activities being considered for Still Overcoming. It will center not only on Transylvania’s experiences, but also on related issues in America both past and present. “Race is obviously still an issue in this country, and we want it to be the starting point for our conversation at Transylvania as we celebrate 50 years of desegregation,” said Eduardo

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Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery opens 2013-14 with large-scale video installations

Posted on August 27, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—An exhibition incorporating video and sound waves to evoke the sights and sounds of moving water kicks off the Morlan Gallery season. “Waves & Currents: An Exploration of Sound, Light, and Time” opens Friday, Sept. 6, and runs through Friday, Oct. 11. The exhibition features two video installations: Dark Swell by Boston artist Georgie Friedman and River by Montreal artist Lenka Novakova. The title “Waves & Currents” references not only the ocean waves and river currents visually represented in the video installations, but also the media in which the artists are working: sound waves and electrical current. “The combination of water and electricity is normally a cause for alarm, but in this case, the results are electrifying in the most positive sense,” says Morlan Gallery director Andrea Fisher. Novakova’s multi-channel video installation “River” transforms the entire gallery space by simulating the experience of being caught up in a river current. The installation consists of multiple conical screens suspended from the ceiling leaving space in-between for participants to walk comfortably. Multiple projectors display river images on the screens. Meanwhile, Friedman’s “Dark Swell” depicts an ocean wave rumbling on a 9-foot-tall and 14-foot-wide wave-like form. The two-channel video installation is projected in various wave frequencies so it moves around the viewer, while a pulsating audio-scape emanates from speakers. Georgie Friedman is an interdisciplinary artist whose projects include large-scale video installations, single and multi-channel videos and several photographic series. She has lived,

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Writing Ills: A Diagnosis

Posted on August 9, 2013July 14, 2020 by President Seamus Carey

The following originally appeared in The Huffington Post. Among the many conversations within and about higher education, one persistent topic is the skills or competencies with which students graduate. In most of these conversations, skills are distinguished from content in a field. This distinction is often made among defenders of the liberal arts wherein the content base of a major such as literature or philosophy may not directly line up with a specific career like accounting does, but students develop the skills of reading, thinking, and writing. These proficiencies are valuable to employers looking to hire people who can interpret texts, communicate well, and continue to learn. In these conversations, strong communication skills, especially writing skills, are given priority. One reason for the emphasis on writing skills is that they are notably deficient among vast numbers of students entering and leaving college. Many college faculty question the K-12 educational experience of these students and deem them unprepared for college work. Some resent engaging what they consider to be remedial work that should have been addressed in elementary school and high school. Nonetheless, colleges are working diligently to revise courses and curricula to address writing skills. Outside observers and critics of higher education look at college professors and question why students graduate college with poor writing skills. These critics are unsympathetic to the charge that students come unprepared and want to hold college faculty accountable for what is accomplished (or not) by

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Transylvania once again ranked as one of nation’s best colleges by The Princeton Review

Posted on August 7, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University is listed in The Princeton Review’s “The Best 378 Colleges,” a ranking that includes the top 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges. “Transylvania University offers outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our choice of schools for the book,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior vice president and author of “The Best 378 Colleges.” The book’s two-page profile of Transylvania includes comments from students surveyed for the book. Students described Transylvania as an “extremely close-knit campus” with a “strong sense of community.” They said that Transylvania strives to provide “a holistic educational experience where one can grow intellectually and academically while participating in a vibrant social community.” Other students said that they work “ridiculously hard,” but that the professors let you stop by during their office hours and discuss just about anything. One Spanish and English double major affirmed, “It doesn’t matter whether a class is lecture or discussion based, because either way you’re guaranteed to learn something.” The schools’ evaluations are based on institutional data, feedback from current students, visits to the schools, opinions of independent college counselors and other factors. The Princeton Review is a New York-based education services company known for its education, admission and test-prep services. Transylvania, founded in 1780, is the nation’s sixteenth oldest institution of higher learning and is consistently ranked in national publications as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.