1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Transylvania University’s commitment to sustainability saves energy and over $60 thousand during winter break

LEXINGTON, Ky.—For the second year in a row, Transylvania tallied significant energy savings during the university’s winter break by implementing a campus-wide shutdown plan. While students, faculty, and the majority of the university’s staff enjoyed a two-week holiday break (December 20, 2012 – January 2, 2013), physical plant staff and others took steps to ensure energy consumption during that time was minimal. Conscientious preparation by all members of the campus community resulted in energy savings of $61,125, which was $4,886 more than the university saved during last winter’s shut down. “By adopting and adhering to a well-orchestrated holiday shutdown plan, we were able to reduce energy consumption in all campus buildings,” said Marc Mathews, vice president for finance and business. “This not only helps us meet our conservation and sustainability goals, it also allows us to redirect those funds to academic and extracurricular programs that directly benefit our students.” Living sustainably is a primary value of the university, which integrates discussion of sustainable practices into academic coursework, visiting lectures, and planning for campus social activities. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to consider the impact of their everyday decisions and adopt sustainable practices whenever possible. In addition to establishing the winter break shut down, Transylvania University’s energy policy also sets temperature ranges and operating hours for university-owned buildings, affirms the university’s commitment to purchasing Energy Star equipment, pledges that all new buildings will be constructed to-at minimum-a LEED silver standard,

Transylvania speech and debate team excels at Kentucky Forensics Association State Championship

LEXINGTON, Ky.— The Transylvania speech and debate team excelled at the 2013 Kentucky Forensic Association State Tournament on Saturday, winning small school debate sweepstakes, and small school individual events sweepstakes as well as being named second overall grand champion. Coach Gary Deaton was also recognized, winning the co-coach of the year award. Transylvania University hosted the tournament, which brought schools all across the state to compete in speech and debate events. In addition to several other awards, Bryan Dickman, of Williamsburg, Ky., also received the Harlan Hamm Award for Speech and Debate Excellence, which honors a student who displays service to the activity, service to the university and community, and competitive excellence. Transylvania debate teams accounted for four out of the eight debate quarter-finalists, three out of the four semi-finalists, and won both first (Taylor Deaton, of Richmond, Ky., and Rachel Smith, of Mayfield, Ky.) and second (Dickman and Ian Smith, of Lawrenceburg, Ky.) place debate team. Many other team members went on to win individual awards as well, including four first place individual awards; four second place individual awards; and five third place individual awards. Ian Smith, Taylor Deaton and Angelica Miller, of Bristol, Va., also received quadrathon awards, which measures personal success in four or more events. Transylvania University’s debate team coaching staff includes Gary Deaton and alums Leigh Ann Jordan, associate director of forensics; Clint Jones, assistant director of forensics; Raven Mineo, director of debate; and Brian

President of American Philosophical Association to give Transylvania’s 2013 Rick O’Neil Philosophy Lecture

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Linda Martín Alcoff, president of the American Philosophical Association, professor and author, will deliver the 2013 Rick O’Neil lecture, “Social Identities and the Question of Realism: Against Post-Ethnic Utopias,” at Transylvania University Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. in Carrick Theater in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. The talk is free and open to the public. Martín Alcoff is professor of philosophy at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. She has degrees from Georgia State University and Brown University and has held positions at Syracuse University, SUNY Stony Brook and Kalamazoo College and visiting appointments at Cornell, Brown and the University of Aarhus. Her writings have focused on social identity and race, epistemology and politics, sexual violence, Foucault, and Latino issues in philosophy. She has written two books, “Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self,” and “Real Knowing: New Versions of the Coherence Theory.” She is currently at work on two new books: a book on sexual violence and an account of future of white identity. Also forthcoming is an anthology co-edited with Jack Caputo on the politics of love. She is a co-editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. The lecture is sponsored by Transylvania’s philosophy program and Sophia, the university’s philosophy society, in honor of the late Transylvania philosophy professor Rick O’Neil. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.

Transylvania Board of Trustees approves strategic plan: Transylvania 2020

LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Transylvania University Board of Trustees has approved the university’s strategic plan: Transylvania 2020, a comprehensive roadmap for the next seven years that encompasses enrollment growth, expansion of campus facilities, and enhancements to academic and student life programs. “The vision of this plan is that Transylvania will be recognized as one of the nation’s finest liberal arts colleges,” said President R. Owen Williams. “The plan builds on the national reputation for excellence that Transylvania already enjoys and takes the university to an even higher level.” Transylvania 2020 is organized around four primary goals: enhance innovative thinking, develop the whole person, promote civic engagement and social justice, and enhance campus infrastructure sustainably. Among highlights of the specific strategies are a planned enrollment growth from the present size of approximately 1,100 to 1,500; the addition of residence, academic, student life, and athletics infrastructure; creation of an experimental pedagogy laboratory to explore innovations in teaching and learning; expansion of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs; and a commitment to serving as a model of sustainable land management and development in an urban setting. An over-arching goal is for the energy and scope of the plan to help move Transylvania from its present status as a top 75 national liberal arts college into the top 50 ranks. “The most valuable aspect of this strategic planning exercise was the process we went through, which made the board fully analyze the college’s current situation and where it

Transylvania’s student newspaper, The Rambler, wins multiple awards at Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association conference

LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Rambler, Transylvania University’s student newspaper, took home 27 awards from the 2013 Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association (KIPA) Awards competition. It competes in the KIPA’s B Division for schools with 5,000 or fewer students. Sports editor Cory Collins, a senior from Vanceburg, Ky., led the way for the staff with seven individual awards, including both first and third places in the Sports News and Sports Feature categories. Also winning first place awards were designer Rachel Smith, a junior from Mayfield, Ky., in Opinion Page Layout; editor-in-chief Jake Hawkins, a senior from Princeton, Ky., in Editorial Writing; managing editor Molly Crain, a senior from Flemingsburg, Ky., in News Headline; and Andrew Williams ’12 in Comic Strips. “I’m really happy that we’ve been able to continue a tradition of excellence at the KIPA Awards,” Hawkins said. “I’m especially happy for Cory Collins for taking essentially every award for the sports category. The awards are only a small symbol of the hard work our staff puts into this paper on a weekly basis.” The Rambler was founded in 1915 and publishes every Thursday during the academic year. Students volunteer their time to write and edit stories, shoot photos and design the newspaper. “I couldn’t be more proud of what they’ve have accomplished, not just in terms of awards, but also in producing a quality newspaper every single week,” student media advisor Tyler Young said. “These are all students with full-time schedules studying