1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

News from Transy

Transylvania University and the Carnegie Center sign partnership agreement

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O’Brien and Williams sign the agreement in the board room of Old Morrison. LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University President R. Owen Williams and President of the Board of Directors of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning Eileen M. O’Brien signed an agreement today to explore the possibility of a significant partnership. “Our goal is for both Transylvania and the Carnegie Center to work together to better enhance our commitment to lifetime learning,” said Williams. The yearlong commitment begins July 1, 2011. During this time, the Carnegie Center and Transylvania will each share space with the other for programs, concerts, lectures, receptions and similar events, will expand or modify current programs at the Carnegie Center and will formalize and expand service learning and volunteer support. “We are excited to have this collaborative effort with Transylvania formally acknowledged,” said O’Brien. “Both organizations have demonstrated such a tremendous commitment to lifetime learning and the literary arts, which bodes well for our future.” Transylvania has a long history of its students volunteering in various capacities at the Carnegie Center. “We believe we can do more than what we’ve been doing and are excited about the possibility of making the Carnegie Center even stronger,” said Williams.  “This is a win-win agreement.”

R. Owen Williams inaugurated as Transylvania University’s 25th president

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—R. Owen Williams was inaugurated as Transylvania University’s 25th president on the steps of historic Old Morrison this morning. Before an audience of students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and guests, including Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, Williams was presented with the presidential medallion and the university’s mace. In his inaugural address, “Question Everything, Accomplish Anything,” Williams invoked Transylvania’s history as a “lamp in the forest” in the early days of the American republic. Reflecting on the meaning of Transylvania’s liberal arts philosophy, Williams stated that the liberal arts could be better called “the liberating arts,” because “they liberate us from the limits of our own experience, from prejudice, ideology and impetuousness, but most of all, from the inclination toward hubris instead of analysis.” Williams challenged students to ask questions and have big ambitions. “Dare to change your surroundings,” he said. “Embrace the world’s ailments as your opportunities. Transylvania will help you find your passion, but to be successful, you must clothe that passion with perseverance.” Gray and Beshear expressed their optimism about Williams and the university’s future. “In the nine months he’s been president,” Beshear said in his remarks, “he’s made it very clear that his mind is focused in a laser-like fashion on not only what Transylvania has been, but on what it can be in the future.” Gray stated that Transylvania “represents the best of [Lexington’s] purpose and promise.” David W. Blight, professor

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Inaugural symposium on the Civil War features nationally recognized historians and authors David W. Blight, Annette Gordon-Reed, John McCardell Jr. and Jed Shugerman

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Four nationally recognized speakers will discuss “The Civil War and Reconstruction in the Border States: History and Memory at the Sesquicentennial,” on Thursday, April 28, at 3 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium. The symposium, part of the inauguration celebration of R. Owen Williams as the 25th president of Transylvania University, is free and open to the public. The symposium topic is the focus of Williams’s scholarly work and the panelists—David W. Blight, professor of American history at Yale University; Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of law and history at Harvard University; John McCardell Jr., vice chancellor and president of The University of the South; and Jed Shugerman (moderator), assistant professor of law at Harvard—are former colleagues. Panelist: David W. Blight is professor of American history at Yale University and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale. He is the author of “The Civil War in Modern Memory: Robert Penn Warren, Bruce Catton, Edmund Wilson, James Baldwin,” to be published in September by Harvard University Press. He is working on a biography of Frederick Douglass, scheduled for publication in 2013 by Simon and Shuster. Blight’s book, “A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including their Narratives of Emancipation,” focuses on rare slave narratives that were the subject of a front page story in the New York Times in 2004. Blight also wrote “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,”

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Transylvania publication receives regional award

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Transylvania University admissions viewbook received the Award of Excellence and was a Grand Award finalist in the student recruitment category of the 2011 Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s District III awards competition. The award winners were selected from entries submitted by public and private colleges and independent schools in nine southeastern states. The viewbook provides a comprehensive introduction to Transylvania for prospective students. It was produced in-house by the university’s publications staff: Martha Baker, director; William Bowden, writer/editor; Barbara Grinnell, graphic designer; and Tyler Young, editorial assistant. “Our publications team consistently produces award-winning work,” said Sarah Emmons, Transylvania associate vice president of communications and public relations. “I’m delighted that the viewbook has once again been judged among the top in the region.” 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.

Transylvania honors 63 first-year students for academic excellence

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Sixty-three first-year students at Transylvania University were recently inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta, a national honor society that recognizes academic excellence. To be included, students must have maintained a 3.5 or higher GPA and be in the top 20 percent of their class during their first year or term of college. Vice President and Dean of Students Michael Vetter was initiated as an honorary member. The new inductees are: Justin Brown Apperson, Tyler Wittmer Arnold, Miriam Jane Barager-Kemper, Daniel A. Barber, Elizabeth Ann Barczak, Cody Steven Barnett, Ethan Wert Campbell, Ashley Elizabeth Carter, Michael Alan Chase, Malynda Judith Clark, Alexis Nicole DeCamp, Hamilton Edwin Del Grosso, Roshni Nitin Desai, Victoria Frances Dickson, Matthew Wilson Durr, Maggie Elizabeth Eakins, Victor Charles Ferguson, Ashley Marie Fox, Diana Marie Gooding, Mark Ashley Hatfield, Brianna Jordan Hill, Kathryn Elizabeth Hooker, Carolyn Rose Hubbard, Brian Patrick Hudson, Sarah Marie Jagielski, Meghan Fay Johnson, Kayarash Karimian, Stephen Joshua Kowolonek, Jantzen Lee Latham, William Paul Malicote, Nicholas David Marnatti, Kali Zoe Mattingly, Karah Elizabeth McDaniel, Kelsey Michelle Meece, Carolyn Elizabeth Meiller, Allison Shea Merritt, Melissa Rose Moberg, Colin Joseph Mong, Rebecca Kendall Oliver, Abigail Jeanette Overstreet, Anthony Joseph Pakozdy, Jordan Trace Perkins, Shelly Elizabeth Perkins, Anne Somers Preston, Alicia Marie Reinersman, Christian Nathaniel Rhudy, Karl Alexander Schmitt, Zoe Elizabeth Snider, Maria Angela Starck, Dylan Shane Stearsman, Amanda Mae Stoddard, Victoria Lee Sullivan, Raisa Olivia Tikhtman, Emily Marie Ullrich, Chad Michael Warner, Tara Katherine Werner, Anne Eugenia

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