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Transylvania first Kentucky school to offer women’s varsity collegiate triathlon

Posted on July 26, 2017July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Triathlon and Transylvania University Athletics today announced Transylvania is the first school in Kentucky—and the 15th in the nation—to add women’s collegiate triathlon as an NCAA varsity sport. The NCAA Division III women’s triathlon team will begin competing in the 2018-19 season. The addition of women’s triathlon to Transylvania’s varsity sport offerings was made possible through a $70,000 grant from the USA Triathlon Foundation. The USA Triathlon Women’s Emerging Sport Grant is distributed to select NCAA membership institutions to develop, implement and sustain women’s triathlon programs at the NCAA varsity level. The sport’s competitions include stages of cycling, running and swimming. “With a multitude of existing events and recruitable athletes in the region, as well as its proximity to other varsity women’s triathlon programs, Transylvania University was a perfect fit to add NCAA women’s triathlon,” said Tim Yount, chief operating officer at USA Triathlon. “More importantly, the Transylvania Women’s Triathlon program was made possible by leaders within the athletic department and the school as a whole who believe in the future of this sport at the collegiate level.” “We are so excited to have the opportunity to start a women’s triathlon team at Transylvania,” said Holly Sheilley, Transylvania vice president for enrollment and student life and director of athletics. “As we were exploring the possibilities, the support received from local triathletes and USA Triathlon made this an easy decision in the end. Dedication, passion, hard

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Transylvania ranks among MONEY’s Best Colleges for return on investment

Posted on July 14, 2017July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, KY—MONEY Magazine on Thursday ranked Transylvania University among Kentucky’s top 10 colleges when it comes to return on investment after graduation. MONEY ranks colleges based on 27 measures of educational quality, affordability and alumni success. Specific metrics include graduation rate, student-to-faculty ratio and graduates’ earnings. “College is now the second-largest financial expenditure for many families, exceeded only by the purchase of a home,” according to MONEY. “So it isn’t surprising that parents and students are taking a hard look at the costs and payoffs of any college they consider.” Transylvania stands up well to this kind of scrutiny. It costs about $10,000 less than the average top-100 liberal arts college, and 98 percent of all students receive aid that they don’t have to pay back. In addition to making MONEY’S Best Colleges in the nation list, Transylvania has appeared in other recent prestigious rankings. The school was named one of the country’s 10 best colleges for value by USA Today/College Factual. This ranking considered Transylvania’s educational quality, as well as factors such as tuition, grants, scholarships and the average number of years it takes students to earn a degree. Also, Washington Monthly said Transylvania is one of the South’s Best Bangs for the Buck, and Kiplinger’s Best College Values of 2017 listed Transylvania 60th among the nation’s liberal arts schools.

Former Transylvania coach C.M. Newton receives highest AD honor

Posted on July 12, 2017July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—C.M. Newton, who began his pioneering athletics career at Transylvania University, has been inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame. The NACDA lauded Newton for his achievements as player, coach and administrator, saying he “enhanced the game’s integrity and helped ensure basketball’s success.” After playing under Coach Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky, Newton coached Transylvania’s men’s basketball team for 12 seasons. He led the Pioneers to their first postseason competition in 1963 and recruited the university’s first African-American player. Newton went on to coach at the University of Alabama and Vanderbilt before returning to UK as director of athletics, helping turn around the basketball program and hiring the school’s first African-American men’s and women’s basketball coaches. “C.M. Newton has made his mark on collegiate athletics both as a coach and an administrator,” said Holly Sheilley, Transylvania’s vice president for enrollment and student life. “He has never been afraid to lead the way, and one of the ways he did that was through racial integration,” Sheilley added. “His accomplishments at UK—from facility expansions to his hires—are to be commended. It is a rarity to see an individual with such a high degree of success as a player, coach and administrator. It is a great delight for Transylvania that he began his career here.” In 1992 Newton was inducted into Transylvania’s Pioneer Hall of Fame. His other accomplishments include serving as manager of

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Incidental Illuminations

Posted on June 21, 2017July 14, 2020 by President Seamus Carey

The following originally appeared in The Huffington Post. In a recent New York Times article (6/6/17), Natasha Singer discusses ways technology billionaires are using their expertise and money to reform education. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has invested in DreamBox Learning, a math-teaching program that, like Netflix, relies on artificial intelligence to simplify the choices and decisions of its users. An algorithm tracks students’ computer keystrokes, collecting up to 50,000 data points per student per hour. This data helps teachers pinpoint the math concepts a student is struggling with. By streamlining the learning process, the theory goes, education is more efficient and more personalized. Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Facebook, envisions an educational process in which students ultimately teach themselves. Using software that his company helped develop, students select their own assignments, work at their own pace, and, when they run into difficulties, summon a teacher who is on hand to help. He also sees the program as a way to personalize student learning. Rather than sit in a classroom with 30 students following a common lesson plan, students cluster around computers and follow a learning plan they have configured. Mr. Zuckerberg believes this approach is akin to the dynamics of a start-up company, where collaborative sharing of ideas and reinforcement of individual enthusiasm, in this case, boosts student learning.

National Endowment for the Arts awards grant to Unlearn Fear + Hate project

Posted on June 20, 2017July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University professors Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova have received $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts to create a permanent, illuminated artwork as part of their ongoing Unlearn Fear + Hate cycle of artworks. The artwork will be a large sculptural halo mounted on a downtown building. The location for the installation is to be determined. The NEA grant provides initial funding for the sculptural halo, and includes LexArts as a partner. This grant will also help to facilitate the creation of hand-painted illuminations made by people within the Lexington community. The purpose of Unlearn Fear + Hate is to promote community engagement and dialog. “In part a visual petition to unlearn fear and prejudice, in part a commitment to treating others with compassion and justice, Unlearn Fear + Hate invites everyone to participate,” Todorova said. The wide-ranging public artwork is named after words from a poem by Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker. Unlearn Fear + Hate kicked off last summer with the installation of a smaller sculptural halo on the side of the downtown 21c Museum Hotel. Since then it has resonated throughout Lexington with other art installations, photography, stenciling and more—with participation from numerous school and community groups. Also, Transylvania incorporated the theme into its curriculum. “The idea for Unlearn Fear + Hate was born in 2015, during a summer of national tensions and local conversations that were difficult and, at times, antagonizing,” Gohde said. “It

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