UNIVERSITY HONORS COLLEGE MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY | SPRING 2020 A GRAND PIANO Economics professor follows interest in public choice from Italy to MTSU ANCESTRAL TransferADVOCATE Fellow Gareth Laffely infuses history and hope into music HONOR | COMMITMENT | INTEGRITY | DISCIPLINE | FAITH | CURIOSITY | CHARACTER | CREATIVITY | Vol. 46 No. 1 SPRING 2020 ARETÉ MAGAZINE is a twice-yearly publication of the MTSU University Honors College, distributed free to faculty, staff, alumni, and friends. DEAN John R. Vile EDITOR Marsha Powers UNIVERSITY EDITOR Drew Ruble CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Carol Stuart SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE MARKETING SOLUTIONS Kara Hooper GRAPHIC DESIGNER Brittany Blair Stokes UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHERS Andy Heidt, J. Intintoli, James Cessna, and Cat Curtis Murphy UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT Sidney A. McPhee UNIVERSITY PROVOST Mark Byrnes VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Andrew Oppmann CONTRIBUTORS Judy Albakry, Darby Campbell, Sandra Campbell, Teresa Carter, Laura Clippard, Anthony Czelusniak, Gina Fann, Austin Ford, April Goers, Jimmy Hart, Gina Logue, Susan Lyons, Philip E. Phillips, Morgan Posey, Nottely Seagraves, Vicky Travis, Ekaterina Valuiskaya, and Randy Weiler COVER PHOTO Ennio Piano, by J. Intintoli 2,500 copies, printed at Falcon Press, Nashville, Tenn. Designed by Creative Marketing Solutions 0120-8296 / Middle Tennessee State University does not discriminate against students, employees, or applicants for admission or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or any other legally protected class with respect to all employment, programs, and activities sponsored by MTSU. The Assistant to the President for Institutional Equity and Compliance has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies and can be reached at Cope Administration Building 116, 1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN 37132; [email protected]; or 615-898-2185 The MTSU policy on non- discrimination can be found at mtsu.edu/iec. Photo by J. Intintoli 2 ARETÉ MAGAZINE | Spring 2020 5 Students 40 Faculty and Staff 48 Alumni and Friends 60 Class Notes BUCHANAN HIGHLIGHTING A GRAND PIANO 40 CENTENNIAL 34 CONFERENCE 48 A LEGACY Economics professor follows Political economists gather Alumni who benefited interest in public choice from to honor Nobel winner’s from Buchanan award are Italy to MTSU 100th birthday beginning to make their own marks on the world 3 FROM THE DEAN�S DESK Keep on Puffin! engaging than more difficult, Honors students as a group are overachievers, and when birds of a feather flock together, they observe those around them. They often focus on students who are getting the best grades (sometimes seemingly effortlessly), garnering national awards, presenting their research, and qualifying for prestigious graduate and professional schools. Others are virtuosos in art, music, or theater. Many have mastered multiple languages. Just as in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is reputed to be king, so too, Honors students sometimes wish that they might be in an environment, perhaps like that of some of the high schools they Members of the media were wowed when scientists once attended, where they stood academic head released a video of an adorable puffin bird in Iceland and shoulders above their classmates. They might picking up a stick in July 2018 to scratch itself. This remember that their parents once proudly filmed their was apparently the first time anyone had filmed a first step and recorded their first word. Now they sea bird using a tool, and this discovery called into pressure themselves to execute academic cartwheels question the familiar adage about individuals with while effectively competing in an intellectual Olympics. “bird brains.” They may be smarter than we thought! By willingly joining the company of others with One of my first reactions was to think how flattering above-average talents, intellectual abilities, and it would be to be the first person to achieve any motivations, Honors students set a higher bar against positive accomplishment, especially one related to which to measure their own accomplishments. By mastering technology. I began thinking of other tricks doing so, however, they are exercising and developing that I might perform if I were a puffin to entertain their potential to its fullest. photographers and viewers. Recognizing the value of It seems unlikely that one puffin will ever increase being human, I also mused that scientists had yet to the well-being of fellow puffins by teaching them how identify the puffin by name and guessed that fellow to scratch themselves with a stick. But, by accepting puffins probably have no idea of its fame. Even were the challenges of an Honors education and aiming the puffin to wield a hammer, it is unlikely that it would for challenging careers, Honors students significantly garner recognition from its fellows. contribute to the greater good. Although they may feel that their own contributions are relatively meager compared to those of similarly gifted and By accepting the ambitious companions, most will find—to borrow challenges of an Honors another avian analogy—that, by moving beyond the colony of puffins, they will have the thrill of flying with education . students the eagles. significantly contribute to the greater good. John R. Vile A number of students who have won our highest scholarships fear that they may have been selected by areté mistake. Others fall victim to the Imposter Syndrome, noun (ahr-i- ) where they focus on their own inadequacies and tey doubt their intellectual competence. the aggregate of qualities, as valor and Too often, Honors students put more pressure on virtue, making up good character themselves than their status warrants, and no wonder. Even though Honors courses are typically more 4 ARETÉ MAGAZINE | Spring 2020 Students register to vote during Constitution Day 2019. CONSTITUTION DAY 2019 Honors Dean John R. Vile Cody Maness Mary Evins, director of MTSU's American Democracy Project On-campus voter registration Kylie Dykgraaf Laura Morgan Students waiting to read Tre Hargett, Tennessee Maya Swaminathan aloud from the Constitution secretary of state Students 5 NEW BUCHANAN FELLOWS INAUGURATED The 2019 class of Buchanan Fellows Twenty freshmen, including four out-of-state students, were inaugurated as Buchanan Fellows on Sept. 6 at the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building. The 16 in-state students represented 14 Tennessee high schools and one home school. Senior Buchanan Fellow Cassidy Johnson and junior Mark Blackmon welcomed the new scholars, and Buchanan Fellow alumna Tandra Martin (’15) challenged the group. Martin, a Rhodes Scholarship finalist and Fulbright Scholarship recipient, is currently program Mark Blackmon Cassidy Johnson coordinator for the Office of Active Citizenship and Service at Vanderbilt University. Honors Transfer Fellow Gareth Laffely provided music for the occasion. Tandra Martin Inauguration of new Buchanan Fellows 6 ARETÉ MAGAZINE | Spring 2020 HONORS Honors Ambassadors gather together to discuss plans for the Fall 2019 semester. Pictured are (l–r): front, Madonna Ghobrial, Gabriella Morin, and Georgey Weismann, and back, Cody Maness, Connor AMBASSADORS Chase, Roqué Marcelo, and Gareth Laffely. GRANT TO BOOST TRANSFER EXPERIENCE The Jennings A. and Rebecca Jones Foundation has The foundation is named for the founder of the former awarded the Honors College a grant of $15,000 a year National Savings Life Insurance Co. and director of for each of the next three years in order to enhance Murfreesboro Bank and Trust Co. and his wife, who the educational experiences of transfer students within served as an officer and director of the foundation. the college. The Jones Foundation seeks to encourage innovative When making a presentation to the foundation, nonprofit projects, primarily through investments Honors Dean John R. Vile pointed to the increasing in educational institutions driven by exceptional number of transfer students that the college has been leadership, focused on serving motivated students. attracting and that “the best indicator of success The foundation supports the Chairs of Excellence at in college is success in college.” Vile was joined MTSU’s Jennings A. Jones College of Business. by Gabriella Morin, who described her positive Vile notes that the funds will be used to support experiences in the Honors College, and by Gareth study abroad, registration fees for conferences, Laffely, a transfer student from Volunteer State presentations at professional associations, submission Community College. costs for publications, and other educational The executive director of the Jones Foundation enhancements that will increase the competitiveness is Lisa Mitchell, whose son Clayton was an Honors of MTSU students. student who subsequently went to pharmacy school. Students 7 PKP HOLDS FALL INITIATION University mascot Lightning poses with the officers of MTSU’s CEREMONY chapter of Phi Kappa Phi (l–r): Philip E. Phillips, John R. Vile, Maria Bachman, Gina Logue, Sandra Campbell, Jasmin Laurel, Beatriz Dedicatoria, Cody Maness, and Dianna Rust. Seventy-three of MTSU’s brightest students became Honors Student Initiates members of the University’s most prestigious honor society, Phi Kappa Phi, in a Nov. 12 initiation ceremony in the Student Union Ballroom. Jarod Ball Elizabeth Murphy Exercise Science