Spring 2008

Thomas Schwartz, professor of history, has received the Faculty Alumni Education Award, presented by the Alumni Association Board of Directors last November. First given in 1982, the award includes a prize of $2,500 and an engraved julep cup. Since 2003, Schwartz has lectured at nine alumni education events for… Read More

Click here to view a slideshow of pictures from Reunion 2007 Because of your hard work, Reunion 2007 giving surpassed its goals, providing new levels of support for Vanderbilt. In fact, the final tally was over $46 million. The generosity of the… Read More

Outfitters to Wookiees and Warlocks: Paul Bielaczyc, BS’02, MS’04 (standing), and his brother, Michael, only use their special powers for good, helping solve the age-old problem of what to wear to your next Renaissance festival or science fiction convention. The brothers create ogre masks, elf ears, faun pants, fangs,… Read More

A childhood fascination with animal behavior led Owen Jones on a path to becoming one of the country’s foremost experts in the field of law and behavioral biology. Today he is one among a handful of academics in the country holding faculty appointments in law and biology and conducting… Read More

Graduate student Karthik Subramanian keeps his eye on the birdie as president and player with the Badminton Club. Soccer: Three Named to All-SEC Team Junior Katie Schulz and freshmen Molly Kinsella and Mary Rachel Reynolds were named All-SEC players in the fall. Schulz, a midfielder, was a second-team pick… Read More

Kenny Diehl, BS’75, took to the hardwood courts of Memorial Gymnasium as Mr. Commodore in the days before mute mascots with huge foam heads and comical antics–and was one among a long line of cheerleaders who donned the chivalrous costume as the vocal leader of the Commodore faithful. Kenny… Read More

Wide receiver Earl Bennett The 2007 version of Commodore football finished with a 5-7 record, but that was good enough to earn All-SEC honors for four players and attract a suitor for the head coach. Four Commodores were named to the All-Southeastern Conference team by the league’s 12 coaches. Read More

The three faces of Mr. C are Sam Newman (in gold), Mike Fagan (in black), and a third student who prefers to hide behind the anonymity of the Commodore mask. Photo by John Russell It was quite the conundrum. Mr. Commodore, the “face” of Vanderbilt athletics, had gone missing. Read More

Sevin Awarded Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit Dieter Sevin, professor of Germanic languages and literatures and chair of the department, has been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is the only order awarded by the president of that… Read More

Vanderbilt has launched its own channel on YouTube, the wildly popular video-sharing site. The channel features a broad range of offerings, including lectures, concerts and news pieces, and content straight from the classroom. Vanderbilt is one among just a handful of universities nationally with a branded YouTube channel. Read More

Kathryn Edwards works to find a vaccine that would protect everyone from a pandemic flu. Photo by Dana Johnson Vanderbilt University Medical Center will receive nearly $24 million from the federal government over the next seven years to continue evaluating innovative vaccines for pandemic flu, malaria and other infections. Read More

In a major policy shift, Vanderbilt University Medical Center will no longer allow faculty, staff, residents or students to accept personal gifts from industry, regardless of the nature or value of the gift. The policy is a response to patient concerns nationwide that medical decisions are influenced by drug companies. “A… Read More

The Saturday Academy at Vanderbilt for the Young raises the bar for top students. Photo by Rusty Russell Not every child would want to spend Saturdays in school. But these aren’t your average kids, and SAVY isn’t your average school. Beginning in January and continuing through early March, gifted… Read More

Thumbs Up for Residential Education I read with great interest Whitney Weeks’ piece on the College Halls initiative [Fall 2007 issue, “Common Ground,” p. 52]. The article was informative and gave me a good overview of the entire College Halls vision. In particular, the sentence “Disengaged students… Read More

  Teacher Mary Laurens Seely helps Tyler Rowland with his studies at the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital School, where young patients keep up with schoolwork. Photo by Dana Johnson Like most 4-year-olds, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is growing like a weed. Although the free-standing hospital was just… Read More

One of the first friends I made after I began work at Vanderbilt in 1986 was Grace Zibart, then editor of The Vanderbilt Lawyer and associate editor of Vanderbilt Magazine. A native New Yorker, she had been assistant fashion editor at The New York Times before she married a… Read More

SPEAR volunteers turn last year’s leaves into next year’s compost. Photo by John Russell Vanderbilt has more trees than undergraduate students–an estimated 7,500 leaf- producing specimens on its 330-acre campus. Until recently, all the leaves collected from autumns past were stockpiled at Natchez Triangle because nobody could figure out… Read More

  Lisa Robbins Lisa Robbins earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and worked as a reporter in Jerusalem and Chicago. When a newspaper editor instructed her to stop conducting interviews in person and to do all her reporting from behind a desk, she decided to… Read More

Enrollment of African American students has more than doubled in the past decade. Photo by Kathleen Smith Barry The percentage of African Americans in the fall 2007 freshman class increased by 12.3 percent over the previous fall, placing Vanderbilt fourth among the highest-ranking U.S. universities, according to The Journal… Read More

Nicholas S. Zeppos was named Vanderbilt’s chancellor March 1 following the Board of Trust’s winter meeting. The unanimous election of Zeppos, who had served as Vanderbilt’s chief academic officer since 2002 and interim chancellor since last summer, marks the first time in 70 years that Vanderbilt has… Read More