Issues

Editor’s Note: Dr. Jerry Reves retired June 30, 2010, as vice president for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. The next spring he and his wife of 43 years, Jenny, and their black Labrador retriever, ACE, embarked on a yearlong… Read More

The Office of Alumni Relations is seeking nominations for the Distinguished Alumni Award, the university’s most prestigious alumni honor. Sponsored by the Vanderbilt Alumni Association, the award was first presented by Vanderbilt in 1996 to Bangladeshi microlending pioneer Muhammad Yunus, PhD’71, and has been awarded only nine other times since. Read More

If your graduating class year ends in 2 or 7, then you’re having a Reunion in 2012—and we need your help to ensure it’s a huge success! Please volunteer today to serve on a Reunion class committee. Contact the Reunion Weekend office for more information at (615) 322-6034 or… Read More

COVER: Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital patient Ansley McLaurin gets a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry House from Rascal Flatts members Jay DeMarcus, Joe Don Rooney and Gary LeVox. Rascal Flatts, who recently became the newest members of the Opry, personifies the growing trend of Nashville entertainers who… Read More

Franklin The first year of the James Franklin-coached Vanderbilt football saga got off to an exciting start as the Commodores finished the regular season with a 6–6 record, two SEC wins, and a postseason bowl berth. Franklin was named head coach of the Vanderbilt football program in December 2010 following… Read More

A complete team effort resulted in Vanderbilt’s first SEC championship in women’s cross country. The Vanderbilt women’s cross country team ran away with its first Southeastern Conference championship during October in Maryville, Tenn. Five Commodores finished in the top nine for a total of 30 points, far ahead of second-place… Read More

Hall of Fame: 2011 Inductees Nine Commodores joined the Class of 2011 Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame: Lamar Alexander, BA’62, track and field; Tyler Griffin, BA’06, women’s soccer; Carl Hinkle, BA’38, football; John R. Ingram, MBA’86, lifetime achievement; Peter Lamb, BA’80, men’s tennis; David Latimer, BA’98, cross country; Scotti Madison,… Read More

*laxabunga (lak sǝ buή´ gǝ) exclam. [slang] used as an exclamation of delight and laxifaction by laxers (lacrosse players). See also laxaholic. Senior Ally Carey is one of 10 players from Maryland on the women’s lacrosse team. Ally Carey grew up with a soccer ball attached to her foot.Following in… Read More

Bob Whaley, known throughout the financial world as developer of the Market Volatility Index (“Fear Index”), returned in 2006 to the Vanderbilt Owen School faculty, where he had begun his teaching career 28 years earlier. By Rob Simbeck Bob Whaley gets excited about the place where research and the marketplace… Read More

Michael Greshko blogged about his college selection process for The New York Times. During the spring of my senior year of high school, as I sallied forth ready to do battle with everything life threw my way, one herculean task remained: my college choice. I had been admitted to Yale… Read More

Situated on what is now Alumni Lawn, the original Kissam Hall was the first large, “modern” dormitory on campus. Crowned with two cupolas, the impressive building was funded by William Kissam Vanderbilt and finished in 1900. It served the university 57 years. When Vanderbilt opened its doors in 1875, there… Read More

Dr. Kyla Terhune walks briskly along the corridors of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, dashing between her last surgery of the day in the O.R. and her first afternoon patient in The Vanderbilt Clinic. With long curly hair pulled back in a ponytail, the tall, slender surgeon still wears her… Read More

Engineering professor Sankaran Mahadevan and his colleagues develop computer models that can predict whether complex structures and systems will fail, when failure is likely to occur, and how to prevent such failure. When you take a plane trip, drive across a bridge, or ride the commuter train to work, you… Read More

The struggle against juvenile crime may come down to one simple question: Do we want revenge, or do we want results? If we want results, says Christopher Slobogin, the Milton Underwood Professor of Law at Vanderbilt, we should reform the system dramatically to stress community-based treatment over incarceration. “The bottom… Read More

Provost Richard McCarty talks with first-year students and parents during move-in day Thanks to the generosity of more than 1,300 donors, Opportunity Vanderbilt has exceeded its initial goal and raised $108.4 million, as of June 30, 2011. Never has our university placed a more urgent need before our alumni, parents… Read More

John Stein, BA’73 (left), and Dr. Jeff Balser, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, sign the beam with patient Dalton Waggoner. The Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt officially launched a $30 million expansion project April 7 with a beam-signing celebration. Read More

As part of a major initiative to recruit and retain outstanding scholars and teachers, Vanderbilt is this year announcing 60 new endowed faculty chair holders. Already 34 of them have been honored in a series of events at the Student Life Center, celebrating the achievements of the chair holders and… Read More

Chairs of the 2010–11 Senior Class Fund student committee present a banner, signed by members of the Class of 2011, to Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos on Senior Day. From left to right are co-chairs Patrick Seamens, BA’11; Aysha Malik, BS’11; Eric Walk, BE’11; and Kate Foster, BS’11, and campaign chair Zach… Read More

On Wednesday, March 7, 2007, I was lying on my bed in the middle of the afternoon, eyes wide open, when my cellphone rang. I hadn’t slept much the night before, or the night before that, for that matter. Although I was utterly exhausted, I knew that sleep would not… Read More

Looking back, I wonder whether we should have been in class that morning. It was just before lunch, and I had already missed a few that semester—classes, never lunch—as, unfortunately, my first midterm grades attested. From our residence in Dyer Hall, the path to food at Sarratt took me and… Read More