Releases

“Efforts to weaken unions and cut wages and benefits among state and local government workers in the U.S. will reduce worker bargaining power and widen the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ in the nation," says sociology professor Dan Cornfield. Read More

The first African American to sit on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Judge Roger Gregory, will speak at Vanderbilt University Law School on Tues., Jan. 18 at 2:30 p.m. in Flynn Auditorium. Read More

Jean Keller Heard, widow of former Vanderbilt University Chancellor Alexander Heard and a social, musical and civic presence in Nashville for more than four decades, died Jan. 2. She was 86. Read More

Recycling at all Vanderbilt men’s and women’s basketball games  continues for the second year, thanks to a partnership between the Sustainability and Environmental Management Office and Athletics. Sporting events provide the opportunity to recycle much material that otherwise ends up in local landfills, according to Lindsay Walker, recycling coordinator,… Read More

A look back at 2010, in no particular order. Read More

A recent upgrade to the lighting in Buttrick Hall, a classroom building on Vanderbilt University’s campus, saves both money and the environment. The Plant Operations crew replaced 150 50-watt MR-16 halogen light bulbs with 6-watt light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs. The new LED lights will save 57,000 kilowatt hours per year… Read More

(Photo credit: iStock photo) Brain scans of adolescents with dyslexia can be used to predict the future improvement of their reading skills with an accuracy rate of up to 90 percent, new research indicates. Advanced analyses of the brain activity images are significantly more accurate in driving predictions than standardized… Read More

Young children born with cleft lip or palate are sought to participate in a groundbreaking intervention study to help improve their language and speech. The study, launched by Vanderbilt University and East Tennessee State University in January 2010, has already been found to have a positive impact on addressing speech disorders in these children. Read More

Space travel is not off the table if it would help bolster the Vanderbilt football program under new head coach James Franklin, said Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. Read More

James Franklin, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at the University of Maryland, will be introduced Friday as the 27th head coach in Commodore football history by Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and Vice Chancellor for University Affairs and Athletics David Williams II. Read More

Nita Farahany The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released its first report Thursday focusing on the emerging field of synthetic biology. Vanderbilt associate professor of law and philosophy Nita Farahany is on the bioethics commission. Read More

E&ES Professor David Furbish and students Grace Loy and John Rosenberry study the dynamics of the Columbia River around Locke Island, an island sacred to Native Americans endangered by erosion, in order to help determine how best to preserve the site. Read More

Civil rights leader and former NAACP Chairman Julian Bond will deliver the keynote address at a 4:30 p.m. event at Vanderbilt University commemorating the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, Jan. 17. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are… Read More

Dear Faculty and Students, With the inclement weather that the Nashville area is experiencing, I want to confirm that final exams will proceed as scheduled on Monday, December 13. As always, faculty and students should use discretion and common sense in traveling to campus to adminster or to take final exams. Read More

Listen to an interview with William Franke, professor of Comparative Literature, Italian and Religious Studies, speaking about his book, “The Revelation of Imagination: From the Bible and Homer through Virgil and Augustine to Dante.” Interviewed by Chris Benda, Divinity School librarian. Read More

Courtesy of The Harris D. Riley Collection, Vanderbilt Special Collections and University Archives This spring Vanderbilt undergraduates will study the political, social and economic events associated with the U.S. Civil War in a special course co-taught by Professor of History Richard Blackett and Professor of English Michael Kreyling. Read More

Stormy Weather tracks evolution of African American marriages Long-neglected love letters between a domestic servant husband and his teacher wife have provided an important part of a new book that tracks how middle class African American marriages evolved in the early and mid 20th century. Stormy Weather: Middle-Class… Read More

Student achievement improved and teacher turnover declined in schools participating in the Texas state-funded District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) program, the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University has found. “Our findings suggest that, more often than not, participants in the D.A.T.E. program had a positive experience and… Read More

Nashville Jazz Band, directed by Jim Williamson, performing in Ingram Hall with the Blair Big Band. (Photo credit: Vanderbilt University / Steve Green) Proponents of creating a cultural tax district for Nashville would need to identify community-specific goals that address voters’ shared values and ideals, according to a report prepared… Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement and the Indiana University Center for Adolescent and Family Studies have won a $3.8 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study methods to improve mental health services. The five-year project will examine how to improve mental health services… Read More