The Campus

ClintonThe top three priorities for Tennessee’s elected officials should be the economy, education and health care, according to a new poll launched by Vanderbilt. A majority of respondents rated the state’s economic condition as “fairly bad” or “very bad.” The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions undertook its first… Read More

A surgeon at Vanderbilt holds his index finger against a fetus’ hand in utero during surgery With the conclusion of a landmark seven-year study showing clear benefits for babies who undergo fetal surgery to treat spina bifida, Vanderbilt has begun offering the delicate procedure, which repairs a baby’s spine while… Read More

News You Can Use http://news.vanderbilt.edu/research Wondering how NASA would care for a sick astronaut during a manned mission to Mars? Curious about whether eating more curry could help prevent tumor development? Then look no further than Research News @ Vanderbilt. With the aim of making science more… Read More

Three Receive NSF Awards Dickerson Three junior faculty members—Assistant Professor of Physics James Dickerson, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Hak-Joon Sung, and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Robert J. Webster III—have been awarded the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development grants. Dickerson has pioneered methods for making freestanding, transportable… Read More

A blooming star magnolia tree softens the straight lines of the Annette & Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library in the background. Photo by Mary Donaldson… Read More

A new view of Vanderbilt University—its people, places and events—is being showcased each day in 2011 on 365@VU, a new stream on the photo-sharing website Flickr. The project features a new photo by Vanderbilt’s photography services team each day. Photographers share their perspectives on the life of… Read More

Helping to foster children’s learning and readiness for school through the federal Head Start program is the goal of a new National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, created last fall with a $40 million grant from the Office of Head Start. Peabody College is one of… Read More

Vanderbilt is proud to announce the birth of a healthy, happy, parent-friendly endeavor: Baby Time, an iPhone application for expectant parents. The free app, brainchild of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Medical Center’s Department of Strategic Marketing, is designed to help expectant… Read More

Cornelia Clark Sworn in as Tennessee Chief Justice The Hon. Cornelia A. Clark, BA’71, JD’79, became the second woman in the state’s history to serve as chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court when she was sworn into office Sept. 1. She took the oath at the historic Williamson County Courthouse in… Read More

First-year students mix it up at the Student Organizations Fair held in August. Read More

This little goldfinch adds a bit of life and color to the “Tree of Learning” sculpture just outside the Central Library. The sculpture by Greg Wyatt is the centerpiece of the Garden of Great Ideas, bronzes sponsored by the Newington Cropsey Foundation and scattered throughout campus. Read More

Performance Pay Alone Doesn’t Raise Scores Rewarding teachers with bonus pay, in the absence of any other support programs, does not raise student test scores, according to a study by the National Center on Performance Incentives at Peabody College. This and other findings from a three-year experiment—the first scientific study… Read More

Vanderbilt’s commitment to graduate education is paying big dividends. Applications have risen by 36 percent during the past five years, from 5,203 in 2005 to 7,109 in 2010. The university made offers of admission to 13 percent of applicants in 2010, as compared to 17 percent in 2005. The… Read More

Vanderbilt’s Department of Pediatrics, in partnership with the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County Department of Parks and Recreation, has been awarded a $12 million, seven-year grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for an ambitious project aimed at stopping obesity in preschoolers before it can take hold. The project,… Read More

Vanderbilt is among the top 20 medium-sized colleges and universities contributing the greatest number of graduating seniors to Teach for America’s 2010 teaching corps. According to Teach for America’s recently released annual rankings, Vanderbilt tied for 10th, up from 17th last year, with 36 graduates teaching this fall in urban… Read More

A 68-year-old male with advanced prostate cancer lies on the operating table. A 1,500-pound contraption looms over him, its metal arms extending like tentacles into tiny holes in his abdomen. At the opposite side of the room, his surgeon sits with face pressed into a large console, hands and feet… Read More

A new national center based at Peabody College is tasked with identifying key elements that make some high schools in urban districts more effective at improving outcomes for low-income and minority students, as well as English language learners. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has awarded $13.6 million over five… Read More

Vanderbilt’s new expanded aid program has resulted in the most selective class in the university’s history. Beginning in the fall of 2009, Vanderbilt eliminated all need-based loans for admitted students, choosing to substitute scholarships and grants for those with demonstrated need. Applications jumped to 21,811 for the Class of 2014,… Read More

“If we don’t educate girls, communities will never, never change.” —Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time, speaking Sept. 22 on The Commons. His best-selling book was given to all members of Vanderbilt’s first-year class to… Read More

Beloved Commodore Coach Roy Skinner passed away Oct. 25 of respiratory failure at Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville. He was 80. The Skinner years as men’s basketball coach spanned the ’60s and ’70s and were marked by major milestones and achievements as yet unequaled by his successors. He compiled… Read More