www.mtsu.edu/supportbusiness
continued from page 41 the classroom with students but also out in the Nashville area business community providing a valuable link to MTSU. Wright, who also cochairs the Centennial Campaign, says she endowed the chair in an effort to help America compete with the developing world. “The experience they bring—the real workplace knowledge that person brings, as well as the potential for research and for community outreach in terms of enhancing the reputation of the University—it can have a transformational impact,” says Wright.
Sandy Stevens, a postdoctoral researcher, is helping people with paralysis walk again.
The University also seeks to expand annual funds available to reward faculty for exceptional performance in their service to students, the University, and the community, providing tangible proof of the importance MTSU places on all facets of faculty responsibility.
Not So Run of the Mill College of Behavioral and Health Sciences Priority: Underwater Treadmill Program Students, faculty, and graduates of the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences (CBHS) are, essentially, community servants. That’s because CBHS—the University’s newest college—produces nurses, social workers, criminal justice and corrections workers, psychological counselors, and human service and health-related professionals. By preparing skilled professionals, CBHS produces a healthy return on investments made by individuals, corporations, and agencies. The college is focused on research and evidence-based models to address community problems. One nationally recognized example is research being conducted at the MTSU Exercise Science laboratory by Sandy Stevens, a postdoctoral researcher who is helping people with paralysis walk again. Under her care, those with spinal cord injuries can train on an underwater treadmill and are able to stand and support themselves.
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Stevens’s participants have shown a 57 percent increase in leg strength, 39 percent improvement in balance, 34 percent improvement in preferred walking speed, 61 percent improvement in rapid-walking speed, 82 percent improvement in six-minute walking distance, and a 121 percent increase in the number of steps they took in their own environments. Almost all participants report greater independence, better general health, and improved mental well-being. “If one thing has consistently changed throughout the course of treatment it is that hope has been restored,” Stevens says. “When the participants see their legs moving, they believe that anything is possible.” Terry Whiteside, dean of the college, believes that with proper support MTSU’s reputation as a leader in underwater treadmill research could lead to an aquatic research facility, which could expand spinal cord therapy research and allow the University to become a leading voice for using aquatic exercise to reduce the national cost of conditions such as diabetes and obesity. www.mtsu.edu/supportcbhs
Converging Worlds College of Mass Communication Priority: Center for Innovation in Media It wasn’t so long ago that mainstream media—print, television, and radio—were separated. It was also true that universities reflected the divisions between journalism and radio-television schools in their academic departments. But technology has changed all that, blurring those divisions and changing the way journalists and students across the disciplines conduct business. In this new world, content is converging into one electronic location—the Internet—where news consumers demand both visual and in-depth content from one location. As media converges, professionals in the field are forced to adjust to a new business model. They must be as comfortable writing a breaking news