Dr. Syb Bennett, professor of journalism, has been selected as one of the 8,000 Google Glass Explorers testing the wearable computer while it is in beta. She was selected as part of the “If I Had Glass” Twitter competition. She said she’d use Glass to promote public interest, necessity and convenience like broadcast outlets. Specifically, she is experimenting on how it can best be used in journalism and in the classroom.  She is chronicling her experience at http://drsyb.tumblr.com. She also created an iMovie trailer documenting her experience.

Bennett was featured on FOX17 News Thursday for her work with Google Glass. Glass is expected to be available for consumers to purchase later this year.

University Minister Guy Chmieleski has signed a deal to publish his second book, Campus gods: Exposing the Idols that Can Derail Your Present and Destroy Your Future, this fall with Seedbed Publishing. Despite boldly foraying into the seductive minefield of what the he calls “campus gods,” the book maintains a conversational and even invitational tone.

“The university campus may be the most strategic soil in the kingdom of God and we must work together to cultivate it for the twenty-first-century world,” Chmieleski said in a news release. “With the dual trends of the college years as an extended period of adolescence and the rise of a highly genericized version of the Christian faith, it is imperative to creatively and compellingly infuse the whole gospel of grace and truth into the spiritual life of the campus.”

Chmieleski’s first book  Shaping Their Future: Mentoring College Students Through Their Formative Years, was written for people who would mentor college students. He shared lessons from the book and his personal experiences with Belmont students during a spring convocation.

“One of Seedbed’s core commitments is to the college campus. We have a tremendous interest and energy for publishing a rich theological vision for life, faith, and future vocation geared for college students and the campus ministries who serve them,” said J. D. Walt, Seedbed’s sower-in-chief. “Guy has the pulse of today’s college campus. He understands the unique challenge of pastoring a generation of students whose sophistication far outdistances their maturity.  We are honored to work with him in this crucial calling.”

Chmieleski also has been invited to write a feature article on this new title for the spring 2014 issue of Collegiate Magazine.

Associate Professor of Education Lauren Lunsford’s human development teacher candidates worked with a group of 12 through 14-year-old students at the Rose Park Community Center this summer to promote their leadership skills. The topics were aligned with the seventh grade Common Core Standards and included identifying personal style, team building and working together to solve real-world problems. The students said they “learned a lot about responsibility, working together, having a good time, and communicating.” One Easley student summed the experience as “about having a good time while learning.”

On July 2, Dr. Steve Murphree, professor of biology and entomologist, gave an Insect/Arachnid program to 100 children and parents at the Spring Hill Public Library as part of their summer reading program.

Sarah Cates has been asked to serve on the NashvilleNext Arts and Culture team.  The initiative has eight resource teams will bring topical expertise to support the public process. The NashvilleNext process will update Metro Nashville’s General Plan, which was last updated in 1992. NashvilleNext is intended to ensure Nashville’s prosperity and well-being for the next 25 years. It will incorporate community values and respond to changing demographics and other trends that will impact Nashville in the future. With the assistance of the resource reams, the NashvilleNext plan will address: arts and culture, education, economic and workforce development, environment, housing, land use, transportation, infrastructure, livable and healthy communities and public safety.

Dr. Beth Hallmark, assistant professor of nursing and director of simulation for the College of Health Sciences, recently presented two workshops at the annual meeting of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning in Las Vegas, Nev.  The associations promotes research and disseminates evidence based practice standards for clinical simulation methodologies and learning environments.

Hallmark was a co-presenter in a session about implementing cost saving and waste reduction measures in simulation laboratories.  In addition, she was part of an expert panel of simulation coordinators for an advanced workshop providing an overview of operational management systems used in simulation, covering inventory, scheduling and development of policies and procedures.

Dr. Douglas Murray, professor of English, was one of the invited faculty at the inaugural Jane Austen Summer Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, June 27-30. He led four discussions about Pride and Prejudice and on the final day of the conference delivered an address entitled “The Eyes Have It:  Male and Female Gazes in Pride and Prejudice,” applying ideas from film theory to Austen’s novel.