March 2008

What's Hot at Vanderbilt

Zeppos Named Vanderbilt's Eighth Chancellor
Nicholas S. Zeppos, a distinguished legal scholar, teacher and administrator who has been a vital presence on campus for two decades, was chosen March 1 as the eighth chancellor of Vanderbilt University, effective immediately. The unanimous election of Zeppos, who has served as Vanderbilt’s chief academic officer since 2002 and its interim chancellor since last summer, was announced following the final session of the Board of Trust's winter meeting. Zeppos was chosen as chancellor after a national search. Martha Ingram, chairman of the Board of Trust, said, "I have come to know Nick Zeppos as a scholar, a teacher, an executive, an advocate and a friend, and I am convinced he is the best person in the country to be chancellor of Vanderbilt. This great university has come so far, so fast, and the principal reason is Nick's enormous intellect, his great vision, and his tireless commitment to Vanderbilt’s students, faculty, staff and alumni." Zeppos has led a number of important initiatives at Vanderbilt, including the planning process for The Commons, a landmark transformation of the first-year experience; the Strategic Academic Planning Group; innovative efforts in undergraduate admissions and financial aid; and the development of new programs in Jewish studies, law and economics, and genetics, among others. He also has led the university's Shape the Future fundraising campaign, which exceeded its $1.25 billion goal two years ahead of schedule and set a new target of $1.75 billion by 2010. "Vanderbilt set the highest possible standard in seeking our next chancellor," said Dennis C. Bottorff, chair of a nine-member search committee that has been at work since the resignation of Gordon Gee on Aug. 1, 2007. "We wanted someone with an effective balance of executive leadership and scholarship, an individual who understands the centrality of the undergraduate experience and, at the same time, recognizes the crucial role of our graduate and professional schools and medical center." Zeppos, 53, said he was "honored and grateful for the trust that the Board, faculty, students and alumni have placed in me at this critical time in Vanderbilt's history. Lydia (Howarth, his wife) and I came to Vanderbilt 21 years ago to teach and to learn, to raise a family in a wonderful city and to be part of a great university. We all now share a responsibility to make Vanderbilt live up to its enormous potential." Click here for a VUCast special video report about the new chancellor, including remarks from both Martha Ingram and Zeppos. Read more about Chancellor Zeppos here or listen to a podcast of Chancellor Zeppos’s remarks to the media on March 1.

Shan Foster, teammates celebrate Photo by John Russell

Another No. 1 Bites the Dust
The Tennessee Volunteers have gotten a taste of just how big a bull's-eye No. 1 can be, and Vanderbilt reminded everyone how dangerous the Commodores are when a top-ranked team comes visiting. Shan Foster hit six three-pointers and scored 32 points, and No. 18 Vanderbilt knocked off the top-ranked team in the nation for the fourth straight time in school history, beating traditional rival Tennessee 72-69. The Vanderbilt victory was sweeter than usual, coming just a day after the Vols had taken over the No. 1 ranking for the first time ever. “Our place was electric tonight,” Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said. “This (Memorial Gym) is one of the electric places in college basketball. Our crowd was absolutely unbelievable.” Click here or here for more about the game.  

Anti-Poverty Students Plan Spring Break Trip to Bangladesh

Vanderbilt graduate students from four disciplines—business, divinity, economics and education—have set an ambitious goal for their spring break trip to Bangladesh: find ways to alleviate poverty in the poorest parts of the world. One of the highlights of the Feb. 27 through March 9 trip is a meeting with Muhammad Yunus, who earned a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt and won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to combat poverty by giving small loans to poor people. Click here for another story about the group.

News Archive and NBC News Partner to Deliver Streaming Video 

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive and NBC Universal have formed a new partnership to provide streaming video access for students, researchers and faculty at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. This agreement allows the archive to deliver 8,800 hours of NBC news broadcasts to the colleges and universities that subscribe to its online service.

Foster Is Vanderbilt's Top Career Scorer 

With his status as Vanderbilt's career 3-point shooting leader already secured, it was probably appropriate that Shan Foster moved atop the school's all-time scoring list with a trey. The 6-6 senior wing connected from the right corner with 1:39 remaining in an eventual 78-73 loss to Arkansas to move past Matt Freije, who scored 1,891 points from 2000-2004. Foster finished with 22 points, giving him 1,895 for his career.

News from Alumni Relations

Class of '78 Reunion volunteers

Reunion Leadership Conference a Big Success

About 100 alumni leaders met on campus Feb. 9 for the Reunion Leadership Conference to begin planning for Reunion/Homecoming ’08, Oct. 24-25. Alumni from Reunion class years ending in 3 and 8 brainstormed party themes, set fundraising goals, and made plans to aim for record attendance. The annual conference provides Reunion volunteers with opportunities to reconnect with Vanderbilt and their classmates and to meet alumni from other Reunion classes.

Find Vanderbilt Events at a Chapter Near You

Connect with fellow Vanderbilt alumni and friends at chapter events in your area. Cities with March chapter events include:

Click here for the current calendar of all events planned in your area, and check back frequently because new events are always being added.

Alumni and Fans Honor Basketball History and Players
The Nashville Vanderbilt Chapter and the National Commodore Club recently hosted two events honoring Vanderbilt men’s and women’s basketball. Former players and fans came together at the Vanderbilt-Ole Miss game Feb. 27 to look back on three decades of excellence as the women’s program celebrated its 30th anniversary. The top three-point shooters in men’s history were honored at halftime of the Vanderbilt-Auburn game Feb. 2. 

Don’t Get Left Out: Update Your Contact Information 

Find out what’s happening at Vanderbilt, and receive invitations to Vanderbilt events in your area. Be sure to keep your e-mail address and contact information current using Dore2Dore by clicking here, or e-mail your information by clicking here.

Yucatan: Maya Treasures and Haciendas of Old Mexico
Journey back in time Oct. 29 through Nov. 8, 2008, and visit some of the most magnificent sites of classic Mayan culture as well as the colonial history and architecture of the haciendas of Old Mexico. This Vanderbilt Travel program trip will be led by Professor of History Jane Landers. Click here to e-mail questions or phone 615/322-2929.

Vanderbilt is rolling out a new, more robust and comprehensive emergency notification system beginning March 3 called AlertVU. AlertVU replaces MobileVU, the university’s previous system. AlertVU is a free, voluntary, opt-in service, available to anyone with a Vanderbilt e-mail address. When signing up, students can provide parent or family member phone numbers, so they can receive alerts, too. AlertVU will be activated during situations that pose an immediate threat to the health and safety of the Vanderbilt community and is an addition to other emergency notification tools, which include campus crime alerts, mass e-mails, tornado sirens and more. Online registration for AlertVU is available at www.vanderbilt.edu/alertvu. Questions or comments? If you have any questions about the AlertVU system, please e-mail a message to alertvu@vanderbilt.edu or call the Vanderbilt Environmental Health & Safety Department at 615/322-2057. 

Love Good for the Heart 

Being involved in a healthy, loving relationship is good for the heart, says Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute cardiologist Dr. Julie Damp. She theorizes that people who are married or who are in close, healthy relationships tend to be less likely to smoke, are more physically active, and are more likely to have a well-developed social structure.

Iraqi Infant's Surgery Complete, Family Hopes for a Full Recovery 

Pink fingers, toes and lips. Those were the things 2-year-old Amenah Al-Bayati’s mother noticed when she saw her daughter for the first time after recent open heart surgery to repair a serious birth defect. The surgery on the Iraqi infant was performed at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

The Commons Center

The Commons Wins Facility Design Award

The Commons Center has been awarded a Facility Design of Excellence Award by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI). The awards were created by the ACUI to encourage excellence in the design of student-centered facilities that support campus community building and student learning. 

Carol M. Swain, Vanderbilt professor of political science and law, has been nominated to the National Council on the Humanities, the White House announced. The appointment is for a six-year term. Swain appeared with President Bush and other presidential nominees in a press conference.

Vice Chancellor Schoenfeld to Depart for Duke 

Michael Schoenfeld, Vanderbilt’s chief communications, government and community relations officer and spokesman for more than a decade, will leave at the end of the academic year to take similar responsibilities at Duke. Beth Fortune, associate vice chancellor for public affairs at Vanderbilt, will replace Schoenfeld on an interim basis beginning June 1.

$4.5 Million Drug Discovery Grant Awarded to VUMC 

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a $4.5 million grant from Seaside Therapeutics to find potential treatments for fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of mental retardation and the most common genetic cause of autism. 

Department of Philosophy Hosts Berry Lecture Series 

The Department of Philosophy will host its annual Berry Lecture series March 24 at 6 p.m. in Wilson Hall Room 103. The event is titled "Science, Philosophy, and the Environment: A Conversation Across Disciplines." Lectures will be given by Jonathan Gilligan, an earth and environmental scientist at Vanderbilt, and J. Aaron Simmons, a philosopher at Hendrix College. The event, which is preceded by a 5 p.m. reception, is free and open to the public. 

Vanderbilt-Peruvian Partnership Addresses Vision Loss 

Mobile cameras, high-resolution digital imaging, and funding from the Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt University are among the key components of a cross-cultural pilot program to prevent vision loss in at-risk Latin Americans. 

Political Scientist Honored for Book on Negative Political Ads 
John Geer, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt, has been awarded the Goldsmith Book Prize for In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns. The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University awards the Goldsmith Book Prize.

Vanderbilt in the News

Class Examines How Biology Affects Ballots

THE TENNESSEAN--A class at Vanderbilt University is studying the role genetics plays in political decisions, from an electorate's willingness to vote to the ballot it casts. John Geer, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, and John Bader, Gladys Parkinson Stahlman Professor of Cardiovascular Research, teach the course and are quoted.

College Application Waiting Games Get Longer
HOUSTON POST--Applications to Houston-area schools and others nationwide are up dramatically, which creates more competition and ups the stress level. The story mentions that Vanderbilt’s applications are up by 30 percent.

Wallace Takes His Place Among Basketball’s African American Pioneers

WASHINGTON POST--Perry Wallace, the Vanderbilt basketball player who broke the race barrier in the SEC, is among the pioneers profiled in Dan Klores’ documentary, Black Magic, about African American sports legends of the mid-20th century.

Sports News

Vanderbilt Women End Regular Season with a Rout 
March 2 was Senior Day for the Vanderbilt women’s team and what better occasion to set a school record for SEC victories with an 83-54 rout of Alabama? The win sent the Commodores into the Southeastern Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed. Vanderbilt's conference record improved to 11-3, which is a school record for SEC wins. The Commodores finished 22-7 overall.

DeSoto’s Jermaine Beal Is a Dandy at Vandy 

DALLAS MORNING NEWS--Jermaine Beal, "a Texas boy 'til I die," is making a name for himself in Tennessee. Vanderbilt's sophomore point guard, a 6-3 DeSoto, Texas, product, is leading the Southeastern Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio and hit the game-winning shot at South Carolina with less than a second left on the clock.

Bounce Along for Day in the Life of A.J. Ogilvy
Vanderbilt basketball player A.J. Ogilvy allowed a reporter and photographer to tag along for a day on campus recently. Join Ogilvy for a busy day of meals, treatment for tendonitis in a knee, and basketball practice. Click here for video of the day.

VU Men Deal Kentucky Worst SEC Basketball Loss Ever 

Vanderbilt's win over Kentucky Feb. 12 was one for the record books. The nationally ranked Commodores hammered the visiting Wildcats 93-52. The 41-point victory was the biggest ever for Vanderbilt against the Wildcats, supplanting an 81-51 win on Feb. 8, 1989, and was the worst SEC loss ever for Kentucky.

All Nine Starters Return for Baseball Team, But Alvarez Is Injured 
The Commodore offense carried the team night in and night out over the course of Vanderbilt's historic season a year ago, and all nine starters returned. The dynamic trio of Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Flaherty and Dominic de la Osa propelled an explosive attack that led the Southeastern Conference in batting average, runs and hits. Alvarez, however, suffered a broken bone in his right hand in his first at-bat during Vanderbilt’s season-opening win over Oregon State. He will miss a minimum of six weeks.

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.Commodore E-News is published monthly by Development and Alumni Relations, Vanderbilt University. Please address correspondence to Vanderbilt University, VU Station B #357703, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37235-7703. Phone: 615/322-2601. Fax: 615/343-8547. Editor: Lew Harris, BA'68. Design/development: Development & Alumni Relations Communications. E-mail: lew.harris@vanderbilt.edu.