News from Vanderbilt University

Listen to podcasts from the Food Security Summit, which addressed many of our region's most pressing issues -- including hunger, poverty, obesity, land use, development and the depletion of natural resources -- through their connection to food.

In what has become a summertime tradition in Nashville, the popular Bluebird on the Mountain concert series begins its fourth season at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory. This year's series opens with a show featuring performances by Tony Haselden, Georgia Middleman and Billy Kirsch. The 2008 series – which includes six concerts – runs from May 17 to Oct. 11 and will showcase nearly two dozen of Nashville's finest singer-songwriters.

An international rock star, a little rain and Chinese lions, oh my . . . check out VUCast's coverage of Senior Day.

Larry R. Churchill, the Ann Geddes Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics, discusses the reasons why Medicare is prone to crises and which reason we need to pay attention to, at the May 7 "Thinking Out of the Lunchbox."

Accomplishments will flow naturally from the talents, training and motivation of Vanderbilt graduates, said Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos at the Vanderbilt Commencement ceremony on Friday. Happiness is a trickier proposition, he said, and offered some guidance on how to achieve it. (Video and audio of address included).

A roundup of news and feature items related to Vanderbilt Commencement, May 7-9, 2008.

Vanderbilt University has partnered with the University of Memphis and East Tennessee State University to host a statewide, free electronics recycling event May 14 to 17. The LP Field parking lots will be the collection point for Middle Tennessee.