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Rogers selected for Witter Bynner Fellowship

The awards and recognitions keep coming for Union English professor Bobby Rogers.

Rogers was recently selected to receive the 2015 Witter Bynner Fellowship in the amount of $10,000 by Charles Wright, 20th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. The fellowship, funded by the Witter Bynner Foundation, exists solely to support poetry writing.

As a recipient of the fellowship, Rogers has two primary responsibilities—to coordinate a poetry reading in his home state and to take part in poetry readings and recordings at the Library of Congress.

For Rogers, who studied under Wright in college, the award is especially meaningful.

“I’ve admired Charles Wright since I was first figuring out what a poem could be,” Rogers said. “When I arrived at the University of Virginia to study with him, I was 21 years old and needing to learn everything. What Charles showed me was how a serious mind goes about making art.”

The timing of the award is also significant. Rogers received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for the 2015-2016 year.

“The additional funds from the Witter Bynner Fellowship make it a little more justifiable to take a semester off from teaching and sit down to make some new poems,” Rogers said.

Rogers is the author of “Paper Anniversary,” winner of the 2009 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. He is also the recipient of The Greensboro Review literary prize in poetry. His poems have been published in several literary journals including The Southern Review, Georgia Review and Shenandoah. He has been teaching at Union since 1989.

Rogers, along with fellow award-winner Emily Fragos of New York University, were presented by the Poet Laureate at a special poetry reading event in Washington, D. C., in March.

Biology major’s research may lead to new medical treatments for premature babies

Courtney Berger, a senior biology major at Union University, spent the last two summers at University of Tennessee Health Science Center researching the effect of different drugs on blood flow to the brain of infants.

The neonatal pediatric research focused on discovering how to get enough blood or oxygen to the brains of premature babies.

“It’s very experimental at this point,” Berger said. “We operated on baby piglets and introduced different concentrations of drugs to the surface of their brains through the ports.”

Berger is the first Union University student to be involved in the undergraduate research program at University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Dr. Charles Leffler, the primary lead in the scientific community on this subject, served as Berger’s mentor at UT.

“I was blessed to have a phenomenal lab,” Berger said. “They invited me back. I might end up doing that this summer.”

The research allowed the undergraduate students hands-on experience. In her first year, Berger said she made the drugs, introduced them and wrote down the data. In her second year, she performed the surgery on her own several times.

“The motto of our lab was, ‘If everything goes right, you did something wrong,’” Berger said. “Nothing is ever perfect when it comes to live animals. For us to measure the blood flow of the brain, they had to be alive the whole time. It’s what you do as a doctor—making sure you are keeping your patients alive.”

After graduating in December, Berger plans to attend medical school and become a pediatrician. She said the research experience showed her the origin of all the medicines she will prescribe as a physician.

“The research I worked on will directly affect babies,” Berger said. “It will be cool to see if it becomes applicable in my lifetime. Even still, certain aspects of our research have already gone into clinical trials.”

Berger’s research resulted in a 56-page paper for her undergraduate project. The completed research under Leffler should be published in a medical journal in the coming year.

“As a researcher, you discover something,” Berger said. “It’s yours, but you want to share it with everybody. I loved the fact that we are eventually benefiting the lives of premature babies in the future. It’s ground level, but we are able to explore the possibilities.”

Union names Nance as interim dean in business school

Bill Nance has been appointed as interim dean of Union University’s McAfee School of Business Administration.

Nance, who has been the school’s associate dean since August 2010, steps into the interim dean position following the death of Keith Absher on March 24. Absher had been dean since 2004.

“Bill Nance is a strategic thinker, effective leader, and excellent teacher,” Union Provost C. Ben Mitchell said. “We are very grateful that he is willing to step up to the challenge.”

Nance completed his bachelor’s degree from Regis University, his Master of Business Administration degree from Union University and his Doctor of Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University.

Undergraduate research could lead to clean water for developing communities

Smoke pours from the narrow chimney situated on the 55-gallon drum. Matthew Bentley stands back, watching his latest experiment produce what he hopes will one day revolutionize developing countries.

Once the fire dies out, he retrieves the instrument of this future success: BioChar.

An ancient technology, BioChar is undergoing a renewed interest by the scientific community. Essentially, BioChar is repurposed charcoal with applications that cover agriculture to sanitation.

Bentley, a 2015 graduate who majored in engineering at Union, is researching how BioChar can best be made and used to improve quality of life in developing countries.

“BioChar is a sustainably produced, carbon-rich material produced through pyrolysis of biomass,” Bentley said. “That means that a feedstock (an agricultural product such as wood, corn cobs or rice husks) is heated to very high temperatures in the absence of oxygen.”

Bentley’s research focused on the comparison of the two different methods of BioChar production and the variety of materials that can be used to produce it.

“It has great potential in community development because it can be sustainably and inexpensively produced from nearly any feedstock with locally available resources,” Bentley said. “This means that a community can get all of the components locally, without any aid from another company, (nongovernmental organization) or government.”

The development of nations aided by BioChar would allow communities to transform a natural waste product into a fertilizer and a water purifier, all without increased dependence on their government.

“A lot of the world’s need for water treatment is actually in Asia,” Bentley said. “But there’s also a lot of need in sanitation. BioChar has implications for sanitation in addition to drinking water. I know I want to be in a developing community helping people who don’t have access to clean water.”

According to Bentley, the benefits of BioChar could extend to Union University’s campus if the different science departments would research the effect of BioChar on plant life and its filtration ability.

“It has such a direct application for developing communities that doing research even at the undergraduate level could help people to understand how to implement it,” Bentley said.

Bentley said he also hoped Students for Sustainability might consider the potential of BioChar.

“It could be used in the campus garden and improve crop yield and compost,” Bentley said.

Jay Bernheisel, associate professor of engineering, helped Bentley on the project.

“Professor Bernheisel is actually on a research sabbatical, doing sustainable farming methods,” Bentley said. “He’ll probably use the BioChar for his farm that he has on his property.”

The research project began as preparation for Bentley’s graduate studies, which he plans to begin in the fall at University of Colorado in Boulder. Bentley presented his research at Union’s annual Scholarship Symposium April 28.

He plans to earn his doctorate before he and his wife, Ruth Bone Bentley, a 2015 graduate in nursing, go overseas to work with developing communities.

Art project honors persecuted Christians

Art professors Lee Benson and Chris Nadaskay have designed an art project on the Union campus as a reminder of persecuted Christians around the world.

Named “Habakkuk’s Wound,” the project consists of a trench filled with red sand and solar lights outside the Barefoot Student Union Building. The lights allow the piece to be visible day and night.

“We were thinking about how no one’s talking about how these brothers and sisters of ours are just being slaughtered overseas because they’re Christians,” Benson said. “I don’t think it’s because we’re unconcerned. I think everybody carries a deep concern for this. I just think we need to be reminded of it.”

The inspiration for the name came from Habakkuk 1:2, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?”

“We’re hoping every time you see that, you will say a word of prayer for our brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering this ungodly persecution,” Benson said.

Art students filled the trench with sand and installed the lights on May 6. The art department held a brief dedication ceremony, and Miller Tower rang 147 times as a tribute to the 147 college students who were murdered in April by Islamic terrorists.

Benson said the art department will maintain the site for a year. On May 6, 2016, the department will plant seven dogwood trees there and rename the site “Habakkuk’s Balm,” which comes from the last verses of the book.

“The trees will be a reminder that although we cry out to the Lord for help, eventually, our answer to prayer is the fact that God almighty has saved us through his son Christ Jesus, and we no longer are under the penalty of death,” Benson said.

Trustees choose Rogers as chairman, approve $91 million budget

Lisa Rogers Union University trustees approved a $91.1 million operating budget for 2015-2016 at their April 10 meeting and elected Lisa Williams Rogers as the next board chair, the first woman to hold that position in the university’s history.

Rogers, a 1983 Union graduate and a physician in obstetrics and gynecology with the Jackson Clinic, will replace Norm Hill, who steps aside after serving as board chair for three years. Rogers is in her 15th year of service as a Union trustee.

“I am excited to be working with Dr. Lisa Rogers as our new board chair,” Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver said. “Union has been blessed with quality board leadership over its history. I am most grateful for Norm Hill’s service as chair these past three years. Lisa will carry that tradition of strong leadership forward.”

Oliver said Rogers has a deep love for Christ, knows Union well as an alumna, has strong relationships with people in the community and has a passion for advancing the university’s mission and vision.

“I’m humbled to be chosen for this key position at Union University,” Rogers said. “My life has been blessed in many ways by my years at Union, and I’m excited about this opportunity to serve my alma mater in this way.”

Hill, who served as chairman of the nominating committee that recommended Rogers for the role, said she was a natural selection.

“Lisa Rogers is a woman who is wholeheartedly committed to the mission and work of Union University,” Hill said. “She has proven herself to be an individual of wisdom, vision and faith, and we are honored to elect her to a new leadership role.”

After graduating from Union, Rogers completed medical school at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and did her residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She and her husband Kenny have two children – Rebecca, a student at Belmont University, and Austin, a freshman at Union – and are members of West Jackson Baptist Church.

Rogers had previously served as the board’s secretary.

Chad Wilson, who has been the board’s vice chairman, was reelected to that position, and Peggy Graves was elected as secretary.

The $91.1 million budget trustees approved is a 4.64 percent increase to the current year’s operating budget and includes $24.6 million for scholarships and financial aid. In addition, the board got a clean audit report from the accounting firm Crosslin and Associates.

Fox earns graduate fellowship at Florida State

Jamie Fox, a 2015 graduate from Palm Bay, Florida, is a recipient of the Adelaide Wilson Fellowship at Florida State University.

The fellowship will pay for Fox to attend graduate school, allowing him to focus solely on his academics and his research. Fox is one of three mathematics majors to have received a fellowship from a prestigious university recently – following Matthew Dawson (’08) at Louisiana State University and Emilie Huffman (’12) at Duke.

While the financial support is invaluable, Fox said the fellowship served as affirmation of his work at Union.

“I applied to a few different schools, but when one gives you a really good offer, you know that is where you’re going to go,” Fox said.

The application process involved Fox visiting the school and speaking with professors from the mathematics department before writing an essay on why he wanted to be a part of the graduate fellowship society.

Matt Lunsford, professor of mathematics at Union, said Fox’s accomplishments while attending Union include a perfect score on the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test and a summer research experience.

“I am confident that Jamie will be a successful mathematics graduate student, and I anticipate the day when he will be not only one of my former students, but also one of my professional colleagues,” Lunsford said. “It is significant that Union University can attract such bright minds to our campus and that we can prepare them so well for graduate education.”

Fox attributed much of his current success to the diversity of disciplines at Union.

“The idea of giving these fellowships out is all about promoting interdisciplinary relations,” Fox said. “I majored in math and physics. I’m invested deeply in two different departments already, and I’ve really enjoyed being part of a liberal arts university. Being a part of this fellows society is a natural step forward.”

Fox will attend Florida State University’s graduate school in the fall, studying financial math.

Agee named to vice presidential position

Bob Agee became Union’s vice president for institutional advancement in February.

Agee previously served as president of Oklahoma Baptist University for 16 years and as executive director of the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities.

A Union graduate, Agee completed his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Philosophy in higher education from Vanderbilt University’s George Peabody College for Teachers.

Prior to his service at OBU, Agee was a faculty member, vice president and special assistant to the president at Union for several years.

Agee said he’s had a deep love for Union for a long time and always took great pride in his alma mater.

“When (Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver) asked me to step in and help redesign and train this office to be more effective in broadening the base of financial support for the institution, I felt this was something at this stage of my life that I could do and ought to do,” Agee said.

Formerly known as the Office of University Relations, Institutional Advancement oversees the communications and fundraising efforts for the university.

Agee and his wife Nelle, also a Union graduate, have two daughters and four granddaughters.

Cardinal & Cream named South’s best college magazine

Cardinal & Cream staff Union’s student news publication, the Cardinal & Cream, won 12 awards in the 2014 Best of the South competition sponsored by the Southeast Journalism Conference, including first place in the Best College Magazine category.

“This year was a huge transition for the Cardinal & Cream as we moved from biweekly print news to daily online news and a long form magazine,” said Ashley Blair, assistant professor of communication arts and the C&C adviser. “It is a testament to the excellence of our student journalists, photojournalists and designers that the very first C&C magazine was named Best of the South.”

The publication also placed third in the Best College Newspaper and sixth in the Best College Website categories. Individually, Katherine Burgess, editor-in-chief of the Cardinal & Cream, placed second in the Collegiate Journalist of the Year competition.

SEJC is comprised of more than 45 member colleges and universities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. These universities include both large state schools such as University of Memphis, Mississippi State, University of Alabama, Louisiana State University and Georgia State University as well as private institutions like Belmont University, Samford University and Harding University.

Union students win ‘Outstanding Delegation’ at National Model Congress

National Model Congress Six Union University students attended the first National Model Congress in Washington D.C. in February, an event that simulated the U.S. Congress and gave participants the opportunity to write, debate and vote on legislation.

The Union delegation won the “Outstanding Delegation” award at the end of the conference as the top group out of seven universities from Tennessee, Florida and Virginia that attended the event.

Jenaye White, a public relations major, won the “Outstanding Senator” award, while Morgan Kroeger (Spanish and accounting major), Garrett Wilson (economics major) and Michael Adkisson (business administration major) won “Distinguished Senator” awards. Also attending were Eddie Echeverria, a political science major, and Seth Reid, a political science and history major.

Debate team goes undefeated

Union University’s debate team went undefeated in its 2014-2015 season, winning the sweepstakes award at all eight tournaments in which it competed.

The Union debaters won the International Public Debate Association’s Founders Award (marking the season-long championship) for the second straight year.

Graham Gardner won the season championship among novice individual debaters, while Allison Pulliam won the season championship among professional individuals.

Union named a 2015 Best Value College by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Union University climbed significantly in the 2015 rankings of the country’s best values in private colleges by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

Kiplinger’s annual list ranks 100 private universities, 100 liberal arts colleges and 100 public universities, and Union ranked 48th among the best private university values in the nation. Last year, Union ranked 77th on the same list.

“We say often that Union is a great value because of the excellence of the Union experience and the cost of attendance, and this is a nice recognition from a respected publication saying the very same thing,” Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver said. “All of us at Union strive to be excellence-driven, Christ-centered, people-focused and future-directed. The stewardship of resources is one way we demonstrate our core values.”

Union and the other schools included in the 2015 lists represent the colleges that provide high quality academics at a reasonable cost during tough economic times, Kiplinger’s said. The colleges exemplify the attributes parents and students look for in higher education, including small class sizes, a good freshman retention rate and a high four-year graduation rate. Many schools, including Union, have appeared on the list multiple times. The complete rankings are available at kiplinger.com/links/college.

The Union University Magazine
Summer 2015