February 7, 2022

“We stand with the leadership, students, faculty and staff of HBCUs targeted with violent threats. These acts are abhorrent and have no place in our society. It is especially reprehensible for this to occur at the start of Black History Month—a time when our nation should be placing particular focus on celebrating and recognizing the long and storied history of HBCUs and their contributions to our nation’s progress.” [This statement was signed by Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver, and Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer André L. Churchwell.] MORE

Vanderbilt University’s annual celebration of Black History Month—a time to acknowledge and appreciate the history, experience and accomplishments of Black people on the Vanderbilt campus, across the country and globally—will kick off Tuesday, Feb. 1, with a virtual program coordinated by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. Other events in the monthlong series include presentations, panel discussions, trivia, yoga sessions and more, many to be held virtually. The below events are open to all members of the Vanderbilt community. For more information, visit the Black Cultural Center website. MORE

New research from Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development challenges conventional thinking about the benefits of state-sponsored pre-K instruction, even as experts note that its findings call for more nuanced discussion. The study . . . describes a phenomenon well known to researchers in which the early benefits of pre-K education for children from lower economic circumstances “fade out” within the first few years of elementary education and even turn negative over time. The new findings update earlier research on Tennessee’s Voluntary Pre-K program. Kelley Durkin, research assistant professor of teaching and learning and the lead author of the new study, says that its findings point to the need for program designers to focus on quality. The findings also suggest potential avenues for future research. She also notes that policy makers may be asking too much of a single strategy. The TN-VPK Effectiveness Study was initially a five-year, $6 million evaluation study that launched in 2009. TN Voluntary Pre-K serves 4-year-old children from low-income families statewide through program sites in all but a few of the state’s school districts. The Tennessee General Assembly passed the original Voluntary Pre-K for Tennessee Act in 2005. MORE

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Maulik Patel and his lab have received a Pilot Research Grant from the Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative to study reproduction and aging. According to one theory in evolution, aging is the price animals pay for reproduction. Research in the Patel lab uses the tiny but experimentally mighty roundworm model organisms Caenorhabditis elegans to examine the connection. The researchers employ CRISPR genome engineering technology to determine what genes affect which cellular processes or correct cellular glitches. The researchers use a fluorescent reporter that illuminates cells when their mitochondria, or power center, stop working. The reporter signals that the cell has employed a process to help the impaired mitochondria, the mitochondrial unfolded protein response, or UPRmt for short. The ESI grant may fundamentally expand the work conducted in Patel’s lab and will provide preliminary data to seed a larger National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant this summer. MORE

When sixth-year Spanish and Portuguese Ph.D. student Elvira Aballi Morell came to Vanderbilt to work with her mentor, William Luis who serves as a Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Spanish, she realized the importance of creating artistic spaces for Latinx communities. Aballi’s research is primarily about Afro-Cuban religions and how the diaspora frames cultural references, such as symbols and legends, in everyday life. Luis’ classes and Aballi’s work with Vanderbilt’s Digital Humanities Center sparked an idea for a project to assist in uplifting and inspiring creatives within Nashville’s Latinx community. Thus, the “HEART – Unifying Communities through Language and Textile Art” workshop was born. HEART also received a grant worth $10,241 from the Mellon Partners for Humanities Education Program, which aims to address a wide variety of issues in the digital and public humanities. According to the project’s website, HEART is a literature and textile art workshop broken into three sections to create alternative means of expression: Spanish literature and creative writing, English as a second language, and textile art. MORE

Vanderbilt was one of 99 law schools that responded to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s call to action to work in their local communities to address the housing and eviction crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Nashville, students in the Housing Law Clinic directed by Associate Clinical Professor Jennifer Prusak worked with tenants facing eviction proceedings and through a coalition of community partners to advocate for tenants’ rights. Vanderbilt Dean Chris Guthrie joined with the deans of other participating law schools on Aug. 30, 2021, in committing to taking meaningful action to combat the looming housing and eviction crises. The law schools’ efforts were praised in a press briefing hosted by the White House and the Department of Justice. . . . MORE

Meredith Hunter, a sophomore electrical engineering major, has been named a Brooke Owens Fellow, a prestigious award that recognizes exceptional undergraduate women and other gender minorities with space and aviation internships, senior mentorship, and a lifelong professional network. Hunter is the first recipient from a Tennessee university since the fellowships began in 2017. She is among 51 undergraduates selected from more than 1,000 applicants worldwide for the Class of 2022 “Brookie” Fellows. Her internship will be next summer with Boeing Phantom Works, the advanced prototyping arm of the company’s defense and security side, in St. Louis, Missouri. The fellowship program honors the memory of industry pioneer and accomplished pilot D. Brooke Owens, who died in 2016 at the age of 35. She worked with NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the White House, the latter as a space policy expert with the Office of Management and Budget. Brooke Owens Fellows are each matched to an executive-level mentor in the aerospace industry who will support and work with them to help launch their careers. MORE

Virtual learning for Vanderbilt debate students opened doors halfway around the world this spring, as a friendly virtual competition with the Rwanda National Debate Team brought deeper opportunities to learn about that nation’s genocide in 1994. Vanderbilt students Zacarias Negron and Ellie Hooey recently debated the Rwanda National Debate Team on the topic of whether all people should have a universal basic income. The debate, held over Zoom and co-sponsored by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, was part of an initiative called iDebate Rwanda. The nonprofit program based in Kigali, Rwanda, provides opportunities for students in East Africa and the U.S. to connect and become engaged learners and critical thinkers through debate. Part of iDebate’s mission is to show partners in the U.S. and around the world a “post genocide society.” MORE

Vanderbilt University has been awarded two Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications. The first is for the School of Nursing building, which opened in 2019, and the second is for the 1101 19th Avenue South building, formerly Disciples of Christ building, for its renovation in 2020.  The university now has 24 LEED-certified buildings as designated by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The School of Nursing project earned the accreditation through installing high efficiency flush and flow plumbing, installing systems for energy cost savings and strategically sourcing raw materials—including repurposing a tree removed from the site as material for a focal wall, earning it a Gold LEED certification. This project is also Vanderbilt’s first WELL-designed building. The building is constructed to measure and monitor features that impact human health and well-being such as air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. MORE