by Cory Woodroof | Apr 25, 2014 | News Slider
Metro Police Officer Andrew Nash, a former Yellow Ribbon scholar, was remembered as “a hero” during a memorial service Thursday in the Ezell Center’s Swang Chapel. “Andy was, by all measures, a hero,” said Jim Thomas, the executive assistant to university president Randy Lowry, during the memorial. “One who has given his or her life to something bigger than self – that was Andrew David Nash. A person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities – that was Andrew David Nash.” Nash, 30, who graduated from Lipscomb in December 2013, died April 14 of apparent natural causes. “This is a person who had a strong adherence through his faith and through his daily practice of life, of adhering to character and sacrifice,” said Thomas, a professor in the communications department and a veteran himself. Nash had been a member of the Metro Police Department since 2007. He also served the Andrew Jackson Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police as a board member. “Officer Nash was an extremely well-liked and respected officer who was carrying on his father’s fine tradition of service to Nashville and its citizens,” said Chief Steve Anderson in a press release.“The Nashville Police Department is a family. Our hearts are deeply saddened by Andy’s untimely passing.” Nash’s father, Bob Nash, is a retired East Precinct Commander. Nash served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 and served two tours in Iraq. A Yellow Ribbon student, he completed his bachelor’s degree in law, justice and society in December. Randy Spivey, academic director of the institute for law, justice and society, met...
by Emily Snell | Nov 1, 2012 | Uncategorized
After working on campus 38 years and serving in more than a dozen positions, Dr. Jim Thomas said he still has the same focus: helping students graduate from college. Thomas said his experiences in different jobs on campus help him understand how to get students to Lipscomb, how to keep them here and how to help them pay for their education. “I do truly believe they’re a huge help here,” he said of some of his former roles. “I think all of that history and background converges to give me an understanding of how they all link together.” “I think I’m someone who believes in what they’re trying to do,” he said. “I’m passionate about students graduating from college. I am so absolutely driven to helping college students graduate, but they’ve got to be a partner with me in that.” Thomas, who currently acts as executive assistant to the president, graduated from Lipscomb in 1969. After completing three years in the military, he began teaching at the university in 1974. Thomas said, of his jobs at Lipscomb, being chair of the speech communication department was one of the most enjoyable. “Probably that was one of my favorite jobs, if you want to know the truth,” he said. “I thought as department chair you had a greater opportunity to influence students’ lives and the curriculum to help them develop.” “My heart has always been on the teaching side,” he explained. “I just think that’s why you get into higher education—to help the students learn and grow and develop their talents to the fullest extent that they can.” Thomas spent one...
by Cory Woodroof | Aug 21, 2012 | Opinion
Lipscomb has more than 400 faculty members, each with an area of expertise and life experiences that shape what they bring to the classroom. While we at Lumination believe that Lipscomb’s entire faculty provides something special for our campus and its students, we’ve created a list of a few people who we believe would be especially beneficial for students to know during their time at the college. Tenielle Buchanan Mrs. Buchanan is the associate dean of students for intercultural development and the staff adviser for Kappa Iota Theta, the multicultural student organization on campus. She also serves as adjunct professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism and the LU seminar series. tenielle.buchanan@lipscomb.edu Campus Ministry team Jason Parker, Keela Evans, Caroline Morris and Jake Burton are all a part of the Campus Ministry team, who help coordinate chapel and serve as spiritual mentors for students. If you ever have any chapel credit issues, they are the ones to contact. Jake Burton also heads ‘The Joshua Project’ – a mentoring program on campus. jake.burton@lipscomb.edu keela.evans@lipscomb.edu jason.parker@lipscomb.edu caroline.morris@lipscomb.edu Emily Harris Mrs. Harris is the director of campus recreation. At the Student Activity Center, students can get a workout in, play a game of basketball and even take a class with a trained expert. Mrs. Harris is the person to contact for any information about fitness and wellness on campus. To find out more about Mrs. Harris, read our feature story from this summer. emily.harris@lipscomb.edu Teresa Williams Mrs. Williams is the director of student advocacy here on campus. Her job is to serve as a mediator...
by Emily Snell | Mar 5, 2012 | News Slider
Lipscomb’s faculty hopes to bring new perspectives to their classrooms this spring as the university recognizes the opening of Faculty Club 1891 and its discussion series Carpe Discentes. The club is located in the upper level of the student center and is designed to allow faculty to engage in meaningful discussions that will improve their teaching in the classroom and help them implement new methods with their students in the community. Dr. Jim Thomas, assistant to the president and a committee member for Faculty Club 1891, said he thinks the new facility and discussions will benefit the university, the students and the city. “We move from simply an intellectual challenge to an implementation in society that makes society better than it was previously,” he said. Thomas said the committee, which is comprised of six other professors, hopes the facility and the discussion series will challenge faculty to think “not only in academic terms but in implementation terms.” Then, he said, students learn how to apply concepts and how to assess community impact. This implementation benefits the whole city, he said. “We think it’s win, win, win, all the way around.” Thomas said he finds “tremendous enrichment” to education when professors and students take things out of the classroom, into the community and then bring it back to the academic setting for evaluation. Thomas said the committee chose the title Carpe Discentes, which means “seize the learning,” because the name “matches the tone and the level” they want Faculty Club 1891 to have. “I really hope that we can begin to create an atmosphere so that there is an interdisciplinary...
by Hunter Patterson | Jun 9, 2011 | News Slider
For most students at Lipscomb, Advance means making friends, winning Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and revealing secrets during intense games of fruit basket turnover. For Jim Thomas, however, Advance runs much deeper than that. Dr. Thomas, a communications professor and an assistant to the president, started the Advance program 22 years ago with hopes of keeping incoming freshman at Lipscomb for the entirety of their college careers. “I see myself as more of a problem solver as opposed to someone who has great creativity,” Dr. Thomas said. “I always wondered why Lipscomb students transferred to Harding and vice versa.” After looking at the data, which had been complied after 20 years of research, Thomas soon found out that nearly 50 percent of those who start college never get their degree. Thomas then began to wonder if students were simply not as smart as they had thought upon entering college. “Surprisingly it is the brighter students who tend to drop out and never graduate,” Thomas said. “What is making the student say, ‘I’m just not going to do this?’” The main thing that Dr. Thomas found out was that most of the students’ decisions were made very early on in the college experience. He then concluded that if students were able to have a pleasant freshman year it was more likely they would finish college by walking the line and shaking the hand of the president instead of leaving during Spring break and never returning. “Having started at Lipscomb as a transfer student in 1967, I came in thinking that our registration process had a real problem with it,” Thomas said. “We...
