‘Biggest Loser’ gives members of Lipscomb community healthy inspiration

Most people make a New Year Resolution to lose weight. For the month of January, 26 Lipscomb students and faculty members have been a part of a group participating in Lipscomb’s version of the hit television show “The Biggest Loser.” The ‘Biggest Loser’ participants have gone to the Student Activity Center not only to lose weight and learn how to diet, but also to discover the real meaning of getting healthy. Matthew Abplanalp, the assistant director for the SAC, and Nicholas Mortensen, the head trainer/wellness grad assistant, talked about how this program works. “There are a total of three teams, one being a faculty/staff team, and the other two teams made up of students. We split the teams up based on who they requested to be with,” Abplanalp said. The schedule is very simple with Monday and Wednesday as the boot camp style, Tuesday as the challenge day, Thursday as group’s chapel day and Friday as the fun night. Mortenson is charge of the boot camp days, and Abplanalp is doing the fun Fridays. Mark McGee is the Media Relations Director for athletics and a teacher at Lipscomb.  As a participant in “The Biggest Loser”, he jokingly said, “I’m still waiting on those so called “fun” days. It’s funny how I will be walking into my office, and people notice that I’m limping a little because I’m so sore.” He then continued to tell about some of the activities they participate in. “One of Tuesday challenge days was to run, jog, or walk starting from the SAC desk to Trader Joes (which is in Green Hills) and back.” Mortensen...
Armed officers serve on every shift at Lipscomb

Armed officers serve on every shift at Lipscomb

Two armed Campus Security and Safety officers are on patrol during every shift this semester. Brad Wyatt, director of security, and Phil Ellenburg, Lipscomb’s general counsel, said the university has been working on the arming process for a few years. “For the last five years, we’ve been really intentional about upgrading all of our security and safety, emergency planning, everything across the board for the institution,” Ellenburg said. “We’re trying to improve and increase our professionalism. Over the last five years a lot of improvements have been made, but over the last two years, we’ve had a very intentional process where we’ve done several things, and the arming component was a part of that whole process.” Ellenburg said there weren’t specific events that prompted the decision to begin the armed patrols over the summer, rather it was “a normal step in enhanced service.” Wyatt said Lipscomb’s security and safety department, in recent years, intentionally has been hiring officers who would fit the qualifications for an armed officer. The department created a “Security Officer II” position, which requires an advanced security background for example as a police officer, military police officer, armed hospital or prison security officer. Wyatt and Ellenburg said all of the university’s security officers are licensed with the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, which handles both unarmed and armed security licensing. “Our internal policies as far as training and standards for officers are a lot higher than the baseline for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance,” Ellenburg said. In addition to licensing, Lipscomb hired a security expert from the Boston area to analyze the campus...