News and Events

PHOTO:  Saudi Arabia will be well represented at Window on the World 2008 by the Saudi Club of Tennessee Tech University.  Pictured here are Bader Alkhalil, Salem Almarri, Hassan Alzaher, Fahad Alshammari, the president of the club Zeyad Alshammari, his cousin visiting from Oklahoma City Abdullatif Alshammari, and Bhyran Alajmi.  They relax in a traditional Saudi setting with incense, sweets and Arabic coffee, which will be served at WOW.  (Photograph by Cella Neapolitan)

3-24-08
Contact:  Cella Neapolitan       931-526-5515       cella1@charter.net

WOW – It’s fresh, it’s authentic, it’s multi-cultural!
By Cella Neapolitan

          Window on the World (WOW), Tennessee Tech University’s international festival April 19, promises to be one full day.  So come prepared to fill your backpack, your eyes, ears and hearts with global goodies.  Oh, and you’d better come hungry … just talking with one of the food vendors made my mouth water.
          “Everything is freshly made, nothing store-bought,” says Sue Soeder, who will be on the south patio this year.  “We’ll have Polish pierogis, Greek gyros and French crepes.  Pierogi is a specialty of mine, so I have 30 different flavors, and I made 6000 just last weekend!”
          For WOW, Soeder is planning to make two kinds of the stuffed dumplings ~ potato with cheddar cheese and sauerkraut with kielbasa ~ original lamb and chicken gyros, fruit smoothies and strawberry-custard crepes topped with chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream. 
          “We are hoping to open a catering business in Cookeville, with a hall that can seat 200 people,” says Soeder, who has traveled from Cleveland, Ohio each year for the festival.  “We figure, Build it and they will definitely come!”
          If you still have room, WOW vendors will also tempt with Chinese snacks, Middle Eastern shish kabobs, Japanese sushi, Caribbean smoothies, and rare treats from Mexico, Thailand, Peru and the Philippines.  As always, Indian cuisine will be a highlight, with local caterer Rama Chauhan’s northern dishes of puri, raita and hulwa as well as Nashville Woodlands restaurant’s vegetarian samosas, curry and desserts.
          Now to fill your backpack, WOW will have tables of beautiful, unique and meaningful handmade items from around the world.  Cookeville’s One World Market will have its usual array of cards and crafts from such non-profit organizations as Unicef and A Greater Gift.
          Other favorites for international shoppers are booths from Cookeville’s import store, A Rare Find, Pat and Horace Hunter’s African artifacts, Caryn Conrad’s alpaca, and Native American arts and crafts from the Indigenous Intertribal Corporation.  New this year will be sales of the mandala art of Massood Taj, whose circular creations appear on not only WOW’s annual award but also its poster.
          Organizations that “Think globally, act locally” will also be well represented, with information on everything from study abroad and environmentalism to international business and immigration law.  University groups include clubs in sociology, business, engineering and languages.  And community groups include the WCTE-TV, Heifer Project, Peace Corps, International Community Hospitality Association and Upper Cumberland Sierra Club.
          Also filling Roaden University Center will be cultural displays from 20+ countries.  See a 15-foot model of London’s Tower Bridge, play a Korean game called yoot, try on a Japanese kimono, have Indian mendhi drawn on your hand, sample Saudi coffee and more in your world travels.  It will truly be a fun-filled day.
          Window on the World is Tennessee Tech University’s international festival celebrating cultural diversity and global harmony.  WOW is funded primarily by Center Stage and is sponsored by the Globalization Committee of the College of Business, with special grants from Cummins Filtration and Wal-mart and additional funding through the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.
This fun, free, family event takes place Saturday, April 19 from 10 a.m.– 5 p.m. in TTU’s Roaden University Center in Cookeville.  The festival will showcase performers, artists, craftspeople, chefs, booksellers, and others with ethnic specialties.  The symposium, “ U.S.-Iran Relations,” is Friday, April 18 at 10:10 a.m. in the RUC’s Multi-Purpose Room.
For more information, please check the website at tntech.edu/wow/.  If you would like to participate, please contact Katie Kumar at <kjkumar@tntech.edu> or by calling 931-372-6197 /  931-528-7968 (evenings).

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Temporary driver’s license, state ID bill sent to Bredesen

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

By:Perla Trevizo (Contact)

A bill that would remove a one-year requirement that left some legal residents unable to drive is awaiting Gov. Phil Bredesen’s signature to become law effective immediately.

A state law that went into effect Oct. 1, 2007, stated the Tennessee Department of Safety may issue a temporary driver’s license or identification to people legally in the United States, but for no less than one year or more than five years.

Terry Olsen, a local immigration attorney, said the law was affecting people who have employment authorization cards, which are issued only for a year at a time, or who have pending permanent residency applications.

“By the time you get the employment authorization card it’s already valid for less than a year, which meant thousands of people in the state weren’t able to drive” Mr. Olsen said.

The bill passed 93-0 in the House last week and 27-0 in the Senate on Feb. 6.

House Majority Leader Gary Odom, D-Nashville, who sponsored the change, said it was needed to help legal immigrants and visitors obtain driver’s licenses that better match the time they will be in the country.

“Most of the time we’re talking about college professors who are here visiting our universities; we’re talking about medical personnel ... who are here sometimes less than a year,” he said.

Employees and executives at companies including Nissan Motor Co. also have been affected.Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Policy Director Stephen Fotopulos said the law needed to be changed and he is glad to see the bill pass. He said the bill would change only “a very small ‘symptom’ of what is a bigger, more troublesome policy.”

“This whole ordeal is a pretty good example of what can happen when state government agencies are required to become document experts,” he added.

The bill would remove the one-year requirement, and according to the estimated fiscal impact, it would increase state revenues by $30,500 with the issuance of more than 1,000 additional temporary driver’s licenses and 500 photo IDs.

TEMPORARY LICENSES Previous requirements for temporary licenses:

* Tennessee residents in the country on a legal, temporary basis can apply for a temporary driver’s license or temporary identification license.

* The licenses were valid for no less than a year and no longer than five years.

* All documents presented as proof of temporary legal presence had to show a minimum of one year of authorized stay remaining from the date of the application.

* Potential applicants include temporary workers, foreign students and spouse/family members.

* Documents needed to receive the licenses include a valid foreign passport with appropriate forms allowing entry to the country, a temporary resident identification card, a conditional resident alien card or an employment authorization card.

Source: Tennessee Department of Safety

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Nov. 5, 2007) -- After a six-month visit as a Fulbright scholar in Qatar, a country only about three times as big as Putnam County, Mohamed Abdelrahman returned with insight into the a land where oil and gas have made it one of the world's faster growing and higher per-capita income countries.

Abdelrahman, a electrical and computer engineering professor, traveled with his family to the peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, to teach two courses at the University of Qatar, establish research collaborations and learn about multidisciplinary education. He achieved all that, plus came home with a better understanding of the incredible wealth and growth in a country that now has the third largest natural gas reserves in the world.

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