Fred Vondra was selected as Key Professor of the Year and awarded $6,000 during the Foundation for Metal Casting Education’s 59th annual College Industry Conference in Chicago. The award was presented in recognition of his demonstrated personal interest in students, as seen in his extra curricular activities and knowledge of the industry. One of his graduate students attending, Michael Baswell of Cookeville, was awarded both the Gary Thoe Scholarship and the Ron Riddle Memorial Scholarship at the conference.

At the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English in Nashville Nov. 16-19, Tony Baker presented "Developing a Repertoire of Visual Tools to Teach Writing," Kristin Pickering presented "Communicating the Complete Picture: Integrating Text and Graphics," and Andy Smith presented "Seeing is Freeing: Popular Media, New Languages, and Critical Learning." All three are faculty members in the Department of English and Communications.