Tusculum College has received a $1,500 gift from Morning Pointe Foundation for the establishment an annual nursing scholarship.

Named “Morning Pointe Foundation Annual Nursing Scholarship,” the scholarship will support students who demonstrate academic achievement and actively volunteer in the community. Scholars will also have opportunities for continued professional development and internships that further the Morning Pointe Foundation’s mission to advance the care of senior citizens.

“We are very excited for the newly formed partnership with the Morning Pointe Foundation and Independent Healthcare,” said Dr. Lois Ewen, dean of the school of nursing, health sciences and human services at Tusculum College.

“We are excited not only for the scholarship support to nursing students, but also for the student exposure to career serviced internships and civic advancement opportunities. Through these avenues Tusculum College students will be actively involved in advancing the care of and strengthening the delivery of senior services for generations to come.”

Independent Healthcare Properties and Morning Pointe Foundation toured the nursing facilities at Tusculum College in December and presented Tusculum with the scholarship funding.

To be eligible for the newly established scholarship, recipients must be able and deserving nursing students entering their fall semester at Tusculum College, who should be formally accepted into the nursing program, demonstrate successful completion and passing grades in their first semester of nursing, have a significant financial need and be a permanent resident of Greene, Washington or Cocke counties.

“This gift represents the opportunity for nursing students to earn a bachelor’s degree debt-free,” said Michelle Arbogast, associate director of foundations and donor relations. “It will also emphasize Tusculum College’s mission to support students in civic engagement.”

The nursing program at Tusculum College began in Fall 2012 and graduated its first class on May 9, 2015. All 14 graduates have accepted RN positions at local hospitals. There are currently 73 students enrolled.

From left are Kathy Hensley, Tonda Laws, Amanda Hurley, Delora Bibb, Lori Hoeger, Franklin Farrow, Dr. Lois Ewen, Dr. Linda Garrett, Dr. Ronda Gentry, Michelle Arbogast and Robin Lay.

As a part of Black History Month, Tusculum College will participate in the National African American Read-In. The event will be held on Monday, Feb. 29, in the living room of Niswonger Commons on the Greeneville campus.

Heather Patterson, chair for the Department of English, associate professor of English and coordinator of the event, said, “We’ve had students read works of more well-known African-Americans (like poems by Langston Hughes and speeches by Malcolm X), but we’ve also been fortunate enough to have students read works by writers and orators that may be unfamiliar to the audience, their own works and works by their friends and relatives.”

The on-campus participation of the Read-In is open to students, faculty, staff, alumni and anyone from the community. The event is designed to bring everyone together in a public setting to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. There is no charge to participate and reading selections may be the choice of the participant.

In 1990, the first African American Read-In was sponsored by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English. In 1991, the National Council of Teachers of English joined in the sponsorship.

The Read-In has been endorsed by the International Reading Association. More than a million readers of all ethnic groups from 50 states, the District of Columbia, the West Indies, and African countries have participated.

The Essenes, an ancient Jewish sect believed by scholars to be the group who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, were the topic of the second session of the Theologian-in-Residence lecture series at Tusculum College.

Dr. Travis Williams, assistant professor of religion at Tusculum, is presenting a series of lectures, “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Identifying, Altering and Preserving Scripture in Antiquity” as part of the annual series sponsored by Tusculum College and partially funded by Ron Smith.

The focus of Williams’ presentation was examining what the archeological evidence and the text found in the scrolls themselves tell about the group that lived at the settlement at Qumran near the caves where the scrolls were found, as well as identify who wrote and took measures to preserve the more than 900 ancient texts that have been discovered in an arid area near the Dead Sea.

From the archeological findings at Qumran it can be concluded that a group of approximately 150-200 people lived in the settlement and that group was likely Jewish as there is a clear concern for ritual purity, Dr. Williams said. In addition, writing and copying of documents was important to this group.

The next question he addressed  is whether the people living at Qumran are connected to the Dead Sea Scrolls. “If we determine who wrote the scrolls, and if we can connect the scrolls to the settlement, it can be one of the pieces needed to understand the texts better,” he said.

Excavations at Qumran were initially supervised by a French Dominican priest, Roland De Vaux, who proposed that the settlement, which housed between 150-200 people, was occupied from around 135 B.C. to 68 C.E. with the exception of a period between 31 B.C. and 4 B.C. when it was abandoned after an earthquake.

However, Dr. Williams noted, scholarly views regarding the timeline of the occupation of Qumran have changed. Jodi Magness, who is the major authority on archeology at Qumran in recent times, has proposed a timeline that is now more widely accepted. In Magness’ timeline, Qumran was established sometime between 100 – 50 B.C. and was continuously occupied until 68 C.E. when the settlement is believed to have been destroyed by the Romans.

Some of the interesting finds at the site are a large dining hall, a scriptorium and several stepped pools, Dr. Williams said. The dining hall is the largest room at Qumran and archaeologists believe it to have been used for a communal meals because of the dishes found in an adjacent room, he continued.

The scriptorium was a room dedicated to writing and copying manuscripts and may have been where the parchments for the scrolls were prepared as evidenced by narrow tables well suited for writing and ink wells discovered inside.

Seven to 10 stepped pools around the settlement have also been the subject of debate, Williams noted. Some scholars have theorized that they were cisterns to collect rainwater. However, most scholars believe they are pools to be used for purification as some have steps with partitions that indicate a concern for ritual separation.

While there are alternate views that Qumran was either a wealthy villa or a pottery factory, the consensus view among most scholars is that the settlement was a communal building for a Jewish sectarian group, Dr. Williams continued.

The proximity of the caves to the settlement, the discovery of the same style of pottery jars in the caves and the settlement, as well as the ink used to write the scrolls all provide proofs that the scrolls and Qumran are connected, he said.

Very soon after the discovery of the scrolls, people began connecting them with the Jewish Essene movement, Dr. Williams noted, and the Essene hypothesis has since been the majority opinion of scholars.

The discovery of such things as phylacteries containing scripture, clothing fragments of white linen, and the geographical location of the settlement all match what is known of the Essenes’ strictness and focus on ritual purity from writings of historians and scholars of the period.

Texts within the scrolls themselves also reflect theological emphases which connect them with beliefs that are attributed to the Essenes, Dr. Williams said, such as a belief that man does not have free will but all is governed by God. The scrolls also document the same type of admission requirements that are mentioned by ancient authors describing the Essenes. To become an Essene, he said, an individual first had to enter a period of examination and testing before being accepted to the sect, a process that took about three years.

Although there is very little know about the origins of the community, Dr. Williams said, scholars believe it is connected to political upheaval in Jerusalem when the high priest was removed from office at around 100 B.C. and was replaced by a Jewish leader who helped one of the warring Greek factions battling for control of the area win the conflict. Scholars believe the Essenes are a group who separated themselves from the temple because of what they felt to be illegitimate leadership that did not meet the qualifications set forth in Judaism.

Scholars have also theorized about why the scrolls were left and it is believed that those at Qumran took the scrolls to the caves to keep them from being destroyed by the Romans.

The lecture series will continue on Tuesday, Feb. 23, when Dr. Williams will explore the fluidity of the scriptural texts found among the scrolls and also preview the phenomenon of “Rewritten Bible,” in which a work closely reproduces a biblical book but modifies it by means of addition, omission, paraphrase, rearrangement or other types of changes. Due to postponement of an earlier lecture this month due to inclement weather, the series’ concluding session will be Tuesday, March 8.

The lecture session will begin at 10 a.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center in the Niswonger Commons. The session will conclude around 1:30 p.m., and lunch in the college’s cafeteria is included. Although there is no admission fee to attend the lectures, reservations are required. For more information or to make a reservation for the series, please call 423-636-7304 or email eestes@tusculum.edu.

Dr. Travis Williams answers a question about the archeological discoveries at Qumran during the second session of the Theologian-in-Residence lecture series.

New dates have been set for lectures at Tusculum College. The lecture examining the political and religious rivalry between Rev. Hezekiah Balch and Rev. Samuel Doak and the lecture unveiling obscure cases from the annals of the Supreme Court have been rescheduled.

“Balch v. Doak and the Origins of Tusculum College” will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center at the Niswonger Commons. The “American Civil Rights and Liberties: Little Known Supreme Court Cases That Have Made a Big Impact” lecture has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 15, at 7 p.m. at the Behan Arena Theatre in the lower level (side entrance) of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building on campus.

“Balch v. Doak” will be presented by Jeff Lokey, assistant professor of business administration at Tusculum College. “It’s interesting because their rivalry was transcended by Tusculum College,” said Lokey. “We haven’t forgotten it, but Tusculum doesn’t reflect that rivalry anymore.”

Balch and Doak’s animosity is historic to Greeneville. Several stories have been told detailing instances when the duo encountered each other.

As told by Richard Doughty, a former Greene County historian, “… [Balch and Doak] met one day on a plank over a particularly muddy spot. Doak was the first to speak. ‘I never make way for the devil.’ To which Balch quickly replied, ‘I do,’ and steeped aside in the mud to let Doak pass.”

While their rivalry is legendary, they both had a passion for higher education. Balch founded Greeneville College; Doak founded Washington College, formerly known as Tusculum Academy. Eventually, these two Presbyterian ministers merged their competing educational institutions to form Tusculum College.

Part of the Humanities events at Tusculum College, this will be open to the public free of charge and offered as Arts and Lectures credit for residential students.

“American Civil Rights and Liberties: Little Known Supreme Court Cases That Have Made a Big Impact” will be presented by Dr. David Scott as part of the Cicero Lecture Series and Tusculum Arts Outreach’s Acts, Arts, Academia 2015-16 performance and lecture series.

Dr. Scott, visiting instructor of political science at Tusculum, will be primarily discussing four cases that have been significant for the country during his lecture, but will also share information about other important Supreme Court decisions.

A licensed attorney, Dr. Scott earned his doctorate in political science with a focus in American politics from the University of Tennessee. He holds Juris Doctorate and Master of Dispute Resolution degrees from Pepperdine University.

His teaching and research interests include American constitutional law, civil rights and liberties, the influence of interest groups on the Supreme Court via the submission of amicus curiae briefs and political philosophy.

In his second year as an instructor at Tusculum, Dr. Scott has also taught at Carson-Newman University and Walters State  Community College, as well as serving as a graduate teaching associate at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He and his family live in Greeneville and he serves as an elder at First Christian Church.

Admission to the lecture is $7 per person. Students, faculty and staff of Tusculum College are admitted free with a Tusculum I.D. This is also an Arts and Lecture series event for residential students.

For more information about the lecture, please contact Tusculum Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620 or jhollowell@tusculum.edu.