TROY News Center

TROY – Representatives of more than 24 universities will attend the ninth annual Sport Management Conference at Troy University Wednesday through Friday.

Hosted jointly by the University and the Southern Sport Management Association, the conference will focus on emerging scholars and student development, and more than 30 presenters will lecture, said Dr. Michael Martinez, an assistant professor of kinesiology and health promotion who is coordinating the conference.

“Our practitioner sessions will be looking into the current landscape of the sport industry, and our students will have the opportunity to talk with professionals in the field and recent graduates who are in the sport industry,” he said.

Academic presentations for regional faculty on topics of sport law, marketing, motorsports, organizational management and other areas are also scheduled.

In addition, the Association will honor two with its lifetime achievement awards: Ken Blankenship of the Central Alabama Sports Commission will be honored as a practitioner, and Dr. David Stotlar, University of Northern Colorado, will receive the lifetime scholar award.

Major sponsors for the conference include Troy University’s College of Health and Human Services, TROY Athletics and IMG College Sports.

MONTGOMERY—Troy University will take part in the worldwide celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on Tuesday, April 16, by hosting readings of the letter in Montgomery and Dothan.

Organized by the Birmingham Public Library, the worldwide celebration marks the 50^th anniversary of the day King began writing his famous open letter. Public readings of the letter are scheduled around the world at schools, museums, churches and other locations.

Troy University will join the celebration with readings inside the Rosa Parks Museum auditorium on the Montgomery Campus and on the steps of the Library/Technology Building at the Dothan Campus. Both events start at noon and are open to the public.

Written from a Birmingham jail cell after King’s arrest during a non-violent protest, the letter was a response to a letter by eight concerned white pastors who felt it was not an appropriate time for King to lead demonstrations.

For more information on the TROY readings, contact Georgette Norman at the Rosa Parks Museum at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or Dr. Marty Olliff at the Dothan Campus at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

For more on the worldwide celebration, visit http://www.bplonline.org/programs/1963/Letter.aspx.

Troy University MathFest 2013, a one-day undergraduate mathematics conference, will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 6 in Hawkins Hall on the Troy Campus.

Made possible by Troy University funding and a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant through the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), TROY MathFest, created in 2004, allows students from around the region to take part in presentations and discussions covering all areas of mathematics. The event is an initiative of the University’s Department of Mathematics, chaired by Diane Porter, in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The purpose of the conference is to have a common mathematics forum accessible to all undergraduate students in the Southeast and beyond,” said Dr. Vijaya Gompa, professor of mathematics on the University’s Dothan Campus who is serving in her second year as the event’s director.

Dr. Ken Roblee, professor of mathematics on the Troy Campus, former MathFest director and local coordinator for this year’s event, said the opportunity for students to present their research at the forum provides valuable experience.

“The importance of TROY MathFest is that it fills the need for giving regional undergraduate students in mathematics the opportunity to present their research projects in a formal, NSF-MAA (National Science Foundation and Mathematical Association of America) supported conference, as well as the opportunity to meet and learn from undergraduate students and faculty members in mathematics from other universities and colleges,” Dr. Roblee said.

Participants will also have the opportunity to hear Dean G. Hoffman, professor of discrete mathematics at Auburn University, present on the topic “A Packing Problem from the Arithmetic Mean – Geometric Mean Inequality.”

Hoffman is a renowned graph and design theorist with more than 100 publications to his credit. He co-authored the textbook “Coding Theory and Cryptography: The Essentials,” and also has been awarded the College of Science and Mathematics Dean’s Research Award.

The Troy University Sexual Assault and Violence Education (S.A.V.E.) Project will play host to a campus-wide campaign during April in observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

As part of the April campaign, the S.A.V.E. Project will place posters, banners, and safety and prevention flyers around the Troy Campus, as well as sharing statistics and information on Facebook and Twitter.

On April 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the S.A.V.E. Project will hold its annual “These Hands Don’t Hurt” event on the Bibb Graves Quad. Students, faculty and staff are invited to come place their handprints on the event banner to signify their commitment to a violence-free campus. Once complete, the banner will display in the Trojan Center.

“Through the sharing of this information and our ‘These Hands’ event we hope to educate the campus community about the occurrence of sexual violence and hopefully prevent it from happening,” said Jennifer Duncan, assistant coordinator for the S.A.V.E. Project. “We also hope to make students aware of the services offered through the S.A.V.E. Project in the event they are ever exposed to sexual violence.”

 Identifying and preventing bullying will be the topic of an April 4 Civic Issues Forum at Troy University.

The forum, presented by the University’s Office of Service Learning and Civic Engagement in conjunction with the David Mathews Center for Civic Life, will be held in room 212 of the Trojan Center beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursday. It is the second of four forums in which students from First-Year Learning Communities will lead discussions about topics of importance in today’s society.

Students from the Healthy Futures Learning Community will lead the discussion on identifying and preventing bullying.

“Each year the Mathews Center, through which these forums are funded, takes on a different civic concern. This year’s focus is on bullying,” said Jonathon Cellon, coordinator of learning initiatives in the University’s Office of First Year Studies. “When you look at the statistics dealing with the instances, as well as the consequences of bullying it is pretty mind-blowing. Through these forums we hope not only to bring awareness to the issue but also form strategies for dealing with the problem throughout our community.”

The series of forums kicked off on March 28 as students examined what role communities play in preparing children for tomorrow’s jobs. The forums will continue on April 11 examining the topic “Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher Education Help Us Create the Society We Want?” and wrap up on April 18 with the discussion “Sustaining Ourselves: How Can We Best Meet the Needs of Today and Tomorrow?”

Support for this Civic Issues Forum series comes from a grant from The David Mathews Center for Civic Life, a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt corporation based in Montevallo that seeks to foster infrastructure, habits and capacities for more effective civic engagement and innovative decision making.