TROY News Center

Troy University students will be recognized for their achievements during the University’s annual Honors Convocation at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 15 in the Claudia Crosby Theater on the Troy Campus.

Milton Jones, President of Christian Relief Fund, will serve as the keynote speaker for the convocation, which recognizes student achievement for the academic year.

Among the awards to be presented are the Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, presented to an outstanding faculty member, and the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards, given to a senior male and female student and to a distinguished faculty or staff member.

The Ingalls Award is given annually to the teacher on the Troy Campus who has “most diligently, effectively and cheerfully conducted his or her classes during the current academic year.” Students nominate faculty members for the award, and a committee of students and faculty advisors selects the recipient.

The Sullivan Award, which is presented at select colleges and universities throughout the United States, recognizes recipients for their excellence of character, humanitarian service and spiritual qualities. The award has been presented annually at TROY since 1981 with nominations for the awards coming from students, faculty and staff.

In addition, students from each of the University five colleges will be recognized for their achievements, including those inducted into various honor societies.

In his work as Christian Relief Fund president, Jones has focused on the care of AIDS orphans in Sub-Sahara Africa. He has also served as a preacher and campus minister in both Texas and Washington.

Jones has authored eight books including a touching tale of one of his heroes with Cerebral Palsy, Sundays with Scottie. He is married to Barbie Jones and has two sons, Patrick and Jeremy.

Founded in 1971 by Amarillo businessman and preacher Baxter Loe, Christian Relief Fund is a non-profit relief organization based in Amarillo, Texas with a focus on rescuing orphans and vulnerable children from poverty. CRF operates child sponsorship programs that are dedicated to providing food, clean water, education, spiritual training, health care and disaster relief to the glory of God worldwide.

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.”