GREENVILLE, S.C. (courtesy furman.edu) — Two new collections of microtonal music – music played with tones that exist in the spaces between notes like C and C sharp or E and F – have a new home at Furman University. Composer Johnny Reinhard, founder of the American Festival of Microtonal Music (AFMM), has donated his personal microtonal archive and the archive of the AFMM.

Known for its sometimes unusual sound, microtonal music uses tuning structures different from the 12-note octave most people are familiar with. Furman came to acquire the collection through Michael “aTonal” Vick, an instructional technologist for the fine arts at Furman, who has performed and worked with Reinhard’s AFMM for more than 10 years. Reinhard has also spoken to Vick’s class, “Tuning Systems and the Aural Experience.”

Reinhard approached Furman with the possibility of housing what may be the largest microtonal music collection in the world.

“I immediately saw the potential pedagogical impact of his archive for my microtonal tuning course here at Furman,” Vick said. “I also see the diverse collection as providing a wealth of teaching and learning opportunities through new course development across multiple disciplines like history, mathematics and physics.”

Even more important, Vick said, is the collection’s place on the music landscape.

“The acquisition fills an important gap in music history,” he said. “Microtonal music offers listeners a new way to hear music and sounds. By observing composers’ original tuning systems, we can respect the past, hearing and performing works the way they intended.”

Vick said the archive will “help Furman and others around the world understand the often-overlooked field of alternate tuning systems and theory,” and he’s planning digitalization projects to make the collection available globally.

“I believe all music is microtonal on a cross-cultural level,” Reinhard said in a paper. “Before now, this archive was only available to me and rare guests. The full collection now at Furman will allow students to study it and the international community to revel in its depths.” He said the collection represents “the professional cause of his entire life” and that “it is easily the largest microtonal music archive in the world.”

The archive includes the business records of the New York-based AFMM, a group that organizes an annual series of concerts in New York and around the world of classical and modern music that uses microtonal music tunings. It also includes a sizable collection of live and commercial recordings of microtonal music, a reference library of rare microtonal books and other materials that document the alternative tuning music world, including a run of the rare New York modern/avant-garde music magazine, Ear.

Reinhard’s papers, music manuscripts, correspondence and other materials that are part of the acquisition document the work of composers and musicians who were active in the microtonal sphere, such as Charles Ives, Harry Partch, Mordecai Sandberg, Ivor Darreg and La Monte Young.

Special Collections is also working with Reinhard to prepare the archival score he created in 1996 for Charles Ives’s “Universe Symphony.”

The collections are currently being processed at Furman and will be available for research and consultation later this spring in the Department of Special Collections and Archives, with a major exhibition of the collection slated for 2021. For more information, contact Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist Jeffrey Makala at 864-294-2714 or jeffrey.makala@furman.edu.

GAFFNEY, S.C. (courtesy limestone.edu) — To ease the burden of students from other higher education institutions who are now remotely learning away from campus, Limestone College has implemented a program to help keep them connected to the internet.

Many college and universities across South Carolina have closed their campuses and moved to virtual classes due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, but students from low-income and other families might not have internet access.

While some internet companies are offering to provide temporary internet service free for such students, Limestone also wants to lend a hand in the areas where it has evening instructional sites in the Palmetto State.

Effective March 17, Limestone is welcoming students from other colleges and universities to use the wi-fi that is available at its instructional sites in Aiken, Charleston, Columbia, Florence, and Greenville. Those sites are currently open Monday-Thursday from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

“During this extraordinary time when so many students are being impacted by campus closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Limestone is offering another option for temporary access to the internet as a means to enhance the information and learning opportunities for any college student in those areas who needs it,” said Dr. Darrell Parker, Limestone College president. “We welcome any college or university student to come into one of our sites and use our internet to help them get and complete their online assignments. We’re all in this together. It’s vital that as many students as possible stay connected to the internet to continue their educational journeys.”

Until the majority of colleges and universities re-open, access to the Limestone’s internet will be available at the evening instructional sites to students who provide a valid college identification card along with a government issued identification card/passport/international status form and agree to sign the Internet Use Policy Form.

Limestone College officials announced last week that it was activating its academic continuity plan to offer alternative student instruction. While there are no known cases of coronavirus on the Limestone Day Campus in Gaffney, officials made the decision to transition to virtual learning for at least the next three weeks. All online classes are continuing as normal.

Day Campus students have the option to stay on campus or return home to receive their remote instruction from Limestone. While there are currently no face-to-face classes, the Limestone campus remains open for students who do not wish to leave or to travel back home. Residence halls, dining services, academic support, and other limited services are open and available for students who remain on campus.

In addition to its traditional Day Campus, Limestone offers an Online & Evening Program that provides the opportunity for working adults to further their education, work full-time, and be there for their families. Limestone also offers an online MBA Program.

CENTRAL, S.C. (courtesy swu.edu) — Within the U.S. Marine Corps, the saying goes “leave no man behind.”

Recent Southern Wesleyan University human services graduate Robert Colbert appreciates caring faculty and staff members who – in a similar sense – were there for him as he worked to complete his educational journey.

“I had a stroke in 2000, so that’s what led up to my college experience,” Colbert said. “I was paralyzed, so working with the neurologist when I was going through therapy, the next step was to try to recoup my brainwaves.”

Overcoming and succeeding

Colbert first attended Greenville Technical College, where after taking developmental classes and going through regular tutoring, he earned his associates degree. Because of his stroke, Colbert had to learn through repetition, but earned “A’s” and “B’s,” consistently making the Dean’s List. Dr. Jeannie Knecht, assistant director of TRiO Student Support Services at GTC, provided Colbert with valuable guidance, helping him with remedial math and – even after he came to Southern Wesleyan – giving him guidance on how to write papers using APA (American Psychological Association) style.

“The determination he had to show to get through here first, then to go through SWU is amazing. To overcome what he’s overcome has been awe inspiring,” Knecht said. “He’s an amazing man.”

Coming to SWU

Colbert met a Southern Wesleyan University representative who visited the GTC campus and enrolled in the Human Services program. He’s grateful that God led him to enroll at Southern Wesleyan, where faculty and staff continued to work with him through issues related to his earlier stroke.

“A change of environment creates a little bit of confusion for me, so I’m pretty regimented. I have to do things repetitively,” Colbert said. “Those in the SWU program are very supportive. I can’t tell you how many emails I got where someone asked, ‘hey, how’s it going?’”

Cindy Trimmier Lee, who directs TRiO Student Support Services at Southern Wesleyan, got to know Colbert in the summer of 2018.

“He was excited about a fresh start and thrilled that we made every effort to include him as an online student. He was always very kind and was working extremely hard to recover from a stroke and to become a college graduate. He always responded if we called and welcomed our help,” said Trimmier-Lee.

“In the Marine Corps – we have a phrase that says attack and overcome. You are going to adjust as you go. You just have to stay on your knees and let God do the big part,” Colbert said. “At SWU, we always started with prayer – I never had that experience before and it literally gave me chills, because I didn’t know that was going to be done – even online that was huge. The instructors’ prayers were so thoughtful and so deep – certainly you need that to get through the week – it was an awesome experience.”

Colbert feels his education has helped his critical thinking skills, but also has cultivated in him an empathy for others – especially for fellow veterans who – like him – experienced PTSD. He would someday like to use that passion to work with veterans fulltime.

“I think it’s important to help motivate those who are slipping through the cracks. Just being able to say listen, I truly understand this because I’ve been there and done it,” Colbert said.

Southern Wesleyan University is a Christ-centered, student-focused learning community devoted to transforming lives by challenging students to be dedicated scholars and servant-leaders who impact the world for Christ. For details about degree programs, go online to swu.edu.

DENMARK, S.C. (courtesy voorhees.edu) — Dr. Xiqiang Zheng, associate professor in mathematics and computer science, was recently awarded a Henry C. McBay faculty research fellowship (the year 2019 solicitation) from the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to support his research on computer simulation for CT image segmentation using morphological operations on hexagonal lattices.

The fellowship will help Zheng implement the research topics on CT machines. A CT machine performs X-ray scans around an object from different directions. The data from the scans are used to compute the internal image of the object. Image segmentation is one of the image processing tools that may be applied to the CT image to determine the sizes of the internal organs, bones, or cancers of the scanned object.

During the fellowship, one student majoring in computer science will have the opportunity to participate in the research and receive a stipend. The student will expand his or her knowledge of CT image processing and gain research experiences

Zheng said he is taking novel approaches for CT image computation and segmentation. “The usual two-dimensional CT computations are done on a square grid and over a square domain, where a square grid is tessellated with congruent squares,” Zheng said. “Because of rotations of CT machines, we can assume that the CT images are defined on circular regions.”

He added, “Since a circular region can be embedded into a regular hexagonal region more compactly into the square region, if the CT image is computed on a hexagonal grid (tessellated with congruent regular hexagons) and the regular hexagonal region, better computational results may be achieved or the image segmentation time may be reduced,” Zheng said.

Mathematical morphology is a method based on set theory and topology for quantitative analysis of geometric objects. In a hexagonal grid, each pixel is well connected to six adjacent pixels. Hence morphological operations on hexagonal grids may achieve better image processing effects than on square grids.

In this project, computer codes for morphological operations on hexagonal grids will be developed and applied to CT image segmentation. In the future, other image processing tools on hexagonal grids will be considered.

Zheng has been teaching and performing research at Voorhees since 2008. He earned a master’s degree in mathematics from Jiangxi University in China and earned a doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Florida.

For more information, contact the Office of Communications, at 803-780-1191 or at communications@voorhees.edu.

CENTRAL, S.C. (courtesy swu.edu) — Southern Wesleyan University will host a Creative Evangelism Summit on Jan. 31. The free event will offer insight into how pastors and ministry leaders can make an impact in a quickly-changing culture.

The summit will bring together three generations from the Clyde Dupin family to explore how churches can use a variety of methods to reach the lost in an ever-changing culture.

Dr. Clyde Dupin, an international evangelist, is considered one of America’s most experienced and successful crusade evangelists. Since he conducted his first city-wide crusade at age 19, Dupin has conducted more than 400 crusades, traveling more than two million miles and preaching to more than four million people in 40 different countries. He is an ordained minister and devotes most of his time to speaking for area-wide interdenominational crusades throughout America and missionary crusades abroad.

Dupin will be joined by his sons Wes and Ken Dupin and grandsons John, Chad and Clint Dupin.

Wes Dupin is the founder and lead pastor of Daybreak Church in Hudsonville, Mich. Daybreak has been on the cutting edge of using creative arts to spread the gospel with an average attendance of over 1,400.

Ken Dupin has served Salem Wesleyan Church in Salem, Va. over the past 10 years and has come to believe that pastors are most effective through long-term relationships in their community. Ken attended Southern Wesleyan University and holds a BS degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. from Temple University.

Jon Dupin is the lead pastor of Waymaker Church in Lynchburg, Va. Waymaker is active in their community in working with families to help them foster and adopt children through Mosaic.

Chad Dupin is the vice president of marketing for ITS in Ada, Mich. He also works with Spring Hill Camps, Never the Same Camp, World Hope International, and other non-profit faith based ventures.

Clint Dupin is the planting pastor of Eastown Church in San Ramon, Calif. Clint and his wife, Michaell, moved to California after serving in churches in Michigan.

This interactive event will focus on the power of evangelism, the passion of evangelism, the playbook of evangelism, planting in evangelism, and problems facing evangelism.

The summit will be held in the Alive Chapel of the Nicholson-Mitchell Center from 2-4 p.m. For details, visit swu.edu or contact Rev Mark Wilson at mwilson@swu.edu.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (courtesy charlestonsouthern.edu) — The Charleston Southern University College of Business announces the launch of the CSU Center for Personal Financial Management in association with the Ron Blue Institute.

The Center for Personal Financial Management is training and equipping CSU students and the greater CSU family with biblical principles of financial wisdom and money management. More than 600 students are participating in its programs this fall.

“We are excited about the Center for Personal Financial Management and the impact it will have on our students, alumni and the community,” said Dr. David Palmer, dean of the College of Business. “Our commitment to the well-being of students is foremost in the minds of the faculty and leadership of the College of Business. The center, and its association with the Ron Blue Institute, shows we are dedicated to supporting students and providing the best possible financial literacy education available.”

CSU has been teaching a personal finance course for 11 years. Through the CPFM, the College of Business is elevating the course and broadening its reach. The center will focus on teaching topics that include a biblical view of money, stewardship, budgeting, debt management, investing, charitable giving and wealth management. The center began partnering with freshman seminar classes to teach freshmen about personal financial literacy this fall.

Business majors and traditional and online students can take the personal financial management course as an elective or as part of the liberal arts core in the social sciences. The textbook used in the course is Mastering Personal Finances, a Biblical Approach by Ron Blue and Boyce Smith. Smith is an assistant professor in the CSU College of Business and leading the efforts of the Center for Personal Financial Management.

Ron Blue said, “We are so excited that Charleston Southern University shares our passion for preparing students to enter a world that will be challenging their faith with a clear understanding of what God‘s Word has to say about money and money management.”

Dr. Dondi Costin, CSU president, said, “At Charleston Southern, we believe that faith should permeate every aspect of our lives, including our finances. The Center for Personal Financial Management will equip our students with the skills to apply biblical financial wisdom, helping them live lives of purpose for the glory of God.”

CSU also has developed Buc$ense, a project to introduce basic financial literacy information and tools to students, parents, alumni and other stakeholders. Buc$ense is funded by a Title III Technology Grant.

In addition, the Center for Personal Financial Management is creating a peer-to-peer counseling service for students and will host nationally recognized personal finance speakers on a regular basis.

Blue said, “The Ron Blue Institute was formed for two purposes. One was that every student in a Christian university would be taught a biblical perspective on money and money management. God‘s word speaks more to money than any other topic, and I have had the privilege over the last 40 plus years of helping Christians plan and manage their finances according to a biblical worldview. Not only is a biblical worldview the most practical and rational way to manage money but also it is profoundly simple in its concept.

“The second purpose for the Institute is to move God’s biblical financial wisdom into academia for credibility and authenticity purposes. There are very few universities that share the passion of Charleston Southern for these two purposes, and I am privileged to be a part of the effort.”

CSU chose to affiliate with the Ron Blue Institute because of its mission to advance biblical financial education, enabling Christians to make financial decisions within a biblical framework. The Ron Blue Institute is hosted by Indiana Wesleyan University.