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MTSU’s Recreation and Leisure Services Program will host the sixth annual Tour de Boro Bicycle Event at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 21, at Barfield Crescent Park, located at 697 Barfield Crescent Road in Murfreesboro.

The 64-mile ride will begin at 8 a.m. sharp. The 32-mile ride will start at 8:05 a.m., and the 17-mile ride will commence at 8:10 a.m.

Each of the rides will include rest stops, breakfast and lunch. A Support And Gear, or SAG, vehicle will follow the riders along each route.

Registration is slated to start onsite at 7 a.m. Preregistration cost is $30, and day-of-ride registration is $35. Registration fees are nonrefundable.

The upcoming 28thannual BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee-sponsored Tommy T. Martin Chair of Insurance Invitational Scramble Golf Tournament will raise scholarship funds for MTSU students enrolled in the insurance program.

“The golf tournament is a tremendous source of income for scholarships,” said Dr. Ken Hollman, chair of the Martin Chair of Insurance program. “We look forward to another great year.”

“This has been a very successful run. We’re coming up on 28 years, and it continues to be successful because of this group,” Hollman added, mentioning the Insurance Liaison Committee members. 

WHO: U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.)

WHAT: “A Living Constitution: The Unfinished Business”

WHEN: 7 p.m., Friday, April 6, 2012

HERE: State Farm Lecture Hall (Room BAS S-102), MTSU Business and Aerospace Building

SPONSORED BY: MTSU Black History Month Committee and University Honors College

Thursday afternoon, April 5, at 3:30 p.m. in the Tom Jackson Building, MTSU will welcome Egyptian playwright Ibrahim El-Husseini for an event billed as “Protests, Poets and Playwrights:  The Artistic Response to the Egyptian Revolution.”

 El-Husseini will discuss his recent play Comedy of Sorrows (Commedia Al-Ahzaan), written after the Egyptian revolution of 2011. Scenes from the play will be read by professional actors.  The event is part of a Vanderbilt series related to the “Arab Spring” that  includes a dramatic reading of the entire play at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4 at 7:00.

The man who helped bring the loving insanity of real modern families back to television is bringing his creativity to MTSU for a special April 11 event.

Dan O’Shannon, the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning executive producer and writer of the hit ABC comedy “Modern Family,” will speak at 6:30 p.m. in Room 160 of MTSU’s College of Education as part of the University’s Tom T. Hall Writers Series.

The event, “An Evening with Dan O’Shannon,” is free and open to the public.

"Many people are familiar with Dan because of the TV shows he's co-produced or written for, so we are very fortunate to have him at MTSU," said Dr. Zeny Panol, interim associate dean for the College of Mass Communication.

Former Major League pitcher Tommy John, who saved his career and revolutionized his sport by undergoing a groundbreaking operation, will be the luncheon speaker at MTSU’s 2012 Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference Friday, March 30.

The conference is scheduled from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the James Union Building.

John had amassed a 13-3 record for the Los Angeles Dodgers by July 1974 when a ligament in his pitching elbow ruptured. In a three-hour operation in September 1974, Dodgers team surgeon Dr. Frank Jobe replaced the ligament in John’s left elbow with one taken from a tendon in the pitcher’s right wrist. The surgery had been performed previously on wrists and hands, but never on an elbow. 

MTSU and The Tennessean tag-teamed Twitter March 20 to help alert and inform middle Tennessee about the dangers of childhood obesity in an inaugural on-campus “Tweetup.”

Attended by about 100 people in person and followed in a live stream at www.BrainstormNashville.comand on Twitter and Facebook by dozens more, the discussion featured presentations by MTSU’s Dr. Don Morgan, an expert on physical fitness and childhood obesity, and Tennessean Health Editor Heidi Hall.

Morgan praised the effort and said he looks forward to continued partnerships with Brainstorm Nashville.

“This is one of the most challenging things we’ve ever faced,” Morgan said.