Belmont’s Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine has earned preliminary accreditation from its accrediting body, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, allowing the college to begin recruiting students.

Applications will open in early November for the college’s inaugural class of 50, which will begin in July 2024.

Earning preliminary accreditation follows a successful site visit from LCME in July. The college met 12 standards set by the accrediting body including medical school leadership, planning, finances, curriculum, faculty, facilities, recruitment and student support.

The college will reside in a six-story, 246,000-square-foot facility including a state-of-the-art 50,000-square-foot simulation center – one of the most comprehensive in the nation – which will utilize virtual and augmented reality as part of its simulated offerings.

Within Belmont’s health care corridor, one block from the Gordon E. Inman Center and McWhorter Hall, the facility has been designed to create a fully interdisciplinary educational experience, allowing students in existing University programs to work alongside aspiring MDs, just as they would in a clinical setting. The building is slated for spring 2024 completion.

Accreditation through LCME is necessary for medical schools to participate in federal programs and grants and is required for graduates to receive licensure from most state medical licensing boards. Residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Education only give residency slots to physicians who graduate from LCME-accredited schools.

AAA: Gas prices in state drop another 10 cents

Gas prices across Tennessee have now declined for four consecutive weeks, AAA reports.

During the week of Oct. 8-14, Tennessee gas prices fell $0.10 on average. The Tennessee Gas Price average is now $3.14, 30 cents less expensive than one month ago and 24 cents less than one year ago.

“We’re continuing to see prices at the pump drop here in Tennessee, mostly thanks to falling crude oil prices,” says Megan Cooper, spokeswoman for AAA - The Auto Club Group. “Right now, we have one metro area in Tennessee (Clarksville) with a metro gas price average just below $3 per gallon. If current market conditions persist, we may see more metro areas follow suit in their gas price averages.”

• 80% of Tennessee gas stations have prices below $3.25.

• The lowest 10% of pump prices are $2.85 for regular unleaded.

• The highest 10% of pump prices are $3.58 for regular unleaded.

• Tennessee is No. 8 on the list of states with the least-expensive gas prices.

The Oct. 16 national average of $3.60 is 27 cents less than a month ago and 28 cents less than a year ago.

Domestic pump prices maintained their daily decline despite the uncertainty rippling through the oil market in the days since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel. Oil prices rose a few dollars per barrel last week, but that is far from the roughly $40 per barrel temporary spike following last year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Midstate companies join e-waste pilot program

Middle Tennessee companies will serve as important partners in a new pilot program to aid in lithium-ion battery recycling and the viability of recovering used electronics in order to avoid e-waste.

Nevada-based American Battery Technology Company will work as the lithium-ion battery recycler for Pyxera Global and Terra’s Done with It pilot program, sponsored by FedEx. The pilot program aims to develop circular business models for the logistics industry.

TERRA’s Done with It mail-in recycling program will facilitate the nationwide collection of laptops and tablets and will direct the donated devices to a secure FedEx facility located in Middle Tennessee. To protect donor privacy, every device will have its internal memory wiped and/or physically destroyed in accordance with the R2v3 certification standards.

If a donated device is repairable, it will be sent to Electronics Recycling Solutions, a Nashville-area social enterprise that is also R2v3-certified and dedicated to training adults with developmental disabilities in high-demand repair skills. If the device cannot be fixed, it will be broken down and its component parts harvested for recycling. In particular, the batteries will be sent to ABTC, which will recover the materials necessary for a domestic battery metals supply chain, powering electric vehicles.

Residents of the continental U.S. wishing to donate their laptops and tablets may request a free FedEx shipping label and donation instructions by visiting the Done with It (Powered by Evercycle) website at www.donewithit.org. The pilot program will accept items through Dec. 15.

Vanderbilt art prof wins MacArthur grant

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Art, has been awarded a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced.

The MacArthur Fellows Program is designed to support people in pursuit of their creative, intellectual and professional passions. Fellows receive an $800,000 “no strings attached” stipend to enhance their expertise, embark on innovative projects or redirect their career paths. Campos-Pons was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for her work exploring personal and collective histories across the Caribbean.

“We are incredibly proud of Professor Campos-Pons and her exquisite body of work,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier says. “Her melding of cultures, mediums and artistic traditions has made her a unique and powerful voice showing how personal and historical perspectives can blend into a new exploration of what it means to be human today.”

Campos-Pons is a multidisciplinary artist from Cuba with heritage in Africa, China and Spain, among other countries. Using photography, performance, sculpture, drawing, painting and other mediums, she creates multimedia installations that showcase her personal experiences as a Cuban woman as well as document displacement and inequality in the Caribbean.

Winning the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a “genius grant,” is incredibly rewarding for Campos-Pons.

Campos-Pons has showcased her work across the world, including recently at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. Her works are in more than 30 museum collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, The Whitney, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art.

Murfreesboro’s CityTV earns six NATOA awards

Murfreesboro’s CityTV took home six Government Programming Awards during the 38th annual award presentation by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA).

“Each year the CityTV team is consistently recognized for quality government television programming and this year our communicators received honors in six different categories,” says city communications director Alan Bozeman. “Our citizens can be proud, as I am, for the professional multimedia production and creativity exhibited throughout the year as represented by these awards.”

Murfreesboro’s government-oriented television station received six national ‘Award of Honor’ recognitions for educational meetings, children/young adult programs, events, PSAs and visual effects.

The awards program honors excellence in broadcast, cable, multimedia and electronic programming produced by local government agencies.

A national trade association based in Alexandria, Virginia, NATOA represents local government jurisdictions and consortia, including elected and appointed officials and staff, who oversee communications and cable television franchising.

Dolly fashion exhibit starts at Lipscomb Oct. 31

The Nashville community will have a unique opportunity to take a peek “behind the seams” at Dolly Parton’s iconic outfits in a special exhibition at Lipscomb University this fall.

The university’s Department of Fashion and Design will present “Dolly Parton and the Makers: My Life in Rhinestones” Oct. 31-Dec. 9 in the John C. Hutcheson Gallery in Lipscomb’s Beaman Library.

The one-of-a-kind, limited time fashion exhibition will feature 25 of Parton’s fashions from throughout her storied career and will highlight the makers behind the looks, the songs, the stories, and the true magic that happens behind the seams.

This exhibition will be the first physical interpretation of Parton’s new fashion-focused book, “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones,” released Oct. 17.

In the book, Parton shares for the first time the full story behind her lifelong passion for fashion, including how she developed her own distinctly Dolly style, which has endeared her to fans around the world.

The exhibit is curated by Parton archivist Rebecca Seaver. Parton’s former head patternmaker and seamstress, Iisha Lemming, will serve as artist-in-residence for the department this fall to assist in the development and execution of the exhibit.

Tickets for the fashion exhibition are $25 per person for a 45-minute tour. The tickets are limited and are for timed entry. All tickets must be purchased online in advance.

Exhibit hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Parking is available for guests adjacent to the library in the lot located at One University Park Drive.

Information/tickets