Gina Logue

LISTEN. It takes a lot to get me to Murfreesboro on days when I'm not teaching.

On Friday it took an order from the Chair.

Yesterday it took the retirement of the long-time Voice of our school, host of WMOT's "On the Record" radio program Gina Logue. Apparently, I'd appeared on her show often enough through the years to warrant an invite to her going-away party. 

So it was my honor and privilege, if not exactly my pleasure, to spend more time yesterday getting to and from the 'boro than the hour and a half or so I spent hanging out with Gina and other appreciative members of our campus community to say thanks and farewell. Drivers at mid-day were even more egregiously reckless and rude than usual. Glad I went, though, got to rub shoulders with esteemed colleagues, Deans, and the provost. I recorded a brief tribute which they tell me will air on the radio sometime in September.

Gina is a wonderful interviewer, as I learned at first hand when she had me on to talk about my classes (Happiness, Environmental Ethics, and the Study Abroad course that didn't finally come off). She's smart, informed, quick, welcoming, supportive... and since her time at MTSU began just shortly before mine in the early '00s, I told her, it's hard to imagine the place without her. But I won't have to, she's left a mark that will last at least as long as I'm still around.

The good news is that she's still my student in the MALA program.  So long is not good-bye. 

Not yet.

Good luck with the next chapter, Gina. Looking forward to reading that capstone. If it's anything like your work in Democracy in America it'll reward my nostalgia for our time here together. Your infrastructure analogy is just right, judiciously repairing old damage to a worn road usually makes more sense than flat-out replacing it. But,

There will come a time when filling old potholes must come to an end and new asphalt must be laid down. We can only hope that we will have the intelligence, whether by use of empirical measurements or instinct and experience, to tell preservation from potholes.

Intelligence, instinct, experience, curiosity, love of learning, and especially the consistent example of supportive humanity are what you've given us on the radio. You've been a wise preservationist to this university-centered community for over twenty years, and a constructionist. Thank you. Happy trails.