Snow Day...

Classes were cancelled January 29 due to inclement weather conditions. The white dusting of winter and the quiet sounds of icy rainfall made the lonely campus still inviting. Here's a little sampling of photos. For more, visit our Facebook page.

Dean DiPippa Discusses Judge Proctor's Removal From the Bench

Bowen Law School Dean John DiPippa appeared this morning on the KTHV morning show to share his thoughts about Judge Proctor and what can be learned from this.

Haiti is Sober Reminder for Arkansans on New Madrid Fault

The devastating earthquake in Haiti is a sober reminder that Arkansas sits on top of the New Madrid Fault, a major seismic zone and the source of earthquake within the tectonic plate in the southern and Midwestern U.S. The U.S,. Department of Interior is giving UALR a $450,000 grant to establish an Earthquake Observatory, directed by Dr. Haydar Al-Shukri, to establish monitoring sensors across the south and central.



In a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, Dr. Al-Shukri said everyone in the region should be prepared in the event of a major quake.

Widow of Famed Author Norman Mailer Makes Book Tour Stop at UALR

UALR is delighted that Norris Church Mailer is including our campus as a stop on her upcoming tour with the release of her latest book, A Ticket to the Circus.

Mailer, a native Arkansan who was married to Norman Mailer for the last 30 years of his life, will be on campus April 13 for a 6 p.m. lecture in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall followed by a signing. If you don’t know Norris, meeting her will be lots of fun. She was born Barbara Davis in the small town of Atkins. She fell for Norman when he was in town at a friend’s party. She was a 26-year-old recently divorced art teacher in Russellville; he was 52.

She followed him to New York where she became a model, actress, painter, and writer. In the 1970s, she dated a little-known, aspiring politician named Bill Clinton. Married to Mailer, she faced down ex-wives and lovers by the dozen, according to her publicist at Random House who offered these details about her latest of three books:

“From age three when she was crowned Little Miss Little Rock, Norris Church Mailer has gone from one wild adventure to the next, and she shares it all in her frank, beautifully written, deeply personal memoir A TICKET TO THE CIRCUS (Random House; On sale April 6, 2010). Reading her stories is like sitting down to laugh and cry with an old friend: Norris holds nothing back, from showing up to dinner with Oscar de la Renta wearing only a nightgown, to serving coleslaw to Bob Dylan; from the heartbreak of first discovering her husband’s affairs, to saying goodbye to Norman on his deathbed.

“In a winning narrative voice that evokes her native Arkansas, Norris recounts herlife as a bright, talented girl who knew her life would one day be as surprising and memorable as a day at the circus. With clear eyes and startling frankness, she depicts the full evolution of her marriage to Norman Mailer, from the white-hot beginning through the very rocky patches to the mournful ending, offering an incredibly intimate perspective on this legendary man of letters. A TICKET TO THE CIRCUS is an intelligent, bittersweet memoir that will enchant readers with its charm and insight into how we grow up and how we love.”

Author Joyce Carol Oates comments: “A Ticket to the Circus is a remarkable memoir—blunt, funny, extraordinarily candid and self-aware; deeply moving, as it is wonderfully entertaining; above all, a memorable double portrait of two very unusual people, a couple for whom the term meant for each other is wholly appropriate.”

Hope you can join us for the lecture! Books will be available at the signing. The UALR departments of English and Rhetoric and Writing are sponsors of the event.

New Book by History Professor Exposes Abuse of Children in Irish State Care

History Professor Moira Maguire's publisher has just released her new book titled Precarious Childhood in Post-Independence Ireland. Ten years in the making, the study focuses on how Irish society failed poor and marginalized children after its war of independence with Great Britain.



“The Departments of Health and Education, who had legal responsibility for the children involved, failed in their duties to provide for and protect them,” she said.



Maguire’s research was included in the Ryan Report, an investigation by the Irish government through the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse into all forms of abuse in Irish institutions for children.



Here is a brief clip from last June of Dr. Maguire talking about her research and upcoming book:

UALR Profiled on The Chronicle of Higher Education Website

More than likely, you are familiar with The Chronicle as a source of higher ed news and information. Recently, our office was asked to contribute content for the "Campus Viewpoints" section of their website. Here's a screenshot of the section homepage:

And here's a screenshot of our actual page:

We'll be adding new content for this section routinely, so if you have story ideas, we'd love to hear them!

UALR Campus Viewpoint

Warning: The Recession Might Get You Pulled Over

Economics Professor, Dr. Gary Wagner, talked about results of his study this morning on foxbusiness.com, which seems to suggest that local governments make up for budget deficits in a bad economy by increasing the number of traffic tickets issued. Remember to drive safely, folks!

FOX16 Covers UALR Budget Concerns

Budget cuts are never fun to talk about, but they do have a tendency to attract news coverage. What we hope comes through loud and clear is that these financial cutbacks will not impact our students, and no layoffs are expected. "We'll handle this. We've done it before. We'll be able to do it this time," Chancellor Anderson said.

FOX16 news story

Dr. Gary Wagner Interviews Live on FoxBusiness.com Today

Economics Professor Gary Wagner will be interviewed live at 11:30 this morning on FoxBusiness.com in an hour-long special report on local and state government budget issues. Dr. Wagner serves on Gov. Beebe's Council of Economic Advisors. foxbusiness.com/live The report will air on the Fox Business TV station at a later date.

Haiti's Losses are Personal

For some on campus, Haiti is close to their hearts yet so far out of reach. Contact has been difficult because of the debilitated infrastructure. Professor Hervil Cherubin shared his personal connection to the crisis in Haiti and the pain he feels over losing family members while still not knowing what might have happened to more of his loved ones there.

UALR professor Hervil Cherubin says, "This is the most difficult part, sitting here, getting information through the phone or internet and cannot do anything."

Cherubin left Haiti as a child, but returns regularly. He hasn't heard from relatives who live in Port-au-Prince, but heard their businesses and homes are demolished and two cousins in their twenties are dead.



He explains, "One of them I had the feeling it was really quick because the building collapsed. The other one I think was the tough one because apparently the building collapsed he was still alive. People could hear his voice, they were talking with him and during the day they could not do anything."

Read the complete story on todaysthv.com.

UALR Alum Featured in Sync

UALR alumna Leah Thorvilson made the cover of Sync Weekly! Thorvilson won the Little Rock Marathon last year and was a record-setting Trojan in cross country and track and field while at UALR.

Read the complete story.

Dr. Haydar Al-Shukri Discusses Earthquake in Haiti

Like most of the UALR community, we've been deeply affected by the photos and televised images displaying the devastating aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti. Our resident expert, Dr. Haydar Al-Shukri, talked to KTHV about why the damage was so significant.



Read the complete story on todaysthv.com.

Professor Sikes Restores First Car - '68 Camaro

We've written stories on Biology Professor Robert Sikes, who graduated from UALR in 1985, for his research on pandas and field research with his students on his family farm in Alleene, Ark., which is turned into a lab of sorts for assessing patterns of litter size and evaluating reproductive models. We're also aware of Sikes' hobby as a beekeeper.



But a new one on Sikes came to us last week from Dr. Steve Edison, marketing/advertising professor.



On New Year's Eve, Edison attended a "car warming" for Sikes to see his '68 Camaro run for the first time in more than 20 years. The Camaro was his first car 30 years ago. "He not only has that car (and the girlfriend, now wife) from that era, he has completely restored the car to a thing of beauty...learning how to do each stage of the restoration as he progressed," said Edison. "The real story is that he is a "skill collector (a person who values the learning of new skills in a wide variety of application)." He invents...he converts...he is our MacGyver."



Thanks Dr. Edison for sharing your "after" pictures, where you can see a shop that Sikes built by himself with lumber from trees in his yard. The two before pics came from Dr. Sikes. Looks like the "apple doesn't fall far from the tree." You can see his 15-year-old son's 1968 Cougar in the background.

Law Students Conduct Service-Learning Project for University District

Law school students studying real estate began the semester Jan. 11 by learning about the University District and an opportunity to serve the district through their coursework.



Under the direction of Professor Paula Casey, who also serves on the University District Development Corporation (UDDC) board, the real estate law class with seven students is conducting a service-learning project to analyze homes in the district.







Dr. David Sink, professor in UALR's Institute of Government, explained that service learning establishes an ethos of lifelong serving among students, gets faculty involved in service, and provides additional opportunities for UALR to be a service leader in Central Arkansas.





He shared the history of the campus's emphasis on service and how it acquired funding to partner with other agencies to include building and renovating 15 houses in the district in the 1990s. About 12 of the original homeowners are still there.

Ron Copeland, director of the University District Partnership (UDP), demonstrated what distinguishes this district, giving background on planning documents, partners, and priorities - housing, education, and public safety.



Barrett Allen on the UDP staff has been responsible for administering plans for the UDDC to contract with the city to construct or rehab six houses in the district within 18 months. The first one for first-time home buyers (who haven't owned a home in three years and fall within income limits - about $48,000 for a family of four) is on Harrison Street across from Franklin Elementary.



He said the UDDC has received $200,000 from the city's HOME funds and will continue to raise funds for the endeavor, as well as got an agreement with Arvest Bank to finance the units.

Scenes from Bowen Law School

Want an inside tour of the Law School?

Tonya Smith, Communications Director at the UALR Bowen School of Law, passed on these images.

Photo credits go to Dero Sanford.

The William H. Bowen School of Law is part of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and was established in 1975. The law school is public, and has approximately 450 law students enrolled in full-time and part-time divisions.

The Law Library at Bowen, with its breathtaking four-story atrium and reading room, occupies 52,000 square feet of space located on four floors of the Law School building.

The law school's current campus is located adjacent to MacArthur Park, near the Arkansas Center for Fine Arts. The building was originally built for the medical school of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, which moved to its current campus in the central part of Little Rock in 1956. The current building was extensively renovated in 1992.

The Princeton Review ranked the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law among the nation's top law schools. The law school is one of 117 profiled in a recently-published book, "Best 117 Law Schools." It ranked 10th in the category "Most Welcoming of Older Students."

Among the school’s distinctions:

• National Jurist magazine listed the Bowen School as one of the top 50 law schools in clinical legal education in its September 2008 issue.


• U.S. News and World Report last April ranked the Bowen School among the top 20 law schools in the nation in the specialty of legal writing.


• The school received a $1 million gift last May from former dean and namesake William H. Bowen and his wife, Connie, to use for new opportunities and to react to critical short-term needs.


• Unlike most law schools, UALR requires two "lawyering skills" courses during the second year to teach skills used in trial advocacy, interviewing and counseling, mediation and negotiation.


• The law school offers three clinical programs: the litigation clinic, where students represent actual clients in court; the mediation clinic, where students gain practical experience in alternative dispute resolution; and the tax clinic, where students represent actual clients who have controversies with the Internal Revenue Service.


• The school offers externship programs, where students can learn and work in legal settings, for judges, legal services providers and legislators, earning academic credit.


• UALR Bowen School graduates include U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder; Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel; Arkansas Speaker of the House Robbie Wills; Reps. John Edwards, Dan Greenberg, Bruce Maloch, and Robert Moore Jr. and Steve Harrelson. Bowen School alumni are also members of the federal and state judiciaries, partners in major law firms, Fortune 500 counsel, and dedicated public servants.

Michael Pakko Talks about Arkansas Companies Growing on KTHV

Dr. Pakko discusses increased factory orders and other indicators of economic growth:

Pakko says even durable goods, like refrigerators and washers, increased.

He feels it all shows some optimism from businesses, anticipating higher demands. And given increases in factory orders in seven of the last eight months, the outlook is promising.

"It does indicate that there's a trend here developing here. It's not just a blip," Pakko said.

Read the complete story on todaysthv.com