University of Central Arkansas

The University of Central Arkansas is inviting the parents and family members of UCA students, as well as UCA students and other members of the UCA campus community, to a public forum about campus safety.

A panel of UCA staff and administrators -- including interim UCA President Tom Courtway and representatives of the UCA Police Department, the UCA Division of Student Services, and the UCA Department of Housing and Residence Life -- will be on hand to answer questions about the response to the Oct. 26, 2008, shooting incident at UCA.

The public forum will take place at 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3, 2008, at the Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center on the UCA campus.

Directions and a map are available at http://www.uca.edu/brewerhegeman/location.htm.

UPDATE (Oct. 29): UCA Police officers last night recovered a weapon within the jurisdiction of the City of Conway that may have been used in the Oct. 26, 2008, shooting incident at the University of Central Arkansas.

UCA investigators are optimistic that this discovery will be very helpful toward resolving the case.

ORIGINAL NEWS ITEM

Marcus Vaden, Prosecuting Attorney for the 20th Judicial District of Arkansas, and UCA Police officials today announced the charges filed against four suspects believed to be involved in the Oct. 26, 2008, shooting incident at the University of Central Arkansas.

The four suspects -- Kawin Brockman of Conway, Kelcey Perry of Morrilton, Mario Toney of Little Rock, and Brandon Wade of Lake Village -- each are charged with:

Two counts of Capital Murder
One count of Attempted Capital Murder
Eight counts of Terroristic Act
One count of Possession of Firearms by Certain Persons
One count of Discharge of a Firearm from Car
One count of Possession of Handgun on Public School Property

First State Bank of Conway, Ark., has established an account to accept donations for the families of Chavares Block and Ryan Henderson, who lost their lives in the Oct. 26 shooting incident at the University of Central Arkansas.

To donate to the Block-Henderson Memorial Fund, please visit any First State Bank location or call 501-328-HOME. (A list of branch locations is available here.)

All funds received will be provided to the two families to help them through their difficult time.

In an effort to provide the most comprehensive, reliable and up-to-date information about the shooting incident that occurred during the evening of Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008, on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas, UCA will release as much information as possible on its homepage at www.uca.edu.

UPDATE (Oct. 27, 10:30 p.m.): The UCA Police Department this evening is transferring the four suspects in Sunday's shooting incident to the Faulkner County Detention Center, where they will be detained pending charges.

The Faulkner County Prosecutor is expected to file charges against the suspects by 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

The suspects are:

Kawin Brockman of Conway, Black male, DOB 9-20-89
Kelcey Perry of Morrilton, Black male, DOB 4-14-89
Mario Toney of Little Rock, Black male, DOB 3-24-88
Brandon Wade of Lake Village, Black male, DOB 8-19-88

Perry is the fourth and final suspect to turn himself in to the UCA Police Department.

The UCAPD and the Faulkner County Prosecutor's Office will hold a press conference after the charges are filed.

UPDATE (Oct. 27, 4:30 p.m.): The UCA Police Department has announced that it has detained a third suspect believed to have been involved in the shooting incident.

No arrests have been made yet, but the UCAPD is optimistic that the fourth and final suspect will be brought in soon.

UCA police officials are working with the Faulkner County Prosecutor to formalize charges in the case.

UPDATE (Oct. 27, 12:45 p.m.): UCA further identifies the student victims as Chavares Block, 19, a sophomore pre-engineering major from Dermott who first enrolled at UCA in Fall 2007; and Ryan Henderson, 18, a freshman from Little Rock with an undeclared major. Block lived off campus, and Henderson lived in Arkansas Hall.

Counseling for UCA students, faculty and staff is available through the UCA Counseling Center at four campus locations:

State Hall
Arkansas Hall (1st Floor Study Room Mini Lobby)
Harrin Hall (Room 117)
The UCA Counseling Center (Student Health Center, Suite 327)

Two events have been organized to mourn the loss of Chavares Block and Ryan Henderson:

A candlelight memorial arranged by the UCA Student Government Association will take place tonight at 5 p.m. at the UCA Fountain.

A prayer vigil will take place tomorrow at 1:40 p.m. at Ida Waldran Auditorium on behalf of all religious registered student organizations.

Also, Keeping a Child Alive will be in the UCA Student Center all day tomorrow distributing ribbons in memory of the students who lost their lives.

UPDATE (Oct. 27, 9:45 a.m.): UCA held a press conference at 9 a.m. Central time at the Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center on the UCA campus.

The identities of the two deceased UCA students were released: Ryan Henderson, 18, of Little Rock, and Chavares Block, 19, of Dermott.

The other victim, who is not a UCA student, is Martrevis Norman of Blytheville.

The lead investigator for the case, UCAPD Lt. Preston Grumbles, confirmed that four suspects are believed to have been involved in the shooting, and two are now in custody. No UCA students are suspects. Grumbles said the incident does not appear to be random. He expressed confidence that the location of the other two suspects has been identified.

Grumbles said numerous shots were fired during the incident, but investigators are not prepared to reveal the type of weapon used.

UCA interim president Tom Courtway announced that classes at UCA will resume tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 28.

NEWS SUMMARY (Oct. 27, 3 a.m.)

The UCA Police Department received a call at 9:19 p.m. reporting shots fired. At the same time, a UCA police officer heard the shots and responded immediately.

The first two UCAPD officers were on the scene of the shooting at 9:19 p.m. The incident occurred outdoors between Arkansas Hall and the Snow Fine Arts Center.

The first MEMS ambulance arrived on scene at 9:28 p.m., and the first Conway Fire Department vehicle was on scene at 9:30 p.m.

One victim, a UCA student, was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other injured victims were transported to Conway Regional Medical Center. One of those victims, also a UCA student, died at the hospital. The other victim, who was not a UCA student, was treated and eventually released from the hospital.

The names of the victims will not be released until their relatives are notified.

UCA residence halls and the UCA Student Center were immediately locked down after the incident was reported. However, the UCA campus itself is not locked down, although officers are posted at every campus entrance, and access to campus is limited to residents and authorized personnel. [UPDATE: Access to the UCA campus is open.]

All 25 UCAPD officers were immediately dispatched. The UCAPD's automated alert system was initiated, and every residence hall was contacted by telephone to instruct officials to secure the facilities and restrict access to the buildings. E-mails were sent to UCA student, faculty and staff e-mail systems, as well as the Safe@UCA e-mail listserv. A notification also was posted on the UCA homepage at www.uca.edu, as well as the UCAPD website at www.ucapd.com.

The UCAPD is conducting a joint investigation with the Conway Police Department and the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office.

A person of interest has been detained, although that person is not under arrest at this time.

Classes are canceled at UCA for Monday, Oct. 27, 2008. However, the campus is open and UCA faculty and staff can report to work.

Steve Rendall, senior analyst at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) and Cliff Kincaid, editor of AIM (Accuracy in Media), tomorrow night will participate in a program at UCA called "The Great Election Debate: How the Media can Sway Votes and Win Elections," sponsored by the UCA Student Activities Board.

The event will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. in the UCA Student Center Ballroom.

Rendall and Kincaid are two of the nation's top media critics representing opposing ideological perspectives. They will offer a lively, cutting-edge debate on the media's critical role in the 2008 campaign.

Rendall is co-host of CounterSpin, FAIR's national radio show. His work has received awards from Project Censored, and has won the praise of noted journalists including Les Payne, Molly Ivins and Garry Wills. He is co-author of The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error, and has appeared on dozens of national television and radio shows.

Through his position at AIM, Kincaid almost single-handedly blocked Al-Jazeera English, a spin-off of Osama bin Laden's favorite TV network, from gaining a foothold in the U.S. He has co-hosted CNN's Crossfire and worked for Oliver North. He appears frequently on national TV, with recent appearances on PBS, CNN and Fox News. His forthcoming book, The Death of Talk Radio?, centers on the likely return of the Fairness Doctrine under a Democratic president.

UCA Theatre this week will open its main stage season with Moliere's classic comedy, The Learned Ladies on Oct. 23, 24, 29, 30, 31 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bridges/Larson Theatre of the Snow Fine Arts Center.

Taking aim at the pretentiousness of pseudo-intellectuals, The Learned Ladies is set in the middle class household of Chrysale, which is besieged with a salon of women in love with learning. Spewing their half-baked knowledge for the purpose of social climbing, the women have been seduced by the flowery verses of a would-be poet as the household tumbles into chaos over who the daughters should marry.

Stephanie Vanderslice, Associate Professor of Writing, has published "Sleeping With Proust vs. Tinkering Under the Bonnet: Creative Writing in the US and the UK," in Graeme Harper and Jeri Kroll's book, Creative Writing in Higher Education, published by Multiligual Matters Press in the UK. Her essay, "The Imaginary Nursery," was also just published in the anthology Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in our 40's, edited by Molly Rosen. Contributors to the anthology have waived royalties and fees so that all profits from the book will go to breast cancer research; more information on the book can be found at www.knowingpains.com.

Lauren Maxwell and Joe Horton of UCA's Department of Economics, Finance, Insurance, and Risk Management, earlier this month presented a paper on "China's Role in the Global economy of the Twenty First Century: An Optimistic Appraisal" at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas College Teachers of Economics and Business Meeting at Ouachita Baptist University.

Barbara Clancy, an associate professor in the Biology Department, this month was invited to give a talk at the Twenty-Fifth International Neurotoxicology Conference in Rochester, NY. The conference focused on Environmental Etiologies of Neurological Disorders: Scientific, Translational and Policy Implications, and was held in conjunction with the University of Rochester Medical School's conference on Environmental Toxicity. Clancy's talk was entitled "Translating the Timing of Neurodevelopment Across Animal Models to Humans: What Works, What Doesn't, and What's Next."

John M. Erwin, director of choral music at UCA, tomorrow will receive the 2008 Arkansas Arts Council Governor's Individual Artist Award.

The 2008 Governor's Arts Awards are sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council and will take place tomorrow at noon in Ballroom A at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

The Individual Artist Award category is for artists active in the field of architecture, contemporary crafts, design, film, literature, performing arts or visual arts.

Erwin's recognition marks the second time in three years that a UCA faculty member has won the award. In 2006, sculptor Brian Massey Sr. received the honor.

World-renowned saxophonist Branford Marsalis and the 30-piece Filharmonia Brasileira Orchestra will appear in Marsalis Brasilianos, a celebration of the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, on Monday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall on the UCA campus.

Marsalis, a three-time Grammy winner, has always been a man of numerous musical interests, from jazz, blues and funk to such classical music projects as his Fall 2008 orchestra tour. Marsalis’ diverse interests are also reflected in his other activities. He spent two years touring and recording with Sting and was the musical director of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for two years in the 1990s. He has collaborated with the Grateful Dead and Bruce Hornsby, acted in films including Throw Mama from the Train and School Daze, provided music for Mo’ Better Blues and other films and hosted National Public Radio’s syndicated program Jazz Set.

Marsalis has performed and recorded with a who's-who of jazz giants including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock and Sonny Rollins. Known for his broad musical talent, Marsalis is equally at home on the stages of the world’s greatest clubs and concert halls. In recent years, he has become increasingly active as a featured soloist with such acclaimed orchestras as Chicago, Detroit, Düsseldorf and the Boston Pops, in a growing repertoire that includes compositions by Copland, Debussy, Glazunov, Ibert, Mahler, Mihaud, Rorem and Williams.

Tim Thornes, Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Writing, will present his paper "Detransitivization and relative clauses in Northern Paiute" at the annual Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas in San Francisco in January. His paper will focus on the grammatical and discourse interactions of voice and relative clause formation in a Uto-Aztecan language.

Roger Wainwright, a Lecturer in the Biology Department, was recently included as a contributing author for the 6th Ed. of the McGraw-Hill textbook Microbiology: A Human Perspective, by Nester et al. His revision work over multiple chapters refined material in the text on spontaneous and induced mutations in DNA. This text is widely used, and used at UCA in the Microbiology for the Health Sciences (BIOL 2411) course.

Alma Corley, assistant professor in the Speech and Public Relations Department, recently presented The Log Cabin Democrat: A success story now but how shall we go forward? at the National Newspaper Association's 122nd annual convention in St. Paul, MN. Log Cabin Democrat managing editor Waylon Harris was co-author of the case study.

Award-winning director, cinematographer and producer Albert Maysles will be on the University of Central Arkansas campus Oct. 17 for UCA's Artists in Residence program.

His residency will be in conjunction with the 17th Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the oldest documentary film festival in the United States.

"I think Maysles will bring a lifetime of experience to UCA," said Dr. Bruce Hutchinson, assistant professor of mass communication and the faculty sponsor for the residency. "He is one of the foremost living documentary filmmakers in the world today."

Maysles will hold a master class at 12 noon on Friday, Oct. 17, in Stanley Russ Hall, Room 103.

The United States Air Force Concert Band and The Singing Sergeants, known worldwide as "America’s International Musical Ambassadors," will bring their unique blend of music and patriotism to Conway on Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at UCA's Reynolds Performing Arts Center.

Together they form the flagship musical components of the United States Air Force Band, which also features the Air Force Strings, Airmen of Note, Ceremonial Brass, Diplomats, Max Impact and the Silver Wings.

The Concert Band, which was originally formed in 1941, has since grown to 52 members. Conducted by Colonel Dennis M. Layendecker and with a musical repertoire that includes classic favorites, popular offerings and original compositions, the band has set the standard for musical ensembles for more than 65 years.

John Dean, the White House lawyer whose congressional testimony was key to unraveling the Watergate conspiracy during the presidential administration of Richard M. Nixon, will speak at UCA this Monday.

Dean's lecture will take place on Monday, October 13 at 7 p.m. at the Brewer-Hegeman conference center on the UCA campus. The event is free and open to the public, and it will include a reception and book signing.

Dean has long written on the subjects of law, government, and politics, and he recounted his days in the Nixon White House and Watergate in two books, Blind Ambition (1976) and Lost Honor (1982). He lives in Beverly Hills, Cal. with his wife Maureen, and now is a full-time writer and lecturer, having retired from his career as a private investment banker.

Before becoming Counsel to President Nixon in July 1970 at age 31, Dean was Chief Minority Counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, the Associate Director of a law reform commission, and U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General. He served as Nixon's White House lawyer for a thousand days.

In 2001, he published The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court; in early 2004, Warren G. Harding, followed by Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush. In 2006, Dean publihsed Conservatives Without Conscience.

His newest book is Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches.

The Office of Minority Services, the Student Goverment Association and The Spanish Club tomorrow will host "Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month."

The event, which will take place on Thursday, Oct. 9 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the UCA Student Center Ballroom, will feature Al "Papa Rap" Lopez and the cast from the television show What’s up!Qué pasa?. Papa Rap will bring live Latin music to make everybody dance, free food will be available, and Hispanic students at UCA will share information about their native countries.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council includes nine traditionally African-American Greek organizations, and UCA is the only university in Arkansas that currently has all nine groups represented.

In honor of UCA Homecoming week, NPHC will present $900 to Ida Burns Elementary School in Conway. All nine organizations were founded at institutions of higher learning, and the UCA chapters want to help the younger generation continue a legacy of academic excellence.

The UCA students will present nine $100 gift cards to Principal Cindy Thacker this Thursday, Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. They hope the gift cards will be distributed to nine teachers to purchase supplies for their classrooms.

Raymond-Jean Frontain, professor of English, recently published the following: "Silent Signs: Fuller, David, Writing," in The Sacred and the Profane in English Renaissance Literature, ed. Mary A. Papazian (University of Delaware Press, 2008); "Donne's 'Upon the translation of the Psalmes' and the Challenge to 'Make all this All,'" John Donne Journal 27 (2008); "Donne's 'Valediction of the booke' as a Performative Action," ANQ: American Notes and Queries 21, 2 (Spring 2008); and "Cosmos versus Empire: Teaching The Ramayana in a Comparative Context," in Approaches to Teaching Literature in a Global Context, ed. David Damrosch (Modern Language Assoc. of America), in press.

Rebecca Gatlin-Watts, Lauren Maxwell and Marsha Carson from the College of Business, along with Cheryl Wiedmaier from the College of Education presented "Technology Solutions to Enhance Multinational Collaboration" at the Annual Meeting of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education’s (FIPSE) Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education meeting held in Ottawa, Ontario, Sept. 28-30. At this annual meeting, over 250 participants from Mexico, Canada and the U. S. met to discuss best practices in student exchange, faculty research and collaboration and sustainability.

The UCA chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha tomorrow night will host a debate between the candidates for Arkansas State Senate District 30 in Faulkner County, Republican incumbent Gilbert Baker and Democratic challenger Joe White.

The event will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the UCA Student Center Ballroom.

Pi Sigma Alpha is the national honor society for undergraduate and graduate students of political science. The purpose of Pi Sigma Alpha is to stimulate scholarship and interest in the subject of government and politics to the wider university community. More information on Pi Sigma Alpha can be found at: http://apsanet.org/~psa/index.cfm.

The 2008 UCA Homecoming activities begin tonight with the Homecoming Pep Rally at 5:30 p.m. in the Farris Center.

This year's Homecoming theme is "Building on 101 Years of Tradition," and other activities include:

* Alumni & Friends Homecoming Party on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Agora Events Center. Tickets are $30 per person, which includes heavy hors d'oeuvres and beverages.

* Half Century Club Induction & Brunch on Saturday at 9 a.m. at McCastlain Hall. Tickets are $25 per person.

* Homecoming Parade on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The route follows Donaghey Ave. and Bruce St.

* Homecoming Tailgate on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Crafton Alumni Pavilion. Tickets are $5 for Alumni Association members; $10 per person for non-members; and $5 for children 10 and under. Catered by the Fish House.

* Homecoming football game versus Sam Houston State with kick-off on Saturday at 6 p.m. at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.

Homecoming T-shirts are available for only $10 at Buffalo Alumni Hall and the Student Center Lobby. For more details about Homecoming events visit www.uca.edu/homecoming.

Mark Spitzer, assistant professor of writing, just returned from Texas where he was commissioned to fish for alligator gar and do a series of interviews with the British production company Icon Films for the series "River Monsters" to appear on the Animal Planet channel next year. Four alligator gars were caught and released; ranging from three feet long to six-foot-eight, 126 pounds.

Dr. Mary H. Mosley, Director of the UCA Reading Success Center, assisted the Flippin School District with a Read Around the World event for fourth grade students and their parents the last week in September. Mosley served as the humanities scholar in helping the district plan, implement, and evaluate a grant to obtain books written about different parts of the world. Students had a "passport" to get stamped as they and their parents read together in the various "countries" and areas, which included Africa, Europe, North and South America, the Antartic, and other regions. Student reading about other countries will continue throughout the year with the support of the grant funding used to obtain multiple sets of books for all fourth-grade classrooms in the district.

Communication scholar Dr. Bill Benoit, an expert in political campaign communication and image restoration, today is an Artist in Residence at UCA.

"I wanted to bring a communication scholar to UCA who would have a wide appeal to students and faculty," said Dr. J.J. McIntyre, assistant professor of speech communication and the faculty sponsor for the residency. "With this being an election year, bringing a political scholar made good sense."

Dr. Benoit's residency began yesterday, three days after the only vice presidential debate of the 2008 presidential campaign at Washington University in St. Louis. His residency ends tonight, one day before the second presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

"When we're talking about debates, we’re going to be seeing a lot of different attacks," McIntyre said. "Benoit focuses on whether campaigns have a positive or negative light and how often those tactics win. [The audience] is going to walk away with a prediction on who is going to win the election."

The UCA Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Ricky Brooks, will present a Fall Concert tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in the Reynolds Performance Hall on the UCA campus.

The concert is free and open to the public. Guest conductor with the Wind Ensemble will be Dr. Joseph Missal, director of bands at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Guest soloist for the evening is Dr. Blake Tyson, associate professor of percussion at UCA.

For the concert, Missal will conduct "Four Scottish Dances," a setting of Scottish folk dances in four movements, and the William Himes arrangement of "Amazing Grace." The Wind Ensemble will feature Tyson on "Strange Humors," by John Mackey. "Strange Humors" is composed in the jazz style and features a solo djembe, a West African hourglass-shaped percussion instrument played with the bare hands.

During a two-day residency at UCA, Missal will lecture music education classes and present a conducting master class for music education majors.

For more information, contact Brooks at (501) 450-5764 or rickyb@uca.edu.

Garry Craig Powell, Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing, has had his short story "Plunge Pool" accepted by Exquisite Corpse magazine, and his story "Kamila's Price" has finally appeared in Talking River, after that journal suspended publication and reputedly had its printing press burned to the ground. "Plunge Pool" will be the ninth story from Powell's linked collection, "The Gulf," to go into print.

Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Letters & Life, founded and edited by celebrated author and National Public Radio commentator Andrei Codrescu, is now based at the University of Central Arkansas.

This legendary literary journal has been a major icon in contemporary American literature for more than twenty-five years. Founded in 1983, it has been edited since then by the celebrated author and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu. Originally designed as an avant-garde national literary journal showcasing experimental writing, the Corpse quickly evolved into a progressive forum for all literary genres, including literary translation, interviews, critical theory, drama, polemics and politics, artwork and photography, and reports from various outposts of global dystopia. After fifteen years of promoting both emerging and established voices while maintaining a healthy attitude for weighing in on the burning issues of the times, Exquisite Corpse moved from a primarily NEA-funded print format to a cyber format (www.corpse.org) in order to pioneer the online literary journal. UCA writing professor Mark Spitzer was part of this transition, which allowed the Corpse to reach hundreds of thousands of readers and expand its scope and voice into an international sphere, with contributors and readers from all over the world.

Now, through the Department of Writing in UCA's College of Fine Arts and Communication, the print Corpse will be reborn at UCA -- this time as a brand new glossy-covered, 150-page annual to complement the website. The Exquisite Corpse Annual will create excitement in the literary world and provoke a new generation of literary excellence in Arkansas. Under the guidance of Editor-in-Chief Andrei Codrescu, with Spitzer as Managing Editor, and UCA writing professor Terry Wright as Associate Editor, the Exquisite Corpse will enhance UCA's position as a leader in the arts.

UCA is already home to The Oxford American, a national magazine dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing, and the winner of two National Magazine Awards.

"This move is mutually beneficial: UCA gains by associating with a well-known literary magazine, and the Exquisite Corpse gains new life in print, as a book," said Codrescu. "The online journal will continue its work, and it will aid the Annual by sharing writers and publicity. The new Exquisite Corpse Annual will be editorially independent, managed by Professor Spitzer under my general editorship, and its presence in Arkansas will doubtlessly stimulate an association with local writers and artists. The first issue of the Exquisite Corpse Annual will continue publishing well-established names, among them Diane di Prima, Bill Berkson, and Aram Saroyan, while promoting less known ones. Join us in welcoming the Corpse to its new home."

The UCA Debate Team started off the 2008-09 competitive schedule with an impressive first-place sweepstakes award at the Henderson State University Warm-up Tournament.

Leading the team were first place novice division winner Kristen Qandah, a senior Accounting major, novice division semi-finalist Sam Rorie, a sophomore Economics major, varsity division semi-finalist Chris White, a sophomore Political Science major, and varsity division quarterfinalist Ashley Hale, a senior Speech and Public Relations major.

In addition to the first place finish, UCA received first place speaker awards in all three divisions with Qandah winning in novice, White winning in varsity and co-coach Anthony McMullen winning top speaker in the open division.

Dr. Letha Mosley, an assistant professor in UCA's Occupational Therapy Department has been invited to present a three-hour workshop at the Oklahoma Occupational Therapy Association (OOTA) Annual Conference in Oklahoma City. The conference, scheduled for Oct. 3 and 4 at the Moore Norman Technology Center South Penn Campus, will center around the theme "Centennial Vision for Occupational Therapy: Integration and Implementation". Mosley will present on "Obesity Across the Spectrum: Occupational Therapy Evaluation, Interventions, and Research" on Oct. 4. The conference is for practitioners, educators, and students and will include other topics related to current initiatives by the national association such as the "CarFit Program", political issues impacting the profession, work and industry practice, and mental health within the profession.

Dr. Jim Guinee, Director of Training at UCA's Counseling Center, recently presented "Facebook: Let's be careful out there" at the Annual AAFCS Leadership Conference (UCA). He also presented "Dream interpretation in Christian Counseling" and "The Christian Counselor as the Therapeutic Mirror" at the Arkansas Christian Counselors and Therapists (North Little Rock).