University of Central Arkansas

A statewide conference on college retention will be held at the University of Central Arkansas this Wednesday and Thursday, April 1 and 2.

The Student Success Symposium is designed to provide two- and four-year institutions in Arkansas the opportunity to create alliances, and it will feature six national speakers and two keynotes. Speakers will present on proven strategies for engaging students, student success and improving retention.

As part of the Student Success Symposium, the presidents, chancellors, and chief academic officers for the two- and four-year institutions in Arkansas will attend a luncheon on Wednesday, April 1, from noon to 2 p.m. in UCA's Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center rooms 4A&B. The keynote speaker at the luncheon will be John Gardner, who is the founder of two national centers: The National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina, and The Policy Center on the First Year of College based in Brevard, North Carolina. For over 30 years, he has led an international reform movement to persuade colleges to change their approaches to working with their first-year students.

Dr. Michael Rosenow, assistant professor of history at UCA, is the winner of the 2009 Herbert G. Gutman Prize for the outstanding dissertation in U.S. labor and working-class history. The annual award is given by the Labor and Working Class History Association, and it includes a cash prize and a publishing contract for the dissertation manuscript with the University of Illinois Press.

Rosenow joined the UCA history faculty in August 2008, replacing Dr. Harry Readnour, as a professor of nineteenth-century American history. His prize-winning dissertation was entitled, "Injuries to All: The Rituals of Dying and the Politics of Death among United States Workers, 1877-1910," which he completed at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Zoa Ordonez, a senior Psychology major at UCA with minors in Marketing and Honors Interdisciplinary Studies, was awarded a summer research fellowship at the Organizational Science Summer Institute at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. This is an interdisciplinary group of management and organizational science researchers designed to prepare undergraduate students into top tier doctoral programs in the organizational sciences.

Terri Teague-Ross, a graduate student in Biology at UCA, and undergraduate students Courtney Davis (Biology/Mathematics), Amanda James (Biology) and Lalita Oonthonpan (Biology/Honors College), recently presented the results of their research at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington, D.C. Their poster presentation, entitled "Rat Cortical Subplate Comparisons Across Development and Aging," received international attention at the conference, which is considered the premier venue for neuroscientists to share research findings. The students have been working for two years on the study under the guidance of faculty mentors George Bratton (Mathematics) and Barbara Clancy (Biology). Travel to the conference was sponsored by UCA’s Biology Department, with additional contributions from the Honors College and the Arkansas INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence).

U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, and U.S. Representative Vic Snyder, announced that $70,000 in grant funding has been issued to UCA through the Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program.

The Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program provides grants to support overseas projects for teachers, students, and faculty. This program holds an annual competition, and projects must focus on the humanities, social sciences, or languages.

The UCA project will be led by Dr. Brooks Green and will work to expand understanding of Russian culture and ecology through service learning. The 4-6 week program enables 13 geography educators to travel to south-central Siberia to observe, study, and learn about the diverse culture and history of this unique area of Russia.

Little Rock business owner Ann M. Hortillosa has made a $50,000 pledge to the UCA Centennial Campaign and has directed the contribution to a business scholarship named in her honor as well as the new College of Business building fund.

The Ann M. Hortillosa Scholarship Fund supports students in the MBA program with a preference for international students. The additional funds will allow more students to benefit from this scholarship, which was established in 2005 and is awarded annually through the UCA Foundation.

A portion of Hortillosa's gift will also support the university’s $18 million new College of Business building. The 70,000-square-foot building, which is under construction, is located behind Wingo Hall, facing Donaghey. The new building will include a 160-seat auditorium, eight tiered lecture halls, two flat classrooms, two computer labs, and 61 faculty offices. Additionally the new building will feature numerous conference rooms, a graduate lounge, and space for each of the college's centers and institutes. The building is scheduled to open in the spring of 2010.

An assortment of UCA professors and staff across a broad range of academic disciplines has received almost $560,000 in grants awarded by state and federal agencies.

These grants include:

Dr. Jeff Whittingham, Department of Teaching, Learning, & Technology, College of Education, received $30,855 from the U. S. Department of Education through the Center for Civic Education for the project, "We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution". The project provides free civics textbooks and materials to civics teachers in all congressional districts of the state including new materials for UCA education majors. Pat Ramsey, History Department and Marilyn Friga, Department of Teaching, Learning, and Technology serve as Congressional District Coordinators for the program.

Dr. Hui Wu and Dr. Adam Frank, Department of Writing, College of Fine Arts and Communication, received $83,316 from the U. S. Department of Education for the project "Improving the Asian Studies Curriculum through a Focus on China". The project creates a Chinese language minor and a Chinese studies major. Students who take classes in the program have the opportunity to participate in short-term studies and internships in China.

UCA will present its second annual Cancer Research Symposium featuring a lecture by Dr. Linda deGraffenried at noon on Friday, March 6 in room 100 of the Lewis Science Center on the UCA campus. Students and faculty are invited to hear deGraffenried talk about "Diet, Lifestyle and Cancer Progression: Making the Molecular Connections," which will include an update on current research, prevention, and treatment options for breast cancer.

Dr. deGraffenried also will present a public lecture entitled "Cancer and Diet: Charlie Tuna vs. Elsie the Cow" at 7 p.m. in Doyne Health Science Center Auditorium. This lecture will focus on treatment options, hormone therapy, as well as the role of nutrition and diet in preventing and controlling breast cancer.

The UCA Cancer Research Symposium series presents nationally recognized scientists who are researching the prevention and cures for cancer. Last year's speaker focused on prostate cancer; this year's focus is on breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women nationally. Women in Arkansas rank among the lowest in the nation for the diagnosed incidence of breast cancer, but they have among the highest mortality rates. As part of the ongoing education needed to empower women to have regular check-ups and to seek appropriate treatment for breast cancer, the lectures will present current information about treatment, prevention, and current medical advances.

Dr. deGraffenried is an associate professor at the University of Texas in Austin and is active in breast cancer research. The focus of her research is on nutritional intervention using omega 3 fatty acids and fish oil in breast cancer prevention and management. Working with oncologists, she helps by bringing laboratory discoveries to the patient. Dr. deGraffenried has received federal and private funding for breast cancer research from the National Cancer Institution, the American institution for Cancer Research, the US Department of Defense, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

UCA this week is hosting the annual ArkaText Literary Festival from March 2 through 6. Each year, the festival brings noted Arkansas writers in various genres to campus for public readings and workshops with students.

This year, the festival will feature Mark Jackson (creative nonfiction) and Graham Gordy (screenwriting). The first annual Exquisite Corpse Annual Reading will also be featured. Additionally, a student reading and a faculty reading will be held.

The ArkaText Literary Festival is part of the Central Arkansas Writing Arts Series and is sponsored by UCA's Department of Writing. It is also part of UCA's Artists in Residence program coordinated by the College of Fine Arts and Communication. While on campus, the writers will meet with UCA writing students in workshop and discussion settings.

A complete schedule for the festival follows. All events are free and open to the public.

Ryan Fisher, assistant professor of choral music education in UCA's Department of Music, recently had his article, "Debating Assessment in Music Education" published in Research and Issues in Music Education. Fisher also recently presented his research project, "Effect of Ethnicity on the Age-of-Onset of the Male Voice Change" at the Texas Music Educators Association research poster session.

Paige Rose, assistant professor of music education in UCA's Department of Music, along with recent UCA graduate Karyna Johnson, recently presented their research project, "Effects of Structured Musical Activity Sessions on the Development of a Child with Autism: A Case Study" at the Texas Music Educators Association research poster session.

J.D. Swanson, assistant professor of biology at UCA, recently presented his research, Prickle Development of Rubus: A Model for Cell-To-Cell Communication and Cell Proliferation in Plants, at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference (PAG XVIII) in San Diego.

At that conference, UCA undergraduate student Allicia Kellogg presented a poster on Molecular Investigation of Early Prickle Development Genes in Rubus, and graduate student Nathan Jones presented a poster about Identification of Genes Involved in Late Prickle Development in Rubus.