Mr. Scott Johnson, PMP of FIS Global (www.fisglobal.com) will be speaking about Project Management at FIS on Thursday, January 31, 2013 from 10:50 to 12:05 in COB 308. All UCA students and employees are welcome to attend!

The Business & Information Technology (BIT) Club is having its spring kick-off meeting on Tuesday, January 29th. The event, which will be held in the College of Business Auditorium (Rooms 107/208) during X-period (1:40 - 2:30 p.m.), is open to all majors on campus. Drew Davis and Brent Cryder, both from Dillard's Information Technology in Little Rock, will be the featured speakers. Drew was the BIT Club President last year and we are delighted to welcome him back to campus. Refreshments will be served and door prizes will be awarded. All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend.

Drs. Noel Campbell and David Mitchell testified to Joint Performance Review Committee at the Arkansas State Legislature November 8, 2012. The professors presented evidence on taxes and spending. Arkansas is a low tax state nationally but taxes higher than its neighboring states. This affects Arkansas' growth rate because the higher taxes affect Arkansas' ability to attract people and firms.

The Business & Information Technology (BIT) Club is having its last meeting on Thursday, November 15th. The event, which will be held in the College of Business Auditorium (Rooms 107/208) during X-period (1:40 - 2:30 p.m.), is open to all majors on campus. Mr. Tom Bailey, formerly of EMC Corporation, will be the featured speaker. Tom is a graduate of UCA and we are delighted to welcome him back to campus. Refreshments will be served (PIZZA!) and door prizes will be awarded. All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend.

Joe Pappalardo, TIDA’s General Counsel, and Dr. David Voss

The Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA) has selected UCA as one of four recipients of its fifth annual Endowment Fund Grants in the amount of $5,000. The grant will help fund scholarships and research for the university’s Center for Logistics Education, Advancement, and Research (CLEAR), a program designed to prepare students for careers in the transportation industry.

The grant was presented to Dr. Douglas Voss, director of the CLEAR program for the University of Central Arkansas, at a ceremony on Sept. 20.

“On behalf of the University of Central Arkansas’ transportation and logistics students and faculty, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to TIDA for choosing our University and CLEAR as a beneficiary of its annual endowment program,” said Voss.

[Read more...]

Doug Voss and co-authors from Michigan State University received the Jack Meredith Award from the Journal of Operations Management (JOM) for the best paper published in the Journal in 2011. JOM is debatably the top supply chain/operations research journal in the world. According to Thomson Reuters, it has the number 1 impact factor of any Operations Research & Management Science journal ( http://www.elsevier.com/authored_subject_sections/S03/misc/ORMS.pdf ). It is one of 40 academic journals used by Financial Times to compile their annual business school research ranking, and is included in both their Global MBA and EMBA rankings ( http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-operations-management/journal-news/financial-times-research-rank/ ).

Voss’s winning paper is entitled, “Global Supply Chain Design Considerations: Mitigating Product Safety and Security Risks.” The article can be view here: Global Supply Chain Design Considerations.

There were three other manuscripts considered for the award, authored by faculty representing the following universities: The University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, University of Virginia, Arizona State University, Texas A&M University and Northeastern University.

Acxiom Corporation® has pledged $150,000 to the University of Central Arkansas to establish the “Acxiom Professors of MIS.” The gift will support five faculty members within the Department of Management Information Systems over the next four years. The gift was announced Tuesday during a press conference at the UCA College of Business.

“We sincerely appreciate this gift from Acxiom. This is just another example of Acxiom’s continued involvement in and generosity to UCA, but more importantly, to its commitment to the education of our students and faculty, and the overall improvement of Arkansas’s economy,” said UCA President Tom Courtway. “These funds will enable us to recruit and retain the highest quality faculty in the Management Information System program and provide our state with tomorrow’s leaders in the field.” [Read more...]

AMC/Fairmont has pledged $100,000 to become the lead donor and strategic partner in the advancement of the Insurance and Risk Management program by creating the Dr. John Bratton Endowed Professorship at the University of Central Arkansas. The growth and strength of the curriculum of UCA’s program is directly attributable to the leadership of Dr. John Bratton, stated Stephen L. Strange, president of AMC/Fairmont, formerly American Management Corporation (AMC). American Management Corporation was acquired in 2011 by Fairfax Financial Holdings and became part of their Crum & Forster division under the name AMC/Fairmont.

The number of majors has grown from six in 2002 to 87 in 2011. In 2011, Bratton championed the regulatory change allowing UCA graduates to take the claims adjusters license exam without the one year experience or direct supervision requirement.

[Read more...]

The EPIC Program (www.uca.edu/epic) at UCA enriches the student living and learning experience at the University. It is designed to be one of the most unique and transformative residential learning communities in the nation. Students from various disciplines including science and technology, business, and the fine arts will collaboratively live, work, and tackle real-world challenges that will have both commercial and community impact. [Read more...]

The UCA College of Business is pleased to announce the official launch of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) Major.

Why do we offer this major? Creativity is the ultimate business weapon. It is a country’s and company’s growth engine. It is the most valuable and marketable business skill today. The major in Innovation and Entrepreneurship teaches students how to develop ideas and how to get them done. We create “dreamers” and “doers.” Students will identify opportunities and then develop and launch innovations, whether these are products, services, or processes. [Read more...]