Thanks to KARK and KATV for great videos on Reynolds Performance Hall’s season lineup!
Community Events
Upcoming Performances At Reynolds Performance Hall Featured By KTHV
Thanks to KTHV for a great video on the new upcoming performances at UCA Reynolds Performance Hall!
View the video HERE
UCA Upward Bound Racks Up Awards at North Central Arkansas ‘UB Day 2015’
On Friday, June 26, 2015, the UCA Upward Bound program f participated in an Upward Bound Retreat for North Central Arkansas.
Events of the day began with a campus tour of Lyon College followed by a series of competitions between the Upward Bound programs in attendance: Arkansas State University-Beebe, Arkansas State University-Heber Springs, Lyon College, and University of Central Arkansas.
Competitions included academic contests (tests in all four ACT subject areas), a spelling bee, an art exhibition, Quiz Bowl, field games, and a basketball shoot-out.
Jerald Mock won 1st place in ACT Math. Trey White won 2nd place in ACT Reading. Kendall Walker won 1st place in the Art Exhibition. Emily Withrow won 3rd place in the Art Exhibition, and our teams won both the field games and the basketball shoot-out.
Additionally, UCA students had the opportunity to speak with Joseph Didden, Field Representative from Rep. Rick Crawford’s office, who was there to observe the event (held in his district).
UCA students shared their experiences and explained why Upward Bound is so important to them in order to help ensure his continued support in funding for TRiO programs.
Stetson Painter, Field Representative from Senator John Boozman’s office, was in attendance as well.
UCA’s Upward Bound Project provides fundamental support to participants in their preparation for college entrance.
The program provides opportunities for participants to succeed in pre-college performance and ultimately in higher education pursuits.
The goal of Upward Bound is to increase the rates at which participants enroll in and graduate from institutions of post-secondary education.
UCA Won An Excellence Award From Mapworks
Every year, there are ten Excellence Awards given across the nation, and this year UCA has been recognized!
Skyfactor™ will continue to recognize Mapworks™ campuses’ best practices in utilizing the Mapworks platform to deepen capacity and commitment to student success and retention.
The top proposals will be recognized for excellence and publicly recognized at the 2015 Mastering Mapworks Conference.
UCA’s proposal highlighted the following items from UCA’s implementation:
The expansion of UCA’s implementation from a small pilot within Housing and Residence Life to now including all first-year students with representation from faculty and staff across campus.
The use of Mapworks data in developing an intervention plan, developing intervention strategies, and engaging campus partners.
Data-driven strategies have produced tangible outcomes including a 10% increase in the number of students who reviewed their student report, and a 14% increase in report views among high-risk students.
UCA Professors Featured of KUAR Radio Show
Two UCA professors will be featured on KUAR’s radio show Arts & Letters (89.1 FM) on July 30, 2015 at 8:30 p.m. Fish writer and writing professor Mark Spitzer and biology professor Dr. Reid Adams will appear on the 30-minute program.
Hosted by J. Bradley Minnick, the special program will focus on Spitzer’s nonfiction book, Return of the Gar, recently published by the University of North Texas Press. Spitzer, who has written two books on gar, and Adams, who specializes in gar research, are recognized as leading specialists in the study of this species, especially in regard to the alligator gar, a fish which can reach lengths of 10 feet long.
Weaving excerpts from Spitzer’s book with sound bites from Adams and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gar authority Lindsey Lewis, the collage format of the show incorporates original music by the Sioux City Kid (Jared Griffin) and Know Who’s a Robot. Produced and edited by Chris Hickey and Minnick at KUAR, the show paints a portrait of a fascinating native species and current conservation efforts to bring back some nearly extinct populations.
According to Spitzer, “The theme of gar returning happens on a few different levels. On one hand, there’s a lot of collaboration now between federal and state agencies, universities, private and public labs and hatcheries, commercial fisheries and aquariums all over the world. Basically, we’ve had some success in resurrecting gator gar in the United States, which will be good for environmental balance, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
In other countries, the outlook is much bleaker for the gar family. In Return of the Gar, Spitzer investigates gar farms in Mexico and tropical gar in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to assess the global gar situation. He also fishes for alligator gar in Thailand, where the alligator gar is considered a trophy fish and stocked along with Mekong catfish and Amazonian arapaima.
Arts & Letters showcases aspects of the humanities and literary arts in Arkansas and beyond. The show ends on a highly personal note as Spitzer, reflecting on various eco issues, releases his pet gar of 10 years into the wild.
“This show will be rebroadcast with dates to be announced later,” Minnick remarked. “The podcast will be available at KUAR.org and also on iTunes. Check out the supplemental section of the webpage for excerpts from interviews.”
In Conway, Return of the Gar is available at Hastings and the UCA Bookstore. It is also available online. For more information on this gar episode of Arts & Letters, contact Hickey at (501) 569-8485 or Minnick at jbminnick@ualr.edu.
The radio interview on KUAR can be heard here.