UCA Honors College 2010 Challenge Week will focus on awareness of political corruption. The following lectures are scheduled for Nov. 9 -12:

 “An Overview of Declining Political Integrity”

A Soapbox by Ashley Cooper

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 4 p.m.

Farris Hall Presentation Room

“Corruption in Arkansas: A Short Political History”

A High Table with Jay Barth

Wednesday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m.

McAlister Hall 302 Middleton Forum

 “Democratic Development and Corruption”

A Challenge Week speech by Hristijan Gjorgievski

Thursday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m.

Snow Fine Arts Recital Hall

“Honduras Hope Summit”

Friday, Nov. 12, 3 p.m.

Farris Hall Presentation Room

Fordham University Press has accepted for publication a collection of essays co-edited by Donna Bowman,  Associate Dean, Honors College, and Clayton Crockett, professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.  The book, titled Theology and Energy: Divine Intersections, emerged out of the Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Theology and Energy held at UCA in February 2009, co-sponsored by the American Academy of Religion, the Steel Center at Hendrix, and several UCA departments and institutes.  Catherine Keller of Drew University provides the keynote essay, anchoring contributions from nine other scholars, including Bowman, Crockett, and Jay McDaniel of Hendrix College.  

Senior Honors student Isaac Jones, a philosophy major, journeyed to South Africa this summer to work in the field of human rights.  While there, Jones helped an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo get a Cape Town Refugee Center grant to raise his son, who has cerebral palsy.  Jones also worked in Bonnytoun, a juvenile detention center for boys aged 14-18.  He gave character-building workshops, focusing on drug avoidance and gang resistance.  Jones discovered that most of the Bonnytoun residents know very little about the litigation pending against them or the legal process.  He designed a monitoring system whereby the Projects Abroad Human Rights Office can gather information, anonymize it, and present it to the officials in charge of Bonnytoun in hopes of improving the situation for these boys.  He is currently working on a self-reflective essay on human rights monitoring for his senior Honors thesis project.  Jones’ experience was funded in part by a Travel Abroad Grant (TAG) awarded by the Honors College.  “I’ve always had a passion for human rights,” says Jones. “I was committed to going someplace to become a locus of hope for people who have had their rights violated, but my TAG made it financially possible.”

Honors alumna Sara Mullally, a 2009 International Studies graduate, is the new Assistant Director of the Casa Marianella immigrant shelter in Austin, Texas.  She writes, “It’s been such a beautiful experience, full of growth and consciousness-raising moments.  We to get to know the amazingly strong individuals who are the real life survivors of the stories we hear about in the news: people escaping sharia law in Somalia, Mara Salvatrucha and Las Zetas gang atrocities, hurricanes/natural disasters in Central America, and Maoist torturing in Nepal to name a few.  We help traumatized and abused immigrants be able to restore themselves physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally while also preparing them for their political asylum court case and for life as a new American.  I will always be thankful for the Honors TAG (Travel Abroad Grant) awards that allowed me to go on trips abroad.  These trips provided me with invaluable insight and connections with people from other cultures.  I now work with people escaping violence from the very cities in Central America that I traveled to and learned about on a TAG trip three years ago.  Traveling abroad gave me a perspective that has ultimately shaped what kind of life I will live, how I will relate with others, and what kind of work I will dedicate myself to.”

The Honors College announces the retirement of Dr. Norbert O. Schedler, professor of philosophy and founding director of the Honors College. Following a five-year phased retirement, Dr. Schedler attempted to retire in 2005; however, a few weeks after retiring he was hired as a consultant to the president. He worked for five additional years on development, fundraising and alumni affairs, and continued as a part-time instructor.

Dr. Rick Scott, dean of the Honors College, joked that “ the only thing Norb ever failed at in his life is retirement. All kidding aside, his dedication to these tasks has made a real difference in our development processes, and his long-time mentorship means the world to me.” Since his “retirement-retirement” on June 30 of this year, Dr. Schedler has continued to assist with development and fundraising as a volunteer.

Even before coming to UCA he had a long and distinguished career, with appointments at Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and as chair of the department of philosophy at Purdue University-Fort Wayne. He accepted an offer to be chair of philosophy at UCA in 1976, following a year of research at the University of California, Berkeley. Recalling his decision in a 2005 interview with Jennifer Boyett, he related: “I was sitting on the side of a hill, and I could look down and see the San Francisco Bay. My eyes went over two interstates, each of which had 12 lanes and all these people. I was thinking, do I want to go back to Purdue with 20-something faculty, 30,000 students, and all the hassles of that? Or, do I want to go to a small university where I can spend a lot of time with students, raise my kids, and not be under that kind of pressure?”

In 1981 he approached then-president Jeff Farris, Jr., about creating an honors college at UCA and was named its first director. The initial class, recruited in 1982, included sixty freshmen. Working with other UCA faculty members—James Brodman and Eugene Corcoran (history), Robert Lowrey (English), Mike Kelly (political science) and Helen Phillips (art)—the four-year curriculum was instituted and an honors center was established in McAlister Hall. Dr. Scott joined as assistant director in 1986, and the two have worked together since.

The UCA Honors College has become recognized as one of the most fully developed in the nation and has served as a model for dozens of programs across the country.

Dr. Schedler received a B.A. in Classics from Concordia College-St. Louis in 1955, and completed his M.Div. in Theology at Concordia Seminary in 1958. As part of his seminary training, Dr. Schedler served as a Vicar at Christ Church in Washington, DC, where he met his wife-to-be, Carol. Between 1955 and 1959, he attended graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1959 Schedler enrolled at Princeton University, where he received a doctorate in philosophy in 1962. Norb and Carol Schedler have two daughters and a son and six grandchildren. The Schedlers are active in civic affairs and the arts and have been strong financial backers of UCA.

Dr. Philip L. Frana, assistant professor in the Honors College, has an interview with Dutch computer scientist and Turing Award winner Edsger W. Dijkstra that is published in the August 2010 issue of Communications of the ACM (CACM). In the interview, based on a research-grade oral history conducted under the auspices of an interdisciplinary National Science Foundation—Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence grant, Dijkstra recounts the origins of computer science in America and Europe and the early development of professional programming. CACM is the premier journal of the computing field and the flagship publication of the Association for Computing Machinery. The interview is available online at http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/8/96632-an-interview-with-edsger-w-dijkstra/fulltext. Dr. Frana’s specialties involve history of science and technology, and he serves as director of undergraduate research for the Honors College.

Honors College Welcomes New Freshmen

The Honors College welcomes 57 new freshmen this fall, including 10 high school valedictorians and 3 salutatorians. The incoming class has an average ACT of 30 and high school GPA of 3.98. Students in the Honors Class of 2014 have indicated majors from each college at UCA: College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics (41.1%), College of Health & Behavioral Sciences (23.2%), College of Liberal Arts (12.5%), College of Education (5.3%), College of Fine Arts & Communication (5.3%), College of Business Administration (3.6%), while some have not yet decided (8.9%).

The new Honors College freshmen are Kaleigh Angleton (Van Buren), Sarah Atkins (Conway), Marni Bayles (Rogers), Tiffany Bradshaw (Bauxite), Blake Brizzolara (LR Central), Emily Broad (Springdale), Jillian Browder (Bryant), Sarah Carlock (Springdale Har-Ber), Jared Cochran (Mountain Home), Amanda Coppock (Bryant), Sarah Correll (Fayetteville ), Lindsey Dacus (Conway), Julie Davis (Benton), Nirja Desai (Clarksville), Jade Edwards (Roland, OK), Ethan Espe (Springdale), Stephanie Eubanks (Monticello Drew Central), Jordan Fletcher (Benton), Rachael Galloway (Stuttgart), Tiffany Gibson (Hot Springs ASMSA), Seth Gilleran (Hot Springs ASMSA), Jon Whitt Golden (Malvern), Jenni Goodwin (Rogers Heritage), Hayley Harp (Western Grove), Chelsea Harvey (LR Wilbur D. Mills), Taylor Hicks (Conway), Logan Jones (Marion), Grace Kellner (Russellville), Katrina Kimble (Conway), Erin Leonard (Sherwood Abundant Life), Ashley Long (Bergman ), Sarah Lukacs (LR Mount St. Mary), Melissa Magdefrau (Bergman), Tabitha McCool (Sheridan), Luke Moix (Rogers), Aaron Owen (Van Buren), Ashlyn Palmer (Rogers), Sara Paxton (Smackover), Adam Price (Lake Hamilton), Hannah Ray (Newport ), Kirby Richardson (Rogers), Kelsey Riddle (Bentonville), Olivia Ruple (Bryant), Stephen Sivils (Arkadelphia), Kaitlin Smith (LR Lutheran), Lindsey Stepp (Conway), Nick Stevens (Jacksonville), Kinzey Traphagan (Rogers), Meredith Tyree (Salem), Madalyn Van Valkenburg (Pulaski Academy), John Dillon Welter (Greenbrier), Branson White (Fort Smith Southside), Logan Whittington (Burlington, KS), Holly Williamson (Salem), Ashton Wills (Russellville), Stephanie Winfield (Hope), and Jacob Womack (Pleasant Grove, Texarkana, TX).

Honors College Announces Awards

The Honors College announces awards for 95 graduates in May and August of 2010. Each graduate completed undergraduate research or a creative performance for a required thesis, leading to a minor in Honors Interdisciplinary Studies.

Most graduates are pursuing post-baccalaureate training, and the destinations of the 2010 graduates include the College of Traditional Asian Medicine, Drexel University, Duquesne University, Emory University, Florida State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Iowa State University, Medical University of South Carolina, Miami University, New York University, Penn State University, Purdue University, Texas A&M, Trinity College (Dublin), UALR (Bowen School of Law & Clinton School of Public Service), UAMS (College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy & Dietetics program), University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, University of Louisiana at Monroe, University of Oklahoma, University of Pittsburgh, and Vanderbilt University. Several graduates will continue their education at the University of Central Arkansas in Counseling Psychology, English, Psychology, Speech-Language Pathology, and Physical Therapy.

Other graduates of the program will be engaged in a variety of hands-on training and experiences ranging from political campaign management, the Peace Corps, and teaching English abroad. A number have accepted career opportunities in professional occupations such as data analysis, client side marketing, legal clerking, nursing, teaching, and television news reporting. A list of the graduates can be found on the Alumni Page of Honors College website at: http://honors.uca.edu/index.php?page=alumni_graduates.

One hundred Honors College sophomores presented lectures on Sat., Feb. 13, 2010, that were evaluated by instructors and alumni, as part of a matriculation process that orients students preparing for the minor in Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. Students and their lecture titles include:

Jordan Karpe A History of Palestine: An Exploration of Martyrdom

Danny Keil “I Am Cyborg (and so can you)”

Shannon Kelly Sexism and Gender Roles in Disney’s Mulan

Tommy Kennedy Salaries of Coaches and Players of Professional Sports

Eliza Killey The Ethics of Stem Cell Research

Doug Knight Making Aldo Proud

Ella Loveless Theatre

Daniel Mackintosh The Earth is Round, Right? An Analysis of the Flat Earth Society

Ben Maddox The Welfare Myth: Revealing the Reality behind the Policies

Hannah Marks A Shaman a Day Keeps the Spirits Away

Casey Mikula The Real Message of the Bible: God’s Love for Mankind throughout the
Scriptures

Matt Miller Medicine in Costa Rica

Shannon Miller How Oz Evolves to Showcase American Political and Social Flaws

Trent Miller Lucid Dreaming

Ariel Moore Knitting in the New Generation

Rebecca Moye The Controversies over Parental-Consent Laws

Elizabeth Naglak The Ethics of Euthanasia

Alisha Neblett More than Superstition: Magic Realism in Latin American Novels

Lynn Nguyen Bottled Water: Is It Worth It?

Veyonce Njwaba Zanzibar Is the Place to Be

Christabel Nyange The Coconut in Tanzania

Kate Pitts Ginkgo Biloba – Wisdom Rooted in the Ancients

Jonathan Randle Why So Few? Classical African-American Composers

Kim Risi Lost in Translation: Art of Turning Novels into Films

Nathan Robbins The Case for Social Moderation: Dangers of Ultra-Conservatism and
Ultra-Liberalism in Society

Mallory Roberson Feral Children

Renee Ronquillo Japanese Culture as Depicted in Manga

Dr. Adam Frank, assistant professor in the Honors College gave two talks at the University of Oxford on Jan. 28. He was one of eight panelists invited to participate in the medical anthropology workshop “The Viewpoint of the Technique: Managing Time and Crisis Resolution in Eastern Religions and Medicines.” A cultural anthropologist, Dr. Frank’s paper is entitled “Yong yi, bu yong li: Attaining gongfu among Wu style taijiquan practitioners in Shanghai.” Oxford’s Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology also invited him to speak as part of its Seminar series. He delivered a lecture entitled “Re-tooling a Body with the Body:Three Ways of Teaching Taijiquan to the White Guy.”

Dr. Rick Scott, dean of the Honors College, was named by Mayor Mike Watson of Maumelle as chair of a steering committee to develop a wetlands management program for the White Oak Bayou. The three-year effort has the steering committee working with a technical advisory committee of experts in wetlands management and an intergovernmental team from Maumelle, North Little Rock, Pulaski County, the State of Arkansas, and the Corps of Engineers. Dr. Scott currently holds an elected position on the Board of Directors of the National Collegiate Honors Council and is Executive Secretary-Treasurer for the Southern Regional Honors Council. He and his wife, Brenda, have been Maumelle residents since 1988.

One hundred Honors College sophomores presented lectures on Saturday, Feb. 13, that were evaluated by instructors and alumni, as part of a matriculation process that orients students preparing for the minor in Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. Students and their lecture titles are listed next:

Imran Adamu Diaster Aid
Emanuel Albeik The Prestige of Powerball
Wilson Alobuia The Role of Minorities in State Development
Derek Anderson The Genius of Kurt Gödel
Dulce Armas A Sociological Look at Suicide in the Armed Forces
Brett Bailey Bioinformatics: How Society Has Used Computers in the Field of Biology
Zach Barber Suicide and Murder in the Gay Community
Lennon Bates Shoes in Society: The Fetish
Sara Bayles The Friends of Susan B. Anthony: The Women of the Suffrage Movement
Who Are Left Out of the History Books
Justin Bird Wendell Berry and the New Agrarianism
Ty Bittle Extraterrestrial Life: Likelihood of Encountering Comparable
Intelligences
Kimberly Cannon Carnival Time in the Virgin Islands
Mani Chander Progeria
Tsungyen Chen Matter’s Rebel Brother: Antimatter
Sarah Clarke Balancing Humanity with Technology: Today’s Science Fiction Compared
with Tomorrow’s Reality
Ayvee Cruz The Drawbacks of Sending Your Family Member to a Nursing Home
Destiny Davis Growing Up Outside: The Influence of Nature on Who We Are
Steven DeLoach The Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes
Catherine Demailly Meet Your Meat: A Brief Explaination of PETA
Brittany Edwardes The Ancient Other: Androgyny in Early Greek and Native American
Literature
Jenny England Local Food Possibilities for the City of Conway
Katie England The Shepherd Conservation Society
Kelsey English The Rise of Human Trafficking
David Friesen Technology and Charitable Giving
Jessica Gambill Heeling Soles: TOMS Shoes
Patty Graves Trajan’s Column and Ways to Read It
Austin Hall The Fabulousness of the Kennedy Camelot
Leanne Hampton Classical Crisis: The American Orchestra
Amber Haydar Star Formation and the Process of Stellar Evolution
Bryan Head Alzheimers
Kathy Hill Karate-Do: A Way of Life
Mary Beth Hill The Art of Cake Decorating
Andy Hoelscher Nonviolence as Tactic: A New Approach to Conflict Resolution
Devin Holt Jack Johnson: A Look at How an American Boxer Challenged His
Country
Anna Horton The Spirit That Transcends: An Introduction to Transcendental Meditation
Erin Howland Sentencing Juveniles as Adults
Cody Hudson A Brief History on Programming Languages
Justin Hughes Graduated Controls: How China Controls Its Artificial Civil Society
Jenn Hynum How Technology Will Affect the Film Industry of Tomorrow
Katie Jones Antibiotics: Do Bugs Really Need Drugs?

Due to space limitations, the remaining list of presentations will be in the next Bear Ledger.

Forty-three Honor College students presented theses on Dec. 11, 2009. Some of the thesis topics were:

Wade Henderson Fuqua
Advisor: Mimi Rohweder, Sociology
“Genuinely Reevaluating Everyone’s Energy Needs: An Eco-Friendly Living Guide
for North Little Rock, Arkansas”

Nadine Lynn Gates
Advisor: John D. Swanson, Biology
“The Creation of Transgenic Blackberry and the Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding
Genetically Modified Crops”

Kayla Renee Hill
Advisor: J. D. Swanson, Biology
“From Classroom to Garden: The Transformation of the Second Grade Classroom”

Megan Leigh Johnston
Advisor: Jane Harris, Religious Studies, Hendrix College
“The Only Real Nation is Humanity: How to Strengthen It in Our Local Communities
and Around the World through Various Humanitarian Endeavors”

Jade F. King
Advisor: Charles Bane, English
“Big Wonders, Small Wonders: A Paradigm Shift”

Nicole Marie Kluck
Advisor: Don Bradley, Marketing, Management and Informational Systems
“Se Habla Espanol: Selling to the Hispanic Market, Cultural Differences and Importance”

Jesse Nicole Lane
Advisor: Leslie Rose, Music
“Popular Music: Teachers’ Attitudes and Implementation
in 5th and 6th Grade General Music Classrooms”

John Paul Lenehan
Advisor: Wayne Stengel, English
“Voiceless Birds, the Fading Forms of Poetry”

Anna Elizabeth Malcolm
Advisor: Marie Rohweder, Sociology; and Adam Frank, Honors College
“Defeat in Victory: Tribalism and the Failure of Democracy in Iraq”

Amber Renee Malik
Advisor: Margaret McGee and Charlotte Yates, Physical Therapy
“Examining the Utilization of Aquatic Therapy for Children with Cerebral Palsy”

Ryan P. McCormack
Advisor: Clay Arnold, Political Science
“Principles of Political Ethics: A Moral Theory for the American Political System”

Ivy E. Mizell
Advisor: Clifford Beacham, Sociology
“Ability Grouping and Its Impact on Higher Education”

Coralia Nunez
Advisor: David McCalman, Marketing, Management and Informational Systems
“Honduropoly: The Game behind the Honduran Constitutional Crisis”

Patricia Louise O’Neal
Advisor: Melissa Shock, Family and Consumer Sciences
“An Order of Double Portions, a Side of Extra Fat, and a Supersized American:
How the United States Food Culture Leads to Obesity and Worse”

Due to space limitations, the list of presentations were published in segments. The remaining thesis presentations will be listed in the next issue of The Bear Ledger.

Forty-three Honors College theses were presented on Dec. 11, 2009. Some of the thesis topics were:

Colby Ann Bennett
Advisor: Kim McCullough, Speech and Language Pathology
“Living with Aphasia: A Case Study of a Woman in Arkansas”

Robert Blake Bowman
Advisor: Kim Hoffman, Political Science
“Yes, We Care: The Youth Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election ”

Tiffany Kaye Bullard
Advisor: Elson Bihm, Psychology and Counseling
“Literature Review and Analysis of Behavioral Treatments for Individuals with Autism”

Casey Jo Burnett
Advisor: Jeffery Whittingham, Teaching, Learning and Technology
“Albus Dumbledore: An Inside Look to the Magic behind the Harry Potter Phenomenon”

Christopher Kevin Carter
Advisor: Charles Bane, English
“The Angelic Dark”

Hsin Yu Chan
Advisor: Susan Myers, Marketing, Management and Information Systems
“Creative Advertising”

Sarah Jane Cogswell
Advisor: Laura Bowles, Writing
“’Us: A Novel’” A Fictional Study in Building Non-nuclear Families”

Cara D. Coker
Advisor: Patricia Carlin, World Language, Literature and Culture
“Expanding Arkansas’ Opportunities for Second Language Acquisition”

Derek Martin Damron
Advisor: Patrick Carmack, Mathematics
“Into the Void: The Development of Risk Management and Its Role in Contemporary Society”

Elizabeth Caroline Eason
Advisor: Charles Bane, English
“It’s a Good Day to be Indigenous: Sherman Alexie’s Rise from Reservation”

Gregory W. Edgin
Advisor: Norbert Schedler. Honors College
“A Post-Freudian Approach to the Life of Jesus of Nazareth”

Kristy A. England
Advisor: Jennifer Johnson, Occupational Therapy
“Influence of Culture on Occupational Therapy”

Allyson Marie Farish
Advisor: Story Matkin-Rawn, History
“When the Levee Breaks Again: The Flood of 1927 and Hurricane Katrina”

Gurrie Lin Frisbie
Advisor: Patty Phelps, Teaching, Learning and Technology
“Alwin High School: A Problematic Microcosm of Secondary Education”

Additional thesis presentations will be listed in the next issue of The Bear Ledger

Dr. Donna Bowman, associate professor in the Honors College, published a book chapter entitled