The Bear Ledger

Ken Stephens, a former UCA athlete and football coach who led the Bears to the NAIA national championship game in 1976 and four Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference titles during his 10-year tenure, will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame on Friday, Feb. 28.

Stephens, currently assistant supervisor in the Office of Student Success, is among 11 inductees in the Class of 2014. The banquet will be at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

Stephens, the first AIC athlete in any sport to be named All-American two years in a row, finished national runner-up in the 120-yard high hurdles for the Bears as a junior and senior. He never lost a high hurdle race during his college career except for those two national meets. As a free safety for the Bears, Stephens also still holds the UCA record for interceptions in a game with five, which he set in the 1951 season.

He was a star football and track athlete at Conway High School, where he won the high-point award in the Arkansas State High School Track Meet as a senior. He then came to UCA (then known as Arkansas State Teachers College), where he won four consecutive AIC championships in the 120-yard high hurdles and won the high point award at nearly every college meet in which he competed.

After coaching at Crossett, Bethany (Okla.), Walnut Ridge, Conway, Arkansas State and Morrilton, he led North Little Rock High School to state championships in 1965, ’66 and ’70 and then spent the 1971 season on Frank Broyles’ staff at the University of Arkansas. He then returned to his alma mater, UCA, in 1972, where he took over a football program that had suffered three consecutive losing seasons. Four years later, the Bears were playing for the national championship.

Stephens’ UCA teams won AIC championships in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1981, advancing to the playoffs each year. He left UCA in 1982 with a 67-35-6 record after being hired to coach at Lamar University. He coached at Arkansas Tech from 1986 until he retired in 1992.

He came out of retirement in 2000 to coach four years at Ranger (Texas) College and was nominated for National Junior College Athletic Association Coach of the Year in 2002.

Among those who have played or coached under Stephens are Charlie Strong, the UCA graduate now the head coach at Texas; John Thompson, who led Arkansas State to bowl wins following the 2012 and ’13 seasons; Bill Keopple, head coach at Southern Arkansas; Monte Coleman, head coach at UA-Pine Bluff; James Bell, former head coach at Jackson State; and Barry Switzer, who was a sophomore at Crossett when Stephens was an assistant coach there.

The Class of 2014 includes David Bazzel and Dennis Winston, who played football for Arkansas; Gary Blair, the women’s basketball coach at Texas A&M and formerly of Arkansas; Ken Duke, the PGA Tour player; Bennie Fuller, the all-time leading scorer in Arkansas boys high school basketball history; Stephanie Strack Mathis, the career scoring leader in women’s basketball at Arkansas Tech; Don Campbell, the long-time high school football coach at Corning, Sheridan and Wynne; Alvy Early, the former UA-Monticello women’s basketball and softball coach; the late Jim Barnes, the first pick in the 1964 NBA Draft; and the late Harry Vines, who led the Arkansas Rollin’ Razorbacks to National Wheelchair Basketball Association championships in 1991, ’93, ’94, ’96 and 2000.

Tickets are on sale for the 56th annual induction banquet. Visit www.arksportshalloffame.com or call (501) 663-4328 for more information.

Educational leaders from five continents and ten countries will converge at the University of Central Arkansas for the “Leaders of the World” International Leadership Program March 3—7, 2014.

“‘Leaders of the World’ will bring extraordinary leaders from various countries to our campus to share their experiences and learn more about our university and community. We are honored to be offering this program at UCA,” Jane Ann Williams, assistant provost and director of international engagement at UCA commented.

Featured speakers at the conference include UNWomen Senior Advisor Ana Maria Salazar, and Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez, Minister of Government of the Province of Buenos Aires, grand-niece of Eva Perón, and honorary director of the Evita Museum. These and other experts will address leadership and ethics of modern leaders, effective communication, teamwork, and effective management and training.

Top leaders will meet to discuss common challenges within their municipalities and communities. Confirmed leaders and international executives confirmed to attend the program are Secretary General of the University of Buenos Aires; representatives from East China Normal University of People’s Republic of China; transport expert from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; President of the Water Company of Buenos Aires; Dean of the University of Encarnación Paraguay; Director of the Liberal Party of Colombia; Director of the Ethics Committee of Nicaragua; and Director of the Economic Development Chief of Junín.

The “Leaders of the World” program will provide hands-on learning and networking opportunities with roundtable discussions, local site visits and field work in the following topics: education; public utilities; transportation and environment; local law, entrepreneurship, tourism and economic development; public safety and municipal police.

UCA Latin American Specialist, Lara Bersano noted, “People are looking at Arkansas as a beacon of excellence, entrepreneurship and quality of life; and UCA as a centennial University and the prosperous Conway community have what it takes to be a bridge of knowledge and collaboration among regions and cultures.” She said through panel discussions, lectures, workshops and on-site training, leaders across the globe will develop long-term relationships as well as new skill sets, and UCA provides the perfect location to host these conversations.

The opening ceremony will be held on Monday March 3 with UCA President Tom Courtway providing opening remarks.

Please visit, https://uca.edu/international/leadersoftheworld/ for more information.

Alicia Cotabish

Dr. Alicia Cotabish, assistant professor of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education and 2013-2015 President of the Arkansas Association of Gifted Education Administrators (AAGEA), recently served as the Keynote Speaker for the 22nd Annual Conference of the Minnesota Educators of the Gifted and Talented in Brainerd, MN. The conference theme, Pump It Up: Differentiate the Common Core, attracted several hundred conference attendees. Dr. Cotabish presented two keynote presentations tied to her recent book release, Using the Next Generation Science Standards with Gifted and Advanced Learners. Both keynote presentations provided strategies in designing and delivering high quality gifted education programs focused on the Common Core English Language Arts and Mathematics and the Next Generation Science Standards.

Mary Katherine Stein presents Dr. Debbie Dailey with AGATE’s Challenger Award

Dr. Debbie Dailey, a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in UCA’s College of Education, was awarded the Arkansans for Gifted and Talented Education (AGATE) Challenger Award. AGATE is an independent organization promoting excellence in education, particularly as it relates to gifted and talented children and youth in Arkansas. The purpose of the Challenger Award is to honor and recognize a person or persons who risked taking an unusual (creative, different, innovative) step in a direction most people would probably not think of or consider. The award was presented to Dr. Dailey at the 2014 AGATE Conference held February 5-7 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The February/March Torreyson Library Newsletter is available at http://libguides.uca.edu/Feb/March2014.

Leah Horton

Jayme Millsap Stone

Torreyson Library hosts “Kanembwe Village, Rwanda: Beyond Traditional Dance” by Leah Horton, lecturer I, and Dr. Jayme Stone, director of Learning Communities, on Wednesday, February 26 at 2 p.m. in Room 215.

Horton and Stone founded the Science and Society in Rwanda study abroad program in 2012 in collaboration with the Rwandan Presidential Scholars studying at UCA. The purpose of the program is to explore the intersection of science with various aspects of society, including the colonial creation of race, overpopulation, land use pressures, service distributions and ecotourism. A major component of this study abroad program is service-learning. All students teach hands-on interdisciplinary science lessons in Rwandan primary schools and participate in the Kanembwe Village projects.

Through surveys conducted in 2013, Horton and Stone will explore some realities associated with life in Kanembwe and discuss ways in which these data will inform future projects within the village.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

The most recent Campus Talk, Thursday, February 13, 2014, is now available for viewing. Please visit http://www.youtube.com/user/ucentralarkansas?feature=watch.

Please take a moment to nominate a deserving staff member for the Employee of the Year Awards. The nomination form and additional information can be found at https://uca.edu/staffsenate/employee-of-the-year/nomination-form/.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, March 14, 2014. Any alumni, staff, faculty, or student can nominate a staff member for this prestigious award.

The Employee of the Year Selection Committee will evaluate nominations based on the following criteria:

– Initiative
– Integrity
– Teamwork
– Accomplishments
– Campus Service

The awards will be presented during the University Service Awards Ceremony on April 10, 2014.

After collecting over 2500 canned goods, students, faculty and staff of UCA’s Learning Communities created their entry official entry into the CANstruction Challenge 2014 on Sunday, February 17.

Titled “Checkmate,” the official entry design was the vision of the Hughes Residential College. The design features canned goods constructed to resemble chess pieces, based on their preliminary concept, “The King.”

The CANstruction Challenge is a canned food drive in which local colleges, businesses and other entities collect canned goods and then build structures from the cans.

At UCA, each of the Residential and Commuter colleges created design prototypes using the donated canned goods. Their structures were then judged to determine which idea would represent UCA in the community-wide competition sponsored by 501Life magazine.

The cans will be deconstructed Monday, February 17 for distribution to area food banks.

Other local winners in the CANstruction Challenge include the following:

In the category of “Best representation of UCA values/ideals” the winner with 368 cans of dog and cat food going to the Conway Animal Shelter is Minton Commuter College in Main Hall.

In the category of “Most creative/Original,” the winner with 290 cans going to the St. Peter’s Food Pantry is EPIC Commuter College in Bear Hall.

In the category of “Most Cans” the winner with 805 cans going to Soul Food Cafe is STEM Residential College in Arkansas Hall.

EDGE Residential College in State Hall raised 251 cans for Bethlehem House and The Stars Residential College in Short/Denney rounds out the contest with 85 cans going to the Women’s Shelter.

A photograph of “Checkmate” will serve as the official entry for judging. It will be submitted by February 21.