The University of Central Arkansas Student Nurses’ Association is hosting an Out of the Darkness Campus Walk to bring awareness about suicide.
The walk is scheduled for March 12 at 10 a.m. at the Crafton Alumni Pavilion on Bruce Street on the UCA campus.
Proceeds from the walk will go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for education programs to prevent suicide, increase awareness about depression and suicide, and provide support for those who lost loved ones due to suicide.
“Suicide is something that has affected us all in some way,” said Scott Byrd, president of UCA’s Student Nurses’ Association. “Every 16 minutes suicide claims another victim and it is the second leading cause of death among college students.”
The idea for the walk came about following a conversation with the mother of a UCA nursing student who committed suicide last year.
“His mom wanted to do something. She had heard about the campus walk and got in touch with us,” Byrd said. “We told her UCA would love to be the first one in the state to host one.”
So far, 90 participants have signed up for the walk. The teams come from UCA, Jonesboro, Monticello, Searcy and other communities. Nearly $8,400 has been raised for awareness and suicide prevention. The goal is $10,000.
Those interested in participating, becoming a sponsor, or want to donate can visit www.campuswalks.org. The link for UCA Campus Walk is on the right.
Online registration closes March 11 at noon. However, anyone who would like to participate can register at the walk. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. on March 12. Donations are accepted until June 30. For more information, contact Scott Byrd at wsbyrd_iv@yahoo.com or (501) 470-8981.
The UCA Care Bears Relay for Life team will be hosting a series of events to help raise funds for cancer research. The first event will take place at Pizza Inn on Hogan Lane March 1 from 5 to 8 p.m. Members of the group will act as wait staff for the restaurant. A percentage of sales of the night and all tips will be collected.
The UCA Debate and Competitive Speech Team won a second place debate sweepstakes and third place overall sweepstakes recently at the Eddy Shell Invitational Speech and Debate tournament held at Bossier Parish Community College in Bossier City, LA.
Roy Whitehead, professor of business law, had his article, “Should the NCAA Have Tax-Exempt Status ?,” published in the February Tax Stringer, a publication of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. His article, “The Discharge of Retiree Health Insurance Benefits in Bankruptcy,” has been accepted for publication in The CPA Journal.
Mark Spitzer, assistant professor of writing, recently had his memoir After the Orange Glow published by Monkey Puzzle Press, Boulder, CO. Spitzer has published five book since April 2010.
Tim Thornes, assistant professor of linguistics in theDepartment of Writing, has a chapter in the just published book Multi-verb Constructions: a View from theAmericas edited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and Pieter C. Muysken. BrillPublishing: Leiden and Boston. He also participated in the second International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation at the University ofHawai’i at Manoa from February 9-13. 
Stephanie Vanderslice, associate professor in the Department of Writing, spoke on three panels at the Associated Writing Programs Conference in Washington DC February 3-5: What Do Writers Do All Day: Articulating Our Work in the Discipline, Getting to the Core: Creative Writing in the Core Curriculum, and Reinventing the Workshop. In addition, her two-part essay with fiction writer Cathy Day (Ball State University) and poet Anna Leahy (Chapman University), “Where Are We Going Next?: A Conversation About Creative Writing Pedagogy” was recently featured in the online publication, Fiction Writer’s Review ( 
An essay by Dr. James W. Hikins, professor and chair of Speech and Public Relations, will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Social Epistemology (Issue 3, Volume 25, 2011). “On The Ontological and Epistemological Dimensions of Expertise: Why ‘Reality’ and ‘Truth’ Matter and How We Might Find Them” is co-authored with Professor Richard A. Cherwitz of the University of Texas, Austin.
Clayton Crockett’s book Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism, has been published by Columbia University Press. This book analyzes the breakdown of a strict line between religious and secular, as demonstrated by the resurgence of religion in philosophy, politics and culture over the past few decades. Rather than taking a conservative or orthodox approach, this book sketches a radical political theology that critiques both religious extremism and political neo-conservativism as insufficient responses to contemporary neo-liberalism and the ravages of corporate capitalism. Crockett is an associate professor and director of Religious Studies.
Sally Entrekin, assistant professor of biology, was awarded $5,000 by the University Research Council to study how microbial production fuels aquatic food webs. She will use the money to purchase a Hach minisonde to incorporate microbial production into her current research program. The minisondes represent the newest technology for quantifying changes in dissolved oxygen in aquatic environments. Undergraduate and graduate students will be trained to use the sonde and calculate microbial production metrics at large spatial scales following large-scale alterations.
Dr. Danny Arrigo, associate professor of mathematics, accepted the invitation to join the editorial board of the ISRN Mathematical Analysis Journal.
Dr. Clarence Burg, assistant professor of mathematics, gave a presentation on Computational Mathematics and Subaqueous Debris Flows in the Department of Mathematics at the Hendrix College on October 19, 2010.