The Bear Ledger

• UCA has had two fight songs: “The Eyes of Teachers,” a fight song based on the music of “The Eyes of Texas.” The song was played as early as 1938. A second fight song, “Purple Pageant March,” was introduced to the public at a pep rally in the fall of 1973.

• Lencola Sullivan was the first African-American named Miss UCA and the first African-American to win the Miss Arkansas Pageant in 1979.

• At one point, UCA President Nolen Irby and his wife lived in a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor of Wingo Hall.

UCA faculty and staff members debated the university’s core values and institutional distinctiveness and offered their suggestions on how to improve a proposed strategic plan for the university during a recent town hall meeting.

The Strategic Planning and Resources Council and its task forces held a town hall meeting on April 15 in the McCastlain Ballroom. For two hours, faculty and staff members worked in small groups to discuss statements the task forces developed in the areas of core values and institutional distinctiveness.

The four tasks forces — Core Values (Mission, Vision, and Values), Planning Assumptions, Institutional Distinctiveness, and Driving Forces — began meeting in early February to develop statements that would drive the strategic plan for the university. From those statements, the group will develop a mission statement, goals, and initiatives.

The meeting was moderated by Dr. David McFarland, a consultant with a research and consultations firm serving universities and colleges. McFarland told the group the task forces’ statements should be the vision for UCA over the next three to five years.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” McFarland asked.

He told the group to keep in mind that a strategic plan is a continuous process.

“You may add new things or you may refine things,” McFarland said. “A strategic plan is a living entity.”

Core values, presented by the task force, were collaborative community; diversity; institutional and personal integrity; intellectual excellence and service.

Several attending the town hall meeting felt that the core value of intellectual excellence could be expanded to include teaching and learning. Also, that intellectual excellence should be changed to “academic excellence.”

On the issue of institutional distinctiveness, the task force listed academic distinctiveness and student-centered excellence; best universities-master institution in the state of Arkansas; fine and performing arts, and small town yet cosmopolitan environment.

McFarland advised the group that institutional distinctiveness should be things those outside the university say about UCA.

Suggestions made by the faculty and staff during the town hall meeting will be included as the task forces formulate the final draft.

“I thought it was exactly what we needed–confirming some of the good work the task forces had already done and also adding lots of valuable ideas to strengthen the next drafts of Core Values and Institutional Distinctiveness,” said Mike Schaefer, the SPARC chair.

Schaefer said the task forces have done outstanding work. The feedback from the task forces has been thoughtful, detailed, and timely. The council and task forces will work on final versions of the university’s Planning Assumptions, Driving Forces, and Core Values statements in the coming weeks.

“For the council and task forces to be able to formulate meaningful goals and realistic initiatives for meeting those goals, the community’s input and support are vital,” Schaefer said. “I know there’s some skepticism out there about this whole process, and that’s entirely understandable given our lack of real attention to strategic planning over the last twenty years, but President (Allen) Meadors and Provost (Lance) Grahn have made it clear to me that they really do want to empower the university community to make significant decisions about our future directions, and I’m committed to doing everything I can to make that empowerment real.”

Information about the strategic plan can be viewed on the UCA main web page by clicking on the Strategic Plan 2010 icon. Please submit feedback to Dr. Schaefer at schaefer@uca.edu. The next town hall meetings are scheduled for Sept. 22 and Sept. 23.

For more than a decade, Tim Thornes has worked with members of the Burns Paiute Tribe to revive its language for future generations.

Thornes, assistant professor of linguistics in the Department of Writing, has interviewed elders from various tribal communities in an effort to document and preserve the Northern Paiute language.

Northern Paiute is an endangered Native American language spoken by just a few hundred people with most of its active fluent native speakers over the age of 50. The tribe resides mainly in northern Nevada and eastern Oregon.

“So much cultural knowledge is lost with the loss of the language–whether it be the medicinal uses of certain plants, relationships to places and environments, or philosophies, spiritual practices and world views,” Thornes said. “How much less rich will our world be without the expression of that knowledge? And languages are disappearing at an alarming rate–one every two weeks, by current estimates. That’s an unprecedented global heritage crisis, in my view. If I can help in some small way, so much the better.”

The project’s focus is the publication of oral literature of various genres – traditional stories, ethno-histories, autobiographies, procedural narratives, legends, and conversation – in the Northern Paiute language. The final product will include literature printed in both the original language, using a writing system developed for the language with members of the community, and its English translation.

The project also includes CDs containing the original recordings in Northern Paiute, a brief grammatical sketch of the language, and a glossary of terms that appear in the narratives.

Ruth Lewis, a Burns Paiute elder, serves a translator for the project. She assists Thornes in recording the stories of the tribe’s elders that have been passed down by their parents and grandparents.

“I think that a lot of tribes are losing their language and our language is disappearing too,” Lewis said. “Most of our people speak English all the time. It is hard for the young people who have grown up and do not understand any of the Paiute language. We used to have a summer program where I helped the children ages 6 through 12. They closed the program on account of the budget. The university is recording the stories and doing everything that needs to be done to preserve the language. I am enjoying working with Tim.”

These publications and recordings will serve primarily the Northern Paiute communities by providing materials in the heritage language for cultural and historical education.

“I hope this project will be just one of many dedicated to helping preserve and disseminate information regarding the history and culture of a group of people whose lives have dramatically changed as the result of the conquest and settlement of the country,” Thornes said.

Thornes began his work with the tribe when he was a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Oregon nearly 16 years ago. He spent time with the last known speaker of one of the dialects of Northern Paiute and was later invited to an elders’ potluck on the Burns Paiute reservation.

“The work I did with the first speaker I met laid the groundwork for my understanding of the sounds and grammatical structure of the language and impressed upon me the importance of producing something of use to the community,” Thornes said.

For many in those communities the language is tied to their identity as Northern Paiute people.

“Many see the loss of the language as a loss of identity at the level of, say, the loss of a set of religious beliefs or practices,” he explained. “Imagine if everyone around you stopped speaking the language you knew as a child–the language you learned to tell stories, sing, and pray in–and you might have a slight understanding of the personal aspect of what is lost when a language falls silent.”

The Center for Cooperative Logistics Education, Advancement, and Research (CLEAR Center) has been asked to lead a research effort benchmarking the environmental supply chain sustainability best practices of Distribution Business Management Association’s members.

CLEAR Center will collaborate with the Association and faculty from Central Michigan University. DBMA is composed of a select, limited group of members, the predominance of whom are Fortune 500 companies.

“I am honored that DBMA asked the CLEAR Center to help lead this effort and we are excited about our role in helping improve the competitiveness of its members and the environment,” said Dr. Doug Voss, director of the CLEAR Center and assistant professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the UCA College of Business.”Supply Chain Managers employed sustainability best practices before they were en vogue by getting products to our shelves in the most efficient manner. DBMA and its members have been on the forefront of this movement for a long time.”

Researchers will examine several sustainability opportunities including efforts to reduce waste, land and water pollution, and energy. The project will uncover the sustainability initiatives that have the greatest effect on improving firms’ competitiveness in terms of delivering an acceptable return on investment in an appropriate amount of time through cost reductions, revenue enhancements, and risk mitigation.

“Firms sometimes engage in sustainability initiatives to enhance profitability and other times they engage in initiatives just because it is the right thing to do,” Voss said. “The project will help reveal those initiatives that fall in each category.”

Association members will have the ability to benchmark their sustainability initiatives and results against the combined results of other DBMA members. Past research has shown that improving sustainability programs has the potential to reduce costs, enhance revenue, improve corporate image, and mitigate risks, which stands to improve their balance sheet, he said.

The project is expected to take approximately one year to complete.

UCA is one of 27 DBMA university affiliates, a group that includes other prominent universities such as Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa State, Central Michigan, and the University of Kentucky.

The College of Education at the University of Central Arkansas will hold its fourth annual Pinning Ceremony on May 6 at the Reynolds Performance Hall on the UCA campus to honor candidates who are becoming teachers.

Graduates from December 2009 and May 2010 will be honored along with Masters of Arts in Teaching candidates. Two hundred and sixty-six candidates are eligible to participate in the ceremony. A reception will follow the ceremony in the adjoining Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center.

The guest speaker will be Ray Simon who has been involved in public education for 44 years, working across all levels of the education delivery system from the classroom to the federal government. He most recently served at the United States Department of Education in the capacity of Deputy Secretary, the second highest ranking official at the agency. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Central Arkansas, and holds an educational specialist degree in school administration from the University of Arkansas.

A pinning ceremony is a time-honored tradition marking the occasion when one is welcomed into the teaching profession. It is a symbolic ceremony denoting a milestone in an educator’s life. Candidates will be presented a College of Education pin that not only signifies their association with the university, but also represents their affiliation with the honorable profession of teaching. Many professions hold this type of ceremony to honor their new colleagues.

Dr. Diana Pounder, dean of UCA’s College of Education, commends UCA education graduates for their dedication to an honorable and proud profession, rich with opportunities to serve and support others.

“There are many career opportunities within the education profession, including classroom teacher, guidance counselor, school or district administrator, and university professor or administrator,” Pounder said. “UCA has almost 6,000 alums currently working as educators in Arkansas K-12 schools, and we are pleased to see our December 2009 and May 2010 graduates join their ranks.”

The deadline to apply for a Staff Senate scholarship is rapidly approaching. Individuals have until May 3 to submit their application for one of three scholarships. For at least the past four years, the Staff Senate has awarded over $4,000 in scholarships each year to staff and their dependents.

“Scholarships will now be awarded competitively and will help cover more costs for the recipients,” said Larry Burns, Staff Senate president. “We hope that in time we can continue to increase award amounts and number of awards.”

The scholarships are:

• The Staff Senate Employee Scholarship assists a full-time UCA staff employee in pursuing a degree at the University of Central Arkansas. The application is available at: https://www.uca.edu/web/forms/view.php?id=153

• Staff Senate Scholarship for Dependents is for dependents of full-time UCA staff employees who meet the eligibility criteria for the staff fee waiver as outlined in the staff handbook and are pursuing a degree at the University of Central Arkansas. The student must be in good standing academically and must have completed at least 30 hours of college credit with a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5. Information about this scholarship is available at : https://www.uca.edu/web/forms/view.php?id=154

• The Lilly Harmon Staff Senate Scholarship is for a full-time staff employee in pursuing a degree at UCA. The Lilly Harmon Staff Senate Scholarship was established in memory of long-time UCA employee, Lilly Harmon. A copy of the application is available at: https://www.uca.edu/web/forms/view.php?id=165

“The Staff Senate and other volunteers work very hard to raise the funds needed for these scholarships. We urge as many people that need it to apply,” Burns said. “It helps us gauge how many staff need these funds and what extra work we will need to do to make a bigger impact.”

The University of Central Arkansas’s Spring Commencement will take place Saturday, May 8 at the Farris Health and Physical Education Center on the UCA campus.

UCA President Allen C. Meadors will deliver a challenge to the graduates.Degrees will be conferred to 952 undergraduates and 210 graduates during three ceremonies. Ceremonies are scheduled at:

10 a.m. ceremony
Colleges of Education, Liberal Arts, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics

1:30 p.m. ceremony
College of Health and Behavioral Sciences

5 p.m. ceremony
Colleges of Business, Fine Arts and Communication, and the University College.

April 30 Deadline for Nominations for Staff Senate

The Staff Senate is accepting nominations for new senators. There are 18 open positions on Staff Senate for the 2010 – 2011 academic year. Nominations will be accepted until April 30 at 4:30 p.m. Senators are expected to attend two meetings a month, serve on at least two UCA or Staff Senate Committees, and volunteer for scholarship fundraising activities each term. Please nominate individuals that are willing and able to serve.To search for eligible employees and to nominate a staff member visit: http://www.uca.edu/staffsenate/nominations.php.

UCA Film Festival Debuts Student Films April 30

The sixth UCA Film Festival will debut student films April 30 at 5:30 p.m. in the Reynolds Performance Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Students were invited to submit their films in three categories-music videos, documentaries and short narratives. Judges evaluated all of the films and award prizes for overall best film, best in each category and other technical awards.

Armida Set for Met Series at UCA

The second season of Captured Live from the Met @ UCA will conclude May 2 with a production of Gioachino Rossini’s Armida.The transmission is set for 2 p.m. in Reynolds Performance Hall. Tickets are $15 for the public and $5 for students with valid I.D. To order, call 450-3265 from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or visit www.uca.edu/tickets.

UCA Board of Trustees to Meet May 7

The University of Central Arkansas Board of Trustees will meet at 2 p.m., May 7 in the Board of Trustees Conference Room in Wingo Hall. The following is the link to the agenda: http://www.uca.edu/botagenda.

Exhibit Features Student Artwork from Foundation Level Courses

The Baum Gallery of Fine Art will host an exhibit featuring artwork created by students from foundation level courses May 3-6. The works of the exhibit will be judged by artist Jerry Phillips. This exhibit will give students and the public an opportunity to see that quality art works are being created by students of all skill levels at UCA. Hours for the Baum Galley, located in McCastlain Hall, are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Thursday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. For more information, call 450-5778.