The Bear Ledger

Corliss Williamson, a former NCAA All-American at Arkansas and an NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons, will head the UCA men’s basketball program.

Williamson, a Russellville native and Arkansas Sports Hall of Famer, was named the new Bears coach on Friday. He coached the past three seasons at Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, the past year as head coach. Prior to that, Williamson played 12 years in the National Basketball Association, helping the Pistons to the NBA championship in 2004.

“Coach Williamson made it clear from the beginning of this process that he wanted to be the head basketball coach at UCA,’ said Dr. Brad Teague, UCA director of athletics. “He was aggressive with his passion for being our head coach, not just a head coach, but UCA’s head coach.

Williamson laid out a plan for UCA basketball with goals which align with UCA’s program and institutional goals, said Teague.

“He made sure to absorb basketball knowledge from all the greats of the game in which he has been aligned. He has put this knowledge into a tangible plan which guides his coaching style,” said Teague.

The Bears will be fully eligible for NCAA Division I postseason play next season.

Williamson was a high school legend in Arkansas playing for the Russellville Cyclones and the Arkansas Wings AAU team. He was the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 1991 and 1992 before signing with the University of Arkansas. During his highly decorated career at Arkansas, Williamson was a two-time SEC Player of the Year and was the Most Outstanding Player of the 1994 NCAA Final Four.

Williamson was a lottery pick by the Sacramento Kings in the 1995 NBA Draft.

Williamson is one of only a handful of basketball players to win both an NCAA Championship and an NBA Championship. That list includes Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Havlicek and Isaiah Thomas.

Members of the Iota Pi Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. thanked African-American faculty and staff for their contributions to UCA by hosting a tribute and reception on March 3 in the Student Center Room 213.

The annual “A Tribute to African-American Faculty and Staff” program was started by the fraternity in an effort to show its appreciation to the African-American men and women on UCA’s campus.

“It is very important to me that we show our appreciation for all that African-Americans do on campus and for being positive role models,” said Cecil Chew, president of Phi Beta Sigma.

Marcia Smith, office manager for Disability Support Services, was the guest speaker. Smith, who has worked at UCA for seven years, praised the fraternity for taking the time to thank the faculty and staff.

“A lot of our students who are a part of this organization have graduated and have gone on to obtain their master’s due to the relationships they built with African-American faculty and staff members,” she said. “… It is an honor to every African-American faculty and staff member to be recognized by African-American males who are trying to achieve in society.”

UCA faculty and staff must continue to encourage students to strive, Smith added.

“Continue to encourage our students to achieve and to excel in every area academically, socially, and community-wide so that we can become better people,” Smith said.

More than 30 University of Central Arkansas students were selected as Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges for 2009-2010.

The award is given to young adults who are strongly committed to enhancing the positive image of American youth through their contributions to community and school. To be nominated for this prestigious award, a student must have completed a minimum of 90 hours by December 2009 and have a minimum GPA of 2.5.

Who’s Who Among Students in Universities and Colleges has become one of the most highly regarded and long-standing honors programs in the nation, having earned the overwhelming respect of college faculties and administrations, according to the national website.

This year’s honorees are: Amanda Adams, Kortney Atchley, Amy Curtis, Brittany Dixon, John Tyler Floyd, Leslie Foot, Kathryn Freyaldenhoven, Laura Hicky, Kayla Hill, Amanda Hindsman, James Hopper, Elizabeth Huett, Lyndsey Ingram, Lauren Kopf, Shanna McCormick, Brittany McCoy, Kane Moix, Josie Morelle, Leigh Anne Mullally, Kayla Parker, Desiree Paulhamus, Jordan Petrus, Melodie Philhours, Madeline Richmond, Samantha Small, Stephanie Sollis, Melissa Swint, Caroline Timm, Dean Turbeville, Hayden Vaughn, DeKevious Wilson, and Sara Woods.

The award is one of the most prestigious awards the academic community can bestow for scholastic achievement and outstanding contributions to the campus community, according to Julie Bernard, director of Student Organizations and University Events.

The Office of Student Life recently held a reception Feb. 27 honoring those students who were selected as Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges for 2009-2010. UCA’s President, Dr. Allen Meadors, spoke to the honorees and their families. Following the reception, each recipient was awarded a plaque by President Meadors and Vice-President of Student Services Ronnie Williams at half-time during the Bears basketball game.

Arch Jones Jr., assistant director of admissions, is serving as the chairman of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce Education Committee and serves on the Chamber Board of Directors.

Barbara Jackson, administrative specialist II in the Occupational Therapy Department, was awarded the United Way of Central Arkansas’ 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award on Feb. 18. Nominees from several non-profit organizations were nominated for the award.

Amy Whitehead, coordinator for the Community Development Institute, served as a member of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce’s Appreciation Task Force. Task force members delivered membership plaques and other chamber information to area businesses during “Appreciation Week,” which was the week of March 8.

Ancil Lea, director of community relations for the Center for Community and Economic Development, led a class on “Developing your personal network” during the annual New Professionals seminar at UCA, on March 10. Young Professionals from around the central Arkansas area attended this event for professional and leadership skill building.

Dr. Leonard Seawood, dean of Academic Outreach, was recently named the Commissioner of Leadership and Management for the University Continuing Education Association southern region. As Commissioner of Leadership and Management, Seawood will help build a leadership pool for UCEA and the field of continuing higher education. He will also have the opportunity to interact with professional peers from across the country and to contribute to the field.

• UCA President Jefferson D. Farris was given a two-year contract with a first-year salary of $34,000 when he became president in 1975.

• Dr. Charles Hodge was UCA’s first African-American academic dean.

• During Farris administration, UCA celebrated its 75th anniversary twice. Once in 1982 to mark 75 years since UCA’s creation by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1097 and in 1983, to mark the 75 years since classes began in 1908.

The University of Central Arkansas will be involved in strategic planning over the next ten months that will examine the university’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities and chart a path for the university.

Various groups began meeting in early February to discuss the university’s mission, its goals, and distinctiveness following several presentations by Dr. David McFarland of Penson Associates Inc., a research and consultations firm serving universities, colleges, and systems of universities, governing boards and commissions in higher education.

McFarland gave a campus-wide presentation Feb. 17, where he explained the process of strategic planning and shared feedback he received from preliminary meetings with specific groups on campus.

Although the university has many wonderful attributes, “there has been no decision about what UCA wants to be,” he said.

A Strategic Planning and Resources Council has been charged with the development of the strategic plan. The council consists of representatives from the staff, faculty, students, alumni, UCA board of trustees and the community. Mike Schaefer, a professor of English, is the chairman of the Strategic Planning and Resources Council.

The goal of strategic planning is fourfold, Schaefer explained. It will:

• Identify the various forces acting on the university as a whole–including finances, public perceptions and expectations, demographics, and technology.
• Assess the resources of various types the university has at its disposal for carrying out its planning.
• Examine and articulate the mission and vision of the university–our sense of our purpose and our aspirations for the future–which will be informed by the core shared values of the university community.
• Identify particular attributes of the university that set us apart from our sister institutions and that thus constitute our distinctive strengths.

“The benefits of this process for UCA, I hope, will be a clarified and renewed sense of purpose for all of us–a sense that we’re moving forward on many fronts rather than simply drifting, and that we’re all playing a valued and well-comprehended role in that movement,” Schaefer said.

The council and four task forces – Core Values (Mission, Vision, Values), Planning Assumptions, Institutional Distinctiveness, and Driving Forces — have already begun their work, Schaefer said. The task forces plan to have preliminary documents on planning assumptions, driving forces, values, and distinctiveness prepared by the end of March.

There will be a campus-wide forum, tentatively for early April, to discuss and refine those documents. There will be another open forum in the fall to take a look at the revised documents and at the first drafts of the more specific strategic goals that will flow from those revised documents, Schaefer said.

Another forum will take place in November or December for further refinement, after which the Strategic Planning and Resources Council, in consultation with the president and his executive staff, will craft the final documents.

“So, by about a year from now, the plan should be in operation,” he said.

Updates and information about strategic planning will be posted on the UCA main web page.

The involvement of the UCA community in the development of a strategic plan is crucial, Schaefer said.

“While strategic planning is ultimately, of course, the responsibility of the university’s president, the staff, faculty, and students have deep experiential knowledge of the actual operations of the university, and they are the ones who live out the university’s values, mission, and vision on a daily basis, and the larger community is the ultimate beneficiary of the university’s work,” he said. “Thus, their knowledge and participation are necessarily at the heart of any successful strategic planning process and the real accomplishment of the goals that develop from that process.”

Schaefer shared a story where a friend, who was a technical writer for a large manufacturing company, received high praise for a training manual he’d written; the workers, he was told, found it clear and easy to follow and implement, and productivity had increased as a result. The company’s executives were highly curious as to how he’d managed to create such a strikingly successful document. Schaefer’ s friend explained that he’d gone to the workers themselves and asked them how they did their jobs now and what they thought could be done to help them improve their performance, an approach that struck the executives as highly unusual–something that had never occurred to them before.

“I’m pleased to say that President (Allen) Meadors and Provost (Lance) Grahn are already cognizant of this approach; they are emphatic that the Strategic Planning and Resources Council and its task forces will be fully representative of all the university’s constituencies–as well as the larger community–and that these people will be the ones who actually shape the results of the process, with multiple opportunities for everyone on campus to take part in that process via open forums and web-based feedback,” Schaefer said.