Archive

Football Purple and Gray Scrimmage Wednesday

Submitted by: Kristen Oitker, koitker1@uca.edu on 08/17/2026

Get your first look of the season this Wednesday! Join us on The Stripes for our annual Purple and Gray scrimmage at 6:30 PM! This hour long event is free to the public!

https://ucasports.com/

See you soon at the UCA Library!

Submitted by: Joanna Warren, jewing@uca.edu on 08/17/2026

The UCA Library hosts a blog to share research tips, feature library collections, and inform about library events, including relaxing finals week activities. Our new post “See You Soon at the UCA Library!” shares information about a new library front desk and online library maps, helpful library hints, how to get library help, and items available for checkout, including library textbooks. Subscribe to the UCA Library Blog to stay up-to-date on library information and news!

https://library.uca.edu/blogs/uca-library-blog/see-you-soon-at-the-uca-library

Flu Vaccine Clinic

Submitted by: Jerri Worthington, jworthington@uca.edu on 08/17/2026

Register Now for the October 19th Flu Vaccine Clinic
UCA Flu Vaccine Clinic will be held on Monday, October 19, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Ronnie Williams Ballroom.
Registration is required to receive a flu vaccine. Please register in advance to reserve your spot by August 28, 2026.
https://uca.edu/hr/protectedcontent/flu-vaccine-clinic-registration/

When you arrive for your appointment, please bring:
Your completed consent form: https://uca.edu/hr/files/2026/07/Rx-Immunization-Consent-.pdf
Your Bear ID
Your current health insurance card
This clinic is open to UCA employees only.
We encourage you to take advantage of this convenient opportunity to protect yourself and those around you during flu season.

Replacement for SafeAssign: iThenticate is now available

Submitted by: Michael Mills, mmills@uca.edu on 08/14/2026

When we moved from Blackboard to Brightspace, we lost SafeAssign, the plagiarism checker many of you had built into your assignments. UCA has now licensed iThenticate, a text-matching tool from Turnitin, and it is live and available to all faculty as of this month. You can sign in at universityofcentralarkansas.turnitin.com using the Google single sign-on option with your UCA credentials. There is no separate password to set up.

Before you dive in, a few things to know, because iThenticate does not work the way SafeAssign did:

– It is a separate website. It is not integrated with Brightspace and will not appear inside your courses.

– Nothing runs automatically. You upload a file yourself when you want it checked, so think of it as a tool you reach for rather than a net that catches everything.

– Students have no access and see no results.

– Past submissions from Blackboard did not carry over, so prior UCA student work is not in the database. If you are trying to compare a paper against one from an earlier semester, use the doc-to-doc comparison feature and supply the earlier paper yourself.

– iThenticate will not flag AI-generated writing.

One important reminder: a similarity score tells you how much text matches other sources. It is not a plagiarism finding, and interpreting it is still your call.

Full instructions for signing in, uploading a document, and reading a Similarity Report are here: https://uca.edu/researchcompliance/ithenticate/

Live training with Turnitin is set for Monday, September 8 at 12:30 p.m. on Zoom: https://turnitin.zoom.us/j/96191105867. No registration needed. You do not have to wait for the training to start using the tool.

https://uca.edu/researchcompliance/ithenticate/

Community Care Clinic – Be Well points & Biometric screening

Submitted by: Chad Lairamore, chadl@uca.edu on 08/14/2026

Did you miss the deadline to get your Be Well Biometric Screen at the Randy Pastor Student Health Clinic?

Get your Be Well screening done at the Community Care Clinic! We will complete your annual wellness visit, bill your insurance (no out of pocket cost to you), and fill out your required Be Well paperwork so it counts toward your biometric screen. Please keep in mind UCA’s insurance plan only cover one (1) annual wellness visit per calendar year.

You can also get be well points for other services provided at the CCC.
* Preventative visit – anything that is a preventative visit – 25 points each, up to 100 points.
* Nutrition Consultation – 5 points each, up to 25 points
* Diabetes Consultation – Any appointment related to diabetes management with PCP, or RD – 25 points each up to 75 points
* Mental Health Counseling – Any mental or behavioral health visit, 5 pts each up to 50 points.

https://www.thecommunitycareclinic.org/

Brightspace Help Before Day One: Training + Drop-In Support

Submitted by: Jennifer Brewer, jbrewer1@uca.edu on 08/13/2026

Fall classes are almost here. Is Brightspace still hanging out on your pre-semester to-do list?

Whether you need a guided introduction to Brightspace or just want someone to help you troubleshoot the one thing that isn’t working the way you expected, CETAL has options to help you get ready.

Want a guided walkthrough? Choose Training.

Brightspace Introduction Training is a hands-on, two-hour workshop for faculty who are new to Brightspace or would like a refresher before the semester begins.

We’ll work through the essentials you need to prepare and manage your course, including:

Organizing course content
Creating assignments and quizzes
Setting up and using the Gradebook
Communicating with students
Working with visibility, availability, and due dates

Tuesday, August 18

9:00–11:00 a.m.
1:00–3:00 p.m.
5:00–7:00 p.m.

Register for Brightspace Training

Have a question or need a second set of eyes? Choose Office Hours.

No registration. No two-hour commitment. Just bring your Brightspace question and drop in when it works for you.

CETAL Instructional Designers and IT’s Instructional Technology team will be available via Zoom to help with things like course setup, assignments, quizzes, grades, content organization, instructional tools, or those mysterious Brightspace moments when you’re pretty sure you clicked the right thing…but Brightspace disagrees.

Brightspace Virtual Office Hours
August 12–26 | 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Office hours will not be available Monday, August 17.

Join Brightspace Virtual Office Hours

Not sure which option you need?

That’s okay! Training is best for a guided introduction or refresher; Office Hours are best for specific questions or individual help with your course.

Let CETAL help you cross a few things off that pre-semester list before students arrive!

Learn more about Teaching with Brightspace

Conway Daze – Faculty/staff welcome after 3:30pm

Submitted by: Lindsey Shurley, losborne@uca.edu on 08/11/2026

The Department of First Year Experience is excited to host Conway Daze once again during Welcome Week! We anticipate welcoming approximately 200 tables representing Conway businesses, community partners, campus departments, and student organizations.

We are thrilled to see how much this event has grown over the past several years. However, because Conway Daze is hosted indoors, we have limited space and need to be mindful of traffic flow throughout the event. To prioritize our incoming students and help ensure a smooth experience during the busiest part of the event, faculty and staff are welcome to attend and visit tables after 3:30 p.m.

If you are working at a table representing a campus department or student organization, please plan to enter Conway Daze before the event begins at 2:00 p.m. During the peak period, we ask that you remain at your table and refrain from walking through the aisles or visiting other tables until after 3:30 p.m.

Thank you for your partnership and understanding as we continue to make Conway Daze a welcoming and engaging experience for our incoming students!

UCA Employee Book Club

Submitted by: Charlotte Strickland, chars@uca.edu on 08/11/2026

Fall 2026 Employee Book Club – register now!
https://uca.edu/hr/protectedcontent/fall-2026-book-club-in-person/ – – -Onsite Thursday
https://uca.edu/hr/protectedcontent/fall-2026-book-club-zoom-fridays/ — Zoom Friday

Strong Ground by Brene Brown

Over the past six years, Brené Brown, along with a global community of coaches and facilitators, has taken more than 150,000 leaders in 45 countries through her Dare to Lead courage-building work. In Strong Ground, Brown shares the lessons from these experiences along with wisdom from other thinkers. This is a vital playbook for everyone from senior leaders developing and executing complex strategies to Gen Z-ers entering and navigating turbulent work environments. It is also an unflinching assessment of what happens when we continue to perpetuate the falsehood that performance and wholeheartedness are mutually exclusive.

ONSITE Participation
All onsite sessions are in the RWSC (Ronnie Williams Student Center) 207E – 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Sept 24, Oct 1, 8, 22, 29, Nov 5 (6 sessions)

ONLINE Participation
Zoom dates (Friday mornings 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.)
Sept 25, Oct 2, 9, 23, 30, Nov 6 (6 sessions)
Zoom link – https://uca-edu.zoom.us/j/83526196793?pwd=J4OD1q37JB4JHc1iXhacAgDNHjs1Tb.1

https://uca.edu/hr/protectedcontent/seminar-information/