- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Volunteers needed for Campus Day of Service

Janea Snyder — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 21:23:22 +0000

University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a campus-wide day of service on Thursday, April 19, dedicated to sprucing up the campus grounds. The “Trojan ReFRESH” event, which takes place on Earth Day, is scheduled for 3-5 p.m., with check-in beginning at 2 p.m. at various zones around campus. Faculty, staff, and students are all invited to participate, and the first 300 volunteers to sign up will receive a T-shirt. Participants also will receive tickets to attend an ice cream social at 4:30 p.m. on the Donaghey Student Center mall after the clean-up. Volunteers can before noon on Wednesday, April 18. “We are very excited about this new opportunity to engage our campus community in an event to give back to our environment,’’ said Mark Allen Poisel, vice chancellor of student affairs. “Students, faculty, and staff working together to make a physical difference in our campus shows the pride we have in our university. I hope to see many of our campus community members participating.” ReFRESH will target seven zones around campus: Zone 1: Coleman Creek Zone 2: University Avenue / Human Resources / Lot 5 / University Services Zone 3: Administration North / Dickinson Hall / Nanotechnology / Science Lab / Fribourgh Hall Zone 4: ETAS / EIT / Reynolds Center / Zone 5: Donaghey Student Center / Student Services Center / Library / Fine Arts Zone 6: eSTEM / Stabler Hall / Ross / Theater Zone 7: Residence halls / University Village Facilities management will provide trash bags and tools for weeding and raking. In case of inclement weather, the event will be moved to Wednesday, April 25.

Coleman Creek cleanup day planned for March 10

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 15:36:20 +0000

As part of a citywide effort to beautify the city, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service will hold a cleanup of Coleman Creek on Saturday, March 10. The effort is part of the event, where volunteers work to beautify locations all over Little Rock. The cleanup will be a half-day event starting with volunteer check-in at 8 a.m. at the Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service parking lot. Cleanup work will begin at 8:30 a.m. and finish at noon. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty, staff, and students, as well as members of the public, are invited to volunteer during the cleanup day. Volunteers are encouraged to wear appropriate shoes like rain boots and waders and to bring work gloves. Volunteers can. Contact Kristin Higgins at khiggins@uaex.edu or 501-671-2160 for more information.

Trimmer ‘best gift ever’ for biology major

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 14:54:30 +0000

Brand new heels and handbags don’t mean nearly as much to ��Vlog��ýLR senior Katy Harmon as the new Troy-Bilt trimmer she received on a recent Friday afternoon. State Commissioner Mark Elrod presented Harmon with the trimmer, a gift supplied by Troy-Bilt company officials, after her name was drawn from a list of more than 800 volunteers who signed up to help with the Great Arkansas American Cleanup last spring. In addition to Harmon, more than 50,000 Arkansans took part in the national cleanup efforts. The biology major from Benton said one of her first goals was to use the trimmer to help the cleanup efforts along Coleman Creek, which meanders through the ��Vlog��ýLR campus. “People say I’m crazy, but I love outdoor work and just being by the water,” Harmon said, on a sweltering early September day. “I tell them I’d rather be outside than stuck at a desk job any day.” Harmon received her gift, appropriately, at the amphitheater by Coleman Creek where she was surrounded by several faculty mentors and students in the Aquatic Sciences Association. Harmon, who is president of the Aquatic Sciences Association, has interned for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission over the last two summers and is an active volunteer with the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. For more information on the Aquatic Sciences Association, contact Harmon at kmharmon@ualr.edu.

Keep up with what’s happening; Subscribe to ��Vlog��ýLR Now.

Villines, Governor to attend Coleman Creek Trail dedication

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:03:15 +0000

��Vlog��ýLR will recognize Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines at the Coleman Creek Trail Dedication and Grand Opening Ceremony on Monday, April 21. Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe will also make remarks. The ceremony will begin at noon on Campus Drive East, near the 32nd Street bridge, on the ��Vlog��ýLR campus. A reception will follow at the Trojan Grill. Villines, who will have served 30 years as an elected official when his current term ends, has long supported efforts to improve Coleman Creek, which runs through the ��Vlog��ýLR campus. Major support for the development of the trail was also provided by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council. For more information about the event, contact Mia Phillips at 501.569.8093 or mdphillips@ualr.edu. Subscribe to E-News to see what’s happening at ‘��Vlog��ýLR Now.’

Coleman Creek enhancements move to next phase

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:41:45 +0000

Improvements in the next phase of the Coleman Creek Greenway Trail are under way and will continue through mid-September, according to John McMains, program coordinator for Facilities Management at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The campus work affects areas of the trail between the 28th Street bridge and West 20th Street. Officials say the work should not cause any major disturbance to campus, with the exception of the northeast corner of 28th Street bridge and the east side of the bridge, crossing from Lot 14 to Lot 15. The improvements are part of a long-term vision for ��Vlog��ýLR that includes the restoration and enhancement of Coleman Creek as the campus centerpiece, but also emblematic of the university’s commitment to the recreational enhancement of the surrounding community and region beyond campus. For more information, contact McMains at 501.371.7605 or jpmcmains@ualr.edu

Rain Inaugurates New Trail of Tears Park

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:04:37 +0000

A deluge of rain failed to stop a ceremony Tuesday, Oct. 12, to dedicate the newest piece of the ��Vlog��ýLR campus that restores and remembers — the Trail of Tears Park on the banks of Coleman Creek. “Anytime we can create and preserve green space for our people, it is a moment to celebrate,” said Gov. Mike Beebe. The governor attended the dedication of the park that once was a collection of broken asphalt and unusable cement block buildings. Now it is a tranquil entrance to campus on the south and a tribute to the thousands of native people who stopped by the creek as they made their forced march to the west on the Trail of Tears. “I feel the heartbeat and the footsteps of those who came through here,” said Sue Folsum, executive director of cultural events, historic preservation, and museums for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Kirk Perry, administrator of the Division of Policies and Standards of the Chickasaw Nation, represented his tribal leaders at the dedication and welcomed the rain. “It is a good day for Coleman Creek to get good water,” he said. “This is one small way to preserve a way of life.” The 4.5 acre park is near the site where thousands of Choctaw and Chickasaw people stopped for water on their way to Indian territories. It was known as the Trail of Tears, the federal government’s forced migration of native people to Indian lands in what is now Oklahoma and points west. “Old maps show that the old Southwest Trail went through the intersection of Asher and University avenues,” said Dan Littlefield, director of ��Vlog��ýLR’s Sequoyah National Research Center. “It was a resting place where they repaired their wagons and watered their horses. We have to use our imaginations to understand what they went through — it was one of the coldest winters of the time.” The $650,000 donor-financed park project has restored the area to its natural state with native trees, rocks, and grasses. Chancellor Joel E. Anderson said the park project is the first in a community- and campus-planned rehabilitation of Coleman Creek. The project, described in ��Vlog��ýLR’s Master Plan, “On the Move,” calls for the creation of a 47-acre greenway reaching the full length of campus with lush vegetation, bicycle and walking trails, benches, and bridges. Landscape engineers believe the Trail of Tears Park and subsequent Coleman Creek Greenway will be the biggest project of de-urbanization in the history of Arkansas. Ninety-year-old Janie Butler, whose grandmother’s house still stands diagonally from campus on Asher Avenue, attended the dedication. She celebrated the work that has been done to restore Coleman Creek, where she often swam as a girl. “This is wonderful,” she said. “It’s going to be fun to get back to the creek.”

Dedication to Open Trail of Tears Park

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:37:16 +0000

The Trail of Tears park dedication has been moved to the atrium outside the Sequoyah Research Center and rescheduled to 1:15 due to rain. Two years ago, a collection of dilapidated old concrete block buildings and cracked asphalt adjacent to Coleman Creek marked a spot on the old Southwest Trail where thousands of native people walked the “long walk,” forced west by the federal government to designated Indian territories in what is now Oklahoma and points west. Today, the site is a serene 4.5 acre park planted with native trees, grasses, and other species that travelers along the trail might have seen and experienced. At 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, representatives of the Choctaw Nation and the Chickasaw Nation will join with central Arkansas officials and ��Vlog��ýLR administrators and partners to dedicate the new Trail of Tears Park on the banks of the creek on the Southwest Trail, which is now Asher Avenue. The dedication ceremony will be followed by a reception and tour in the Sequoyah National Research Center in the adjacent University Plaza. For more information, contact 501-569-3390. The $650,000 donor-financed park project has restored the area to its natural state with native trees, rocks, and grasses. Just a few years ago, the area was the site of several unusable concrete buildings, an old bowling alley, an abandoned restaurant, and acres of asphalt. The park project is the first in a community and campus planned Coleman Creek project, described in ��Vlog��ýLR’s Master Plan, “On the Move.” It calls for the creation of a 47-acre greenway reaching the full length of campus with lush vegetation, bicycle and walking trails, benches, and bridges. Landscape engineers believe the Trail of Tears Park and subsequent Coleman Creek Greenway will be the biggest project of de-urbanization in the history of Arkansas. The new park is the southern entrance to campus. Three stanchions on the north end of a circular brick walkway in the new park hold tablets that tell the history of the Southwest Trail, the network of travel routes that connected the mid-Mississippi valley to the Red River valley. Indigenous people used the trails as trade routes before Europeans came to the new world. The explorer Hernando de Soto likely traveled on the trail in 1541. The trail was an immigration route from 1810 to 1840 for settlers from the Midwest heading to Texas and the West. For the Choctaws, it was “the long walk,” the Indian Removal Act that forced hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children from most North American tribes. Those who walked the old Southwest Trail likely stopped for water at the small creek that crossed the trail, now Asher Avenue. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced 15,000 Choctaw, 7,000 Chickasaw, 21,000 Muskogee, 16,000 Cherokees, and 4,000 Seminoles onto the “Trail of Tears” to designated Indian territories to the west. The trail was a military road in the 1860s carrying troops and supplies during the Civil War. Modern travelers drive the trail when they travel the area. U.S. 67 north and Interstate 30 parallels the ancient trail, as does Asher Avenue.

G&F Team to Work With Coleman Creek Effort Saturday

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:59:40 +0000

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Coleman Creek Stream Team are teaming up with the Coleman Creek Greenway Committee and volunteers for a morning cleanup of the creek that flows through campus. The Coleman Creek team will meet with members of the Coleman Creek Greenway Committee at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, in Fribourgh Hall’s room 428 to plan the cleanup. Volunteers are needed at the Coleman Creek Cleanup Day beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, until about noon. Workers can meet in Lot 2, north of the tennis courts. Free pizza and cold drinks are in store for volunteers. The event will be cancelled if it’s raining. If it’s cold, dress warm and bring a change of shoes. Plastic bags and latex gloves will be provided. For more information or to sign up, contact John McMains at 501-371-7605.

Trail of Tears Close to Finishing

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:38:57 +0000

��Vlog��ýLR’s Trail of Tears Park, the first section of a plan to create a greenway from Asher Avenue to War Memorial Park, is on schedule for “substantial completion” by the end of next month, David Millay, vice chancellor of facilities management at ��Vlog��ýLR, said Tuesday. The new park, located on the south entry of the campus by Asher Avenue, is a part of the national historic trail. The newly-restored 4.5 acre park marks the area along the Old Southwest Trail where American Indians stopped for water along the creek on their force migration to Indian territories in what is now Oklahoma. The march is known as the Trail of Tears. Millay told members of the Coleman Creek Greenway Review Group that the area would have interpretive markers and a symbolic landscape design, representing the culture of the people that trekked the grounds long ago. The site also includes a walking and bike trail that will eventually continue north to 32nd Street. “We never thought it would be able to look like this,” Millay said about the land’s enhancement plans, “but we’re beginning to see it more and more.” The group, which consisted of public agency, private business, and nonprofit representatives, discussed the progress of the project and their hopes to extend the trail through the city. County Judge Buddy Villines said ��Vlog��ýLR’s portion is a small part of a bigger picture. “A university is critical to a growing community,” he said. “You’ve got to have a good university. That’s why we’re involved in the Trail of Tears. But the Coleman Creek trail eventually needs to have a continuation all the way down to the river.” Villines said that the trail system that starts at ��Vlog��ýLR could connect the four corners of Pulaski County, encouraging bike and foot commuters and making a difference on city streets. The natural trail could motivate people to get outdoors and walk, said Bud Laumer of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, serving as a “habitat restoration for the people.” “If we integrate the north-south spine to an east-west spine at War Memorial Park, we could see an increase in bike communities and connect neighborhoods,” he said. Representatives from the Fair Park Neighborhood Association and the Broadmoor Neighborhood Association showed their support for the project, encouraging the agencies involved to keep moving forward. “Act now; make it happen,” said Joe Busby, president of the Fair Park Neighborhood Association. “If it can happen, we’re going to add something to the city that people will say ‘wow’.”

Millay to Head ��Vlog��ýLR Facilities Management

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:48:43 +0000

Dave Millay, director of ��Vlog��ýLR’s physical plant, has been named associate vice chancellor for facilities management, Bob Adams, vice chancellor for finance and administration, announced Monday. In addition to assuming the key leadership position, Millay, a native of Maine, will provide direct oversight and supervision of the University’s numerous capital construction projects as well as the ongoing physical plant activities. Millay is also chair of the Coleman Creek Greenway Project, a long-term effort to turn the creek that runs through campus into a park-like focal point.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock