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

Little Rock mayoral candidates vie for voters in THV11 debate at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 13:20:41 +0000

The five men hoping to come out on top at the polls on Nov. 6 in Little Rock’s mayoral election took to the stage at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall on Oct. 16 to tackle a variety of tough questions on crime, education, jobs, the economy, legalizing marijuana, and more. partnered with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host the mayoral forum in front of a packed and enthusiastic crowd at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. THV11’s Amanda Jaeger and Arkansas Business’s Lance Turner hosted the event. Mayoral candidates Frank Scott Jr., Warwick Sabin, Baker Kurrus, Vincent Tolliver, and Glen Schwarz answered 25 questions submitted to THV11 through an online survey and social media. The questions were divided into five categories, including “On The Streets,” “Not Politics,” “Better Together,” “Report Card,” and “Serve and Protect.” THV11 aired the mayoral forum live on air and on Facebook Live. The entire forum can be. For a quick recap, there is also an .

��Vlog��ý Little Rock, THV11 to host ‘Little Rock, Big Choice’ mayoral forum Oct. 17

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 13:46:16 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is partnering with THV11 to host the “Little Rock, Big Choice” mayoral forum in THV11’s primetime lineup on Wednesday, Oct. 17. Broadcasted live from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, “Little Rock, Big Choice” is a unique mayoral forum that will give the people of Little Rock a chance to write in their questions via social media for the 2018 mayoral candidates. The event will begin at 8 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Building on the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock campus. The forum will be aired on THV11, thv11.com, and on Facebook Live. People who are interested in submitting questions to the forum anonymously may to share questions and topics of interest for this year’s mayoral candidates.

History professor to discuss 1967 Little Rock School Board crisis

Jenny Lambert — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 17:06:46 +0000

After the 1957 desegregation of Central High School, a coalition of blacks and whites banned together to elect school board members who would comply with federal court orders and work to completely desegregate schools in Arkansas’ capital. To fulfill these requests, the school board hired a team of researchers from the University of Oregon to construct the most effective plan to fully desegregate the Little Rock School District. “The Oregon plan ignited a controversy that threatened investments in white neighborhoods, reinvigorated segregationist sentiments, and permanently divided the city,” said Dr. Barclay Key, professor of American History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The school board’s attempts outraged the public, and the plan was eventually halted. In 1967, segregationists gained control of the school board, scrapped the plan that the previous board members had established, and for several years following, did little to comply with desegregation laws in order to maintain the status quo for middle and upper class whites. During his Evenings with History presentation, Key will discuss the Oregon plan, analyze the results of the 1967-68 Little Rock School Board elections, and interpret the long-term consequences for the city’s refusal to desegregate its schools. The talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, in the Ottenheimer Auditorium in the Historic Arkansas Museum, located at 200 E. Third St. in Little Rock. Refreshments will be served at 7 p.m. Key joined the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty in 2012 after teaching one year at Iowa State University and five years at Western Illinois University. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Alabama, Master of Divinity from David Lipscomb University, and master’s and Ph.D. in history from the University of Florida. Key is the author of “Race and Restoration: Churches of Christ and the African American Freedom Struggle,” and has published chapters in two edited collections from the University Press of Florida. The Evenings with History series is sponsored by the University History Institute. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students may attend the event at no cost, but admission for faculty, staff, and community members depends on subscription to the institute. For more information, contact the Department of History at 501-569-3235.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host exhibit on Michael Warrick’s Sister City sculpture

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 13:28:14 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host an exhibit detailing the creation of a sculpture built to commemorate the 25-year partnership and friendship between the sister cities of Little Rock and Hanam City, South Korea. The exhibit, “Creating Youth,” will be on display from Oct. 11 to Nov. 10 in the Maners/Pappas Gallery in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Fine Arts Building. A reception for the exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be held from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14. Michael Warrick, professor of sculpture at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, created a sculpture entitled, “Youth,” during 2016 and 2017. Little Rock officials recently sent the sculpture to South Korea. “Youth” will be dedicated in December and stand in Hanam’s Sister City Park, which will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sister City partnership that began in 1992. The sculpture is a 7-foot figurative female sculpture cast in bronze and composed of vines, leaves, and a small bird, Warrick said. The figure has a traditional green finish, while the small bird is coated with 23.75 karat gold leaf. The “Creating Youth” exhibit is meant to capture the “complexity and energy that goes into the idea of creating the sculpture,” Warrick said. The exhibit will feature smaller bronze sculptures of “Youth,” early sketches, 3-D digital renderings, test castings, failures, and a full-scale casting of the final sculpture. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Art Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Building. The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, contact Art Gallery Director Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu or 501.569.8977.

Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County Conference to focus on race, ethnicity, religion

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 21:00:16 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host the 14th annual Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County Conference on Thursday, April 13. The conference will feature the results of the 14th annual Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County Survey, which focuses on attitudes toward race, ethnicity, and religion, as well as the results on the Little Rock Congregations Study, which reviewed how religious organizations in Little Rock affected community and political engagement in their congregants. “The theme of race, ethnicity, and religion is one that has not been covered in the past, and in particular reflects our founder Dr. Joel Anderson’s desire to engage the city’s religious communities in efforts to address issues of race and ethnicity,” said John Kirk, director of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity. “He believes that religious communities can play an important leadership role in influencing attitudes and opinions on the subject.” The event will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Fine Arts Building with a panel discussion on the results of the Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County Survey, followed by a free lunch at noon. The panel on the results of the Little Rock Congregations Study will be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. The Racial Attitudes panel will include religious leaders discussing race and religion in Pulaski County. Scheduled participants include Pastor Alex Diaz of Mosaic Church, Pastor Wendell Griffen of New Millennium Church, the Rev. Marie Mainard O’Connell of First Presbyterian Church, and Bishop Anthony Taylor of the Diocese of Little Rock. The results of the racial attitudes survey indicate members of the black community tend to identify themselves as being more religious than do white and Latino people, Kirk said.

Little Rock Congregations Study

Dr. Rebecca Glazier, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock associate professor in the School of Public Affairs, and Dr. Warigia Bowman, assistant professor at, led the Little Rock Congregations Study to determine how religious organizations affected community and political engagement in their congregants. The professors and their students surveyed nearly 1,500 people at 17 houses of worship in Little Rock. The congregations included four black Protestant churches, four Evangelical Protestant churches, three mainline Protestant churches, two Catholic churches, one Mormon church, one mosque, one Jewish temple, and one nondenominational Unitarian Universalist church. Some of the results of the Little Rock Congregations Study include:

��86 percent say they are aware of the important needs in their community
��81 percent say they can make a difference in their community
��76 percent volunteered at their place of worship in the past month
��72 percent volunteered outside their place of worship in the past month

The Little Rock Congregations Panel includes local religious leaders who will discuss community involvement and religion in Little Rock. Panel members include Pastor Brodes Perry from Saint Mark Baptist Church, Pastor Carissa Rogers from Quapaw United Methodist Church, the Rev. Danny Schieffler from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Brother John Tait of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and from the Islamic Center of Little Rock. The event is free and open to the public. Register by filling out the online form. The conference is sponsored by the Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock School of Public Affairs, and the University of Arkansas . For more information on the Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County Survey, contact Tamisha Cheatham at 501.569.8932 or tmcheatham@ualr.edu. For more information on the Little Rock Congregations Study, contact Rebecca Glazier at 501.569.3331 or raglazier@ualr.edu. In the upper right photo, Rebecca Glazier leads a training session for her students participating in the Little Rock Congregations Study. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

Warrick creates sculpture to be given to Little Rock’s sister city in South Korea

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 18:20:11 +0000

As a professor with 40 years experience teaching art, Michael Warrick finds great inspiration from young people. “It’s hard not to be inspired by young people and your own children,” said Warrick, a professor of sculpture at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “Part of the reason why we are here is to nurture and help young people develop, but to also see the world the way they do with open eyes and excitement.” Warrick, who worked with kindergarten through 12th-grade students for five years and has been a college instructor for 35, is now using youths as the idea behind one of his newest sculptures. His creation will soon cross oceans and cultures to symbolize the partnership and friendship between the City of Little Rock and its sister city in Hanam City, South Korea. Hanam City will also give Little Rock a sculpture later this year. “Hanam City is one of our most vibrant relationships,” said, one of the liaisons to the South Korean city and a partner at Impact Management Group. “They have frequently done the youth exchange program, which has been a strong piece of our relationship. We have sent a number of high school delegations to Hanam City to learn about their culture and way of life, and we have received a number of delegations from Hanam City to share our culture as well.” The gift will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sister city relationship with the two cities, which began in 1992.

A Sister Cities delegation from Hanam City, South, Korea visited ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to see the progress of a sculpture created by Michael Warrick that will be given to Hanam City as part of a sculpture exchange between the sister cities. Pictured from left to right are: Commissioner Kim Kapchul, Vice Mayor Lee Jong Soo, Chancellor Andrew Rogerson, Professor Michael Warrick, Commissioner Kuk Seunghyun, Ashvin Vibhakar, and Tom Clifton, dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences.

With a goal of using the youth exchange program as a symbol for the bond between the communities, Warrick’s sculpture is titled “Youth” and is inspired by pieces he created for his own children, Annika and Phillip, when they turned 13 and transitioned into young adulthood. “Youth” is a 7-foot figurative female sculpture cast in bronze and composed of vines, leaves, and a small bird, Warrick said. The figure has a traditional green finish, while the small bird is coated with 23.75 karat gold leaf. “The use of the vines and the bird represent the Natural State and also represent the idea of growth, and that is what we are investing in as teachers, administrators, and staff. We are investing in the youth to have a better future,” Warrick said.

Members of a South Korean Sister Cities delegation watch as Professor Michael Warrick pours bronze for a sculpture that will be given to Hanam City as part of a sculpture exchange between Hanam City and Little Rock.

During an annual visit to Little Rock on Feb. 8, an eight-person delegation from South Korea recently got firsthand experience with Warrick’s creative process. Using the university’s foundry, Warrick poured bronze that will be used in the sculpture — to the delight of the visiting delegates, who captured the event with their cameras. “It was pretty amazing to see the sculpture being cast in bronze,” Coon said. “The delegates were very impressed. The experience makes the sculpture exchange that much more special when you see the artist going through the artistic process yourself.” The South Korean delegation presented Warrick with a beautiful box in the shape of a house containing a variety of teas. In turn, Warrick gave each delegation member a small sculpture of a house made in purpleheart wood with a gold leaf at the top. “It’s called a spirit house,” Warrick said. “I told the vice mayor of Hanam City that I started making these spirit houses about 19 years ago when my wife almost died giving birth to our son. Family and friends came out often to help us during the first six months of my son’s life. I wanted to give them something special as a way to say thank you.” Now, whenever Warrick wants to thank or honor someone, he often creates a spirit house. Once Warrick’s sculpture is completed, it will be delivered to South Korea sometime this summer and will stand in Hanam City’s new Sister City Park. Though a final destination for the sculpture that Hanam City will give to Little Rock has not yet been determined, the delegates toured several sites that might house the sister city sculpture, including Main Street, the River Market, or MacArthur Park. In the upper right photo, Patrick Fleming (left), Marianne Hedinger (center), and Michael Warrick (right) pour bronze for the sculpture, “Youth,” which will be given to Hanam City as part of a sculpture exchange between Hanam City and Little Rock. Photos by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock students display research at the Capitol

Jenny Lambert — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 14:54:14 +0000

Six University of Arkansas at Little Rock students recently had the unique opportunity to present their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research to state legislators and about 100 high school students. The purpose of the 2017 STEM Posters at the Capitol event, held Feb. 15 at the Arkansas Capitol Rotunda in Little Rock, was to put the spotlight on undergraduate research at universities in Arkansas. “Our students did an excellent job representing the university and showcasing the outstanding research being conducted at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock,” said Dr. Jim Winter, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock director of Science Scholars and Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation programs. Winter served as the university’s event coordinator. In all, there were 70 posters presented from 15 Arkansas colleges and universities. About the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student projects:

Dustin Brown

Dustin Brown, Hermitage, is a senior pursuing majors in biology and interdisciplinary studies. Brown presented research on the effects of anti-diabetic drug Metformin on biomarkers for cancer tumors. Kristen Gregory, Jacksonville, is a sophomore with a major in chemistry and minor in biology. Gregory demonstrated research on the effectiveness of three nanomaterials in killing breast cancer cells. Elizabeth Haralson, Little Rock, is a junior with a major in geology, with an emphasis on environmental geology, and a minor in biology. Haralson presented research on the variations in water quality in Fourche Creek before and after it flows through a wetlands area.

Zaire Husband

Zaire Husband, Monticello, is a sophomore computer science major. Husband’s presentation focused on programming used to manage inventory with the open-source database program “Snipe It.” Dave Soni, Blytheville, is a senior with a double major in chemistry and biology. Soni’s research presentation covered synthesized cellulose-based carbon nanocompounds and their effectiveness under light to remove organic dye pollutants from water. Neden Yacine, Fort Smith, is a senior chemistry major with a minor in biology. Yacine’s research presentation analyzed the antioxidant properties of the nanocompound tungsten disulfide.

��Vlog��ýLR, Little Rock high schools announce Trojan Pathway partnership

Shanna Fitzgerald — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 22:05:46 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Little Rock School District announced Trojan Pathway — a collaboration to make higher education more affordable and accessible. The Trojan Pathway agreement between ��Vlog��ýLR and the five Little Rock School District high schools — Central, Hall, J.A. Fair, McClellan, and Parkview — sets a clear, affordable direction for students to enter the university and opens up resources to guide them through the process. “Students need the opportunity to have a higher education,” said ��Vlog��ýLR Chancellor Dr. Andrew Rogerson, who developed the concept for the program. “Trojan Pathway is just opening their eyes to the possibility.” Through the collaboration, students in the classes of 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 and their parents can sign a non-binding agreement that guarantees the student a spot at the university as long as the student:

Satisfies admissions criteria
Submits a complete application
Makes acceptable financial arrangements

“We are grateful for the wonderful partnership with ��Vlog��ýLR and for what this opportunity will mean for our students,” said LRSD Superintendent Mike Poore. “If our goal is to prepare students for college and career, we must be intentional in our approach to provide them with the kind of support they need to be successful. This is definitely a great step in that direction.” Trojan Pathway, similar to the recently announced Jacksonville Promise, is the latest in ��Vlog��ýLR’s strategy of addressing the issues of affordability and accessibility in higher education. In a matter of weeks, more than 70 Jacksonville parents and students signed the contract to participate in the pilot program. Both programs focus on highlighting an affordable pathway to higher education for students and their parents — especially those who might not have previously considered college a realistic option. While signing a contract through the Trojan Pathway program doesn’t commit a student to attend the university, it does provide access to university advisers who can help with the admission and financial aid processes. Advisers also can discuss the potential for early degree completion — and the resulting cost savings that can occur — through the university’s concurrent enrollment program.

Little Rock School District Superintendent Michael Poore, left, and University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Andrew Rogerson listen as ��Vlog��ýLR Student Government Association President Connor Donovan relates his student experience during an announcement of Trojan Pathway, a new partnership to benefit Little Rock high school students. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ýLR Communications

For central Arkansas to succeed, ��Vlog��ýLR needs to produce job-ready college graduates, and for most students, a higher education is a critical component of their future career success, Rogerson said. The importance of a college education continues to increase. About 99 percent of the 11.6 million jobs added in the U.S. since the 2008 recession went to workers who had completed at least some college, according to a from the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. At the same time, about 70 percent of U.S. college students graduate with debt, and in 2015, that average debt was more than $30,000, according to The Institute for College Access and Success. Attending a local university or college is one way central Arkansas students can cut costs. In an effort to make higher education even more affordable, ��Vlog��ýLR recently relaxed its requirement that many freshmen live on campus during their first year. Advisers won’t only direct students to ��Vlog��ýLR, Rogerson said. If, for example, Pulaski Technical College is a better fit for the student’s plans, advisers will help send him or her in that direction. While Trojan Pathway has the potential to assist all Little Rock high school students, Rogerson said, those with multiple years of high school remaining could reap the maximum benefit, as they will have the most time to focus on college-readiness. “This is something that will bear fruit in the future,” Rogerson said.

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

Little Rock mayoral candidates vie for voters in THV11 debate at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock, THV11 to host ‘Little Rock, Big Choice’ mayoral forum Oct. 17