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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock offers workshops for lifelong learning

Janea Snyder — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 21:27:38 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Extended Education program is offering a series of how-to workshops led by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty and staff. This spring’s schedule includes two writing and communication workshops and one technology session. Workshops will be held at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave. The workshops are taught by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty and staff and are open to the public. is available at ualr.edu/extended. For more information, contact Christine Cotton, director of Extended Education, cecotton@ualr.edu. Spring 2019 Workshops

Saturday, March 23 – Telling your Own Stories, 1-4 p.m., Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor or rhetoric and writing, and Sally Crisp, emeritus professor of rhetoric and writing, $35
Saturday, March 30 – Mastering your iPhone, 9-11 a.m., Ross Owyoung, director of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown, $19
Saturday, April 13 – Writing Family Stories, 1-4 p.m., Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor or rhetoric and writing, and Sally Crisp, emeritus professor of rhetoric and writing, $35

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown opens, announces lecture series

Janea Snyder — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 22:24:41 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock celebrated the opening of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown on Wednesday, Jan. 16, with a reception and unveiling of the historic Joe Jones’ 1935 mural, The Struggle in the South.

Chancellor Andrew Rogerson welcomed more than 200 people who attended the event at the new center at 333 President Clinton Ave., which will host weekly lectures, some non-credit classes, and provide rental space.

“From the beginning of my tenure at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, there was a lot of encouragement for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to develop a visible, engaged presence downtown,” Dr. Rogerson said. “We understand the importance of making our vital urban campus relevant and accessible here in the heart of the city. We wanted a space that honored the past, engaged the present, and imagined the future, and that is what this multi-use space reflects.”

The new center will serve as a bridge to the main campus and will provide university information, student recruitment and promotion of outstanding programs.

“We will have informative and entertaining lectures, lunchtime panel discussions, career-enhancing short courses, and certificate programs of benefit to the downtown community, and a place for our faculty to offer the community highlights of their cutting-edge research,” Rogerson said.

Newly elected Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, an alumnus of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, spoke at the grand opening and praised ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s efforts.

“I’m so grateful to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for having the forethought to bring this downtown center to fruition,” he said. “A great thriving city must have a great thriving university. This space will connect all areas together.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown Director Ross Owyoung announced the center’s weekly lectures series, beginning Feb. 6, and Extended Learning classes beginning in March. The non-credit extended learning classes include two-day writing workshops, led by Sally Crisp, faculty emerita in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor of rhetoric and writing.

“Telling Your own Stories” will be offered March 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. “Writing Family Stories” will be offered April 13 from 1 to 3 p.m.

The weekly lectures will feature ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty members discussing issues in science, health, community, the arts and other topics. The lectures will be presented on Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. at . The schedule is as follows:

Feb. 6 – “Tales of A Wandering Microbiologist,” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor Andrew Rogerson

Before becoming chancellor of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Andrew Rogerson spent 30 years as a researcher and professor in eight universities and two government laboratories. Fascinated by the hidden, and continually engaged in the possibilities of the invisible, Dr. Rogerson has worked on a diverse range of research projects all united by the fact they have involved microbes. Rogerson’s research was funded by various federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This fun lecture requires no prior knowledge of science. Enjoy a rare opportunity to discover the enthralling life of microbes through the life’s work of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s chancellor.

Feb. 13 – “The Art of Positive Communication: How Small Behaviors Create Your Best Moments,” Julien Mirivel, dean of the College of Social Sciences and Communication

This talk is an introduction to the art of positive communication. It is built on the premise that “the spoken word, spoken honorably and well, can make a difference that no other form of communication can equal.” In the talk, I share a simple model to inspire the audience to communicate more positively. With personal examples and stories, the talk will invite everyone to practice concrete behaviors that will have a positive effect at work, at home, and in the community. By the end of the talk, every person in the audience will be able to create their best moments and to connect with others more deeply.

Feb. 20 – “Poverty, Food, and Nutritionism,” Don Willis, assistant professor of sociology

Food is more than its nutritional and caloric content. It can shape our identity, our social relationships, and even act as a resource to blur or distinguish people across social categories. Dr. Willis will discuss a particular form of poverty—namely, food insecurity—and how it impacts lives and health through social, or non-nutritional pathways, such as one’s sense of social positioning in an unequal world. In asking this question, he also grapples with more fundamental questions about the character of food itself, and its role in shaping social experiences such as trust and belonging. Come for a fresh take on the role of food in shaping unequal lives.

Feb. 27 – “Nonprofit Capacity Building Strategies,” Kirk Leach, assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs

Dr. Leach will discussing collaboration and social entrepreneurship in the context of nonprofit capacity building. The goal for the discussion is to engage nonprofits in a shared learning environment, to learn with, and from each other.

March 6 – “Religion and Community Engagement in Little Rock,” Rebecca Glacier, associate professor in the School of Public Affairs

Attendees at this talk will learn about religion, politics, and community engagement in Little Rock. Using data from more than 2,000 congregants and 200 clergy in Little Rock, Dr. Glazier will share information about the benefits of faith-based community engagement and take suggestions for questions and topics for the 2020 Little Rock Congregations Study survey of congregants.

March 13 – “Deviant Mobs of the Internet: Bots, Trolls, and Misinformation,” Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science.

Social media platforms are widely used for sharing information, but they can also be used to disseminate propaganda, hoaxes, and fake news to influence the public. The availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools has made such malicious acts more convenient and effective. This talk will touch upon various research efforts that demonstrate how disinformation campaigns work and examine the critical link between blogs and other social media platforms ( YouTube, Twitter, Facebook). Using socio-computational models that leverage social network analysis and cyber forensics, leading coordinators of disinformation campaigns are identified. The talk also will highlight tactics, techniques, and procedures used by groups to propagate disinformation. Prominent cases of massive disinformation campaigns in the Baltic region and NATO’s military exercises will be discussed.

All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Ross Owyoung, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown director, at 870-501-2700 or rlowyoung@ualr.edu.

More information is available online.

Photos by Benjamin Krain

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to offer workshop on writing family stories

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 17:03:11 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is offering a workshop to teach participants how to preserve their family history by writing up their family’s most compelling tales. The workshop, “,” will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Reynolds Business Building room 104. The writing workshop is great for those who are starting family history research, in the midst of a writing project, or looking for story starters and inspirational ideas. It offers strategies and provides opportunities for developing texts that tell stories about participants’ family members, preserving family history, and discovering ancestors through artifacts, locations, and family members Dr. Sally Crisp, faculty emerita in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and Dr. Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor of rhetoric and writing, will teach the workshop as an offering from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Extended Education office The cost of the workshop is $59, which includes lunch and a copy of the book, “Telling Your Arkansas Story.” by Aug. 3.

Doyle Rankins’ graduation day is nearly 50 years in the making

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:53:03 +0000

The first time Doyle Rankins was a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1970, he was a 19-year-old rail service worker for Missouri Pacific Railroad (now Union Pacific) as well as a member of the Arkansas Air National Guard. With a work schedule that often shifted from days to nights, Rankins often had to quit classes in the middle of the semester to make his ever-shifting schedule work. He often muses that if online classes had existed in the 1970s, he could have finished his degree much faster. As an online student the second time around, Rankins completed a Bachelor of Applied Science and will graduate May 12 at the Jack Stephens Center – 48 years after he first started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Rankins married Susan Gardner in 1972, and the couple took some classes together at the university. By the time their first daughter, Ellen Edwards, was born in 1974, Rankins’ first round at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock had ended. The family briefly moved to St. Louis, where Rankins took classes for a year at St. Louis Community College-Meremac and the couple’s second daughter, Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor of rhetoric and writing at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, was born. The couple returned to Little Rock in 1977 and welcomed their son, Matthew Rankins. During his 43-year career at Union Pacific, Rankins was a hard worker who once oversaw an area that stretched from Chicago to Yuma, Arizona. He was responsible for overseeing a workforce of more than 300 people and often flew on a helicopter to train derailment sites all over the country. Rankins-Robertson recalls how her parents instilled a strong work ethic and appreciation for higher education in her and her siblings. “My parents preached the importance of a college education to us since we were very little,” she said. “They were really passionate about us going to school. There was no one more passionate than my dad about me finishing my bachelor’s degree because I had a baby at 19. In their generation, having children meant going to work–not finishing school.”

Doyle Rankins stands on the Union Pacific 1960s patio caboose that bears his name. Photo by Ben Krain.

Rankins retired from Union Pacific in 2012 as director of Mechanical Maintenance Transportation-Southern Region. He started his own consulting business, Rankins Railroad Service, in 2013 and still works 12 hour a day, six days a week. While all three of his children and his granddaughter have earned college degrees from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Rankins got his chance at finishing his bachelor’s degree when Rankins-Robertson encouraged him to meet with Kathy Oliverio, director of military student success. The Bachelor of Applied Science degree is geared toward adults with military service. In 2016, he became an online student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, nearly 40 years after the last time he attended college. His favorite classes included several writing courses, Earth Science, and ethics. His favorite professors included Melvin Beavers, Gerald Driskill, Simon Hawkins, Melissa Johnson, Wendy McCloud, and Kathy Oliverio. Rankins-Robertson will play a special role in her father’s graduation ceremony. As a faculty member, she will get to hand her father his diploma. “I am very excited. I was also able to award my daughter her degree last year, so it feels as if I have come full circle to award the generation below and above me their degrees,” she said. As for his post-graduation plans, Rankins is not giving up on school just yet. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in rhetoric and writing at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as well as continue to run his consulting business. “I work today because I want to, not because I have to. I will keep working for as long as I am physically able, and I will keep doing education as well. I definitely want to keep doing things,” Rankins said. “People have asked me what am I going to do when I get out of college, and I ask them if they are crazy. What else could I do?”

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

����Vlog��ý Little Rock offers workshops for lifelong learning

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown opens, announces lecture series

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to offer workshop on writing family stories

Doyle Rankins’ graduation day is nearly 50 years in the making

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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock offers workshops for lifelong learning

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown opens, announces lecture series

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to offer workshop on writing family stories