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

Milliorn receives coveted Red Stapler award for marketing presentation

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 14:11:19 +0000

Meaghan Milliorn, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s manager of social media and web communications, has received a coveted Red Stapler award during the HighEdWeb 2019 Conference Oct. 13-16 in Milwaukee. The conference is held every year by the , an international organization of professionals working to design, develop, manage, and map the future of digital in higher education.�� Milliorn received the Red Stapler award for giving the best of track presentation in the “Supporting Our Students” track.�� “You literally get a red stapler, and that serves as your trophy,” Milliorn said. “It’s a play on the red stapler from ‘Office Space,’ but it’s a coveted award. All of the winners go back and give their presentations a second time so the attendees have another chance to see the conference’s best presentations.”�� Milliorn’s presentation, “Amplify Your ��Vlog��ý: How We’re Creating a Win-Win Solution in a Decentralized Web Structure,” focused on the creation and launch of the university’s new marketing-focused academics website. The website was created at no cost to the university by the web team in the Office of Communications and Marketing, which includes Milliorn, user interface/user experience designer Ashi Franke, web analyst Toni Boyer Stewart, and front-end web developer Adam Spelbring. “We had a consultant come to campus last year, and his report had some clear suggestions and recommendations,” Milliorn said. “We needed to do a better job at promoting our academic programs. We were not giving students what they were looking for, so we decided to create a whole new website that is about marketing our academics to prospective students and providing the information in a way that makes sense to them.”�� The new website has a consistent design with a landing page for each of the university’s more than 135 academic programs, with a link to the university’s online catalog as well as a section with career opportunities listing specific job titles and examples of potential employers who have hired ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduates with these majors.

Meaghan Milliorn receives the Red Stapler Award for her Best in Track presentation.

“That really resonates with our students because they can picture themselves working at a specific place in the future,” Milliorn said. “There is also a simple form to submit a request for more information about each program.” Since the website’s launch on Aug. 15, more than 600 students have submitted forms expressing interest in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s academic programs. Between Aug. 16 and Oct. 4, there was a 448 percent increase in pageviews from the old academics website to the newly launched website.�� Milliorn, who has been invited to give her presentation virtually at the University of Massachusetts, said it’s been exciting to finally win a Red Stapler after attending the conference since 2011. “I have seen many Red Stapler winners over the years,” she said. “They are great speakers, and I really looked up to them. My goal was just to provide a meaningful session for people, but to win a Red Stapler was the cherry on top.”��

Farmstand event promotes green living on campus

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 17:24:05 +0000

Jennifer Heinley, an accounting major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, was out shopping at the Campus Garden with her two sons on during the garden’s first farmstand event in mid-July. The family was looking for honey, squash, zucchinis, and any other fresh ingredients that might go well with the Instant Pot recipe she was planning to make for dinner. Heinley said it’s important to buy fresh, organic food and often shops at farmers markets for everything she doesn’t grow in her own garden.�� “I prefer buying locally sourced food if I can’t grow it myself,” she said, adding that her children enjoy the food, even if they don’t always enjoy the work. “I like the food, but I don’t like the weeding,” Blake Heinley, 7, agreed. In the farmstand model, people make donations as they can and then pick whatever they want from the garden. At the garden, which is organic and pesticide-free, students and volunteers grow corn, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, Turkish melons, and herbs, as well as host perennial and annual flower beds, beehives, and rented stalls. “The donations all go straight back into the garden and helping the community,” Marion Richard, senior biology major and president of the Campus Garden Alliance, said. “I want people to know about the importance of community. We would not have this beautiful garden without all of the people who help us. This garden is a labor of love.”

Visitors harvest produce from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Campus Garden during a pay-what-you-can farmstand sale. Photo by Ben Krain.

Toni Boyer-Stewart, web marketer and analyst, took the opportunity to buy some locally grown honey, corn, and pick some fresh flowers straight from the campus garden.�� “Nobody knows about the Campus Garden, and people need to realize that we have a wonderful resource for fresh vegetables and locally grown honey right on campus,” Boyer-Stewart said.�� More than 100 people attended the two-hour event, where the garden staffers sold out of tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and sweet corn. “We love fresh produce,” said Kisa Bellamy, a nursing major from Little Rock, who was picking collard greens at the campus garden. “For me, it brings it home from what we see in the grocery store to how we actually get the vegetables in our home. I didn’t even know how to pick collards from the ground, so it’s cool that they showed me how.” Leaders of the Campus Garden are planning to hold farmstand events throughout the rest of the growing season as the crops continue to mature. “Maintaining the garden takes a lot of work, and it’s all done by faculty, student, and staff volunteers,” said Dr. Stephen Grace, biology professor and faculty advisor of the Campus Garden Alliance. “The Campus Garden is a model urban farm that can promote better health and nutrition for the community by providing locally grown, fresh produce, contribute to the revitalization of underutilized urban land, provide social and economic benefits to the urban community, and improve urban landscapes.” The next farmstand event will take place from 2:30-5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2.��

New bike-sharing program launches Homecoming Week

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 21:35:21 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is welcoming bikes back to campus with the launch of a new bike-sharing program with VeoRide that begins as the campus celebrates Homecoming Week Nov. 26 to Dec. 1.�� The program will allow employees, students, and visitors to get around campus quickly by renting the bright teal-colored bikes through VeoRide’s app, available for download on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Biking to classes and events on campus will be easier than ever as these dockless bikes may be parked and made available at any public bike rack. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students and employees can purchase a monthly pass for $13.99 or a yearly pass for $48.99. Community members and visitors will pay $25.99 for a monthly pass and $99.99 for a yearly pass. Riders can also get a day pass for $6.99 or pay 50 cents for every 15 minutes of use. Riders can use the VeoRide app to find an available bike and reserve it for up to 10 minutes in advance. Next, they scan the bike’s QR code or enter an ID to unlock the bike. Riders can leave the bike in designated areas and push the slider on the lock to end the trip. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock first entered the world of bike sharing with a partnership with San Francisco-based Spin that launched in February. The company abruptly canceled its bike-sharing program July 16 in order to focus on offering electronic scooter rentals. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Sustainability Committee member Toni Boyer Stewart said the campus community is excited for the return of a new and improved bike-sharing experience. “The campus community truly liked the bike-sharing program. It’s very convenient,” Boyer Stewart said. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will be home to about 100 bikes with VeoRide, which will hire two employees to monitor the bikes on campus and move misplaced bikes to proper parking spaces. The VeoRide bikes will also offer some new features. Riders will have the ability to pause their ride to accommodate brief stops during their commute. If a rider would like to stop at the Donaghey Student Center to buy a drink, he or she could pause the ride, make a purchase, and then return to the same bike without the inconvenience of renting a different bike, Boyer Stewart explained. The bikes will also have a geofencing feature so that campus administrators can identify areas, such as sidewalks and parking lots, where the bikes cannot be parked. Riders will be unable to lock the bikes in these locations and must park them in an approved area to end their ride. In the upper right photo,��Maximum and Alex Tolbert, a member of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Dance Team, check out a new bike from VeoRide.��

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

Milliorn receives coveted Red Stapler award for marketing presentation

Farmstand event promotes green living on campus

New bike-sharing program launches Homecoming Week

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