In preparation for the review team visit from The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools on Nov. 1 – 4, Get Informed will discuss UALR’s mission statement components for the next two weeks. Today: The mission of discovering and disseminating knowledge.

Faculty, staff, and students at UALR participate in the art and science of discovery across all academic disciplines and are engaged in a wide range of research. This includes the structure and dynamics of galaxies and their dark matter halos; musical instruments and their use in early music; applied computational electromagnetic antennas and propagation; demonic possession in the Middle Ages; literacy issues; causes of stress in the workplace; legal writing; and sustainable business practices.

Faculty research efforts are recognized nationally and internationally. In the last seven years, seven faculty members have received Fulbright appointments to teach and conduct research in seven countries around the world. Other faculty members have been awarded a variety of nationally recognized fellowships such as a Guggenheim Fellowship. Earlier this year, Dr. Johanna Miller Lewis, UALR professor of history and associate dean of the Graduate School, won the 2009 National Education Association’s Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial Award for her public history research project “Life Interrupted.”

UALR faculty shows their commitment to a life of learning by publishing, performing, and presenting their work within their profession. During the 2006-2007 academic year, faculty published 219 articles in professional journals, made 440 presentations to professional audiences, and held 97 performances. UALR faculty also present their work to general audiences. During the 2006-2007 academic year, faculty delivered 339 lectures to non-academic audiences and published 46 articles in non-professional publications.

Like faculty researchers, student researchers receive attention and accolades from an international audience. Three recent projects demonstrate the range of research in which UALR students participate. Psychology graduate Amanda Woolems (’08) presented her research tying excessive gaming to sleep disturbances at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. In July, a team of graduate students became the only United States team competing for the H.E Suzanne Mubarak Special Award at the worldwide Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Initiative Finals in Cairo, Egypt—a stunning accomplishment considering it was the University’s first year competing.

Finally, when the Little Rock National Airport needed a creative solution to enhance its efficiency and profitability, Airport Executive Director Deborah Schwartz approached Dr. Mary L. Good, dean of UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT). From that conversation, Dr. Good set in motion a multi-disciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students from two UALR colleges—EIT and the College of Business—whose mission was to design an advanced information system to alleviate airport inefficiencies.

Not only did the team create a 21st century plan to improve service delivery at commercial airports, students also picked up a $5,000 award for their business plan in the process. The UALR team won third place in the coveted Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup for its entry: Dynamic Airport Systems, LLC.

To find out more, you are encouraged to read the self study report, which can be found at https://ualr.edu/accreditation/nca/.