UALR students, faculty, and staff may be questioning whether they have heard ringing in their ears, but the sound of chimes is actually coming from a digital carillon recently placed on top of Stabler Hall.
The chime tones are known as the Westminster Quarters, the most common name for a melody that chimes from a clock, usually each quarter hour, according to Vice Chancellor of Facilities Dave Millay.
Currently, the carillon is programmed to sound on the hour starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m., seven days per week.
“The sound of the bells ringing across campus should send the message ‘you are in a special place’ and is the pride of many university campuses across the U.S., and indeed, around the world,” said Millay.
The carillon can be programmed to play seasonal chimes, such as the UALR fight song, he said.
“I am hopeful that the campus will embrace it. To me the chimes create an appropriate campus ambiance,” Millay concluded.
The annual Goodwill Women’s Career Closet Clothing Drive is being held on the UALR campus through Wednesday, April 15.
Goodwill organizers are asking for professional or career clothes, shoes, accessories and purses. Tax receipts will be available.
Collection boxes will be located in Stabler Hall, Reynolds Business Building, West Hall, and in the Office of Campus Life.
The Career Closet provides business attire and support services to women seeking employment through Goodwill’s Career Services Center. An outfit is presented for an interview after their training. If hired, they may choose another outfit from Career Closet to start their career.
Last year, Women’s Career Closet was able to collect 550 pounds of clothes through donations.
Goodwill’s Women’s Career Closet Clothing Drive is sponsored by the Non-Traditional Student Programs, Power of Woman Programs, and the Nonprofit Leadership Student Association.
For more information, contact the Office of Campus Life at 501.569.3308.
The co-author of a 2010 book that stirred debate about the role of higher education in America will deliver a lecture at the UALR this month.
New York University sociology professor Dr. Richard Arum will deliver a lecture titled “Academically Adrift: Why Students Do Not Learn Much In College and Why It Matters.”
The free lecture, which will focus on research into what happens during a student’s first two years of college, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 16, in the UALR Student Services Center, Room 104.
Arum and his co-author Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia became household names when their original book, “Academically Adrift,” said campus environments often coddle and entertain students rather than challenge them.
Both concluded that more than one in three college seniors were no better at writing, critical thinking, and reasoning than they were as freshmen.
Arum is a professor and director of the Education Research Program of the Social Science Research Council.
He is author of several books including “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses” and “Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates.”
A luncheon discussion and book signing will follow at the UALR Bailey Alumni Center from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. The luncheon requires an RSVP to reserve seating and may be made by emailing atle@ualr.edu.
The UALR Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence is sponsor of the event.
The UALR Middle Eastern Studies program is hosting a presentation by renowned scholar of non-violence Dr. Erica Chenoweth.
Chenoweth’s talk, “Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring and Beyond,” will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall at the UALR Fine Arts Building.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm at ejwiebelhaus@ualr.edu or 501-569-3331.
About Chenoweth
Chenoweth is an associate professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. “Foreign Policy” magazine ranked her among the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2013.
She also won the 2014 Karl Deutsch Award, given annually by the International Studies Association to the scholar under 40 who has made the most significant impact on the field of international politics or peace research.
Her latest book, “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict,” was co-authored with Maria J. Stephan and has won several awards since being published in 2012.
She has presented her work all over the world at various academic conferences, government workshops, and international governmental organizations. Her research has been featured in the “New York Times,” “The Economist,” “Foreign Affairs,” and TED Talks.
The fourth annual Fringe Festival is at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, April 2 to 3, in the UALR Haislip Theatre, Room 127.
The Fringe Festival offers a series of original ten-minute plays written, produced, directed, and performed by UALR students. 
This event has become one of the most popular and regular offerings from the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.
Admission is free, but tickets are limited. For advanced tickets, visit the Center for Performing Arts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information, call 501.569.3456.
There will be nine student plays showing at this year’s festival:
“50 Shades of Personalities” by Corrie Elizabeth Green
“A Yet to be Named Work” by Emily Bruner
“The Breakthrough” by Eric D’wann Ventry
“Duet” (or Funnel) by MarQuis Bullock
“Girl You’re a Queen” by KaBriya J. Baldwin
“The Ladies Room” by Grace Burr
“Reasons” by James Colton Mann
“The Siren Song” by Marissa Harris
“Study of Blue Nudes” by Katherine Greer
This event is sponsored by the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance and the Kerry Kennedy Playwright Development Fund.
Students are offered the opportunity to showcase their research and creative efforts at the UALR Research and Creative Works Expo. The deadline to enter has been extended to noon Monday, April 6.
Graduate and undergraduate students, including those who graduated in the summer or fall of 2014, are encouraged to apply.
Applicable research or creative work include, but are not limited to, senior theses, honors, independent study, course-related, and thesis and dissertation projects. The work may be recen
tly completed or ongoing, collaborative, or individual.
All research by UALR students involving human participants, biohazards agents, or animal subjects must be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board, The Institutional Biosafety Committee, or the Institutional Animal Care and Use committees, respectively.
At the expo, students will present their work using posters. They will be judged in several categories including how clear and novel their approach, how well they create perspective, and how apt they are at briefly “pitching” their work to convey what they are doing.
Alternative formats, such as performance or film clips, must be requested in advance.
The UALR Research and Creative Works Expo will be held on Monday, April 13, in the Donaghey Student Center, Ledbetter Hall. The undergraduate expo will take place in the morning, with judging and display from 9 a.m to noon, and the graduate expo will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
All students who participate in the expo will receive a certificate at the awards ceremony.
The event takes place on April 15 at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Donaghey Student Center, Ledbetter Hall.
For more information, visit ualr.edu/orsp/student-research-expo/.
UALR students spent spring break going “off to the market,” the theme of Heifer International’s 2015 Beyond Hunger educational event. Continue reading “Heifer International uses student-designed activities for annual event”
Four UALR undergraduates presented their findings at a premier international virtual reality conference, held this year from March 23 to 27. Continue reading “Undergrads share augmented reality research at international conference”
A team of UALR art students, led by artist Matt McLeod, is helping paint a mural at the corner of Sixth and Main Streets in Little Rock in the heart of the developing Creative Corridor. Continue reading “Student artists help paint mural in new Creative Corridor”
The UALR Ethics Bowl Team recently competed in the 19th Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship in Costa Mesa, Calif., placing 22nd out of 144 teams in the U.S.
UALR is the only Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team in Arkansas and has qualified for the National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl three times in the last four years.
All teams complete three rounds before there are any eliminations.
At this year’s competition, held Feb. 22, the UALR Ethics Bowl Team experienced a loss to University of Richmond, a win over Oklahoma Christian University, and then a loss to Gonzaga University.
Angela Johnson, a senior and double major in philosophy and psychology, has been with the team since its inception four years ago.
“Since I have been here, I have watched the team grow from no placements within the competition to qualifiers in the national competition for three years in a row,” she said.
“It has allowed me to grow as person in terms of being an effective communicator, thinking critically about complex ethical issues, and maintaining a level of professionalism.”
In 2013, the last time the team competed in national competition, the team placed 16th overall. The team was unable to compete in the 2014 National Bowl due to a technicality about the number of teams competing in the Regional Bowl.
“It feels really exciting to know, even if we’re from a relatively small school in a small state, we can compete with the elites,” said Michael Wyatt, a senior majoring in political science with a minor in philosophy.
“Ethics Bowl is what made me able to strongly frame my own ideas to be compelling and intriguing in any context,” said Wyatt. “The people involved at the program at UALR are so phenomenal and absolutely indispensable.”
The UALR Ethics Bowl Team members spanned freshmen to seniors, and a number of different majors were represented.
Nine members attended this year’s national championship:
- Senior George Andrews of Sherwood
- Senior Kate Blackwell of Little Rock
- Senior Angela Johnson of Pine Bluff
- Senior Bianca Mayo of Pine Bluff
- Senior Michael Wyatt of Eagle River, Alaska
- Senior Spencer Briggs of Gillett
- Junior Justin Bray of White Hall
- Junior Marla Cole of Little Rock
- Freshman Ericha Clark of Marked Tree
The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is an academic competition that provides an educational and valuable experience in the areas of professional and practical ethics.
The competition covers cases from a varying range of contemporary ethical issues, from professional and medical ethics to social and political issues. The competition is organized by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.