Arkansas' Wealth of Agricultural Resources Makes Eating Locally Available to All

Agriculture is the largest industry in Arkansas. The state leads the nation in rice production and is also a top producer of poultry, eggs and soybeans. Privately-owned small acreage farms dot the Arkansas landscape, providing an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and animal products. Combine The Natural State’s rich agricultural heritage with the recent local food movement, and there is reason to celebrate.

Bountiful Arkansas Day, a celebration of Arkansas’ homegrown foods, will take place Saturday, July 11, at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute atop Petit Jean Mountain near Morrilton. The daylong event is designed to give the public an opportunity to taste and learn about locally grown produce from Arkansas.

Activities include horticulture workshops, tomato tasting, tours of the Heritage Farmstead, a Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lectures Program featuring the authors of “The 100-Mile Diet,” musical entertainment by Runaway Planet, and a variety of exhibits and local vendors.

During the horticulture workshops, specialists from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service will teach participants which fruit and vegetable varieties grow best in Arkansas and will also provide tips on how to plant these varieties in their own backyards. Dr. Obadiah Njue will teach the vegetable workshop from 10 to 11 a.m., and Dr. Elena Garcia will teach the workshop on growing fruits from 2 to 3 p.m.

From 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., participants can experience the flavors of 20 different varieties of locally grown tomatoes, including heirloom varieties. Many of the featured tomatoes are grown in the Rockefeller Institute’s own vegetable garden. Roving question-and-answer sessions about the vegetable garden, orchard and vineyard will be conducted by experts at different times throughout the day as part of the Heritage Farmstead tours.

In keeping with the theme of the day, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, authors of “Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet,” will be the speakers for the Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lectures program that will take place from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. For one year, the journalists only consumed food that came from within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver apartment. They will share with the audience how their local eating experiment reconnected them to the people and places that produced what they ate.

Following the lecture, Little Rock bluegrass band Runaway Planet will perform in an outdoor concert. To learn more about their music, visit www.runawayplanet.net. More details about Bountiful Arkansas Day can be found at the Rockefeller Institute’s Web site at www.uawri.org. Click on the leaves icon to view the environmental education page.

Space is limited for the lecture and horticulture workshops, so advance registration is required for these activities and is recommended for the tomato tasting. Register online or by phone at (501) 727-5435. Local food will be served at the Rockefeller Institute’s River Rock Grill during lunch and dinner, and overnight accommodations are available at the Rockefeller Institute’s Lodge and Conference Center. Call for room and meal reservations.

The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute is an educational center with conference and lodging facilities. Committed to acting as a catalyst, its vision involves combining the legacy and ideas of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller with the resources and expertise of the University of Arkansas System. Its mission is to develop diverse programs that nurture ideas, policies and activities to make life better in Arkansas.

The Rockefeller Institute accomplishes its mission by offering a variety of workshops, seminars, public lectures, conferences and special events. Program areas include the environment, the arts, culinary arts, public affairs, language instruction, archeology, heritage, and health and wellness. To learn more, call (501) 727-5435, visit the Web site at www.uawri.org, or stay connected on Twitter and Facebook.

West Fork Watershed Celebration & River Cleanup on June 13

The 4th annual West Fork Watershed Celebration and River Cleanup will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 13, at Riverside Park, located off state Hwy. 170 in downtown West Fork. Volunteers will check in from 8-9:30 a.m. at the park, then fan out to stations along the river and clean up targeted areas. The cleanup will end at 11 a.m., when a free chicken lunch will served to the first 150 people. Door prize drawings are scheduled for noon. In addition, there will be live music and educational booths. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

The West Fork of the White River flows into Beaver Lake, which is our supply of drinking water.  Each year, a clean-up of our river is conducted as part of protecting our source of safe drinking water and protecting wildlife habitats.

The event is being coordinated by the West Fork Environmental Protection Association. Sponsors and partners include the Watershed Conservation Resource Center, the City of Fayetteville, the City of West Fork, Kiwanis Club, Audubon Arkansas, Washington County Environmental Affairs, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, Arkansas Stream Team, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, Arvest Bank, Bank of Fayetteville, Tyson Foods, the Arkansas Canoe Club and Beaver Water District.

For more information, call 225-1611 or visit www.wfepa.org.

Kidswrite Registration Available Online

Students attending Kidswrite in 2008 prepare to read their short stories in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main.

Two sessions of Kidswrite sponsored by the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project are scheduled for June and July. Cost information and online registration are available at http://coehp.uark.edu/prodev.php.

The session for children who have completed fourth through seventh grade is set for June 15-25. The session for children who have completed eighth through 12th grade is set for July 20-24. Each goes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily in the ROTC Building, 775 W. Maple St., on the University of Arkansas campus. The children take field trips, hear from guest speakers and create daily newsletters. Their work is published in an anthology.

The writing project is based in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas.

Toastmaster Club Meeting

Worried about your next presentation? The Razorback Toastmasters Club meets from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of the month (June 3 and June 17). This month they will meet in room 104 in Mullins Library. Whatever your skills - learn to be ready for any public speeking situation, to think quickly and clearly on your feet and build strong leadership abilities.  Everyone is invited to visit.

Math Colloquium April 23

Dr. Kei Nakamura, Oklahoma State University, will present "Incompressible one-sided Heegaard splittings for hyperbolic once-punctured torus bundles" at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in SCEN 322. Refreshments will be available in SCEN 350 from 3 to 3:30 p.m.  All are invited.

NPR Deputy GM to Lecture at University of Arkansas April 22

Philip Bruce, deputy general manager of NPR West at National Public Radio, will present the 2009 Roy Reed Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at the Arkansas Alumni Association House. Bruce is a journalism honors graduate from the University of Arkansas, class of 1980. He has spent more than 25 years as a correspondent and bureau chief for network television affiliates in Dallas, Houston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Little Rock and Fayetteville. His lecture is sponsored by the Lemke department of journalism.

Physics Fantastic Fun and Follies Fair April 4

The University of Arkansas Society of Physics Students in association with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers presents "Physics Fantastic Fun and Follies Fair" from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday, April 4, at the Physics Building, 825 West Dickson Street. Everyone is invited for amazing demonstrations and liquid nitrogen ice cream! Admission is free. Fun for all ages. Come enjoy the wonders of science!

Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism Workshop

The Quality Writing Center (QWC), the Enhanced Learning Center, and the Office of Community Standards and Student Ethics will present the fourth and final spring installment of the Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism Workshop at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, in Kimpel 206 B.

The two-hour workshop has three parts. First, the program defines plagiarism, describes consequences, and explains when students need to cite source materials. Second, the workshop teaches approaches to summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting, along with techniques for making proper in-text and bibliographic entries. The workshop culminates in a series of exercises that challenge students to practice the strategies and techniques learned.

Seats are limited. Interested students should reserve a spot online by clicking on the “Workshops” link at www.uark.edu/write. Questions about the workshop can be answered by QWC Director Bob Haslam at writcent@uark.edu. The workshop series will resume in the fall.

Biological Sciences Seminar March 26

Dr. Heidi Kluess, department of health science, kinesiology, recreation and dance, University of Arkansas, will talk about "Environmental modulation of sympathetic neurotransmission" at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 26, in SCEN-604. Coffee and cookies will be available at 3:30 p.m. in SCEN-502.

Web Conference set to Examine Renewable Energy Projects

Join the University Libraries in exploring the possibilities of renewable energy projects on campuses nationwide by attending a Web conference titled "Onsite Renewable Energy - Wind, Solar, and Geothermal" at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in room 472B in the west side of the Mullins library. The conference, a part of the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology program, features speakers in the field of renewable energy, and provides a question and answer session to encourage discussion among the participants and speakers. For more information please contact Patricia Kirkwood pkirkwo@uark.edu  or Joanna Person at ggg73@hotmail.com.

University of Arkansas Professor to Lecture on Rwandan Genocide Feb. 26

Professor Samuel Totten will give a lecture titled "The Suffering Doesn’t End Once the Killing has Stopped: The Plight and Fate of the Survivors of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide" from 2 to 4 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26, in the Helen Robson Walton Reading Room of Mullins Library. Copies of Totten's recent book The Plight and Fate of Women During and Following Genocide will be available for sale on site by the University of Arkansas Bookstore.

Totten, professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Arkansas, received a Fulbright Fellowship last year to work in Rwanda, where he helped establish a genocide studies program at the National University of Rwanda and interviewed survivors of the 1994 "machete genocide" there. He is writing a book from the interviews. He and a colleague have established a scholarship fund to raise money for survivors of genocide around the world to attend college. The Post Genocide Education Fund can be found at http://www.postgen.org/. Totten has written and edited numerous books about genocide and is the editor or co-editor of several journals on the subject.

This lecture is co-hosted by the University of Arkansas Bookstore, the university chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), the department of curriculum and instruction and the University of Arkansas Libraries.

University of Arkansas School of Social Work Celebrating Black History Month

During the month of February, the School of Social Work (SCWK) at the University of Arkansas is celebrating Black History Month. All UA faculty, staff and students are invited to visit the SCWK lobby to view "Silas Hunt: A Documentary". Hunt was the first African American student to attend the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1948. Law classes were held in the current School of Social Work building. This documentary was produced and directed by Chris Erwin and has received the following awards: Aegis Winner's Award, Aurora Gold Award,and Telly Bronze Award. The School also has on display a number of posters of notable African American social activists throughout history.

Nadi Cinema/Middle East Film Club to Meet Feb. 11

Nadi Cinema/Middle East Film Club at the University of Arkansas will present the film “Camur/Mud” (Dervis Zaim, Turkey 2003) 82 minutes, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in 104 Mullins. The film is free and open to the public.

Near the border between Turkish and Greek Cyprus, where black mud is believed to carry miraculous healing abilities, four Turkish friends deal with teenage memories of the Greek-Turkish war and, at the same time, try to strike it rich on the antiquities market.  A black comedy mixing surrealism with reality, “Camur” is a film about ‘rebirth.’  Turkish w/English subtitles

Scott Carrell Piano Recital Guest Artist set for Feb. 24

Pianist Scott Carrell will present a guest artist recital at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall at the University of Arkansas Fine Arts Center. A reception will follow the performance.

Carrell has captivated audiences in the U.S. and Europe with his virtuosic flair, expressive playing and informative comments, by presenting innovative programs of both classical and jazz works, including discussion of the works and the composers.

A native of Texas, Carrell has performed numerous recitals as soloist and as collaborator, including concerto appearances with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Pine Bluff Symphony Orchestra, the Southwestern University Orchestra, the Plainview Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Civic Orchestra, the Little Rock Wind Symphony and twice with the Harding University/Community Orchestra.  An active chamber musician, he co-founded the Searcy Chamber Music Series and has performed on many of its concerts. 

Receiving degrees from Southwestern University, the University of Illinois and the D.M.A. from the University of North Texas, he studied with internationally-known artists Drusilla Huffmaster, Ian Hobson and Vladimir Viardo and participated in master classes with Abbey Simon, Gail Delente and Dominique Merlet.  The French Piano Institute awarded him a prize for the best performance of a work by Henri Dutilleux at the 1996 FPI Festival in Paris, France.  He was also honored with the Distinguished Teacher Award from Harding University for the 2003-2004 academic year. 

In 2007, Carrell released a new compact disc, Ragtime Memories, which consists of pieces in various ragtime style -- classic, novelty and player piano styles.  Composers represented include Joplin, Scott, Lamb, Confrey, Berlin and others, plus two original rags.  His previous disc, Crossings was released in 2005, including works by Chopin, Debussy, Haydn, Schulz-Evler and Carrell.  It features the world premiere recording of the title work, an original composition based on a painting by an Arkansas artist.

An active member of the Arkansas State Music Teachers, he has presented sessions at both regional and state conferences and served as the state coordinator for the student composition competition; he began serving as the MTNA South Central Division coordinator in 2004.  His judging activities include students at all levels, from local festivals to national competitions. Currently teaching piano, music theory and composition at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, Carrell is in demand as a soloist, collaborative artist, teacher and adjudicator.

Math Colloquium Nov. 20 at University of Arkansas

Professor Mikhail Feldman from the University of Wisconsin will present "Shock Reflection, Free Boundary Problems and Degenerate Elliptic Equations" at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in SCEN 322.  Refreshments will be served from 3 to 3:30 p.m. in SCEN 350.  All are invited.

Lt. Governor to Answer Questions about Lottery

Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter will talk with University of Arkansas students and answer questions about Proposed Constitutional Amendment 3, the Scholarship Lottery Amendment. He will speak in room 510 of the Arkansas Union at 2:30 p.m., Monday, October 27. The talk is being sponsored by the Young Democrats in cooperation with the Hope for Arkansas Committee.

Unique Student Documentaries to Premier at Arkansas Union Theater

Four student-produced documentary films will premier at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, at the Arkansas Union Theatre. The students made the films in graduate-level classes taught by two award-winning University of Arkansas journalism professors, Larry Foley and Dale Carpenter, who have collaborated on documentary films for more than 25 years. Each documentary presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the student filmmakers. The premiere is free and open to students, faculty, staff and the public.

The documentaries include:

•    Bridge to a New Life: the Story of Miss Malen and the Couchsurfers (filmmakers Sarah Moore and Cheryl Sybrant). Synopsis: The film takes a look at the lives of homeless young adults, age 18-22, in Northwest Arkansas who are given a second chance in life when they enter Youth Bridge Transitional Living Program, run by the witty, and sometimes exasperated, Miss Malen Gardner.

•    Dogpatch USA (filmmakers Dixie Kline and Matthew Rowe) Synopsis: Arkansas built a theme park around Al Capp’s popular comic strip, Lil’ Abner, in the heart of the Ozarks. In spite of warning signs that it might fail, Dogpatch USA entertained a generation of people. A mountain of challenges finally crushed the park, but its ghost is still hanging around.

•    KURM RADIO: The Soapbox of the Air (filmmakers Kelly Millar, Hayot Tuychiev and Nikki Wise) Synopsis: There are only a handful of independent radio stations left in the United States. The film follows Colonel Kermit Womack and his staff as they show just how much a day at KURM radio differs from the average, conglomerate programming.

•    What Can Happen in Three Weeks (filmmakers Kevin Estes and Michelle Conty-deGroat) Synopsis: Each semester, the University of Arkansas hosts approximately 20 Japanese students from Shimane University for an intensive crash-course in American language and culture. The film documents the Japanese students and their experiences.

For more information, contact: Larry Foley, professor, Walter J. Lemke department of journalism, 479-575-6307, lfoley@uark.edu

Workshop for Teaching Assistants and TA Advisors

The Teaching Assistant Effectiveness Advisory Committee, a standing committee of the Graduate Council, strives to support teaching assistant preparedness on the UA campus. The committee will host two upcoming workshops for teaching assistants for TA's and TA advisors in all disciplines across the university.  “Online Communication Resources for Teaching Assistants” will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4 or from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, both in Kimpel Hall 206B. The workshops will demonstrate for faculty and teaching assistants how they can use “wikis” and Facebook to create online discussion areas where teaching assistants can share ideas, problems, and resources.

For information contact Dr. Patrick Slattery at pslatter@uark.edu

Landscape Architect to Lecture on "Beyond Green"

An entry monument to High Desert in Albuquerque, N.M., one of several stylized images of blue grama grass, a drought-resistant plant native to the area. Courtesy Design Workshop, Inc.

Kurt Culbertson, who is the School of Architecture's 2008 John G. Williams Distinguished Professor, will launch the school’s 2008 – 2009 lecture series at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8, with a talk titled "Beyond Green: Toward Social Justice and Equity Through Design." The lecture will take place in Shollmier Hall.

Culbertson is principal, shareholder and chairman of the board for Design Workshop Inc., a landscape architecture, land-planning and urban-design firm with offices in Aspen, Colo., and Asheville, N.C. The firm, which the ASLA named Landscape Architecture Firm of the Year for 2008, is renowned for using sustainable development and design strategies to reconcile economic needs with the preservation of scenic, cultural and community values. Culbertson took a lead role on two key projects for Design Workshop: the master planning process for Flathead County, Montana, a 3.8-million-acre community experiencing rapid growth, and the design of High Desert, a residential development in Albuquerque, N.M. that uses open space planning to preserve natural drainage systems and views. These and other projects are discussed in depth in the 2007 monograph on Design Workshop, Toward Legacy.

A native of Shreveport, La., Kurt Culbertson received his undergraduate degree in landscape architecture from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree in business administration in real estate from Southern Methodist University. He has won more than 20 regional and national awards for design work that ranges from secluded sanctuaries to national parks. In addition to design work, he has conducted extensive research on the contributions of German-American landscape designers to the profession of landscape architecture and authored an award-winning biography, The Life and Times of George Edward Kessler.

Students In Free Enterprise Cook-Out Rescheduled

The Students In Free Enterprise cook-out has been postponed until Wednesday, Sept. 10, due to rain. Everyone is invited to attend to learn more about becoming involved in one of the greatest student organizations at the University of Arkansas!

Chemistry Seminar Sept. 5

Professor John Mclean of Vanderbilt University will present "Structural Separations by ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry: New Prospects for Complex Biological Systems," from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5, in CHEM 144.

The event is open to the public.

Abstract:  Following the paradigm of the human genome project, much of current systems biology research entails characterizing, quantifying, and cataloging the biomolecular inventory of a sample at specific dimensions of space (e.g. cellular, tissue, or organism level) and time (e.g. point in the life cycle, healthy vs. Diseased state). In support of high throughput systems biology research, new measurement strategies are necessary that incorporate simultaneous “omics” data. Rapid (us-ms) two-dimensional separations based-on ion mobility-mass spectrometry (im-ms) techniques have demonstrated great utility in characterizing complex biological samples, primarily because different biomolecular classes (e.g. peptides, carbohydrates, oligonucleotides, lipids, etc.) Adopt structures in conformation space (correlation of structures vs. M/z), which are predictable based on prevailing intramolecular folding forces. This report describes recent results for a variety of biomolecular classes including those of interest in metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, glycomics and genomics. The aim of this work is to define the conformation space in which different classes of biomolecules are observed. Furthermore, we report molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate structural differences within a given molecular class. For example, structural differences for carbohydrates and glycans are observed in a predictable manner for different isobaric (same mass) positional and structural isomers. Analogously, isobaric lipids of different classes (e.g. sphingolipids and glycerophospholipids) adopt distinct structures owing to differences in the degree of coordination that the anhydrous molecules can achieve with alkali metals in competition with intramolecular hydrogen bonding forces. Based on these studies, we describe how the general position of signals in conformation space can yield information about which biomolecular class a particular signal belongs, and within a biomolecular class, what additional information can be interpreted from experimental structural determination.

For more information contact Charlie Wilkins, cwilkins@uark.edu.