Bell Tower, Fall/Winter 2011-12

9 Ultimate Lion / 14 Winter Reads / 18 Why We Love the Fort / 30 Alumni Council

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The Alumni Magazine of the University of Arkansas - Fort SmithBell TowerBell Tower

WHAT IS OPPORTUNITY

WORTH?

The Debate Over Developmental Education

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COVER PHOTOGRAPH by Monalyn Gracia/Corbis

Pop heroes The Fray (of “How to Save a Life” fame) rocked UAFS September 10 forFestival on the Border, a four-day musical extravaganza backed by the same folks who,until last year, put on the Fort Smith Classic and Celebrity Classic golf tournaments.The Festival also featured shows ranging from country boy Dierks Bentley at the riverfront to preeminent violinist Mark O’Connor with the Fort Smith Symphony.Boom Kinetic and Andy Grammer opened the Saturday night show at UAFS, withmashup DJ Girl Talk closing it out. The Alumni Association ran out of the 4,000 glow sticks they brought to give away to a crowd that ended up around 4,500 strong.

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IN THIS ISSUEFALL/WINTER 2011-12 volume 2, number 2

4 24

2 FROM THE CHANCELLOR What can you do to help?

3 @BELLTOWERMAG Alumni letters

4 GRAND + WALDRONre-branding | mother-daughter legacy | alumni center | Chaffee history | meeting the Carters | student art | community read | butterfly garden | ultimate lion | Japanese scholars

11 5Q Dr. Kermit Kuehn, economic surveyor

12 SENSE OF PLACE The wider world

14 KNOWLEDGE BASE What to read this winter

15 EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY Dr. Cliff Scott, business professor/actor

16 LIONS LOWDOWNCrowder Field renovation | hall of fame | Division II status | Stojanovic brothers | athletic club golf tourney

fea t u re s

18 WHY WE LOVE THE FORT Why not, right? After all, this town literally willed us into being back in 1928. But there’s much more to it than mere gratitude. By Bell Tower staff

24 WHAT IS OPPORTUNITY WORTH? Should Arkansas be spending money on developmental education in universities,or is closing the doors to students who need remedial work the wrong way to save money? By Doug McInnis

28 ALUMNI + FRIENDS2011=new | class notes | campaign | Jo Ellen Carson ’76 | young alumni council | Jordan Sallis ’01 | new website | Little Rock reception | Walter Levy ’41

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2 BELL TOWER fall/winter 2011-12

From the Chancellor

It’s sometimes hard to believe that theUniversity of Arkansas – Fort SmithAlumni Association was formed lessthan five years ago. Particularly dur-ing events like Alumni Weekend—

which this year brought alumni of all gener-ations back to campus for two great days of camaraderie, reminiscence, and fun—

it doesn’t feel like we’re still just a fledglingorganization.

But the fact is that the AlumniAssociation is exactly that, and muchremains to be done. A lot of that work willfall to us, but a lot of it—maybe even themajority—is yours to do. As much as we’dlike to be able to simply will into being anactive, engaged alumni community, the reality is that its existence depends at least as much on you as it does on us.

So what can you do to help?To begin with, you can simply stay part

of the University community. Come to alum-

ni events like Alumni Weekend. Join one of the great trips the Alumni Association is planning. Take one of the many courseswe offer through our Center for LifelongLearning. Attend one of our Season ofEntertainment traveling shows, a studentperformance, or a volleyball, basketball, or baseball game.

And if you can’t do that, then stay intouch with us by other means. Make surewe’ve got your correct email and mailingaddresses so you’ll keep receiving Bell Towerand hearing about upcoming events. Help uskeep in contact with other alumni, too. Askthem if they’re getting the magazine andreceiving our emails. If not, have themupdate their information. Better yet, invitethem to an event.

Of course, you can offer financial sup-port as well. You may not be aware of this,but we’re in the home stretch of a $50 mil-lion capital campaign. Alumni and friends of UAFS have already given almost $42 mil-lion, and we plan to raise the remaining $8 million by the end of the year. It soundslike a lot of money—and it is—but that doesn’t make every $20 or $50 gift we receive any less meaningful.

I hope you’ll also think about ways youcan help our students directly. Is there anopportunity for an internship at your work-place? Would you be willing to speak aboutyour work in the classroom? How aboutmentoring students? We need you to recog-nize our graduates, talk about our graduates,hire our graduates.

And finally, I hope you’ll feel free to giveus your input. Just because you’re no longera student doesn’t mean this isn’t still youruniversity. It is your insights and memoriesthat help us remember who we are andwhere we came from.

PAUL B. BERAN, Ph.D.Chancellor

What Can You Do to Help?

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^̂Bell TowerFall/Winter 2011-12Volume 2, Number 2

The University of Arkansas – Fort Smith

CHANCELLORPaul B. Beran, Ph.D.

VICE CHANCELLOR FOR UNIVERSITYADVANCEMENT

Marta M. Loyd, Ed.D.

DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AFFAIRSElizabeth Underwood

EDITORZack Thomas

CONTRIBUTORSBryce Albertson, Erica Buneo ’09, Evin Demirel, Kandace Floyd, Eric Francis, Doug McInnis

ART DIRECTORJohn Sizing

www.jspublicationdesign.com

ADVISORY BOARDDr. Paul B. Beran, Chancellor;

Dr. Ray Wallace, Provost; Dr. Marta M. Loyd,Vice Chancellor for UniversityAdvancement; Mark Horn,

Vice Chancellor for University Relations; Dr. Lee Krehbiel, Vice Chancellor for

Student Affairs; Elizabeth Underwood,Director of Alumni Affairs; Jeff Harmon,

Director of University Marketing and Communications

BELL TOWER is published semi-annually by the

University of Arkansas – Fort Smith Alumni

Association, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913,

for alumni, friends, and faculty of the University.

Tel: (800) 532-9094. Email: [email protected].

Web: www.uafs.com.

SEND ADDRESS CHANGES, requests to receive

Bell Tower, and requests to be removed from the

mailing list to [email protected] or UAFS Alumni

Association, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

LETTERS ARE WELCOME, but the Publisher

reserves the right to edit letters for length and

content. Space constraints may prevent publica-

tion of all letters. Anonymous letters will not be

published. Send letters to belltower@uafs. edu or

Bell Tower Magazine, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR

72913.

Views and opinions expressed in Bell Tower do not

necessarily reflect those of the magazine staff or

advisory board nor of the University of Arkansas –

Fort Smith.

Contents ©2011 by the University of Arkansas –

Fort Smith.

With First Lady Janice Beran and helpers,getting ready to crown the 2011Homecoming King and Queen.

JAMIE MITCHELL

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@Belltowermag

COURTHOUSE BASKETBALLWe got several notes in response to the letter that ran in the last issue from LauraGarcia ’77 asking for information about the Lions playing basketball in the ParkerCourthouse when her father, Doyle Cole ’42,was captain of the team. Most interestingly,though, we got a phone call from AlfredSass ’43, who not only confirmed that theLions played in the courthouse but offeredto loan us his beautiful, handmade scrap-book from 1940-43, which contained a

newspaper clipping of a team photo (left)shot at the courthouse. Sass is at the leftend of the second row; Cole is secondfrom right in the front row.—Ed.

When I lived in Fort Smith from 1928 to1947, the Parker Courthouse was calledthe Commissary Building, and it washome to the Fort Smith Boys Club and

the basketball and boxing ring were on themain floor. I was a member.

My newspaper route included theCommissary Building as well as the NationalCemetery. Times were tough and collectingfor weekly subscriptions taught me a valu-able lesson lasting a lifetime.

JACK STEWART ’47Enid, Okla.

CONNECTION MADEThanks for the photos and article about me

in the Fall/Winter 2010 Bell Tower. After itwas published I received a letter fromanother alumna from the ’60s who I had lost track of through the years. Thanks tothe magazine, we have been reunited.

MARDELL MCCLURKIN ’58Alma

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?We’d love to hear from you! Tell uswhat you think of the magazine,respond to an article, suggest an idea for a future issue, or ask uswhatever burning question comes to mind. Email your letter [email protected] or mail it to Bell Tower Magazine, P.O. Box 3649,Fort Smith, AR 72913. If we run it,we’ll enter you in a drawing for a UAFSsweatshirt.

Cruising Alaska’s Glaciers andThe Inside Passage

July 26 - August 2, 2012Aboard the Six-Star all-Suite m.v. Silver Shadow

Thomas P. Gohagan & Company

Village Life in TuscanySeptember 23 - October 1, 2012

For more information, contact Elizabeth Underwood at the UAFS Alumni Association.

Exclusive travel experiences for alumni & friends of UAFS, Westark, and Fort Smith Junior College.

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“WHAT WE’RE REALLY doing is justembracing what’s already out there,” saysDirector of Marketing and CommunicationsJeff Harmon of the decision to re-brand theUniversity of Arkansas – Fort Smith as“UAFS” and phase out use of “UA FortSmith.”

“When Federal Express re-branded asFedEx in 1994, they were doing the samething,” says Harmon. “They were simplyacknowledging who they already were inthe eyes of their customers—and it workedbrilliantly.”

Research showed that not only was theinstitution typically referred to as UAFS by

the media, but also that the top search termused to find the University’s website was“UAFS.” “UA Fort Smith” was third after“University of Arkansas – Fort Smith.”

Perhaps more importantly, though, says Harmon, UAFS is simply more natu-ral, easier to remember, and easier to use in print—all of which will improve brandrecognition.

In addition to a new logo, the re-brand-ing effort includes a new URL, www.uafs.edu,and an entirely new website. But the univer-sity’s brand is far more than a name, a logo,and a URL. “Our true brand,” says Harmon,“is in how people think of us.”

Grand+WaldronCAMPUS NEWS AND NOTES

”“There is nothing more freedom-inducing for an educated person than visiting a library to graze on the thoughts of others.—PROVOST DR. RAY WALLACE speaking June 28 at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Learning and Research Center at Boreham Library


Big ShoesMIA SMITH’S SHOES are big ones tofill, at least figuratively.

On the way to her 2007 associate degree,she served as president of the RadiographyStudent Association and earned theMallinckrodt Award, given each year to the top student in the program. Then shelaunched right into a bachelor’s degree inImaging Sciences and spent the next fewyears as a perennial on the Dean’s List before graduating cum laude in 2010.

Her oldest daughter, freshman BrookquelSmith, isn’t too worried about filling thoseshoes, though. In fact, she has her ownunique pair—running shoes. Despite beingborn with a heart defect that required twoopen heart surgeries, she ran cross countryand track at Van Buren High School andearned a cross country scholarship to UAFS.“It’s always been my dream to run in col-lege,” she says. A dedicated student too, sheplans to major in Biology and then attendmedical school and practice sports medicine.

Also, although there have been plenty of legacy students from Westark and FSJC,Brookquel is believed tobe the first studentwith a parent whograduated fromUAFS.

University Re-brands with New Logo, URL, Website

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FOR AN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION as young as UAFS’s, there are plenty of milestonesto be gained—hosting the first alumni weekend, launching the magazine, forming the adviso-ry council, and so on—but few are as gratifying as moving into a new campus home.

As big a deal as it is, though, for the alumni staff to have their own suite of offices, it’s aneven bigger deal for alumni themselves to have a place of their own on the UAFS campus.

“The Alumni Center is going to be a home away from home for our alumni and a frontdoor to the university,” says Alumni Director Elizabeth Underwood of the spacious suitelocated on the southwest corner of the intersection of Kinkead Avenue and Waldron Road,across from the Stubblefield Center. “We want this to be the first stop when alumni visit campus.”

In addition to offices, the Alumni Center, formerly occupied by the UA CooperativeExtension office, has a conference room for use by the Young Alumni Council, the AlumniAdvisory Board, and the Student Alumni Association; a large workroom for the SAA; areception area; and, most importantly, a comfortable hospitality room with campus historyexhibits, the yearbook library, and plenty of casual seating.

The door is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, so please, stop by and visit anytime.

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New Alumni Center Opens on Campus

NATHANIEL BENOIT ^̂

points of prideAwarded the gold medal in the second-ary Medical Math competition at theNational SkillsUSA Championships,Lidiana Quezada, a student at bothNorthside High and the Western ArkansasTechnical Center, a division of UAFS thatprovides area high school juniors and sen-iors an opportunity to earn college creditin a variety of areas. UAFS studentSebastian Bossarte scored a bronze in thepost-secondary Computer Programmingcompetition, the eighth national medal forUAFS since 2002. Almost 6,000 studentsattended the championship. A total ofeight WATC and UAFS students wonawards.

Received bymembers of the UAFS chap-ter of Phi Beta Lambda, a national organi-zation for business students, six awards atPBL’s National Leadership Conference inOrlando, in categories like Small BusinessManagement Plan, Computer Applications,and Sales Presentation. Lead chapteradviser Dr. Latisha Settlage was recog-nized as Outstanding Local Adviser.

Printed in a variety of regional andnational publications, the creative writingof several UAFS students and young alum-ni, including Jordan A. Savage’s “The BrushFire” in the September issue of Art Amiss;Bryce Albertson’s stories “Exploring” and“Last Waltz in Texas” forthcoming in SpaceSquid and The Best of Necrotic Tissueanthology, respectively; “An Unlikely Muse”by Ashley Ann Eubanks ’10 in The NaturalTale; and three poems by Angel Pulliam ’11forthcoming in Milk Sugar.

Named the 2012 Rhinehart MemorialLecturer by the Arkansas Society ofRadiologic Technologists, Dr. NancyHawking, Executive Director of ImagingSciences Programs. The lectureship,established in 1954 as a tribute to Dr.Darmon A. Rhinehart’s untiring efforts inthe field of x-ray technology, is the highesthonor bestowed by the ArSRT. Hawking,who has headed UAFS’s imaging sciencesprograms since 1998, will present a lectureon a topic of her choosing at the 2012ArSRT annual meeting.

Appointed to a five-year term on theArkansas Audubon Society Trust, biologyprofessor Dr. Ragupathy Kannan, who willmeet twice a year with four other trusteesto evaluate funding requests fromArkansas students and professors forstudies of bird ecology and conservation.

Decorated withmore awards than stu-dents from any of the eight other universi-

UAFS BELL TOWER 5

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The new UAFS Alumni Center at the corner of Waldron Road and Kinkead Avenue is open to visitors from 8 to 5 on weekdays.

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IT WAS A COMPLETE SURPRISE TO ASSISTANT ENGLISHprofessor Dr. Kevin Jones when former First Lady RosalynnCarter called him and his family into a church office after

Sunday school in July. “I thought I was in trouble,” says Jones.He had recently defended his doctoral dissertation on

presidential memoirs, which examined President Carter’s 1982 memoir, Keeping Faith, along with two other presidentialautobiographies, and, by way of congratulations, Carter’s staffhad invited him to Plains, Georgia to sit in on the Sunday schoolclass taught by the former president.

But he certainly wasn’t expecting to be led to that backoffice, where the former First Lady said to Jones, his wifeMaggie Janes Jones ’86-’88, and their son Patrick, “Comeon in. This is Jimmy, and I’m Rosalynn.”

For about 10 minutes, the Joneses and the Carters talkedabout Jones’s dissertation—a copy of which will be housed inthe Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta—andabout the Carters’ writings.

“I think the Carters are both the same people they werebefore they left Plains,” Jones says. “They just travel with eightSecret Service people now.”

TO JOEY CHASTEEN, a senior History major who also serves as Museum Coordinator for the Fort ChaffeeRedevelopment Authority, the devastationthat remained after fire destroyed the historic Fort Chaffee medical complex in August looked sadly familiar.

A year before Chasteen first came toChaffee as an intern in early 2009, anotherfire had destroyed more than 150 vacant barracks at the old Army base, and it fell to him to search the burned-out shells foritems of historical significance.

Working two jobs and going to school at the time, Chasteen spent months, mostlyby himself, combing the charred barracks.“We knew there was a lot of history in thosebuildings,” he says, “and nobody else reallyhad the time to focus on that.”

Much of what Chasteen found is now ondisplay in the Chaffee Barbershop Museum,including a revealing collection of items he

discovered in the barracks’ air ducts, manyof them hidden there since the 1940s—loveletters, photos, drawings, liquor bottles,whittled wood, mess hall cups, cigarettepacks, pinup magazines. “Going throughthose air ducts,” he says, “you’d find a letterfrom 1947 and then right next to it a Pepsican from 1980 when the Cuban refugeeswere here. It was amazing.”

But Chasteen never got the chance toscour the creaking, labyrinthine old hospital;he had only made a quick sweep of everybuilding, picking up whatever he could carry.

Searching for the bright side, though, he saysat least he can now devote the time he wouldhave spent in the hospital to restoring thebarracks building Elvis stayed in after gettinghis famous haircut at the barbershop.

That barracks will eventually become amore extensive museum. “We’ve run out ofspace here,” says Chasteen, looking aroundthe single, long room that now holds hisentire collection. “There’s so much I don’thave on display. But all this and more will go over in the barracks.”

UAFS senior Joey Chasteen runs the Chaffee Barbershop Museum, where Elvis Presley gothis famous military buzz-cut in 1958.

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Out of the AshesA UAFS student salvages history from the fires at Fort Chaffee

SNAPSHOT

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UAFS BELL TOWER 7

ties in attendance, UAFS graphic designersat the six-state AIGA Southern StudentGraphic Design Competition, held atArkansas State University. Ten UAFS stu-dents brought home 19 awards in categorieslike Package Design, Publication Design, andLogo, including a pair of golds for sopho-more Jeremy Teff.

Honored as the Clinical Educator of theYear by the Association of SurgicalTechnologists, Deborah Goad, clinical coor-dinator of the Surgical Technology program,who was chosen from educators at some450 accredited programs across thenation. Goad acts as a liaison between theUAFS program and local hospitals, promot-ing goodwill and learning opportunities for students.

Ranked in the top 10 percent on the MajorField Test during the 2010-11 academic year, nine UAFS senior business students, whose names will now be displayed in the College of Business Student Hall of Fame.Approximately 16,000 graduating businessstudents from across the nation took theexam, designed to measure their mastery of key business concepts and principles.

Awarded second place in the Journalist of the Year category of an annual competi-tion sponsored by the West Texas PressAssociation, UAFS Public RelationsTechnician Candise Montemayor, who prior to joining the university in November2010 worked for the Burleson Star inBurleson, Texas. Montemayor was also recognized during the spring in a competi-tion sponsored by the North and East Texas Press Association.

Increased by 42% since 2002 and by 6.5% in the last year alone, total enrollmentat UAFS by Crawford County students, whonow make up roughly one quarter of the stu-dent body. Of Crawford County high schoolgraduates who attend college in Arkansas,nearly three quarters choose UAFS.

Recognized by the Kennedy CenterAmerican College Theatre Festival forDistinguished Achievement in FightChoreography and DistinguishedAchievement in Actor Trapeze Training, the UAFS production of Imogen, an originalplay by Theatre Director Bob Stevenson.

Selected by the Council for Opportunity in Education to receive the 2011 NationalTRIO Achiever Award, Dr. Carolyn Mosley,Dean of the College of Health Sciences. Theaward honors former participants in theUpward Bound, Educational Talent Search,and/or Student Support Services programs.

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Light in TranslationHANGING IN THE SMITH-PENDERGRAFT CAMPUS CENTER THIS SUMMER, an extensivestudent show called Light in Translation exhibited the depth of talent within the UAFS ArtDepartment. Among the works were photographs, drawings, paintings, and sculpturesproduced by students in classes ranging from Color Theory to Digital Photography to 3DDesign. “This exhibit is a testament to the students’ commitment to making art,” saysinstructor Bryan Alexis. “Their work really displays the strength of the department.”

Arrangement in White, digital photograph, Marsha Martin

Lurid, oil on canvas, Virginia Fujibayashi

Still Life, gouache, Raechel Martin

Family Portrait, digital photograph, Jeremy Teff

Self Portrait, gouache, June Pham

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IMAGINE YOU LIVE in a world of gray.The sky hangs over the camp like a shroud,dull and lifeless as the eyes of the three liv-ing skeletons you share a cot with. You’veeaten nothing but thin, gray broth for

months, and you’re asemaciated as they are.As you’re marched towork in the mornings,a gray snow falls—ashes from the ovenswhere the dead, andsometimes the living,are incinerated.There is no questionyou will share thisfate; the only ques-tion is when.

But today is dif-ferent. Today,

instead of scavenging theruins for salvage, you sit in a hospital, sum-moned to the bedside of a Nazi soldierburned beyond recognition in an explosion.His head is bandaged with openings only forhis nose, mouth, and sightless eyes. He is tooweak to wave away the impatient flies. Ittakes all his strength just to speak. When hedoes, his words are horror.

He was part of a squad that once packeddozens of Jews into a house filled with fueland tossed grenades through the windows.The burden of his guilt causes him more suf-fering than his wounds. He doesn’t blameanyone but himself, though had he refusedhis orders he would’ve been shot. He knowshe is dying. He has no time left to atone forhis sins. Those whose forgiveness he needsmost are dead. You are the only one who canforgive him. Or can you?

In The Sunflower: On the Possibilities andLimits of Forgiveness, Simon Wiesenthal, wholived this scenario, recounts his experiencesin a Nazi concentration camp and poses thequestion of whether some acts are simplyunforgivable.

Originally published as a memoir in1969, The Sunflower now has a second part—

a symposium containing responses toWiesenthal’s memoir from 53 prominentwriters, Holocaust survivors, human rightsactivists, and religious and political leaders,including Albert Speer, Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama.

This year, the UAFS College ofLanguages and Communications is seekingstill more responses by promoting TheSunflower for Read This!, a program encour-aging students and community members to

read and discuss the book, as well as attendvarious events related to the topic. Tentativeevents include lectures from UAFS faculty,guest speakers, group discussions, and film studies.

For more information about TheSunflower or the community reading pro-gram, contact Read This! chair Dr. KeithFudge at [email protected].—Bryce Albertson


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The Limits of ForgivenessCommunity reading of Holocaust memoir addresses challenging questions

Butterfly Welcome MatThis October, the UAFS campus got a little greener, thanks to urban forester Alison Litchy.With help from Dr. Amy Skypala and the UAFS Biology Club, Litchy planned and planted abutterfly garden outside of the greenhouse on the west side of campus.

The new growth includes trees such as serviceberry, perennials such as New Englandaster, and shrubs such as butterfly bush, all of which were selected for their ability toattract butterflies, particularly monarchs. Other plants, such as a mulberry tree, werechosen to attract birds.

“This way, I get to make my butterfly people, my bird people, and my tree peoplehappy,” Litchy says.

The new garden also ensures that UAFS keeps its Tree Campus USA status, a titlebestowed by the Arbor Day Foundation to recognize universities that help maintain urbanforests. UAFS, incidentally, was the first Tree Campus in Arkansas to receive the award. —Bryce Albertson

Gabriel Carroll andother members ofthe UAFS BiologyClub helped plantthe new butterfly

garden in October.

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TEAM OF ONE: The university’s first woman golfer,Katie went to the NJCAA National Tournamenttwice. Today, the golf program is thriving, and theaward given annually to the most outstandingfemale golfer is called the Katie SchlutermanKratzberg Award.

UAFS BELL TOWER 9

The Ultimate LionIt’s going to be tough to beat the Alumni Association’s own Katie Schluterman Kratzberg ’07 (below), who is about as steeped inall things UAFS as you can get. But maybe somebody out there can at least come close. So how connected to UAFS are you? Tell usabout it, and we’ll share your story in a future issue. Send stories and pictures to [email protected] or Bell Tower Magazine, P.O.Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

TELL US ABOUT IT

OLD HOME PLACE:Katie’s father literally grewup on campus, in a housethat stood just east ofwhere the SebastianCommons office is today.The tree in the backyard,seen in the snowysnapshot, still stands on campus.

FAMILY TRADITION: Katie’s parents, MarkSchluterman ’76 and Susan Erman Schluterman ’75,were pictured just a few pages apart in the 1975 Numayearbook, and her grandmother, Holly Schluterman,worked for the university for 28 years.

ACADEMIC HONORS: As astudent, Katie, a Marketingmajor, was a four-yearmember of the AlphaLambda Delta academichonor society and of theprestigious Chancellor’sLeadership Council,membership in which comeswith a full scholarship—andeven a university nametag.

RESIDENCE LIFE: As amember of the first class

to move into SebastianCommons, Katie lived on

campus for all four of her yearsat UAFS. Along the way, she

served as a Residential LifeAssistant her sophomore year

and as Head RLA her junior year.

LEADING LION: At the 2011NUMAS—UAFS’s answer to the Oscars—Katie took home a

bronze lion after being namedAdvisor of the Year for herwork with the StudentAlumni Association. At the2005 NUMAS, she earnedthe Chancellor’s Spirit Awardfor academic excellence andcampus leadership.

TAG CLOUD: Katie’s collection ofemployee nametags is approachingdouble digits. She’s currently serving as Student and Young AlumniCoordinator, a position in which she started the Student AlumniAssociation and the Young AlumniCouncil. Previously, she worked inadmissions and, while still astudent, in the box office, housing, and career services.

CAMP BOSS: A foundingmember, head counselor, co-chair, and ultimately directorof Cub Camp, the annualfreshman welcome program,Katie still hangs on to herdecorated name badges. She also helped found theStudent Senate and served as president of the University Ambassadors.

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When the deadly March 11 tsunamistruck Japan, Misato Abe was atMiyagi University, miles from her sea-side hometown of Minami Sanriku.Her apartment building was damagedby the earthquake that triggered thetsunami, but she was unhurt. She wasterrified, though, about what mighthave happened to her family inMinami Sanriku, and it would be fiveagonizing days before she discoveredthey were safe.

Now, the better part of a year afterthe quake and tsunami, Abe’s father, acity building official, and her mother,a nurse, still live in a cramped tempo-rary apartment while they work tosalvage something of the devastatedtown they have called home theirentire lives.

Thanks to one of two JapaneseStudent Disaster Relief Scholarshipsawarded this summer, though, Abe herself is spending the year as a junior BusinessAdministration major at UAFS.

The scholarships were awarded to Abeand to Mana Miura, a junior Marketingmajor, based on a variety of criteria, includ-

ing their English language skills and anessay about their reasons for wanting tostudy in the U.S. In order to apply, Japanesestudents had to be currently enrolled in auniversity within the disaster zone.

“We wanted to offer a tangible way to not

only meet the immediate needs of two indi-viduals who have lost everything,” saidChancellor Paul B. Beran of the decision tocreate the two full-tuition scholarships, “butwe wanted to help them in the midst of thisterrible tragedy to focus on the future andbuilding lives beyond this time.”

Miura had just arrived in Australia for astudy abroad program when the earthquakeand tsunami hit. Like Abe, she didn’t know at first whether her family were among thethousands of victims. Ultimately, she learnedthat they, too, were safe, although their home,where Miura also lived while attendingMiyagi University, was badly damaged.

In addition to tuition, Abe and Miurareceive a living-expenses stipend given byMitsubishi Power Systems Americas, Inc.,which is building a plant in Fort Smith, andalso benefit from nearly $10,000 in privategifts made by members of the Fort Smithcommunity to support their studies.

Both are taking full course-loads, includ-ing Freshmen English and AmericanNational Government, and both are excitedto further improve their language skills,which they believe will make them evenmore valuable when they return to the disaster zone to lend their hands to thereconstruction effort.

So how do they like the U.S. on this first visit? “It’s very exciting to be here,” says Miura. “Yes,” says Misato, “People are so kind.”

Mana Miura (left) and Misato Abe are attendingUAFS this year thanks to a pair of special scholar-ships for Japanese students from the area devas-tated by March’s earthquake and tsunami.

In the Midst of TragedyTwo students from Japan’s tsunami disaster zone continuetheir studies at UAFS

When the waters recededafter the tsunami, thelittle fishing and resorttown of Minami Sanrikuon Japan’s northeasterncoast was simply gone—or at least its buildingswere. So were roughly half of its residents, anestimated 9,500 people.No other town was socompletely devastated.

But Minami Sanriku lives on in the hearts and hands ofsurvivors like Misato Abe’s family, who climbed to safety up oneof the steep, pine-clad mountainsides that surround the town—

and who chose to stay on and rebuild instead of moving away.In May, Abe visited her parents in their tiny, temporary

apartment and drove around the remains of the town taking pictures.

Left to right: The spot where Abe’s house stood, destroyed train station, temporary apartments.

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1Do economic conditions drive con-sumer sentiment, or vice-versa?

Up to a point, consumer sentiment canbecome self-fulfilling prophecy. If I feel pes-simistic, I tend to behave that way, whichaffects the economy negatively. But which onecomes first? Does a bad situation give me abad attitude, or does my bad attitude create abad situation? It’s not purely resolvable statis-tically. And that phenomenon can be danger-ous. The stock market just tanked 500 pointsbecause everybody climbed on the samewagon and took it flying out the exit. It’s theherd mentality, where people base decisionson what others are doing, not on data.

2How accurate are typical consumers’perceptions of the economy?

They get their information from the sameplace everybody else does—the newsmedia—so their expectations are alwaysshifting with these various inputs.Yesterday’s news said the stock market wastanking. Today’s says hiring was significant-ly better than we expected. There’s thiswhipsawing all the time, so no wondereverybody is bewildered. They’re just wornout; their nerves are frayed. But there is acorrelation. Personal experience solidifies or discounts what the news says, so it’s rarethat consumers are optimistic and the econ-omy is tanking. Now they’re just uncertain,

which is a fairly accurate reflection of theeconomy. It isn’t just the average person onthe street that’s confused right now.

3How is the Greater Fort Smith econ-omy doing?

It’s interesting—I come in here as a collegeprofessor with a certain standard of living,and at first glance this seems like a pretty well-off town. Well, you start working through thedata and you find, well, yes and, in the samebreath, a big no. Every economy and popula-tion is diverse, but wow, there are some bigdifferences going on here. The fact is that theincome level of a large portion of our popula-tion is very marginal, and they live on eco-nomic thin ice. That group gets hit hard dur-ing these downturns. What makes it look notso dramatic is that our social safety net comesin then and sustains that group. Broadlyspeaking, they’re doing about the same as theywere before, just on federal or state dollarsinstead of employment dollars. So you don’treally notice a huge sucking sound in oureconomy mainly because we were fairly lowon the economic ladder to start with.

4What can we do to improve our eco-nomic future?

We have to develop a realistic sense of whowe are, what our strengths and weaknessesare. Then we have to look at what kinds of

companies or industries we can attract andgo after two or three sectors. Maybe one ishealthcare. We have a health sciences col-lege, AHEC [the Area Health EducationCenter], two large health systems, andbuilders of long-term care facilities. So wehave this little partial map of organizationsthat service a sector. And it’s a growth sec-tor; it has huge potential. So we say, okay,what’s missing here? What’s the catalyst thatmakes this a mini Silicon Valley of health-care? And we get up every day and go afterone or two companies that are in whateversectors we’ve identified. We say, I won’t turndown any employer that wants to come here,but boy I’m going after these two or three.

5Is the recession over?

You ask someone who says we’re in a recov-ery to show it to you, and they always pointto the gross domestic product. Two monthsin a row of declining GDP is a recession. Ifyou don’t have that, you’re in a recovery.Well, that’s technically very amusing, but Idon’t see it in my neighborhood. In fact, itlooks worse. The quarterly report I’m work-ing on now shows the lowest consumer sen-timent in the year and a half I’ve been doingthem. Unfortunately, I’ve reported more badnews than good news, and it looks to contin-ue, for at least the intermediate term.

ECONOMIC SURVEYOR:Dr. Kermit Kuehn“Our role is to generate regionally specific economic data to help decision makers in the community make the best choices,”says Dr. Kermit Kuehn, director of UAFS’s Center for BusinessResearch and Economic Development.

To that end, he compiles and analyzes data gleaned from his own surveys of local consumers as well as existing sources,

producing the Monthly Economic Indicators Index report and thequarterly Fort Smith Regional Economic Outlook Report. “It’s just a finer-grained way of looking at ourselves, trying to say here’swhat we’re about, here’s what’s happening now, here’s what theprospects are going forward.”

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1. Edinburgh, Scotland: “Edinburgh was my favorite side trip,” wrote junior EnglishEducation major Melanie Stout. “So muchhistory, so much beauty that I was sad toleave. Greyfriars Kirkyard [a graveyard inuse since the late 1500s] was one of the lovely

old haunts. There was so much beauty in aplace I would never have thought of as beau-tiful. Maybe it was the time of day with thesun peeking through the trees that createdan ethereal atmosphere and a tranquilitythat surrounded us. Edinburgh captured

me like no other place we visited.”PHOTO BY MELANIE STOUT

2. Hangzhou, China:Of the LingyinTemple, founded in 328 A.D. and today oneof China’s largest Buddhist temples, juniorAccounting-Business Administration doublemajor Andrea Martin wrote, “People comehere to pray and break free from the stressesof their busy lives. (I am sure from the con-tinuous honking on the streets they must be very stressful.) The monks are out andabout but are camera-shy. The statues aresome of the most beautiful things I have everseen. I watch as a few people pray and burnincense. As you approach the temple thereare wonderful carvings in the limestone.”PHOTO BY MATHEUS SILVA

3. Key West, Florida: “Even with the radicalchanges the island has undergone,” wrotesenior English major Shawna Mason, “evenhaving to wade through the rampant com-

THE WIDER WORLD:2011 Maymester LocationsTHIS MAY, 125 UAFS STUDENTS SPREAD OUT ACROSS THE NATION ANDthe globe for a variety of Maymester programs—intensive, one- to two-weekcourses in subjects ranging from literary history to accounting practices.

They searched for Inca remains with ground-penetrating radar in Peru, got abehind-the-scenes glimpse of business in China, explored Portuguese culture andlanguage in Brazil, provided medical care in Belizean clinics, walked in Hemingway’sfootsteps in Key West, met with big-time CFOs in Dallas, immersed themselves inculture and history in Italy, studied tropical flora and fauna in Belize, observed theReggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education in Oklahoma, and visitedliterature’s hallowed halls in England.

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mercialization of everything, there is still aseductive mystique that pulls at the senses.”Ironically, Ernest Hemingway, who wouldhave detested such commercialization, hashimself fallen victim to it. “[His] face isstamped on the back of bar towels, key-chains, and t-shirts,” wrote senior Englishmajor Leslie Hassel, “and the front wall ofSloppy Joe’s is covered with photographs ofwinners of the annual Hemingway Look-alike Contest.” PHOTO BY LESLIE HASSEL

4. São Paulo, Brazil: After visiting themunicipal stadium, which houses theNational Soccer Museum, Norma Gómezwrote, “No matter if you are at home, walk-ing down the street, on the bus riding some-where, or even shopping, the fact that soccer(futebol) is a huge deal to Brazil is obvious.You hear people yelling, the radio talkingabout the game, you turn the television on,and that is the only thing on. You can’t goshopping anywhere without seeing jerseys

for sale, and children are on the streetseverywhere playing soccer.”PHOTO BY GREG

ARMSTRONG

5. Machu Picchu, Peru: From the town ofAquas Calientes at the edge of the tumblingRio Urubamba, students rode a bus up zig-zagging mountain roads to the 15th centuryInca city. Before exploring it, though, theyclimbed Wayna Picchu, the dramatic peak that stands guard over the city. When themorning clouds finally parted to reveal theancient walls and terraces below, wrote 2011Business Administration graduate TylerLamon, “It felt like discovering it for the first time.” PHOTO BY TYLER LAMON

6. Oklahoma City: “It was disturbing tohear about the bombing on the news when it happened, but to actually be there justaltered my whole mindset,” said seniorWendy Crawford of the Oklahoma CityNational Memorial Museum, a side trip on

a Maymester course examining approachesto early childhood education. “The thing thatgot me the most was the daycare center.There’s a display of all the little shoes thatwere found. It’s hard to imagine what an evilperson would harm such innocent lives.”

7. Caye Caulker, Belize: “From this delight-ful island,” wrote professor RagupathyKannan, “we had quick access by boat to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, where wesnorkeled in waters teeming with nursesharks, stingrays, and green sea turtles. The wildlife here has been unmolested fordecades and thus the organisms have no fearof humans. They swam around apparentlyoblivious to our presence. We could reach outand touch the sharks. We had to frequentlyside step to avoid the rays swimming by likeflying saucers or the sea turtles languidlyswimming around in apparent slow motion.”PHOTO BY PHIL ROBISON

8. San Ignacio, Belize: “We knew going in about the poverty, but I guess we didn’t really grasp it until we actually saw it,” said junior nursing student Ashley Mayfieldof San Ignacio, a town of 10,000 near theBelize-Guatemala border. “And yet the peo-ple were so happy and so welcoming in spiteof how little they had. They’ve got their pri-orities straight. They’re motivated by theirfamilies and their religion, and not by mate-rialistic things. When we came back to ourphones and computers and cars, it wasalmost a shock. We felt like, ‘We don’t evenneed all of this junk; it does nothing but clutter our lives.’” PHOTO BY ASHLEY MAYFIELD

9. Florence, Italy: In Florence, junior EarlyChildhood Education major Madeline Smithmarveled at the scale of the dome of theDuomo Santa Maria Del Fiore, engineered in the 15th century by Filippo Brunelleschi,writing, “I knew it was awesome, but I hadno idea how huge until seeing it in person.”Inside the cathedral, students did their bestto take in the incredible, 39,000-square-footmural on the dome’s ceiling, then climbedthe 463 steps to its top, where they ate lunch.“You could see the entire city,” wrote Smith.“It was so calming and peaceful we all saidwe could spend the whole day just sitting up there and looking at the view.” PHOTO BY

GUILLAUME PIOLLE

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It’s almost as certain as the season itself—theappearance, come May, of the obligatory listof “summer reads” in just about every maga-zine and newspaper that shows up in yourmailbox. But you have to wonder, whatexactly makes summer so great for reading?After all, wouldn’t you rather be swimmingor hiking or cooking out or golfing or takingthe kids to the park or watching a ballgameor any of a hundred other things?

Now winter, on the other hand—withthose short, gray days and long, chillyevenings—that’s a season for really settlingin with a good book. So we asked five mem-bers of our English faculty to buck the trendand recommend some great winter reads.

Perfect for those bleak afternoons andbone-chilling nights, The OccasionalMargareader: Food for thought served Buffettstyle is an eclectic collection containing sto-ries, essays, and excerpts connected to manyof the literary references found in the songsand writings of Jimmy Buffett—everyone’sfavorite poet, pirate, and philoso-pher. From stories by F. ScottFitzgerald and Eudora Welty,to an excerpt from WilliamShakespeare’s Richard III, to articlesby Hunter S. Thompson, to poetryby Pablo Neruda, there’s some-thing here for everyone who maybe searching for that “lost shakerof salt” while looking forward to warmer weather. —Dr. Keith Fudge

Stephen King’s 1,472-page novel TheStand is splitinto three parts.The first sectiondescribes asuperflu out-break, whichdecimates themajority of thehuman population.The second intro-

duces readers to the survivors who cometogether in three camps, each with differingforms of government and opposing ideolo-gies. In the concluding section, two campsjoin forces to battle the third. Thirty-threeyears after it was written, The Stand remainsa classic of post-apocalyptic fiction. Thedynamic characters, engaging story, andmoral conflict will conspire to hold mostreaders’ attention.—Dr. Ann-Gee Lee

George Eliot’s Middlemarch is the story ofDorothea Brooks, who marries a man forterrible reasons, and Tertius Lydgate, whomarries a (different) woman for equallyawful reasons, and the dismal consequencesthat follow. In the 1830s, England wasundergoing rapid changes—the Reform Act,railways, scientific advances. These providethe events for Eliot’s novel; her characters—from the tough and cheerful Mary Garth, tothe charming, hapless Will Ladislaw, to Mr.Camden Farebrother, who ought to be anentomologist but is instead a vicar of the

Church of England—provide the brilliance.(And yes, George Eliot was really a womannamed Mary Anne Evans.) A wallopingdoorstopper of a text, Middlemarch is 904pages. Both panoramic and expertlyfocused, it is the perfect book for winterafternoons. —Dr. Kelly Jennings

The 651-page Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantelis a great book that traces the rise of ThomasCromwell in the court of Henry VIII. Mantelcreates a realistic impression of the daily lifeof one of history’s unknown but tragic fig-ures. Starting as the son of an abusive ratcatcher, Cromwell, through his talents, risesto be an advisor to Henry VIII, orchestratingnot only Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn,but also the Protestant Reformation inEngland. Wonderfully written, sharplyobserved, Wolf Hallwon the prestigious Man Booker Prize and is well worth anyreader’s time.—Dr. Mark Burgh

“I learned to believe in freedom, to glowwhen the word democracy was used, and

to practice slavery from morningto night,” writes Lillian Smith.Combining memoir, history,autobiography, and commen-tary, Killers of the Dream,Smith’s beautifully writtenbook about life in the South inthe early half of last century,challenges Southern culture’sassumptions about genderand race and provides apassionate and com-pelling understandingof the conflicts anddiscrepancies that

confused and some-times hardenedSouthern children.—Mike Cooper

Knowledge Base


What to Read this WinterFive UAFS English, Rhetoric, and Writing professors offer their recommendations

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If you’re not a student in the College of Businessand you pass by marketing professor Cliff Scottsomewhere out and about, there’s a good chance

you’ll catch yourself saying, “Hey, it’s that guy.”For Scott, those questioning glances are

becoming more and more familiar since he jumpedinto the Fort Smith theater community with bothfeet after moving here from Colorado a few yearsago. Though his first few auditions didn’t net himany roles, his persistence paid off. Performing inprojects like Fort Smith Little Theater’s sold-outproduction of The Sound of Music and UAFS’sHamlet (among many) has made Scott’s facefamiliar to far more folks than those in his classes,many of whom he now considers good friends.

The stage, however, is an old friend to Scott,who started performing in high school and creditsmuch of his professional success to the skills helearned then. “As a sophomore in high school,” hesays, “I was terrified of being on stage. Couldn’t doit. But I was in an amazing program that eventuallytaught me how to stand up in front of people. It

was a huge stepping stone for me, and those skillsare key to my career.”

Helpful skills aside, there’s another aspect ofthe theater that fascinates Scott. As an actor, he’sintoxicated by being part of a piece of art thatlives, breathes, and ultimately, dies. The nature ofa play is fleeting; no matter how many hours gointo rehearsing, each performance is unique. Oncethe final curtain drops, it can’t be recreated. “It’shere, and then it’s gone,” says Scott, quoting theRolling Stones.

Though he’s played several lead roles,nowadays he subscribes to the “La Huerta” theoryof acting. “If there are more lines than I can learnover dinner and a drink at La Huerta,” he says, “thenit’s too big of a role for me.” Though he may prefersmaller roles, he enjoys performing each of themand intends to continue doing every show possible,ensuring that he’ll continue to be recognized as a“stubborn, drunken reprobate,” a “mean Germanofficer,” or something else just as colorful.—Kandace Floyd

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITYDr. Cliff Scott, Business Professor/Actor

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Dr. Cliff Scott as a busticket agent in the

Fort Smith LittleTheatre productionof Trip to Bountiful.

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Crowder Field RenovationUnderwayWITH HELP FROM the Dugout Club, the booster organization for UAFS baseball, theuniversity’s athletic department is renovating Crowder Field. It is the first major renovationof the facility, named in honor of former Lions baseball coach Bill Crowder, since it was firstopened in 1994.The chain-link fence backstop will be replaced with a modern net backstop—like those

used at most professional ballparks—affixed to a three-foot brick wall that will extend fromdugout to dugout. A four-foot high brick wall will replace the chain-link fence that extendsfrom the end of each dugout to the outfield fence.Athletic Director Dustin Smith said he was very appreciative of the Dugout Club gift. He

also emphasized that more improvements were on the horizon. “As we continue to get moredonations, whether from the Dugout Club or other individuals, we are going to continue tomake more renovations to the park,” he said. “There are a few more things we would like to get done, like a covered batting cage and a covered seating area.”

Finally, Active D-II Status“THIS IS A GREAT DAY for UAFS and the Lions athletic family,” said AthleticDirector Dustin Smith during a July 8 newsconference announcing that UAFS had beengranted active member status in NCAADivision II.UAFS announced its intentions to pur-

sue Division II membership prior to thestart of the 2007-08 season. The institution,which had competed as a junior collegesince its founding in 1928, continued to compete as a member of the NJCAA duringthe two-year exploratory period required for Division II membership (2007-09) andthen competed as a provisional member ofDivision II the past two seasons.As an active member, UAFS is now eligi-

ble to compete for regular-season conferencechampionships and participate in postsea-son play—a welcome development sinceboth the men’s and women’s basketballteams finished last season with the bestrecords in the eight-team HeartlandConference. Last year’s volleyball and baseball teams would also have qualified for their conference tournaments.

Lions Lowdown UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS - FORT SMITH ATHLETICS

Thanks in part to a gift from the Dugout Club, Crowder Field’s old chain-link backstop will bereplaced with a pro-style net backstop, and the fences running from the end of the dugoutsto the outfield fence will be replaced by low brick walls.

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The Highest AccoladeIT’S NOT A TROPHY TO BE WON, NOT A BANNER TO BE RAISED, NOT A

championship ring, but it may just be the highest accolade awarded away fromthe limelight of the playing field. And it generally comes as a surprise to those who

gave their all for the glory of sport when, even after the applause has faded, they arecalled upon once again to represent the best and brightest as inductees into theLions Athletic Hall of Fame.

Past inductees include athletes, administrators, and friends of the program who were instrumental in uplifting Lions athletics. The nominating committee hasestablished criteria for selection and finalized the list of 2012 nominees in mid-October. For information on past inductees, to submit a nomination, or to ordertickets for the induction banquet February 3, visit www.uafortsmithlions.comand click “Hall of Fame.” —Liz Synder

Last season’s volleyball Lady Lions were one of four UAFS teams that would havequalified for post-season play. This season,all UAFS teams are eligible.

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WHEN IT COMES to playing American-style basketball, the Stojanovic brothershave acclimated well. In his first seasonplaying for the University of Arkansas -Fort Smith, Djordje Stojanovic averaged 10.2points and 5.7 rebounds as the Lions fin-ished the 2010-11 season with a 19-10 record.The 6’8”, 230-pound junior center alsobecame a fan favorite, hitting 49 of110 3-point attempts from distancesup to 30 feet.His younger brother, Dusan, joined

the team August 16 after a 34-hour tripfrom their family’s home outsideBelgrade, Serbia. A 6’6” wingman,Dusan has a game the near opposite of hisbrother’s. He specializes in defending, drib-bling and driving to the hoop—skills sharp-ened by battling the bigger Djordje onSerbian playgrounds.“When we were kids, I used to throw the

stones at him when I was losing,” Dusan, 19,recalls. Djordje, 21, chimes in: “He wouldreally try to hurt me.” Apparently, not manyprojectiles found their target. “I would justlaugh. It was so much fun for me.”Although long-distance accuracy hasn’t

been Dusan’s forte, he showed enough abili-ty in his first weeks stateside to convinceLions head coach Josh Newman he shouldplay this season. Dusan certainly bringsmore experience than most American fresh-men. From ages 15 to 17, he played for BCTorlak, a Serbian club demanding twice-daily practices with older teammates year-round. “You’re working like a professional,”he says.For these brothers, it’s one thing to adapt

to new rules and teammates in a game theyhave played for so long. Adjusting to newlives off the court has been another chal-lenge, though for different reasons.When Djordje came to Fort Smith in the

summer of 2009, he didn’t speak Englishwell. No other Serbs lived nearby, and otherstudents constantly misunderstood him ashe started his redshirt year.

“My first three months, everybody justlaughed at me and that’s cool. I understandthat. I passed that, I went through that.”No kidding.By summer 2011, Djordje was taking 18

hours, working at the campus box office, andhad become one of the team’s most recog-nized players from frequent multi-milewalks to restaurants around town. “He’schanged in a lot of ways,” Coach Newmansays. “He’s actually become an ambassa-dor on our campus.”Dusan’s first weeks in Fort Smith

have been easier than his brother’s. In afreshmen dorm, he rooms with team-mate Miha Glavas, a Slovenian who alsospeaks Serbian. He has a small group ofinternational student friends whichincludes a Serb tennis player.Because he speaks Serbian so often,

he knows he won’t master English asquickly as Djordje. But as this seasonstarts, he’s eager to take to the court tospeak a global language he’s long beenfluent in. —Evin Demirel

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Speaking a Global LanguageAlready fluent in basketball, the Stojanovics are acclimating quickly to life in Fort Smith

ON A GORGEOUS AFTERNOON in mid-September, Athletic Director Dustin Smith, right, tended the pin on the 9th hole for all 31 teams that entered the 2011 UAFS AthleticClub Golf Tournament at Hardscrabble Country Club. Student-athletes, coaches, andChancellor Beran werestationed at othergreens to greetplayers. The four-person scramble—won by Buddy Wilkins,Greg Wilson, TravisWarner, and WillFogelman with a 51—raised about $20,000for the AthleticDepartment’sscholarship fund.

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Six-foot, eight-inch center Djordje(left) and 6’6” wingman DusanStojanovic grew up playing basketballtogether in Serbia.

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GREAT COMMUNITY EVENTSStart with the largest free airshow in the country, the bian-nual Fort Smith RegionalAirshow, which drew a recordcrowd of some 255,000 peo-ple in 2011. Then add one ofthe nation’s largest bi-statefairs, the 10-day Arkansas-Oklahoma State Fair; one ofits most exciting rodeos, theOld Fort Days Rodeo, now inits 78th year; a nationallyknown music festival, theRiverfront Blues Festival; andanother new music event, theFestival on the Border, whichin its first year broughtnational artists like The Frayand Dierks Bentley to theUAFS campus and the river-front. Then fill in the gapsbetween the big stuff withseemingly innumerable otherconcerts, plays, shows,parades, fairs, festivals,expos, exhibits, open houses,bazaars, games, contests,tournaments, runs, and hikes,and what you’ve got is farmore than a year’s worth ofgreat stuff to do and see.


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s t o r y b y B E L L T O W E R S T A F F

Why We Love The

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Why not, right? After all, this town literally willed usinto being back in 1928 as Fort Smith Junior Collegeand has stood by us unwaveringly for the interven-ing 83 years, even voting itself the quarter-cent salestax in 2001 that would make it possible for us tobecome a four-year university. But there’s muchmore to it than mere gratitude. Here are just a few of the many things we love about Greater Fort Smith.

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A TOUCH OF GRIT This is a town wherereal people do real things. We don’t tendto work in abstractions or intangibles,manipulating numbers or concepts.Instead, we make things—electric motorsand food and air conditioners and steeland more—and we grow things, and minethings, and ship things. It’s an integralpart of the culture of Greater Fort Smith.

There’s an important differencebetween pride and pretension, and onething you won’t find around here is thelatter. Although our local economy hasdiversified a great deal, we come fromdistinctly blue-collar roots—and stillremember them. It may be the second-biggest city in Arkansas, but Fort Smith,at its core, will always be a working-classtown—a manufacturing, trucking, rail-road, farming town—and always beproud of it.

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OUTSTANDING ETHNIC FOOD You mightthink that Fort Smith’s geographical loca-tion would imply a city mired in the tradi-tional comfort foods of the south, butyou’d be in for a big surprise. It’s not likeit’s hard to find barbecue or a good chick-en-fried steak, but Greater Fort Smith hasmore to offer than that—a surprisingrange of ethnic eateries for a town its size.

The “world tour” of Fort Smith diningbegins with the kinds of food you’d imag-ine: quality Mexican, Italian, Chinese, andsushi are all easy to find up and downRogers and Garrison avenues. But don’tstop there. Vietnamese pho, a pungentnoodle soup, is an excellent antidote for a

blustery Arkansas winter’s night and avail-able at seemingly dozens of Vietnameserestaurants dotting the streets. SpicyIndian curries and savory samosas (frieddumplings filled with cumin and turmeric-spiced meats or vegetables) also knockthe chill off a frosty night.

Ecuadorian, Honduran, andGuatemalan fare, roasted Cuban pork,Middle Eastern kabobs and sauces, Greekdelicacies, spicy Thai rice dishes—all typically served in a welcoming, mom-and-pop style atmosphere—complete theirresistible buffet awaiting anyone with anadventurous palate and a taste for some-thing out of the ordinary. —Kandace Floyd

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A SPIRIT OF CARING It’s no coincidencethat the year before Westark becameUAFS, it had the biggest per-studentendowment of all two-year colleges in the country reporting to the VoluntarySupport of Education survey. Nor was itout of character for Fort Smith to voteitself a quarter-cent sales tax to supportUAFS. This is a community that, despiteits tough exterior, has an extraordinarysense of duty, unity, and charity.We

take care of our own.Look at the way we support the

Reynolds Cancer Support House, HannahHouse, Harbor House, Bost, The Arc,Fountain of Youth, the Community RescueMission, the Next Step Day Room, RSVP,First Tee of Fort Smith, the Boys and GirlsClub, the Boy Scouts, and so many otherorganizations that help improve people’slives and futures.

And look at the way we volunteer our

time and talents, helping decorate all12,000 markers in our National Cemeteryevery holiday season, for example.According to the Corporation for Nationaland Community Service, about 53,000people in Greater Fort Smith volunteerevery year, or about 29%. That’s wellabove the national average—and wellabove Northwest Arkansas or Little Rock, for that matter.

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ABUNDANT OUTDOORADVENTURE With theOzark Plateau to the north,the Ouachita Mountains tothe south, and dozens ofcreeks, rivers, and lakeswithin a couple hours’drive, Fort Smith is the per-fect base camp for all kindsof outdoor adventure.Set up camp with the

family at peaceful littleShores Lake, paddle the E-ticket whitewater of theMulberry River, climb thegorgeous sandstone bluffsof Fern Gully, ride the tech-nical single-track of the Big Brushy Trail, throwcrankbaits for largemouthon the Arkansas River, huntthe sprawling deer woodsof the Ozark NationalForest, or get off the gridfor a few days of backpack-ing on the Ozark HighlandsTrail—and that’s justscratching the surface.Plus, with locally

owned outfitters like TheWoodsman and The TackleBox along with big nameslike Academy Outdoorsand, now, Dick’s SportingGoods, Greater Fort Smithhas everything you need for whatever adventure you can dream up.


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AN ABIDING SENSE OF HISTORY“The past is never dead,” wrote WilliamFaulkner. “It’s not even past.” And that’scertainly the case in Fort Smith, where themost famous era of our past—the violent,lurid, heroic saga of Judge Parker and theearly U.S. Marshals and the hell-raisingfrontier town that was once home to MissLaura’s and plenty of other houses of illrepute—remains very much present today.

But that particular bit of history is onlyone part of our fascinating past. There’salso Fort Smith’s key role in the Civil War, during which it was used by bothConfederate and Union forces; our richaviation history, studded with pioneers,aces, and heroes; the legacy of FortSmithian William O. Darby, who ledDarby’s Rangers in World War II; the longand colorful story of Fort Chaffee, whereElvis got his famous haircut and morethan 50,000 refugees from the Vietnamwar were processed; and of course thecomplex pre-European and NativeAmerican history of the area.

All of that history is easily accessible in our many historical buildings and muse-ums, but in Fort Smith, our past lives justas much in our collective consciousness as in buildings and artifacts. You’d behard-pressed, in fact, to find a town more acutely aware—or prouder—of itsown history.

A THRIVING MUSIC SCENE It was a littlething called the Riverfront Blues Festival—recently named one of the top 100 eventsin North America by the American BusAssociation—that really put Fort Smith ontoday’s live music map.

But the Fort’s music scene has beenrocking for a lot longer than the 21 yearsthe Blues Festival has been around. In fact,the Fort Smith Symphony—now conduct-ed by American Symphony OrchestraLeague Helen M. Thompson Award-winnerJohn Jeter—has been around since 1923,making it the oldest orchestra in the state.

Then there’s the Fort Smith Chorale, a group who’s performed at both theLincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and, forjazz aficionados, UAFS’s own Jazz Band,which has jammed with some of thebiggest names in the business, such aslegendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.

Or you can just stroll down GarrisonAvenue on any Saturday night and treatyour ears to a smorgasbord of local heroeslike alt-metal band 3 Cent Genius, bluesyclassic rockersWingnuts, or The Crumbs,who bill themselves as “Arkansas’s blue-grass answer to Frank Zappa.”

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In its early days, the United States had few colleges, and most people didn’t have the money to attend. Eight of our early presidents—includingWashington and Lincoln—lacked a college education, as did inventorsThomas Edison, Henry Ford, and the Wright brothers. Today, the U.S. hasmore than 4,000 colleges and universities and nearly 20 million students.But the boom in enrollment has come at a price. Across the nation, millionsof incoming students require remedial work, or developmental education as it’s now called, to prepare them for college-level courses.

Prior to the 1960s, few students went to college, and those who did were generally well prepared. Of course, students have always needed help in some areas, such as grammar. The famed writing course at CornellUniversity, which became the basis for a best-selling grammar guide, drilledstudents in basics they should have learned in grade or middle school, suchas when and where to use a comma. But many of today’s students need farmore help than that. A recent report by the ACT college admission testingservice said only about one in four high school students who took its testswas ready in all four principle areas needed for college—reading, writing,math, and science.

The University of Arkansas - Fort Smith is a prime example of the trend.The former junior college has made education both available and affordableto thousands of students who otherwise might have had little chance atcollege. But about half of those have needed one or more developmentalcourses, and, even with the extra help, many haven’t graduated.

Critics of the new order, some of them Arkansas legislators, contend the door to higher education has opened too widely and that universitiesshouldn’t be in the business of developmental education. The strugglingeconomy has pinched state budgets and added fuel to the debate. In theremarks that follow, university Chancellor Paul B. Beran, who has spent much of his career in developmental education, outlines the debate—and the case for keeping the doors open.

WHAT ISOPPORTUNITYWORTH

by D O U G M C I N N I S

As Arkansas tightens its belt, some legislators are asking whether universities should still bespending money to remediate incoming students who aren’t college-ready and whom statisticsshow are less likely to graduate. But proponents of developmental education say closing thedoors to the three out of four high school graduates who are behind in at least one subject isthe wrong way to save money. At the center of the debate is a question of value:

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“The real expansion of uni-versities and two-year collegeshappened in the 1960s,” saysBeran. “The nation needed more college graduates becauseindustry was becoming moretechnologically sophisticated.Technology as we know it todaywas beginning to emerge. Nocommunity wanted to be leftbehind for lack of an educatedworkforce, or for the lack of thesocial and economic impact thatan institution has on an area.”But as enrollment surged, so

did the number of students whoneeded help to succeed.Developmental programs insubjects such as math, reading,and writing became a standardpart of course offerings at manyinstitutions. Nationally, 42 per-cent of all community collegestudents take at least one devel-opmental course, the U.S.Department of Educationreports. At public four-year uni-versities, the figure is 39 percent.And many students have troublein more than one subject; atfour-year universities, forinstance, one in seven studentsneeds developmental courses intwo or more areas. This trendhas turned the traditional viewof what a college student shouldbe on its head. “When I was incollege, there was no such thingas developmental education,”says Beran. “Only the people

who were prepared went to college back then.”In time, critics began to question the cost of developmental pro-

grams. “The U.S. has the greatest opportunity for higher educationof any country in the world,” Beran observes. “But at what cost?What kind of money are we going to spend on remediation, andwhat kind of results will we get for that money?” (A study done fiveyears ago by the Alliance for Excellent Education, an organizationworking to improve U.S. high schools, conservatively put the nation-al cost of developmental courses at $1.4 billion.)

Balancing Value and OpportunityThe debate centers in part over the proper balance between oppor-

tunity and value, Beran says. “Opportunity means helping studentswith deficiencies. Value means getting the most bang for the buck—that is, supporting the students most likely to be successful. This isreally about finding a balance between value and opportunity.“What the U.S. has been willing to do up to this point is accept

the fact that if you provide the opportunity, there is going to be somefailure. But because of the economic situation we are currently in, all of those things we took for granted up to this point are beingquestioned. Now critics want value and opportunity to be the samething. They want us to take all those who need developmental workand make them all successful in terms of graduating and getting adegree. I think what the critics want is unattainable. The wider youopen the doors, the more you are likely to fail. Some schools areraising their standards in terms of raising their graduation rates.They are doing this by closing their doors. This is the only way toget relatively fast increases in the graduation rate. If you depend onteaching only the best students, yes, you will have a greater successratio. But you will also limit opportunity.”On the other hand, some students are so far behind that failure

is almost a certainty. “Most students need help in just one area,”says Beran. “When you look at statistics, you find a huge drop in thegraduation rate if you need remediation in two areas. If you needhelp in three areas, almost no one gets a degree.“My commitment is to look at that balance of value and opportu-

nity. We’re never going to stop doing developmental work at the uni-versity unless we are mandated legislatively to stop. But we willhave to look at what level of developmental work we will continue tosustain. We may at some point have to say that some students willhave to do developmental work elsewhere before they enter UAFS.But if we decide not to provide opportunity to a certain group of stu-dents, it’s our responsibility to find outlets for them to raise theirskills to where they can be admitted to the university.”Some states have dealt with developmental education by block-

ing four-year public institutions from offering it, thus shifting theburden heavily to community colleges. But the nearest communitycollege to Fort Smith is 80 miles away.

Does Graduation Equal Success?Beran believes a university education helps to train students tothink critically—and that the ability to think critically will give theman edge in the U.S. job market and against foreign competition. “TheU.S. is highly regarded internationally,” says Beran. ”Our criticalthinking and analytical skills have created the entrepreneurshipthat makes the U.S. what it is. It’s very difficult to be successful inbusiness without it.”Students begin to develop those thinking skills even if they do

not graduate, Beran says. “I’ve worked with many students who didnot get degrees. But when they left, they were able to do things theycould not do before and they knew things they did not know before.How do you measure the positive outcome of someone who in a tra-ditional way was not successful? Did they get value? Absolutely!Are they of more value to society? Absolutely! Are they better able


”

You Don’t SayWhile working on this story, we asked our Facebook fans fortheir take on developmentaleducation. Here’s some of what they had to say:

“I [took developmental cours-es] and it made me a betterstudent. In fact, while takingremedial classes I received anoutstanding student award.” —Kris Boerner-Ragan

“We did a great job, as a com-munity college, bringing peopleup to speed for collegeentrance. We are no longer acommunity college. I thinkUAFS will never completelyabandon some college prepwork, but it’s time to focusmore on university-level educa-tion and let others work onprep.” —Robert Morgan

“As a student who went to col-lege 17 years after graduatinghigh school I found prep classesin math essential. What I finddisturbing is the amount of stu-dents who have just graduatedfrom high school needing theseclasses. I feel we are not push-ing our public schools to makesure that our students are atthe level they are suppose to beat when they move on to col-lege.” —Bobby Shackleford

“Many kids don’t get what theyneed in high school. If the stu-dent is paying to get help in acertain area, by all means, offerthat help.” —Kim Jones

“Developmental coursesallowed me a foot in the door.The program is very importantfor African Americans.” —Robert L. Gilyard


to participate in our democracy? Absolutely! When they droppedout, all the work they had done did not suddenly vacate their brains.”

Beran cites as an example students that did not graduate from adevelopmental writing course he taught in Houston, Texas. “When I taught writing, I taught it as a thinking process. If you think well,you will write better. One of my assignments was to have the stu-dents write a letter to the editor of the Houston Post (then one of thecity’s two major dailies).” At the time, the Post only printed about 20percent of the 400 letters it got each week, Beran says. “My develop-mental writing class had a 40 percent publication rate because theywere explaining things better than writers whose letters weren’t published.

“The ones who got published were not necessarily the ones whograduated,” Beran recalls. “But even though they hadn’t graduated,they had learned real communications skills—skills which wouldbenefit society.”

Colleges as Difference-MakersThe great surge in college enrollment was born of economic necessity.The nation needed a better educated workforce to run a high-techsociety. And communities felt they needed institutions of higher education to compete economically. Small universities became bigones. New universities were created, UAFS among them.

As time passed, mounting evidence suggested that having a university did make a difference. “UAFS has a direct impact of $200-$250 million on the area,” Beran says, “but its real impact is muchbroader.” For one thing, the university is a major attraction to lureindustry to the area. And each new industry adds another boost to the economy. Fort Smith is now the manufacturing center ofArkansas. Firms such as Planters Peanuts, Gerber, and electric-motor manufacturer Baldor Electric Company have factories in the area.

“There was a study done on rural Oklahoma that found there wasonly one variable that determined whether an area was economicallya success,” says Beran. “That was whether the area had an institutionof higher education. That was the one variable that existed betweencommunities that were moving up and those that were unsuccessfuland were losing people. The jobs won’t come to areas where therearen’t educated people.

“Mitsubishi is building a wind-turbineplant here,” Beran says. “Its chairman saidthat everything being equal, UAFS was thevalue added that brought Mitsubishi here.At UAFS, we listen to industry. We say,‘What do you need?’ and then we do it.”

But the university does it with allkinds of students—some who are wellprepared for college, and some who needhelp. “We’re an urban-suburban institu-tion serving a variety of needs for ourregion. If we close our doors on certaingroups, we’re not servicing the region, so we must weigh carefully the balancebetween providing value by supportingthose likely to be successful and providingopportunity for those who might not besuccessful. To advance economically, theregion needs educated people, and a uni-versity like UAFS has the responsibility tomaximize the number of educated peoplein the region by balancing value andopportunity.”

UAFS BELL TOWER 27

“If you depend on teaching only

the best students, yes, you will

have a greater success ratio.

But you will also limit opportunity.” —CHANCELLOR PAUL B. BERAN

Less than High school Some Associate’s Total Bachelor’s Masters degreehigh school diploma or college degree degree or highercompletion equivalent Bachelor’s degree or higher

Median Annual Income for Workers Ages 25-34, by Education Level

Even those who don’t graduate benefit from college education. According to the Department of Commerce figures, in 2009 the median income for men with some college education was $6,100 more than for those with only a high school diploma.

Women with some college made $4,300 more than high school graduates.

DOLLARS$80,000

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Education attainment

Male

Female

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1950sIn April, Harry ’58 and JoAnnHerring Foster ’58welcomed agreat grandson, Jax, in Phoenix,

Ariz.

1960sLaura Rodgers ’64moved toTulsa shortly after leaving UAFS

and worked seven years for the

Amoco Research Center. She

became a licensed realtor in 1969

and a real estate broker in 1977,

moved to Scottsdale, Ariz. in

1989, and retired from Maricopa

County Superior Court in 1998.

She now works as a companion

caregiver.

Becky Brewer Lee ’69 isAssistant Vice President and

Branch Manager for National

Bank of Sallisaw in Sallisaw, Okla.

She and her husband of 39 years,

Delbert, have two children.

When she retires at the end of

this year, they plan to travel

and spend time with their

three grandchildren.

1970sBruce Vick ’70 graduated fromArkansas Tech with a B.A. in

History and Education in 1972

and, until retiring this year, taught

for the Fort Smith School District,

including 28 years at Kimmons

Junior High and 10 years at

Chaffin Junior High.

Jerry Harris Moore ’70 earnedhis BSEd. in 1972, taught at

Northside High for eight years,

and, after earning a Master’s in

Sociology, served as Academic

Counselor for Student Support

Services and Continuing

Education Instructor from 1981 to

2007. He’s now starting his eighth

year as Director of the Upward

Bound program at Northwest

Arkansas Community College.

Doris A. Christopher ’74was in August named Assistant

Vice President for Academic

Affairs/Director of Academic

Programs at the University of

Georgia, Griffin Campus.


Alumni+FriendsSO, WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

Let us—and the people you went to school with—know what you’ve

been up to! Please take five minutes to sit down and tell us what you’ve

been up to since your time at UAFS, Westark, or FSJC. Tell us about

your job, your family, your hobbies, your adventures, your plans—what-

ever you want to share with other alumni. We love to get photos too,

and we’ll happily run them in this section.

Be sure to include your name (and your name while you were in

school if it has changed since then) and the year you graduated or the

years you attended. Email your class note to [email protected] or mailit to Alumni Office, UAFS, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

2011=New!

For the AlumniAssociation, 2011 has been the year of

the new—a new campus home, a new brand, a newwebsite, new alumnicouncils, and new ideasabout Alumni Weekend.

Until October, thealumni offices were housed in the FullertonAdministration Building, and the directions for guests tocome visit us were esoteric at best. But we are nowconveniently located on the southwest corner of theintersection of Waldron Road and Kinkead Avenue.

We also have a new logo and name, based on theuniversity’s decision to rebrand as “UAFS” and phase out use of “UA Fort Smith.” But keep in mind that even thoughwe’re now the “UAFS Alumni Association,” we still proudlyserve alumni of Fort Smith Junior College and Westark too.

Along with our new brand came a completely newwebsite and a new URL: www.uafsalumni.com. I encourageyou to visit the site to stay updated with university news.

Another new initiative for 2011 was the launch of ourAlumni Advisory Council and our Young Alumni Council.These councils, combined with the Student AlumniAssociation, form what we call a “leadership pipeline.”

Finally, I’m happy to report that we have just producedour 2nd Annual Alumni Weekend, which for the first timewas held in conjunction with UAFS Homecoming, allowingalumni more opportunities to mingle with students.Attendance was up by nearly 50% from our inauguralAlumni Weekend.

Hopefully our 3rd Alumni Weekend will bring even morealumni back to campus. We hope that you also join us onlineat our new website. Or, if you are looking for a leadershipopportunity, please contact me or Katie Kratzberg at (800)532-9094 to serve on our Alumni Advisory Council or YoungAlumni Council.

Sincerely,

ELIZABETH S. UNDERWOODDirector of Alumni Affairs

KAT W

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UAFS BELL TOWER 29

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Rev. Doug Beasley ’79 has beenMinister of Music and Education

at Oak Grove Baptist Church in

Van Buren since 2003.

1990sJames Mills ’92 is a tenuredprofessor of history at the

University of Texas at Brownsville.

“Thanks to all the wonderful and

important Westark professors

who got the ball rolling for me,”

he wrote.

2000sDameon Rogers ’02 lives inArlington, Mass., where he works

for Aptec LLC, a company that

provides third-party support for

Oracle’s identity management

suite.

Brad Lewis ’03 has a partner-ship in United Financial Advisors

in Van Buren. His wife owns

Shining Stars Dance School.

Within the past year, they’ve

gone on mission trips to Malawi,

Africa and a reservation in

Wyoming through the Gideons

International and Grand Avenue

Baptist Church.

Christy Chapman Thompson’07 and Jason Thompson wel-comed a baby girl, Blair McKenzie,

on May 6, 2011.

Chris Jones ’07 and his wife,Kathy, welcomed a daughter,

Emily Mae, in May 2011. Jones is in

his fifth year of teaching music

at Spradling Elementary in

Fort Smith.

Lacey McAdoo ’08 is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Fashion

Merchandising and working as

Sales Manager for Siri Boutique,

a San Francisco-based company

that designs, manufactures, and

sells wedding and special occa-

sion dresses.

Mitch ’08 and BrocketteWhite Minnick ’08, welcomed adaughter, Luci Ava, in May 2009.

Mitch serves as Development

Officer for the Fort Smith

Housing Authority while working

toward a master’s in Community

and Economic Development.

Zane Hight ’09 is Resident HallDirector at the University of Tulsa,

overseeing the daily operations of

a hall of 250 residents.

Amanda Gray ’09married Chris Bynum on March 26, 2011,

in Siloam Springs.

Kaley McKinley ’09 andClinton Johnson ’11were mar-ried August 6, 2011, in Fort Smith.

2010sKent Bray ’10 is an electricalengineer with the U.S.

Government. He says he’s traveling

the U.S. training, working, and

learning the ins and outs of being

an EE and loving life along the way.

Brooke Davis Fruits ’10 teach-es kindergarten for the Van Buren

School District. She was married

in April 2011.

Cassandra ArnhartSatterfield ’10 is working on a master’s degree in Political

Science at UA Fayetteville, where

she also attends law school.

Tyler Lamon ’11works at FirstNational Bank in the Bank

Associate/Management Trainee

Program and says he’s proud to

be part of a team that sees the

value in supporting both the

Greater Fort Smith community

and UAFS.

Edwin Washington ’11wasrecently hired as a Program

Assistant for Mid-South

Community College’s Office of

Adult Education in West

Memphis, Ark.

Elizabeth McElderry Johnson’11 teaches Spanish at LisaAcademy, a public charter school

in Little Rock.

Jonathan Tinnin ’11 is studyingVictorian literature as a graduate

student at the University of Tulsa.

Melissa Hoehne ’11 and DonaldSanders ’09were married July29, 2011, in Fort Smith.

Giving Opportunity Campaign Enters Final PhaseAs of mid-October, alumni and friends of UAFS had given an incredible 9,719 separate gifts totaling nearly $41.5 millionin support of the UAFS Foundation’s $50 million GivingOpportunity campaign, the public phase of which wasannounced just three years ago.

Although more than 80% of the goal has been raised,campaign leaders said that much remained to be done if they were to finish by December 31, 2011, as planned.

Leaders also emphasized that in this final push toward the $50 million goal, gifts of every size are vitally important to the campaign’s ultimate success. Six- and seven-figuregifts are obviously critical too, but without two- and three-figure gifts, the campaign simply won’t reach its goal.

Please consider making a gift of your own to support thecampaign. We firmly believe there is no better investment you can make in the shared future of the Greater Fort Smithregion. We invite you to use our secure system to make anonline gift at www.uafs.edu/foundation/give-online orcontact us at (479) 788-7020 to learn about other givingoptions.

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LION FILE


Inaugural Public Speaker

While she was at Westark Community College from 1974 to1976, Jo Ellen Carsonwas on the inaugural public speakingteam and served as student body president. After leavingWestark she became a lawyer and served as a staterepresentative.

But none of that might have happened if it wasn’t for onething.“I could not have gone [to Westark] if it hadn’t been forthe daycare at night,” says Carson, who adds with a chuckle,“Daycare sounds funny, so night care, I guess.”

She and her husband, Doug,had married young and had adaughter right away, so the avail-ability of care while she tookclasses was crucial.

“It stayed open until almost 10 o’clock in the evening,” Carsonrecalls. “The kids who took care of my daughter were wonderful.One in particular, Doug Cotton,became a friend of ours; he cameto our daughter’s wedding.”

While at Westark, Carson wasrecruited for the school’s firstdebate team by instructor JohnPreas, whom she calls her mentor.“He had been active as a highschool instructor in competitivespeech events and he decided tostart competitive speaking on

campus,” she says. “He just selected people out of classes, and I was one of them and so was my husband.”

Carson credits Preas for helping her develop the public speak-ing and debate skills that served her well as an attorney and inthe legislature when she represented the old District 13 in FortSmith. Preas, who developed multiple sclerosis, died in 2001.

Carson’s semester as student body president coincidedwith a plan to do away with finals week, in light of the numberof associate’s and technical degree students who didn’t requirefinals. But those planning to transfer to a four-year schoolneeded that experience, Carson argued. “We actually managedto hold on to finals week,” she says. “There were some adjust-ments made about who would have to take it.”

Carson now works as an ad litem attorney for the 12thJudicial District and is also an adjunct instructor of speech andcommunications at UAFS.

“It was a wonderful place,” she says of the school. “I enjoyteaching there now.”—Eric Francis

Alumni+Friends

12 Named to Young Alumni Council

Jo Ellen Carson ’76 at the Smith-PendergraftCampus Center, Sept. 2011.

ZACK THOMAS

The brand new UAFS Young Alumni Council, which met for the first

time during Alumni Weekend in October, has a five-fold purpose: to

actively engage young alumni, maintain a relationship between young

alumni and the University, foster interaction between young alumni

and the University, increase awareness and involvement in the Alumni

Association, and promote the social, professional, and philanthropic

interests of young alumni.

The inaugural class of 12 members was selected through a compet-

itive application process by a committee of UAFS faculty and staff.

“These former students represent a variety of academic areas on our

campus,” says Student and Young Alumni Coordinator Katie Kratzberg,

“and come to us as Council members with a great deal to contribute to

the University. Each one has shown excitement to be a part of the first

Young Alumni Council.”

Beginning in 2012, additional members—up to a total of 20—will

be selected by the Council’s membership committee. Members serve

three-year terms and meet three times per year—once during Alumni

Weekend, once near spring commencement, and once in the winter.

Applications will be available online in spring 2012. For more informa-

tion about serving, call Kratzberg at (479) 788-7241 or email

[email protected].

Inaugural members of the Young Alumni Councilinclude (left to right and top to bottom) LauraBeltran ’06, early childhood education; AshleyBuster ’09, marketing; Emily Daugherity ’10, psychology; Jaye Gasaway ’09, marketing; Dillon Jarrett ’10, nursing; Ray Malouf ’05, businessadministration; Jeremy May ’07, marketing; Casey McKinley ’08, business administration; Jenna Pierce ’07, early childhood education;

Michael Pierce ’05, business administration; and Eric Smithson ’09,business administration. Not pictured: Britton Riddle ’07, marketing.


UAFS BELL TOWER 31

LION FILE

It’s not every day you go to work and meet the cast of thehighest-rated drama on television, but for Jordan Sallis ’01, it’sjust another day at the office. “I’ve met Abby, Duckie, Vance,and Eric,” Sallis says, referring to characters from the popularNCIS franchise on CBS. “In fact, the Eric character was modeled after a colleague of mine in our West Coast office.”

The West Coast office of the real NCIS, that is. Sallis is acomputer scientist in the cybercrimes division for the agency in Washington, D.C. The job is a dream come true for a self-described nerd like Sallis.

“I have to stay on top of new developments in technology,hacking, nerd culture,” he says. “Every crime nowadays has avector that intersects with technology.” For example, if a bullethits a cell phone, Sallis might be responsible for extracting datafrom the damaged device.

Unlike his counterparts on TV, he doesn’t see any fieldaction, but that doesn’t make his job any less exciting. “Guns,bombs, bullets are outside my area of expertise, but give me acomputer and I can tear it up!” he says.

Sallis credits UAFS professor Dr. Ken Pappas for pointinghim in the right career direction. It was Pappas who introducedSallis to the federally-funded program CyberCorps, which paystuition at select graduate schools for students pursuingdegrees in computer security. In exchange, students agree towork two years with the federal government after graduating. It was a perfect fit for Sallis, who had always hoped to serve his country but who is ineligible for the military because he has asthma.

“Working with NCIS has all the benefits of being in the Navy, like getting to travel, but without the possibility of beingdeployed,” Sallis says. He adds that the foundation he laid in the Honors Program while attending UAFS has prepared himwell for the more human aspect of his career.

“Although the applied science and technical training is how I get paid,” he says, “humanities is what trained me to be an adult and to learn how to sit with people from differentcultures and backgrounds. It is what enabled me to grow as a human being.” —Erica Buneo ’09

WWW.UAFSALUMNI.COM

From Nerd to Navy

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Second Time’s a CharmThe chrysanthemums in Lion PrideSquare bloomed right on cue for theAlumni Association’s 2nd AnnualAlumni Weekend in mid-October,which brought some 75 alumni—a nearly 50% increase over last year—to campus. It’s hard to say what thehighlight of the weekend was, but thebuffet-style barbecue dinner at thefoot of the Bell Tower on a splendid,warm Friday evening (left) was cer-tainly a contender. MORE ONLINE: See the rest of the Alumni Weekendphotos at www.uafsalumni.com.

Jordan Sallis ’01 with actress Pauley Perrette, who plays AbbySciuto on NCIS, at NCIS HQ in Washington, May 2010.



Alumni+Friends

LION FILE

‘Our Adopted Hometown’It was 1938, and Walter Levy’s family knew they had to get out of Germany.“It was the Hitler period,” says Levy, who was a teenager then. “It was just a very bad time, a

very difficult, dangerous time for Jews to stay in Germany, as we all now know.”There were two options: His father had brothers living in what was then Palestine, the site of

present-day Israel; and his mother had cousins living in Fort Smith.“When things became more and more dangerous in Germany, we contacted [the Fort Smith

cousins] and asked if they could help us get out of Germany, and they were most willing to dothat,” recalls Levy, who is now 89. “[They] were most willing not only to help, but also to have ussettle in Fort Smith. So that became our adopted hometown.”A year later Levy enrolled in Fort Smith Junior College. He said the school gave him a good

general education—and more. “It also helped me to get acclimatized to the United States, and so all around it was a good experience,” he says.After finishing at FSJC in 1941, Levy received his bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College and

became a teacher in Forrest City. But after two years there he decided to follow another careerpath, eventually earning a master’s degree in social work from Washington University in St. Louisand spending more than 50 years as a social worker.Though Levy only lived in Fort Smith for a few years, he still thinks of it as his hometown. In his

retirement community in Dallas are several other Arkansans, and two have Fort Smith roots. Theyformed an Arkansas Club that meets several times a year over lunch.Levy and his wife, Hilma, also a retired social worker, have been married for 62 years and had

four daughters. They have seven grandchildren and just welcomed their first great-grandchild.“She was born four weeks ago, and she already has more hair than I do,” Levy says with a laugh.

—Eric Francis

Walter Levy ’41 at his home in Dallas,September 2011, andas a first-year FSJCstudent in 1940.

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New WebsiteLaunchIf you haven’t already visited

www.uafsalumni.com, stop by

the brand-new site and have a

look around. It features online

registration for events like Alumni

Weekend, extensive photo

albums, an interactive events

calendar, an alumni directory,

and much more.

Little RockReception Setfor April 13The Alumni Association’s

Regional Receptions will look

a little bit different this year.

Instead of visiting Tulsa, Dallas,

and Northwest Arkansas, as we

have the last two years, we’ve

already hosted an evening in

Washington, D.C., and, in April,

we’ll host another in Little Rock.

The Little Rock reception,

scheduled for the evening of

Friday, April 13, coincides with the

Spring Leadership Conference

of Arkansas Phi Beta Lambda,

and the large UAFS delegation

to the conference will also be

invited to the reception to

mingle and network.

For more information, stay

tuned to www.uafsalumni.comor contact Elizabeth Underwood

at (479) 788-7026 or [email protected].


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WESTARK BLEND—Until the early 1990s, all thebrick used on the UAFScampus came from AcmeBrick’s Fort Smith plant,where clay from the pit onthe other side of OldGreenwood Road was firedin round “beehive” kilns.Because heat rises, thebricks near the bottom ofthe kiln came out lightestand those near the top dark-est, yielding a natural blendof colors.

Then Acme built a state-of-the-art new tunnel-typekiln in Tulsa, capable ofmaking smoother, more pre-cisely shaped bricks—anddoing it more efficientlythan the Fort Smith plant, toboot. But the bricks, whichrolled through the kiln onrailcars, came out uniformlycolored, without the subtlevariation produced by theold beehive kilns.

Acme did lots of experi-mentation to match the natu-rally occurring blend fromthe Fort Smith plant by com-bining various colors fromthe Tulsa plant, finally set-tling on an 80-20 mix of twoexisting colors—Garnet andCrimson—that was first usedon the Math-Science build-ing in 1991. Dubbed“Westark Blend,” it has beenused for every campusbuilding since, as well asother local buildings like thepavilion and event center onthe riverfront.

Close as Westark Blend isto the old Fort Smith brick,though, it’s not indistin-guishable side-by-side. Notonly is the color slightly dif-ferent, but the Fort Smithbrick is a little rougher, soft-er-edged, more “rustic.” So,for the new addition toBoreham Library—the lastbuilding on campus to bebuilt with Fort Smith brick,shown here—the bricks willagain come from FortSmith’s beehive kilns.

C3_UAFS_FW1112:alum news 11/11/11 4:55 PM Page C3

Just before midnight on December 31, 2001,despite the bitter cold, a crowd of some 300gathered at the flagpoles across from theBaldor Technology Center to sip hot chocolate and helplower the Westark flag and, for the first time, raise the University ofArkansas – Fort Smith flag over campus. Earlier that year, the WestarkBoard of Trustees had officially agreed to merge with the University ofArkansas System, effective January 1, 2002. As the bells sounded the strokeof midnight, J. Michael Shaw, chair of the brand-new UAFS Board ofVisitors, raised the flag while the crowd cheered through chattering teeth.

January 1, 2012 marks the 10-year anniversary of the transformation ofWestark College into the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. Let’s hope for a warmer night…

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPERMIT NO. 479FORT SMITH

ARK

Bell TowerUAFS Alumni AssociationP.O. Box 3649Fort Smith, AR 72913

A Look Back

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