Chancellor | NewsApril 10, 2023

Spring Beautiful and Busy on Campus

Well, spring has sprung, and the weather is glorious. When you have a few free minutes, be sure to take a stroll around campus to see the beautiful trees and flowers in bloom. This gorgeous campus is one of the great benefits of working and learning here, so I hope you will take advantage of it on good days like the ones in our forecast.

Student success kudos: Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the UAFS Student Research Symposium on Friday. Your hard work has paid off in the form of great studies, and we appreciate you sharing your findings with us through your poster sessions and presentations. Our many thanks also go to the faculty who mentored you in your research and creative activities and staff who supported this work. Big thanks to Dr. Brandon Hutchinson and his committee for all their work to plan the event, select the participants, etc. This is a major endeavor and I appreciate their dedication to student scholarship.

Congratulations to the faculty who were recognized during the Spring Faculty Recognition Ceremony. During the event, faculty with 5, 10, 15, etc. years of service were honored, and other award winners were announced. I especially want to recognize Dr. Janet Renwick who has served as the chair of the Faculty Senate this year. She has represented all faculty admirably, and she has advocated for shared governance and decision making effectively. I appreciate her and look forward to working with her until she turns over the reigns to Dr. Emily Foss, the 2023-24 Faculty Senate Chair.

The Coach Louis Whorton UAFS Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet will be held tomorrow night, and I understand that the 350 seat event at Stubblefield is sold out. Believe it or not, this will be the first Hall of Fame Banquet in my four years as chancellor because the others have been cancelled or not held due to the pandemic. I look forward to participating and hosting our special guests.

The next few weeks are so busy that most of us will be wishing we could be in two places at once. The Stacey Jones Season of Entertainment schedule is busy this time of the year with the annual Jazz Band concert scheduled for Tuesday night from 7-9 p.m. at the ArcBest Performing Arts Center.  The Jazz Catz concert will be held Thursday night from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Eastside Baptist Church annex. We also have One Act performances this weekend, so please be sure to keep up with the Stacey Jones Season of Entertainment calendar of events.

Academic Success Kudos: This Friday, Assistant Professor Tom Wing and I will attend the Arkansas Historical Association meeting where Mr. Wing will accept the Diamond Award for the preservation of the Wilhauf House, a historic site renovated in Van Buren and maintained by UAFS. The Diamond Award is the highest award granted by the AHA to an institution or individual representing a collective initiative that makes an exceptional contribution to the study, preservation, or promotion of Arkansas History. The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith will receive the award for preserving the Wilhauf House and telling its story. This restoration would not have been possible without the generous grant provided by the Arkansas Natural Culture Resource Council. 

Den Day: Our final Den Day student recruitment event for spring will be on Friday, April 14. Please do your part by cleaning up areas for which you are responsible, and by greeting visitors who will be on campus on that day. We expect hundreds of high school juniors and seniors to join us to learn more about becoming a UAFS Lion, and I look forward to greeting all of them on that day.

Thanks, everyone, for all that you do to make UAFS great. Have a safe and wonderful week.

Terisa Riley

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