Arkansas Times | August 2019

ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER A DEADLY RACE MASSACRE, A TOWN SEEKS TO RECONCILE ITS PAST WITH ITS FUTURE

COLLEGE GUIDE SHAKEY JOE, HARP MIC HERO DRY COUNTY WATERING HOLES ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 1

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AUGUST 2019

FEATURES

24 PHILLIPS

COUNTY KILLING FIELDS

One hundred years after the Elaine Massacre, a memorial goes up.

By Leslie Newell Peacock

32 VOLTA:

A REQUIEM

Poetry and pictures.

By Joshua Asante

34 ELAINE TODAY

Locals say contemporary Elaine is at the “epicenter of race relations and economic need.”

By Katti Gray

9 THE FRONT

Q&A: Jeff Nichols The Inconsequential News Quiz: The Belvis blues edition.

The Big Picture: Wetting your whistle in Arkansas’s dry counties.

Orval: Womack’s “new freedom.”

19 THE TO-DO LIST

Wayne Coyne’s “King’s Mouth,” Amy Helm, Fayetteville Roots Fest, Hayes Carll, Filmland, Opera in the Rock and more.

38 CULTURE

Shakey Joe: Alpena transplant churns out world-class harp microphones.

By Daniel Ford

44 FOOD & DRINK

Southern Foodways Alliance sets up shop at the corner of food and politics.

By Leslie Newell Peacock

48 TRAVEL Tulsa time.

By Lindsey Millar

53 CANNABIZ

Steep Hill puts medical marijuana under the microscope.

By David Koon

112 CROSSWORD 114 THE OBSERVER Midlife adventures in medical cannabis.

ON THE COVER: Photo by

Joshua Asante.

4 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

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ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each month by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $60 for one year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is $5, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $5.00 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially. ©2019 ARKANSAS TIMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

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AUGUST 2019 7

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8 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE FRONT

Q&A

Jeff Nichols’ Filmland Captures an Industry in Transition I know that, in late July, you’re waiting on confirmation for your opening night film and can’t talk about that. So let’s start with Friday. You’re hosting an Oscarwinning documentary.

We’re going to show “Free Solo.”

It’s an amazing documentary.

Arkansas has such a vibrant outdoor community, and we felt like it was a good fit. The process of making the movie, from what I know about it — these weren’t just filmmakers who showed up to document a climber; these were climbers who were filmmakers who documented their friend. The intensity of it all really comes across. It’s riveting.

I’m excited to have a conversation about how a documentary like this gets made.

He’s also had an interesting TV directing career so far.

Absolutely. We’re also screening two episodes he directed of “Stranger Things,” season two. And we’re going to hear about him directing episodes of “Better Call Saul” and “Legion.”

Yes, you can come hear some factoids about being on the set of “Stranger Things,” but just as important is hearing about a guy who’s been integral to this industry in so many ways, to hear about how he’s navigating it today, weaving between live action and animation. There are a handful of conversations that we’ve had at the [Arkansas] Cinema Society where I don’t care if anyone is in the audience. I just want to have a conversation with this person and pick their brains.

Then you’ve got Pixar’s Andrew Stanton on Sunday.

He’s one of the foundational members and creators for Pixar. With writing credits alone, we’re talking “Toy Story,” Toy Story 2,” “Monsters Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” “Wall-E,” “Finding Dory,” “Toy Story 4.” Then he directed “Finding Nemo,” “Wall-E,” and “Finding Dory.” He’s won two Oscars. It’s hard to quantify the impact this guy has had on popular culture. We’re screening “Toy Story 4.” Come see it again if you’ve seen it already and come listen to a person who has been integral in helping craft the storytelling principles of one of the most important studios ever.

Is the Cinema Society growing like you expected when you and executive director Kathryn Tucker co-founded it in 2017?

We’re slowly and surely building out our programs and programming throughout the year. We’ve got an amazing board that continues to add value to our ideas and programming.

Graham Gordy is doing the [Little Rock] Youngstorytellers program.

Kathryn did the Filmmaking Lab for Teen Girls. We have a lot of things cooking that, if it had just been the Jeff Nichols Society, I wouldn’t have put together. That’s been the most fun thing to watch: People on the board are starting to take ownership. It’s starting to become a little more pluralistic. We’ve got an African-American Filmmaker Series that other board members have started to put together. The hurdles then come with dates and timing and venues and other things. But we’re working it out.

BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

An Arkansas-connected film headlines Saturday.

Saturday we have Joel Edgerton coming in to show “Boy Erased.”

It feels like necessary watching for our state. It’s a film we’ve been trying to get for a while [based on the memoir of the same name by Arkansas native Garrard Conley about growing up in a fundamentalist Christian family and being forced into gay conversion therapy]. We could have screened it sooner, but I really wanted Joel to be here.

He’s a friend of mine; I’ve worked on two films with him. He’s an exceptional actor, obviously, but he’s also an exceptional writer and director. He’s a very astute artist. He’s got great insights. He’s also just a genuinely nice, good person. I think he’ll be an inspiration to people.

Name: Jeff Nichols Birthplace: Little Rock Age: 40 Job: Writer/director Credits: “Loving,” “Midnight Special,” “Mud,” “Take Shelter,” “Shotgun Stories” and “Long Way Back Home,” a short film inspired by the song of the same name by the band Lucero, led by Jeff’s brother Ben Nichols.

So what’s next for you as a filmmaker?

I’m working on a lot right now, none of which I can officially talk about. It’s both an intimidating time because it’s an industry in transition, but it’s also fascinating. I spend more of my day excited than I do terrified.

—Lindsey Millar Arkansas Cinema Society's Filmland takes place Aug. 22-25. See page 19 for details.

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AUGUST 2019 9

THE FRONT

THE BIG PICTURE

Dry county? No problem.

Feel the moisture in the air? It’s not all humidity. Liberalization in recent years of the state’s antiquated alcohol laws has resulted in a slight wettening across Arkansas. Some counties, like Clark and Saline, have voted themselves wet. Nearly half of the state’s 75 counties maintain alcohol restrictions, with some not even offering the oasis of a local VFW or Legion Hut. Even most of the state’s driest counties — the places where once only the rich, white and powerful members of the local country club were allowed to raise a glass without fear of arrest and the threat of the hoosegow for imbibing a perfectly legal substance — have more spots now to licitly wet one’s whistle.

These are a few that caught our eye:

KINGS LIVE MUSIC Conway (Faulkner County) Specialty: Jester Bucket A welcome respite for college kids in a county that requires its young and thirsty to drive across the border into Pulaski County to buy booze in bulk, Kings Live Music on Front Street is a favorite spot for students and locals alike.

A close walk from the Hendrix College campus, you’ll need your 21-and-up ID plus a cover to get in. Bands come through the venue often, making Kings a quenching destination in more ways than one.

EL PALACIO Warren (Bradley County) Specialty: Pint o’ margarita Among the private clubs registered in Warren — county seat of the dry Bradley County in South Arkansas — El Palacio acts as an oasis: There, you can get a margarita on a hot day and load up on cheese dip while sitting in one of the restaurant’s brightly illustrated booths, your meal made just that much more authentic when surrounded by pastoral scenes of desert cacti and men wearing sombreros riding horses. A 16-ounce lime margarita will run you a pun-intended cool $7.11, a bargain at any price in a town otherwise devoid of hard watering holes.

THE ROWDY MOOSE Hope (Hempstead County) Specialty: Beer Hope’s Rowdy Moose has a full bar, but no wine. That’s why the Moose proclaims itself a “beer bar.” Located on Hazel Street in the hometown of both Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee, the Rowdy Moose has live music, billiards tournaments, and much-anticipated Thursday night karaoke. Your ID and five bucks secures membership into the Rowdy Moose club for life.

10 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE TAMALE FACTORY Gregory (Woodruff County) Specialty: White Russian This Delta destination is in an old barn on George Eldridge’s farm. It’s where he makes the tamales served in the Little Rock outpost of Doe’s Eat Place; he serves up pretty much the same menu here in rural Woodruff County, along with a full bar. It’s “a food oasis surrounded by rice and corn fields,” as one diner described it. Rice and corn: also food, but we get it. Be judicious when you might visit this factory, however — unlike most, this one is only open 5-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

TOAD SUCK BUCK’S Houston (Perry County) Specialty: Margarita June’s flooding of the Arkansas River notwithstanding, Toad Suck Buck’s in Perry County stayed dry, even as the roads were covered with rising water.

(Tellingly, Toad Suck Buck’s is located on Roaring River Loop.) Inside the restaurant, however, Toad Suck Buck’s is plenty wet, with beer, wine and liquor.

No membership is required at Toad Suck Buck’s, which has pool tables, a large outdoor seating area, live music on weekends, steak and burger specials Wednesdays through Sundays and is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

QUEEN WILHELMINA LODGE Mena (Polk County) Specialty: Located in a state park Perched atop Rich Mountain, Arkansas’s second-highest peak after Mount Magazine, is the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge.

It was recently renovated to include 40 guest rooms, a winding front porch with sweeping views of the valley below, and a restaurant with, blessedly, a full bar. The lodge is registered as a private club, and the Queen Wilhelmina State Park said this allows it to serve patrons by requiring them to fill out a card to “join” the club for free. Stop by during your journey along the Talimena Scenic Byway, or stay for the evening in a guest room: Either way, you’ll be able to sip a beer while doing so.

ANGLERS CATFISH STEAKHOUSE Mountain View (Stone County) Specialty: A local says “Blue Moon is their most exotic beer.”

We’re sure by “Anglers Catfish Steakhouse,” they mean Anglers is a steakhouse that also serves catfish, but we like the idea of Anglers being SO proud of its catfish steaks that it was decided they deserved billing in the name. Located on state Highway 5, Anglers has a full bar, and holds Stone County’s sole private club permit, according to the ABC. The local VFW? It serves coffee.

HONORABLE MENTION Craighead County, which endured decades of slings and arrows from Arkansas State University students for the county’s debilitating dryness, is said to have taken the no-booze jibes more seriously when they began also coming from Jonesboro’s business community. Either way, Craighead County now sports nearly 50 private club permits — from the Elks Lodge to Olive Garden to Omar’s Uptown. That’s more than even posh Benton County.

Big Rock Mini-Golf and Fun Park

Early Bird Tickets NOW: $25

Friday, August 2 5-8 pm

Mini-Golf Lazer Frenzy Go-Carts

Arcade Games Bumper Boats Aerial Maze Food Prizes

Tickets at MethodistFamily.org

ARKANSAS NATIONAL GUARD MUSEUM

LOCATED ON CAMP ROBINSON, NORTH LITTLE ROCK Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00 am – 3:00 pm Take exit 150 off I-40 and follow signs to Camp Robinson 501.212.5215 • arngmuseum.com

To come on Post you will need a driver’s license, proof of insurance, and vehicle registration.

Come see our new expanded showroom, just a few doors west of our old location!

C&F Flooring and Rug Gallery

2322 Cantrell Rd (in front of Cajun’s Wharf) Little Rock, AR • 501.399.9909 • www.candfcarpet.com ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 11

THE FRONT

New works by Arkansas artists Dennis and Connie McCann Opening reception Saturday, August 24, 6 to 9 pm Show runs through Sept 14.

Connie McCann

“Reading on the Front Porch” oil on canvas 24” x 30”

Dennis McCann “453” pastel on paper 28” x 40”

BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART

Fine Art from local, regional and international artists for the emerging and established collector.

Tues. - Fri. 11 to 6 • Sat. 11 to 3 and by appointment 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd • Little Rock, AR 72207 501-664-0030 • www.boswellmourot.com 12 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

*

*THROUGHOUT AUGUST 2019

Our doctors listen with their

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21 Bridgeway Road — North Little Rock, AR 72113 | 1-800-245-0011 | thebridgeway.com ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 13

THE FRONT

INCONSEQUENTIAL NEWS QUIZ

Dastardly Doings in Dogtown Edition Play at home, while fondling your historic doorknob!

1) Thomas Christian Miller, 25, was recently arrested in North Little Rock’s Argenta district. What, according to police, was the issue?

A) He took Mary Steenburgen’s name in vain.

B) He stole the keys to the U.S.S. Razorback submarine from the mayor’s desk drawer and torpedoed two bass boats and a barge full of soybeans.

C) He retrofitted a laser cutter at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub and incinerated City Hall.

D) Police say Miller, who was apparently intoxicated, went into a stranger’s apartment, stripped, and then stole a full outfit of clothes, including a blazer, button-down shirt, blue jeans and brown leather shoes.

2) Building upon your obviously correct answer to the previous entry: According to the NLRPD, how was Miller developed as a suspect in the clothes theft?

A) The Queer Eye guys ratted him out for committing a fashion crime.

B) He’d been seen lurking around local laundromats.

C) All will be revealed in the next thrilling chapter of “Jimbo Malone and the Case of the Disappeared Dogtown Duds!”

D) The actual owner of the clothes came out of Argenta’s Four Quarter Bar just in time to see Miller walking past on the sidewalk, wearing an outfit the victim recognized as his own.

3) Speaking of North Little Rock crime, police there say a recent nighttime intruder at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum made off with an item that could be of considerable value. What was it?

A) The last sane person who cares if Disney casts a black actress as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid” remake.

B) Moby Dick’s thick slick pickled penis (say that three times fast!).

C) Popeye the Sailor Man’s original can of PCPdusted spinach.

D) The U.S.S. Hoga’s pilothouse doorknob, which was aboard the historic U.S. Navy tugboat during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

14 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

4) The Dromburg, a massive stone castle perched atop a mountainous 40-acre estate near Fayetteville in Northwest Arkansas, recently saw its asking price slashed almost in half after failing to sell after eight years on the market. According to the real estate agent who represents the castle’s current owners, why was it such a hard sell?

A) The spirits that lurk in the catacombs are less “Harry Potter Kinda Tragic But Funny” ghosts and more “Creepy Murderous Hate Wraith From ‘The Ring’ ” ghosts.

B) The previous owner’s attempts to animate an unholy golem made of stolen body parts really stunk up the joint.

C) Angry local peasants have progressed from pitchforks to battering rams, so it’s only a matter of time before they invent the guillotine.

D) The original asking price of $9.7 million left only a tiny pool of potential buyers who could afford it. The owners hope the new asking price of $4.9 million will attract an offer.

5) A Little Rock business got some attention in July with a Facebook post in which they offered a service that shows they really understand the local market. What was it?

A) The Little Rock Catholic Diocese offered a free exorcism to any person whose name rhymes with Farah Pluckaflea Flanders.

B) Golden Corral now offers all-you-can-eat Lipitor sprinkles on its soft-serve ice cream fixin’s bar.

C) Friday after 6 p.m. is now Two-for-One Entry Wound Night at the UAMS Trauma Center.

D) The Southwest Little Rock franchise of Maaco body and paint shops advertised a “Bullet Hole Special,” accompanied by a photo of a bullet-riddled car and the hashtag #WeWontTellTheCops.

6) A Siloam Springs woman was found guilty in Benton County Circuit Court in July on charges that, after her husband kicked her out of the house they shared, she attempted to exact a terrible revenge. What, according to police, did she do that will have her on probation for the next six years?

A) She attempted to frame him.

B) She said he attacked her after she caught him having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

C) She also presented investigators with three images of child pornography as supposed evidence of her allegations, though police said she later admitted to downloading the images herself while high on meth.

D) All of the above, with the woman also being fined $2,000 and forced to register as a sex offender for downloading child porn.

Get your message directly to your target audience with 7) Word came in early July that a very big name is coming to Little Rock on Sept. 3 for the Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series. Who is the visiting luminary?

A) 98-year-old Bart “Lumpy” Pecker of Merkin Fork, inventor of the ol’ “Fart and Blame It On the Dog” trick.

B) U.S. Sen. Tom Cottonbot 5000, who is in town for his bi-annual 20,000-mile/200 Heartless Votes oil change.

C) The resurrected ghost of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, as part of his critically acclaimed “Your Confederate Flag Circle Jerk Is Embarrassing” tour of Southern states.

D) Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

ARKANSAS TIMES MEDIA CALENDARIO COMUNITARIO DE EVENTOS. Pág. 11 GRATIS LA VOZ DE NUESTRA COMUNIDAD

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30 DE MAYO 2019 • VOLUMEN 18 • EDICIÓN 52

¡Bienvenidos A Arkansas Central!

Guía e información para los residentes del “Estado Natural”

8) Which of the following best describes the image below?

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Arkansas Times monthly magazine audience of readers is overwhelmingly college educated, 54% have a college or advanced degree and they tend to have higher incomes, better jobs, more investments, solid health insurance and higher rates of home ownership.

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Flavor ARKANSAS

ISSUE NO. 7 | SUMMER 2019

A) Nonwinning Arkansas Scholarship Lottery scratch-off ticket.

B) The zig-zag path any person of color should run to avoid police harassment while visiting Bryant.

C) The shifting, amorphous cloud of despair that hangs over Bryant at all times.

D) Apparently, it’s the actual, official logo of the City of Bryant.

9) Korey Giles-Brown, 42, was stabbed six times July 13 in downtown Little Rock, but certain details about the case make it stand out from Little Rock’s usual stabbings.

According to police, which of the following is a real facet of the events leading up to the crime?

A) Giles-Brown was with Dwayne Turner, aka “Belvis the Black Elvis,” a local AfricanAmerican Elvis Presley impersonator.

B) Just before the stabbing, Giles-Brown reportedly told Turner: “If I were white, I would kick your ass ’cause you are the shittiest black Elvis ever.”

C) After Turner’s impersonating was disparaged, an unknown man standing nearby angrily accosted Giles-Brown for his criticism, with the stranger then removing his shirt and starting a fight that ended with the victim being repeatedly stabbed.

D) All of the above. Don’t mess with the Belvis Hive, y’all.

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A statewide magazine dedicated to outdoor enthusiasts and their active lifestyles. It’s the go-to resource for planning adventures in The Natural State for those who enjoy hunting, fishing, hiking, paddling, climbing, and cycling.

Bi-monthly magazine, 30,000 copies statewide; distribution includes state parks, visitor centers, professional organizations, lodges and resorts, events, outdoor retailers and major grocery stores. arkansaswild.com

A statewide comprehensive resource guide for healthy living. State agencies, community outreach organizations, utility and family services, and legislative leaders provide content and commentary, including healthy recipes, promotion of options for a more active lifestyle, budget and savings choices, workforce education and employment access.

Bi-annual magazine, 40,000 copies statewide; distribution in targeted neighborhoods and regions.

A statewide magazine all about Arkansas’s growing cycling movement. Education, awareness and involvement are vital to the development for the future of cycling in Arkansas, and Bike Arkansas is devoted to that cause. With dedicated features on training, technical advice, news and events, along with profiles of cycling influencers and advocates. Quarterly magazine, 30,000 copies statewide; distribution includes state parks, visitor centers, professional organizations and events, lodges and resorts, outdoor retailers and major grocery stores. bikearkansasmedia.com

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AUGUST 2019 15

ANSWERS: D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D

THE FRONT

THE MONTH (OR SO) THAT WAS

Former Senator Admits to Fraud, Bribery

16 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

ACLU LEADER TO RETIRE Rita Sklar, the executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas since 1992, has retired. Holly Dickson, the legal director, has been appointed interim director. Sklar, a native of New York, was a force for good at the legislature, lobbying for the rights of students, reproductive health care, ballot access and the rights of LGBTQ people. With Sklar at the helm, the ACLU overturned Arkansas law banning LGBTQ people from adopting.

PIONEER DIES Edith Irby Jones, the first black person to attend and graduate from the University of Arkansas Medical School (now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences), died in Houston. She was 91.

LITTLE ROCK ADDS CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD, APPROVES ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICTS AND CLOSES GOLF COURSES The Little Rock City Board approved Mayor Frank Scott Jr.’s proposal to create a five-member citizens review board that will review complaints about the police department regarding corruption, discrimination and use of force. The board, the first of its kind in the state, will be able to recommend further investigation.

The city board also approved making the River Market district the first city “entertainment district,” a designation allowed by a new state law that gives cities the option of setting rules for alcohol possession. The new policy will allow people to walk around with open containers of beer, wine and mixed drinks in certain areas of the River Market from 5 p.m. until midnight Friday, 8 a.m. until midnight Saturday, 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Sunday and on certain holidays.

After much debate, the board also approved closing two public golf courses as part of an effort to reduce city spending by $2.1 million in 2019 to address a shortfall. Scott later accepted the recommendation of Parks Director John Eckart to cease golf operations at Hindman and War Memorial golf courses.

NEW ED BOARD APPOINTEE Governor Hutchinson has appointed Chad Pekron of Bryant to the State Board of Education. A lawyer with Little Rock’s Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull and the father of five children, four of whom are public school students, Pekron replaces Hendrix College professor and Arkansas Times contributor Jay Barth. Pekron was widely thought to be a leading candidate for the federal judgeship position that went to Lee Rudofsky.

Pekron represented South Arkansas parents in a “friends of the court” brief submitted in an appeal of a lawsuit over inter-district transfers in South Arkansas. In January, U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey sided with the Camden Fairview, Hope, Junction City and Lafayette County school districts, which argued that permitting students to transfer out of their districts would lead to white flight and resegregation. The state appealed the decision to the 8th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, where it awaits judgment.

BRIAN CHILSON

FORMER LAWMAKER PLEADS GUILTY TO BRIBERY Former Republican state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, the nephew of Governor Hutchinson and son of former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, entered negotiated guilty pleas to federal felony cases in district court in Little Rock and Springfield, Mo., and later surrendered his law license.

In Little Rock, Hutchinson pleaded to a single charge of filing a false tax return (he had faced 12 wire fraud and tax fraud charges) related to his use of $150,000 in campaign money for personal expenses and underreporting income to the IRS by $270,000, and to a single charge related to his taking $157,000 in bribes (again disguised as legal fees) from an orthodontist to attempt to change state law so the orthodontist could perform a broader variety of dental procedures.

In Missouri, he pleaded to a single count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery.

He had been indicted in a dozen conspiracy, bribery and fraud charges for taking bribes to help Preferred Family Healthcare in the Arkansas legislature. The money was disguised as attorney fees.

The pleas will end prosecutions of Hutchinson, who for a time was a cooperating witness for the FBI, but came back under their scrutiny as he continued to spend campaign money illegally, through 2016. He’s said to have given information early on that contributed to the prosecutions of former Sen. Jon Woods and former Rep. Micah Neal. The former is serving a federal prison sentence, and the latter was given home detention for his early cooperation with a public corruption probe. That investigation has also produced guilty pleas from two other former legislators, Hank Wilkins of Pine Bluff and Eddie Cooper of Melbourne, and an executive and lobbyist for Preferred Family Healthcare, Rusty Cranford. Cranford is jailed awaiting testimony in the Missouri case pending against Tom and Bontiea Goss of Springfield, former top officials of PFH. A number of other people have been charged with Medicaid fraud as well and at least two of them have pleaded guilty in cooperation agreements.

NEW JUDGE WITH CONSERVATIVE BONA FIDES A relative Arkansas newcomer, Lee Rudofsky, landed President Trump’s nomination to fill the U.S. Eastern District federal judgeship vacated by Leon Holmes’ retirement in March 2018.

Rudofsky, after a short stint at Walmart, moved in 2015 to be Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s top litigator. He returned to Walmart in July to be senior director of the corporation’s anticorruption legal team.

Rudofsky, a New York native, was deputy counsel for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012. He’s a member of The Federalist Society, the conservative organization that advocates for interpreting the U.S. Constitution according to its original meaning. His nomination was cheered by Governor Hutchinson, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and Jerry Cox of the Family Council. In a press release, Rutledge lauded his effort to end Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood in Arkansas and speed the state’s efforts to execute people.

"Elaine Race Massacre: Red Summer in Arkansas" Commemorative Web Exhibit

An interactive, digital exhibit exploring events and consequences of the deadliest racial conflict in Arkansas history. Featuring archival photographs and essays from scholars, plus educational resources for students and teachers.

CENTER FOR ARKANSAS HISTORY AND CULTURE University of ArkAnsAs At LittLe rock

ualrexhibits.org/elaine

ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 17

STEPHANIE SMITTLE

MARIO GALLUCCI, COURTESY OF ACO

By DANIEL FORD and

the TO-DO list

‘KING’S MOUTH’

THROUGH 8/23. 2 P.M.-9 P.M. WED.; 2 P.M.-11 P.M. THU.-SAT.; 1 P.M.-7 P.M. SUN. 115 W. EMMA AVE., SPRINGDALE. FREE. If, at any point in your life, someone has mistakenly called The Flaming Lips’ surrealist 1993 bop “She Don’t Use Jelly” by the name “Vaseline,” and you have been the one to correct them, you’re gonna need to plug Springdale’s Arts Center of the Ozarks into the navigation app of your choice, stat. Wayne Coyne, who fronts the group — the very same Flaming Lips that closed out their 2016 Riverfest set with a giant chain of silver balloons spelling out “FUCK YEAH RIVERFEST” — has been busy. Turns out your boy Coyne has been squirreling away quarter hours “in hotel rooms after shows, between takes in recording studios, and at the kitchen table at home,” an ACO press release says, developing drawings and multimedia collages for an interactive project called “King’s Mouth.” Here’s what it involves: Visitors crawl inside a giant metallic head into the pillowy repose of its pink innards, pick a spot (the exhibit can fit up to eight people, snugly) and watch an LED light show timed with Flaming Lips music made exclusively for the exhibit (available nowhere else). For this exhibit, ACO’s off-site spot on Emma Avenue stays open late, and cushions Coyne’s installation with accompanying exhibits by Sasha Rayevskiy, Dillion Dooms and the ever-playful, ever-evocative Kat Wilson. “This group exhibition accentuates bringing as many media forms together as possible, of heightening the total art experience, and of getting the audience involved equally as contributors to the music, and art,” ACO’s Eve Smith said. See acozarks.org for more on what ACO does. SS

IMDB

ARKANSAS CINEMA SOCIETY: FILMLAND THURSDAY 8/22-SUNDAY 8/25. CALS RON ROBINSON THEATER, $25-$250.

While the majority of the screenings remain shrouded in mystery, the Arkansas Cinema Society’s annual showcase is certain to provide Central Arkansas with the opportunity to not only see screenings of significant films and television shows, but also to engage with the creators behind those works of art. Often drawing on the packed rolodexes of Society members Mary Steenburgen and Cinema Society founder Jeff Nichols, Filmland and the Cinema Society’s year-round fare have consistently provided Central Arkansas with top-tier screenings and Q&As. Past years’ slates included the likes of Adam Driver, Will Forte and Richard Linklater. This year, the lineup includes Andrew Stanton, a Pixar vet and two-time Oscar winner, who will be screening his recent critical and commercial darling “Toy Story 4,” along with two episodes of cultural phenomenon “Stranger Things” that he directed. Joel Edgerton, who has acted in two of Nichols’ films, also will be onhand to screen “Boy Erased” (pictured above), a feature film Edgerton wrote and directed, based on Arkansas native Garrard Conley’s memoir about being forced into gay conversion therapy. See arkansascinemasociety. org for more on the line-up and ticket links. DF ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 19

the TO-DO list HAYES CARLL

SATURDAY 8/3. 8:30 P.M. REV ROOM. $20-$25.

Texas native and Hendrix College grad Hayes Carll is returning to the Rev Room in support of his sixth album “What It Is,” offering his significant fan base another opportunity to take in one of Americana’s most reliable songwriters and performers. Carll’s latest is a worthy addition to his impressive discography, with timeless instrumentation, trademark witticisms and a wide array of subject matter. After his last album, a more strippeddown acoustic affair exploring the fallout of a relationship’s end, “What It Is” returns — gorgeously — to a fuller sound, peppering his acoustic and electric guitar with strings, horns and piano. Carll’s real draw, however, is the songwriting, with songs tackling political issues like the events in Charlottesville (“Fragile Men”) and right-wing internet trolls (“Wild Pointy Finger”), fitting comfortably beside love songs (“None’ya,” among many) and classic country bar songs (“Jesus and Elvis”). See revroom.com for tickets. DF

TRAE CROWDER ‘THE LIBERAL REDNECK’ SATURDAY 8/10. 8 P.M. RON ROBINSON THEATER. $30-$50.

WY HAWKINS, COURTESY AKEEM KEMP

MAD BATTLE

FRIDAY 8/9-SATURDAY 8/10. FIRST FINANCIAL MUSIC HALL, EL DORADO. $10-$25.

The former oil boomtown of El Dorado has been, for two years now, refashioning its historic downtown area as an arts destination called the Murphy Arts District, named after its chief corporate benefactor. That MAD overhaul has meant a lot of things: the positioning of former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame CEO Terry Stewart at the helm, a meticulously renovated Vaudeville-era theater, a 7,000-plus capacity outdoor ampitheater, concerts from the likes of Migos and Steve Earle and Jason Isbell, the largest children’s park in the region and now, its own regional battle of the bands. Up for a $2,500 grand prize, plus $100 honorariums for Best Vocals, Best Instrumentals and Best Showmanship: Akeem Kemp Band (above), As the Willow Burns, Crutchfield, Cypress Knees, Jimmy Lewis and 8 Second Ride, McKuin, Monsterboy, R@ndom, Saving for Tuesday and SiedSwipe. Each band will play a 15-minute set Friday evening, and the battle’s judges — Stewart, vocalist Bijoux Pighee, Noalmark Broadcasting Corp. Operations Manager Caleb Burger and this reporter, representing the Arkansas Times — will pick five of those bands to advance to the finals on Saturday evening. Get tickets and details at eldomad.com. SS

20 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

For someone who has an M.B.A., Trae Crowder’s business plan sounds pretty terrible. Quitting a steady job with the Department of Energy, the Kentucky native set out to establish himself in the comedy world. That’s a hard enough transition as is, without taking the route he did: political comedy with a left-leaning stance aimed largely at red-state audiences. Miraculously, Crowder and his “liberal redneck” shtick have been quite successful, as his online “porch talks” advocating for progressive stances on various hot-button issues such as abortion, trans rights and Black Lives Matter have created a devout online following. Even more miraculously, Crowder’s takes are not only funny, but are often nuanced political statements that offer a genuinely interesting point of view that avoids the echo chamber language of the left. Crowder, along with Drew Morgan and Corey Ryan Forrester, are touring the country in what amounts to a woke Blue Collar Comedy Tour, and its stop in Little Rock is worth your time. DF

VICKI GENFAN

THURSDAY 8/15. 7:30 P.M. THE JOINT THEATER & COFFEEHOUSE. $30.

In 2008, the judges of Guitar Player magazine’s annual Guitar Superstar competition — Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Brendon Small of “Metalocalypse” among them — handed the title to a woman for the first time. That was Vicki Genfan with a fast and furious fingerstyle number she composed called “Atomic Reshuffle,” during which, about halfway through, she reaches down and picks up a slide, gives the melody the glissando treatment, then conducts a little slap percussion solo with one hand while she puts down the slide with the other hand. A little over a decade’s passed since she secured that title, and excepting, notably, Arkansas’s own Rachel Ammons’ wizardry, mind-blowing sleights of hand from guitarists who aren’t dudes are still proportionately rare. If fingerstyle acoustic is your thing, this is a concert to hear and, without a doubt, the acoustically pristine room in which to hear it. Genfan appears as part of the Argenta Acoustic Music Series. Get tickets at argentaacoustic.com. SS

COURTESY ARGENTA ACOUSTIC MUSIC SERIES

ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘POLICE STORY’ TUESDAY 8/20. 7 P.M. RIVERDALE 10 CINEMA. $9.

IMDB

The next film in the monthly Arkansas Times Film Series is seminal 1985 Hong Kong action flick “Police Story,” often known as the movie that launched Jackie Chan’s career in America. Chan, who wrote, directed and stars in the film (and its numerous sequels), is a marvel, equally flexing his martial arts muscles and his acting muscles in a showcase of the star power that would go on to make him a worldwide name. The film centers on Chan’s character, a police officer who, after an impressive arrest of a drug lord, is framed for the murder of a corrupt policeman and must clear his name.

The set pieces are crisp, the stunt work unparalleled, and Chan oozes charisma.

Don’t miss the chance to see, in a theater setting, what is often considered one of the best action films of all time. DF

ARKANSAS TRAVELERS: FINAL HOME GAMES TUESDAY 8/20-SUNDAY 8/25. 7:10 P.M. TUE.-FRI., 6:10 P.M. SAT., 2:10 P.M SUN. DICKEY-STEPHENS PARK. $7-$13.

I understand that including watching baseball outside in late August in Arkansas probably qualifies for a “To Do List” only in the most literal of senses: It is technically something to do. But here are a few reasons to brave the heat: 1) The Travs are actually good this year, having already secured a playoff spot by winning the first half of the season and now lead the league during the second half as well; 2) there are some very major minor league promotion nights, including

what is apparently the fourth iteration of the dangerous-sounding “Pyro in the Park” night and a hot dog eating contest that I like to think involves minor league hot dog eaters attempting to work their way up to the big Fourth of July Nathan’s competition; and 3) the final series of the year is against a team called the Sod Poodles. The Sod Poodles! The heckling opportunities alone should be enough to convince you. Check out the full schedule at milb.com/arkansas. DF ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 21

CHRIS STRONG, COURTESY OF FAYETTEVILLE ROOTS FEST

the TO-DO list

ROOTS MUSIC, ROOTS FOOD: Singers Mavis Staples (above) and Yola (right) take the stage at the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

FAYETTEVILLE ROOTS FESTIVAL

WEDNESDAY 8/21-SUNDAY 8/25. VARIOUS LOCATIONS, NORTHWEST ARKANSAS. $79-$600.

It seems that we are likely on the downside of the festival boom at this point after hitting a dismally absurd zenith at the Fyre Festival. Hopefully, the future of such festivals looks a lot less like that disaster and more like the Fayetteville Roots Festival, which is a small, lovingly curated celebration of both roots music and roots food. Spread over a number of Northwest Arkansas venues, the 2019 edition of the festival offers an excellent lineup of musicians and chefs who will bring their substantial gifts to the Ozarks.

For a self-professed “roots” festival, the lineup is admirably diverse, featuring legend Mavis Staples, modern soul outfit St. Paul and the Broken Bones, English singer/guitarist Yola, Americana-ish Hiss Golden Messenger, troubadour John Fullbright and many other talented musicians and chefs. The can’t-miss set of the weekend might be banjoist/ fiddler/vocalist Rhiannon Giddens, playing with Italian jazz musician Francisco Turrisi. The Carolina Chocolate Drops singer’s most recent albums, which fuse gospel, jazz, opera and other traditional music, are stunning examinations of African-American life throughout American history and into the present. See therootsfest.org for a full schedule, passes and details. DF 22 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

ALYSSE GAFKJEN, COURTESY OF FAYETTEVILLE ROOTS FEST

‘THE OLD MAID & THE THIEF: A 1939 RADIO HOUR’ FRIDAY 8/23-SUNDAY 8/25. 7:30 P.M. FRI.-SAT.; 2:30 P.M. SUN. THE STUDIO THEATRE, 320 W. 7TH ST. $35-$50.

The problem of updating opera for an internet generation, if indeed it is a problem, is at the very least not a new one. Take Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid & The Thief,” for example, originally conceived as a radio play in 1939, and only later adapted for the stage. The opera-buffa has become a staple of opera season programs for a lot of reasons: It’s a one-act. It’s in English.

It doesn’t require expensive tenors or elaborately scaffolded stage sets. And, in the right hands, it can be clever and farcical and wickedly catty.

Here, Opera in the Rock presents Menotti’s comedy with “larger-than-life actors, onstage music, live sound effects and commercial breaks,” a press release says, with Kevin Lambert as director, singer-songwriter/pianist John Willis as musical director, Erick Saoud on percussion, and two of Central Arkansas’s most respected voice instructors — Diane Kesling and Christine Donahue — singing. They’re joined by Shannon Rookey, Ron Jensen-McDaniel and Sarah Stankiewicz Dailey. A $50 VIP ticket includes a drink voucher and first-rate seating, and student admission is $25. See centralarkansastickets.com or oitr.org for tickets. SS

AMY HELM

THURSDAY 8/22. 8 P.M. SOUTH ON MAIN. $30-$40.

The Oxford American’s 2019-20 Concert Series is themed “Old Friends, New Friends,” and if its season opener Amy Helm can’t claim old friendship here in Arkansas, I’m not sure who can.

Helm was in Fayetteville less than a year ago for the unveiling of sculptor Kevin Kresse’s bronze bust of her father, Levon, the centerpiece of the Levon Helm Legacy Project in Marvell (Phillips County). She’d just released “This Too Shall Light,” a collection that included Levon and the Hawks’ “The Stones I Throw,” an old tune called “Gloryland” she learned from her father, the intangible qualities of being recorded live in the legendary United Recording Studios in Los Angeles and — it’s not lost on us — heavy-hitting backup vocals from JT Nero and Allison Russell, who have graced the South on Main stage under the name of their duo project, Birds of Chicago.

Get tickets at Metrotix.com or by calling 800293-5949, and check out the seating information under the “Calendar” tab on South on Main’s website so you’ll know what’s what. SS

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AUGUST 2019 23

‘To those known and unknown’ THE ELAINE MEMORIAL PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE HUNDREDS WHO DIED ON THE KILLING FIELDS OF PHILLIPS COUNTY.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

S

eptember 2019 will be the 100th anniversary of what has come to be known as the Elaine massacre in Eastern Arkansas’s Phillips County. A century ago, white posses and U.S. soldiers shot and killed what may have been hundreds of African Americans, most of them tenant farmers, over a period of four days.

The black farmers’ crime: The men were unionizing to obtain fair prices for their cotton, and in some cases trying to buy their own farms.

Some were just returned veterans of World War I and expected to be treated equitably and with respect after combat abroad.

It’s a complicated story from a time when white supremacy was the rule and the fear of communism and hatred of unions was pervasive. During the Red Summer of 1919, deadly clashes between racist white mobs and blacks, including veterans, erupted all over the nation.

It’s a story that’s been told in rich detail in books

by Little Rock lawyer Grif Stockley and American journalist Robert Whitaker. Here’s a bare bones telling of what has come to be known as the Elaine massacre: Members of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union and others had been talking with a white Little Rock lawyer who had an office in Helena about suing the landowners for whom they planted. Cotton prices were at an alltime high, but black farmers were making pennies on the dollar from Arkansas landlords and could not get ahead. White eavesdroppers and a black spy hired by fearful residents of Helena claimed in reports to the elite of that city that there would be an uprising. Whites believed union organizers were stirring the tenant farmers to kill their landlords.

On the evening of Sept. 30, 1919, black families gathered in a church at Hoop Spur, a southern Phillips County community just north of Elaine, along the Missouri Pacific Railroad line, to talk about taking legal action. A deputy sheriff from Helena, a Missouri Pacific agent and a

24 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

black prisoner drove to the church, stopped and turned out their lights. Someone opened the car door; armed black guards around the church approached. Shots rang out. It’s unknown who fired first; each side blamed the other. The deputy sheriff was killed. Blacks fled the shooting, some jumping out of the church windows with children. By the light of morning, a posse sent by the sheriff could see the church and a nearby shed had been shot at, though they would later lie about that (and even later admit to the lie).

Over the next four days, whites from Helena and south Phillips County, plus posses from Mississippi who crossed the river to join in the carnage, tracked blacks down and shot them. They shot men, women and children, some in front of their homes, some as they hid in the woods and canebrakes, some as they were picking cotton.

They were seen taking ears and other trophies from the bodies. Helena’s leaders asked for help; Gov. Charles Brough responded by sending 500 soldiers from Camp Pike to Elaine. Some Army units were armed with machine guns, which, according to several accounts, they turned on blacks emerging from their hiding places thinking they were saved. (Soldiers in some units, on the other hand, tended the bullet wounds of the black farmers.)

Five white men were fatally shot — one almost certainly by friendly fire, and possibly a second as well. Witnesses, black and white, interviewed after the event, estimated hundreds of blacks were killed between Sept. 30 and Oct. 4, one black ex-soldier wrote, “like they wont nothen but dogs.” An Arkansas Gazette reporter, in a book published in 1925, put the total deaths at 856, though he did not provide a source for the figure. Whitaker has estimated the number at more than 230, based on estimates made by witnesses. Eighty or more other blacks, including women, were jailed.

Twelve black men — union members — were convicted of first-degree murder at farcical tri-

als and sentenced to die. Blacks who had been arrested were whipped and tortured by electric shock to give false testimony against the 12 at the trials. More than 80 men were convicted of lesser crimes, including, ironically, night-riding, the way Ku Klux Klan exacted justice.

Little Rock lawyer Scipio Africanus Jones — who learned the law on his own because the University of Arkansas would not admit him — won the men their freedom after nearly six years of legal and political machinations. He worked with several white attorneys; the NAACP insisted on white lawyers and, ironically, did not at first trust the talents of Jones.

Crucial to the case were two affidavits, taken in January 1923, from men who had witnessed the massacre and taken part in the torture. In a clever legal maneuver, Jones was able to get the affidavits before the U.S. Supreme Court, and in February 1923 the court ruled that the state had failed to provide defendants due process rights guaranteed under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It was the first time the high court had applied the constitutional guarantee to a state judicial proceeding.

When Stockley published his careful and thorough book “Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919” in 2001, the story of Elaine was retold not as an insurrection against whites but a massacre of blacks. The white press in 1919, relying on accounts from the white power structure, relayed the event from a viewpoint born out of Arkansas’s deeply racist culture, one shaped by the pervasive and confident belief in that whites should rule: Rioting blacks meant to kill as many whites as they could. Considering the evidence — NAACP records thought lost, the affidavits and from personal interviews — some 80 years later, Stockley was able to right the record.

At first, Stockley, who’d written a series of legal thrillers, thought he might write a novel based on the events in Elaine. But the more he

ARKANSAS STATE ARCHIVES

A NAME AMONG THE NAMELESS: Frances Hall is among the few victims of the massacre who can be identified by name, her harrowing demise archived by journalist Robert Whitaker and the fearless Ida Wells-Barnett.

ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 25

learned about Elaine and Scipio Jones, the more he realized it was not the stuff of novels but a tragedy that needed to be documented.

Stockley’s work was followed in 2008 by Whitaker’s “On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation.” Whitaker’s is a lively narrative that fleshes out the evidence turned up by Stockley.

Yet, for all the words written — the books are dense with absorbing detail no magazine article can do justice — what was one of the worst race-related killings in U.S. history is largely unknown in Arkansas. Even in Phillips County, many people — maybe most people — say they never heard anything about the killings until recently. Even now, it’s not something discussed. “Peoples do not talk about the Elaine race riot,” Marvell activist Beatrice Clark Shelby told an interviewer at the University of Arkansas; it’s taboo.

That will change Sept. 29, when the Elaine Memorial Massacre will be dedicated in downtown Helena-West Helena.

ARKANSAS STATE ARCHIVES

------------------------------

ARKANSAS STATE ARCHIVES

SELF-TAUGHT ATTORNEY: Little Rock lawyer Scipio Africanus Jones (at desk above, at left below) won freedom for 12 black union members (six of them pictured below) after they were convicted of first-degree murder at farcical trials and sentenced to die.

26 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

Among those who were unaware of what had transpired in 1919 was David P. Solomon Jr. of New York and Helena. His father was a toddler when the massacre took place, and did not himself know about the event until he was an adult. Solomon Jr., 72, said he learned in the past few years that his grandfather (also named David) — a member of one of Helena’s prominent families — had volunteered to join a posse, but was turned down because he had young children at home.

Solomon and a committee of residents from Helena-West Helena and Little Rock have been working for the past eight or so years to erect a memorial in a park across from the county courthouse where the sham trials were held. One of its 8-foot-tall walls will be inscribed with a quote from Ezekiel: “Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.” Its three curving walls encompass what is hoped to feel like a sacred space, with a cenotaph in its midst and a map of Phillips County in 1919 imprinted on the floor. The cenotaph will be incised to read “Dedicated to those known and unknown who lost their lives in the 1919 massacre.”

There has been pushback “from all sides of the community” to the memorial, Solomon said. “White folks who don’t want to think their revered grandfather or great-grandfather did something. And black folks for various reasons, some on the basis the memorial will do nothing for poverty in Phillips County.” And they’re right about that, he said.

“That’s a problem the committee can’t deal with. This is a different problem.”

But, as an African-American man he knows once said to him, Elaine and Helena-West Helena “have been pushing [the history] under the rug so long, and they keep tripping on the rug.”

At the groundbreaking for the memorial in April 2018, U.S. District Judge Brian Miller, a native of Helena and the great-nephew of four brothers slain during the event, said the memorial would provide some peace to the souls of those who lay in unmarked graves in south Phillips County, and make peace between black and white. “It’s time to move

on,” he said. The memorial would “appropriately memorialize our fathers. I mean all our fathers.”

The dedication ceremony will be at 2 p.m.

Sept. 29. Miller will speak. Refreshments will follow in the courtroom where the trials were held.

-----------------------------The killing fields, as author Whitaker calls them, occurred mostly north of Elaine along the Missouri Pacific line, which runs north-south through the county; at the homes of sharecroppers along state Highway 44; and in the cotton fields and canebrakes. There were killings south of Elaine as well, and one on the Lambert Plantation west of Elaine.

Only 14 of the dead can be identified by name, which is why, Solomon explained, no names will appear on the memorial.

Among the 14 named was Frances Hall, the mother of Paul Hall (one of the 12 men sentenced to die). According to Whitaker, Frances Hall yelled at a white mob approaching her home, telling them to leave. They kept coming and, as Whitaker reports, first had a bit of fun: They tied Hall’s clothes over her head.

When she kept yelling, one man shot her in the throat. Her body tumbled down the steps and, according to a contemporaneous account by fearless African-American journalist Ida Wells-Barnett, lay in the road until soldiers picked her up. A photograph of Hall as she lay dead, her skirt up around her waist, is a picture of the cruelty and senselessness that was surely repeated many times over.

If it was a riot, Solomon said, “it was a white race riot.”

Solomon is paying for the memorial. (He wouldn’t say how much, but others on the memorial committee said the cost is $500,000.)

But the undertaking is not an apology, Solomon said. “I’m sorry that my family was involved in the wrong way. I’m sorry that people got killed.

I’m sorry that toxic race relations in Phillips County [continue], some as a result of the massacre, some not,” Solomon said.

Instead, he said, “The point of the memorial is to dedicate something to the memory of the people who were murdered, to acknowledge that it happened. Should reconciliation come out of it? Should this relieve community feeling? I don’t know. Should it get people talking about it? I don’t know.”

What it is, said a friend who accompanied Solomon to his interview at the Delta Cultural Center and who declined to share her name, is “a bit like a stone dropped in water,” its ripple spreading through town.

There are many from Elaine (pronounced with the accent on the E, like “email”) who are unhappy that the memorial will be in Helena-West Helena instead of Elaine. A group of people there has formed the Elaine Legacy Center, dubbed “The Birthplace of Civil Rights,” and the center has also hosted talks on the massacre. “We selected Helena for many reasons,” Solomon said. “One is that the closest restaurant to Elaine is on Cherry Street [in Helena],” Solomon said. “It ain’t so easy to find Elaine.”

(Elaine is 45 minutes southwest of Helena-West Helena on state Highway 44.) Too, Solomon’s prominent family of lawyers and landowners has been in Helena since the 19th century.

Solomon also sees it as a natural progression of civil rights sites, the midpoint between Little Rock’s Central High and the Lorraine Motel

in Memphis, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain and the location of the National Civil Rights Museum.

Solomon believes Elaine is a “misnomer” for the tragedy. Instead, he believes it should be called the South Phillips County massacre. It is fitting, he said, that the memorial is located in the park across from the county courthouse, where what he called “an abortion of justice” took place.

Too, there is no one in Elaine to pay for a memorial. The impoverished town, with a population barely above 500, has particularly suffered from the exodus of jobs and people from the Delta. Its schools have closed; students are bused to Marvell, 25 miles away. Buildings along the main street into town are falling down. More than half the black population lives below the poverty level.

------------------------------

Guy Lancaster, the editor of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas and author of “Bullets and Fire: Lynching and Authority in Arkansas, 18401950” and other works about white supremacy, would have Arkansans know not just about Elaine, but the entire state’s history of racial violence.

“People need to know about Elaine, but it wasn’t the exception. It was the rule. There were more than 370 lynchings between 1836 and 1896, and a whole lot of violence we haven’t been able to pin down,” Lancaster said. The 370 do not include the Elaine dead.

Lancaster would categorize the crimes perpetrated on the black citizens of Phillips County as state terrorism. “Lynching was an extension of the state’s power,” he said. Vigilante justice was state-sanctioned.

He gave an example from his hometown. In 1920 in Jonesboro, a white mob was able to force its way past the mayor, the chief of police and two circuit judges at the city jail to grab a black man being held for the alleged murder of a white police officer. The mayor, Gordon Frierson, later said he gave in because “when the mob opened the door, the first half-a-dozen men standing there were leading citizens — businessmen, leaders of their churches and the community.”

Lancaster continues to be “astonished” at the general lack of knowledge about Elaine, even as books and articles have been written about it.

“It’s not like we’re hiding it. It is somehow not on people’s radar.”

Only vague whispers about the story were passed down among families. “If you were white in Phillips County, you didn’t want to talk about it, especially during the ’60s and ’70s,” Lancaster said. “Even in the black community, you find a lot of silence about racial violence.

There is a shame attached to being a victim.”

-----------------------------Chester Johnson, who grew up in Arkansas, has trouble reconciling his loving grandfather’s role in the massacre.

Johnson, a poet and essayist, learned about Elaine as he was writing the Litany of Offense and Apology, which the Episcopal Church delivered in 2008 as its formal apology for the church’s role in slavery. It was then that he came across Wells-Barnett’s pamphlet on the massacre, which includes her first-person interviews with families and the Elaine 12. It triggered a memory of a family story about his grandfather participating in an event in East Arkansas in which many African Americans died.

Johnson has concluded that his grandfather, who worked for MoPac — “MoPac was up to its eyeballs” in assisting the posses, he said — had taken part in the massacre.

Johnson’s grandfather, Lonnie Birch, who raised Johnson until his mother, a widow,

could get her feet on the ground, “was the most loving, caring, singularly important figure in my life,” Johnson said. How is that same man one who might have taken part in the killings?

Knowing about Elaine, Johnson worked to make the story more widely known.

In 2013, Johnson attended a Christmas party with Solomon Jr. and briefly raised the issue of Elaine with him there. Later, over lunch, “We started talking further about Elaine [and] we both concluded that something needed to be done. … Out of that, David really took the bull by the horns, and this has become a very significant part of his life,” Johnson said.

Like Johnson, Sheila Walker is also the descendant of people involved in Elaine, and is of the same generation as Johnson. But Walker, who lives in Delaware, is black. Her great-uncle Albert Giles was one of the Elaine 12, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die. Another great-uncle, Milligan Giles, was convicted of second-degree murder when he was 15 years old and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was paroled in 1923 and pardoned by Gov. Sid McMath in 1951.

Walker, 71, who spent part of her childhood in Hot Springs, knew nothing of Elaine.

She loved her Uncle Jim, as she called Milligan Giles, who after his release from prison worked in the Hot Springs bathhouses. “He was the most gentle person I ever knew,” Walker said. “I don’t know how much Elaine affected him, but he showed a child love. … I remember sitting behind him; I liked to comb his hair. He was part Choctaw. My grandmother would say, ‘Leave Jim alone.’ ” During a trip to Arkansas, when Walker was 25 and living in Chicago, Walker’s grandmother, Annie Alford, began to tell her a story about what had happened to her as a girl. She ARKANSASTIMES.COM

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PATRICIA KIENZLE

ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER: David P. Solomon Jr., Sheila Walker, Chester Johnson (together, at left), Rev. Ray Brown (center) and Kyle Miller (right) are among those reckoning with the memorial’s role in the lives of Phillips County’s citizens.

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said she was in a church, and had to jump out of a window. Then Alford went into hysterics and could not finish the story. “Each time I would visit, I would ask and I would get the same result,” Walker said.

“She must be talking about Elaine,” Alford’s daughter, Walker’s mother, said.

It wasn’t until years later that Walker read Stockley’s and Whitaker’s books. She decided to contact Whitaker.

“He asked me would I be willing to meet someone on the other side, and I said, ‘Yes, why not?’ ” Whitaker put Walker in touch with Chester Johnson, and after a two-hour talk on the phone and months of emailing back and forth, Johnson and Walker met at Walker’s son’s home in Boston. He showed her pictures of his grandfather. She talked about her past. “I could do nothing but embrace Chester. We sat down on the sofa and the next thing I know we are holding hands,” Walker said. “I knew upon our first meeting that with Chester I had an ally. I didn’t know where it was going to lead or what.”

Where it led was several symposiums with Johnson, at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York, at the UA in Fayetteville and at the Delta Cultural Center in Helena-West Helena. They told their stories. At the New York symposium, Walker told the group she forgave Johnson’s grandfather more than Johnson did. In Helena, she called it “divine intervention” that they met.

-----------------------------Among the 14 known victims of the Elaine massacre were the Johnston brothers, four wellto-do black sons of Helena. David Augustine Elihue Johnston, a dentist, was married to Maria Miller, the daughter of Abraham Miller, the head of the most prominent black family in Helena.

Gibson and Leroy Johnston were WWI veterans and were setting up a car dealership when they were slain. Louis Johnston was a physician visiting from Oklahoma. The four brothers were returning from a hunting trip Oct. 2 in their car when they were stopped in Ratio, a town south of Elaine, and advised that it was safer to take the train home. But in Elaine, the brothers were taken off the train and arrested for providing ammunition to the “insurrectionists.” They were bound hand and foot with chains and put in the back seat of a car. According to the white account, one of the Johnston brothers was somehow able to get a gun away from one the captors and killed him. The remaining whites turned their guns on the Johnstons and dumped their bodies in the road.

A photograph of the bodies exists. It is now in the possession of Brian Miller.

Brian Miller’s younger brother, Kyle, still lives in Helena-West Helena, where he is the director of the Delta Cultural Center. Though he’d heard family tales growing up, Kyle Miller said he

BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

didn’t know the whole story until the 2001 UA symposium on Elaine at the DCC. “I had a reaction that maybe you wouldn’t expect,” Kyle Miller said in a recent interview. “I know this is going to sound crazy. I was relieved. I was relieved because, you know, family stories, you hear these stories and believe them to be true, but always ... maybe … there’s a portion in your mind where you wonder what’s folklore and what’s been embellished.” That could be one reason why the story of Elaine has been suppressed: It’s too awful to be believed.

Though his great-uncles were killed in Elaine, Kyle Miller, who is part of the memorial committee, said the Helena site makes sense, adding, wryly, “You have some in south Phillips County who are perfectly happy it’s not in South Phillips County.” Miller added he’s “fairly confident” that there are no descendants of victims in the Hoop Spur area still living in Elaine. “Everybody left. They got out.”

Dr. Brian Mitchell, a professor of history at UA Little Rock, has turned up a 1920 article in the Topeka Plaindealer newspaper reporting that 200 people from Elaine were living on the streets in that city and asking that churches come to their aid.

Thanks to research by Mitchell and his public history graduate students, we now know where some of the Elaine 12 went after Scipio Africanus Jones won their freedom. With one known ex-

ception, it’s believed the men fled Arkansas, sure they’d be hunted down and lynched once freed from prison.

Frank Moore, the lead plaintiff in the seminal Moore v. Dempsey case before the U.S. Supreme Court that triggered the eventual release of six of the defendants (the other six, the so-called Ware defendants, were freed by the state Supreme Court), moved to Chicago and worked as a security guard. He died in 1932 and his body was sent back to the National Cemetery in Little Rock.

Ed Ware — like Moore, a leading member of the union that the white landowners so feared — made his way to St. Louis. His wife, Lulu, also a member of the union and who, like many wives, found her house and possessions plundered after she was released from jail, accompanied him. They died in St. Louis and were buried there.

Alfred Banks also went to St. Louis, working as a laborer for a steel company. He’s buried in Centerville, Ill. Joseph Knox, who sang spirituals to the men on death row, served as a pastor in Little Rock. He died in 1941 and is buried in Little Rock’s Haven of Rest Cemetery.

Albert Giles moved to Springfield, Ill., where he ran a speakeasy and gambling house. He died of injuries he suffered in a fist fight, Mitchell’s research shows, though Sheila Walker’s family story is that his abused wife poured poison in his ear.

Ed Coleman, who was 70 when the Hoop Spur shooting occurred, was the oldest man ever to be placed on Arkansas’s death row. His wife was killed in the massacre. He moved to Memphis, where he worked as a laborer; he died three years after his release. His body was returned to an unknown cemetery in Arkansas; Mitchell’s class is still searching for the location.

Though it’s unconfirmed, it’s believed that Paul Hall, whose mother was taunted and killed, survived the longest, dying in an assisted living home in Ohio in 1963.

The difficulty in tracing the 12, Mitchell said, is likely because they changed their names, as did the union organizer Robert Hill, who was not in Elaine during the massacre but who believed he surely would be lynched. He was spirited out of Arkansas and made it to Topeka, Kan. Angry letters from Helena residents demanding Hill’s extradition helped convince the Kansas governor that Hill, who was not part of the events in Elaine, would be lynched if he were made to return. Hill changed his name to Smith.

What about those who died in Phillips County who lie in unmarked graves, some possibly in mass graves? Mitchell believes the state and the federal governments owe it to the descendants of the massacre to investigate. At a June 1 seminar at Little Rock’s Mosaic Templars Cultural Center on the aftermath of the massacre, the history professor told the audience, “I believe there is a responsibility on the part of the federal government and the state government to do whatever it can to find out what actually happened and the scope of the violence that took place there.”

In Tulsa, Okla., the Oklahoma Archeological Survey will conduct a six-week investigation of the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, in which a white mob killed 300 blacks and burned a black neighborhood of 35 city blocks to the ground. But 35 city blocks is nothing compared to the size of Phillips County, where farmland has been leveled and woods cut.

Kyle Miller said there should be a way to find the graves. “I have a hard time believing that there’s not somebody who doesn’t know where the bodies are. Somebody knows.”

Mitchell, Lancaster and Stockley are working on a follow-up book to “Blood in Their Eyes,” and among the new information they’ve turned up are American Legion minute books from 1919 to 1925.

The book documents an October 1920 resolution passed by the Legionnaires protesting any consideration of a commutation of the death sentences given the 12 men. The Legionnaires had been promised the 12 would be found guilty even before the men went to trial. The resolution: “At the time of this race riot, the members of this Post were called upon to go to Hoop Spur and Elaine to protect life and property, and in compliance with this request, there were two American Legion members killed and one seriously injured, besides the other nonmembers who also perished, and when the guilty negroes were apprehended, a solemn promise was given by the leading citizens of the community that, if these guilty parties were not lynched, and let the law take its course, that justice would be done and the majesty of the law upheld.”

-----------------------------How are race relations today in Helena? On the positive side, a black woman who served in the Middle East was the first African American ARKANSASTIMES.COM

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“I have a hard time believing that there’s not somebody who doesn’t know where the bodies are,” Miller said.

“Somebody knows.” to join the American Legion’s chapter there, invited by the post commander. On the other hand, two members of the post resigned.

Kyle Miller thinks race relations in the Helena of today are improved. “I think that, for one thing, the fact that we’re sitting here talking about Elaine says to me that growth has taken place, that reconciliation is going forward and that progress is being made,” he told this reporter.

And the Rev. Ray Brown says he believes that the people of Helena-West Helena, he said, “sincerely want things better.”

Brown is new to Helena-West Helena, assigned to St. John’s Episcopal Church three and a half years ago. St. John’s was founded in 1853, and some of Helena’s oldest families are members. It was in St. John’s basement where the American Legion met to draw up its resolution.

Brown learned of the Elaine massacre from Chester Johnson, and he has read the books, trial transcripts and the affidavits that persuaded the Supreme Court that Arkansas had not given the 12 a fair trial. Rather than preach to folks to change their minds about the historical events, he tells those who ask to know more that “ ‘I have some material that I think might inform your thinking.’ Some folks want to see it. Others said no, they’re not interested. I always take no as ‘no, I’m not interested now.’ ” The congregation at St. John’s is much diminished from previous years. It is also integrated. And its members are “incredibly generous, giving money and time,” Brown said.

U.S. Census data in 2018 put the Helena-West Helena poverty rate at 42 percent. Three or more people come to the church’s door seeking help every week. The church spends thousands of dollars out of the rector’s discretionary fund and from gifts from church members to help those people. Brown has not heard anyone “fighting to defend the old narrative” of black insurrection. “But what I do hear is, ‘Will this memorial help us continue to move forward or will it create dissension?

My thoughts are that matters of justice are just that. They matter. It’s important.” And along with the words from Ezekiel, Brown has another Biblical verse to apply to the Elaine massacre: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

-----------------------------When Adriene Corbin was growing up in Helena-West Helena, she heard terrible stories of lynchings. “My mom had a relative who was burned and drug behind horses,” she said. She 30 AUGUST 2019

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personally experienced fear: During the civil rights movement, freedom riders were welcome at her house. “I remember as a kid all of us having to lie on the floor. My dad had received threats that Caucasian men in town were going to come and shoot the house up.”

But Corbin didn’t know about the Elaine killings. “Never heard anything about it. Not in school, not from family,” she said. Instead, she learned it from a student when she was getting a graduate degree in New York.

As the public relations person for the Delta Cultural Center, Corbin finds herself writing press releases touting the town’s annual reenactment of the Battle of Helena and the town’s many Confederate landmarks. “There’s a lot of history in Helena and a lot of it is the Civil War. There’s a great contingent of people throughout the country that participate, and not just from a Confederate point of view,” she said. So, it brings revenue to town. She can see how the monuments to the seven Confederate generals the town produced might feel oppressive to some — the “heavy spirit” that hangs over Phillips County, as Brian Miller put it.

But there is also Freedom Park, built on the site where black refugees — labeled “contraband” by the Union Army — first camped when the Union took over Helena. Freedom Park has been designated a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site. Cathy Cunningham, the director of the town’s Advertising and Promotion Commission, would like to see a memorial to Scipio Jones.

Corbin, also a member of the memorial committee, said the two reactions she hears to the project are “let old dogs lie” or “this is the way to heal.”

“Some of them think it’s a great way to start healing,” she said. There are those who suffer still from the events 100 years ago. “We still have people suffering under the trauma of those stories. … On some kind of level it feels like there is some kind of cellular connection that will impact their life today.”

There is plenty of evidence of intergenerational trauma. White supremacy has had a detrimental economic and psychological impact on African American families through the centuries. The legacy of slavery is reproduced with every generation in which certain classes of Americans have been denied the right to vote, the right to an education, the right to life itself — be these denials perpetrated via faceless bureacracy or baseless violence. And when mothers and fathers pass along to their children the tools needed to navigate this violent world and make it home alive, they pass along, by necessity, the memories of those who did not. These memories, this vital information, can be all that

parents have when the legacy of slavery has stripped them of everything else.

As Sheila Walker said in one of the Elaine symposiums she was invited to partake in, reflecting on being raised poor, “I wonder, if [Elaine] hadn’t happened, my family would be better situated. If they had gotten some money from those crops, they could buy a small farm.”

The U.S. House of Representatives held hearings in June on a bill that would authorize $12 million for a commission to study the effects of slavery and make recommendations for reparations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the House bill, saying he didn’t see the need to apologize for “something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living is responsible.”

But as Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his eloquent and lengthy argument for reparations, wrote in The Atlantic, “One cannot escape the question by hand-waving at the past, disavowing the acts of one’s ancestors, nor by citing a recent date of ancestral immigration. The last slaveholder has been dead for a very long time. The last soldier to endure Valley Forge has been dead much longer. To proudly claim the veteran and disown the slaveholder is patriotism à la carte. A nation outlives its generations. We were not there when Washington crossed the Delaware, but Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s rendering has meaning to us. We were not there when Woodrow Wilson took us into World War I, but we are still paying out the pensions. If Thomas Jefferson’s genius matters, then so does his taking of Sally Hemings’s body. If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge,” the slave who fled his household.

-----------------------------On Nov. 16, 2018, Leroy Johnston, one of the four Johnston brothers ambushed and killed in Elaine, was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. The award was a correction of a past wrong: Though Johnston, who served in the Army’s 369th Infantry, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters, was wounded in battle in France in September 1918 and required a lengthy convalescence, his medical records were altered at some point. A notation that his injuries were severe was changed to read “slightly.”

Historian Mitchell discovered the records, and contacted the Army and 2nd District U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-Little Rock) and won for Johnston the overdue honors. Johnston was also awarded the World War I Victory Medal for his service in France and the World War I Victory Button. A wrong was righted, even if it came 100 years after his battle wounds were inflicted.

ARKANSAS STATE ARCHIVES

CAPTURED: Soldiers from Camp Pike lead black men into Elaine in 1919.

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Volta, A Requiem

POEM AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSHUA ASANTE

children of the scarlet Scattering, my heart turns counterclockwise and burns backwards into you. timed ties are singed and come undone. i know you are there.

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and that you are also here, in the ache of the now and the hollow of yester. it does not matter to me what others think. life peels us like capsules of blood until only love remains. only the longing, or fear. and we continue on beyond the semicolon of death.

that is what they could not know, the seekers of your light and land, they themselves wrung out and exposed by their lusts. was it the twilight in your skin that set their minds upon the assegai of rage, into the murderous indifference of the sea rebirthing itself. was it your dance or your blues and hollers,

coded in tongues that would not beckon them beyond their peripheral lives? when you reached for the warmth of suns that were not there, and for lovers and children that you could not shield, what joys seeped and wilted their hearts? envy is a blue spell turned red, claiming the edges and roots. and now your bodies/

braided in atrophy/ blazed upon pyres for 6 nights/ weighted into the Mississippi/ and into earthen furrows hewn from the soils that sing your names/ Eugenia Leroy Louis Gibson Hattie Ruth Walker Willie Calvin Edward Granger Glass Jackson are churning.

for it is the yearly Gathering of ghosts in my throat, so i am wearing my grandmother’s ring. the one with the Gilded coin. they do not speak to me. they tie my words together by their tails. two by two. three by three. and i can do nothing. be nothing. until they are gone. i beseech, let me kiss war from your mouths, spew it all into the waterways of the Delta rich with the sediments of your bones. i am your son and song.

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More than memorials IN A BROKEN PRESENT-DAY ELAINE, LOCALS STRATEGIZE ABOUT ECONOMIC REVIVAL.

BY KATTI GRAY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

GATEWAY TO ELAINE: Rev. Mary Olson, president of the Elaine Legacy Center, hopes to turn the building into a museum.

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A

n architect had come over from Little Rock, the Rev. Mary Olson said, to assess what it would take to turn a busted-up building into a museum about the slaughtered, the men who killed them and how so great a sin can never be washed clean.

She bought that old storefront with her own money, she said, determined to help Elaine — population 510 — generate jobs and become a destination for those curious to know how a historic act of terror can teach some essential life lessons. It will one day house the Elaine Legacy Center, where Olson is president.

The building sits on the northwest corner of Main Street, where it intersects Quarles Road, forming a gateway into what an outsider might easily dismiss as a near-ghost town. Olson’s building is cater-corner across Main from the old Crumrod store. A sibling duo who graduated from Elaine High School and who, as kindergarteners helped their sharecropper parents work the fields, acquired the unoccupied Crumrod building in August 2018 for $3,500 in back taxes.

They’re strategizing on what type of business to open there.

“My father is buried in Elaine, behind First Baptist Church, and his mom [is buried] in the graveyard at Morning Star, just before you cross the railroad track,” said Charlie McClain, 57, a Florida fitness company executive who bought the Crumrod building with his sister. “Elaine was a special place to me growing up. It was special to a lot of people. We don’t want Elaine to not exist someday.”

Whoever last occupied the storefront that Olson purchased, aiming to partner with McClain and others in revitalizing Elaine, left a hodgepodge of stuff inside: A cash register. Shelving. Jars of pickle juice. Folger’s coffee cans. A vintage, industrial-sized refrigerator. There’s a whopping hole where part of the floor fell in.

Standing outside her building that midday in June, she said she’d heard rumors that the floor cratered during a botched effort to set up a liquor bar. Someone before her, she added, considered that the building and, thereby, Elaine, held some promise.

“We’re really an epicenter of race relations and economic need,” Olson, 80, said. “And Elaine has so much potential. We’re just beginning to recognize that.”

Chicago-born, Wisconsin-reared Olson, a white woman, has been navigating these parts since the United Methodist Church dispatched her here in 1999, she said. Methodist leaders had ordained her in 1984, yes, to preach. But, more urgently, they charged her with working to bridge divisions along race, class and other fault lines. The 1919 race massacre, and its residue, give Elaine a singularly rarefied place along that fraught trajectory.

Elaine’s potential remains to be fully proven, at least in terms of dollars and cents. Still, a new and improved Elaine, Olson and other locals contend, would mean much for the men, women and children living there amid the ghosts of an infamous 1919 white-on-black massacre, with their accumulated grievances. For one, sewer drainage is so bad on the black side of town, some folks can’t flush their toilets when

it rains. But, also, some said, they must hold on to hope. How do we, some ask, disrupt Elaine’s freefall into wherever it is that seemingly forgotten, neglected, out-of-sight people and places descend?

“We can walk around free, we got nature, we ain’t got no gang-bangers or no whole lot of violence in Elaine. We don’t get judged by our color,” said Kamariah Daniels, 13, launching into her viewpoints on Elaine by first noting what she likes about her hometown. She was inside the legacy center’s current headquarters, an old school building on College Avenue, in June.

Then, she gave a counterpoint: “We really need stores, we really need jobs, we need a swimming pool … ” she said.

Other kids interjected.

“We need a Walmart,” said Adrianna Esters, 10.

“We need to open back up our schools so kids don’t have to drive 30 minutes to Marvell every day to go to school,” said Zia Green, 11.

A caravan of vehicles was about to ferry those children and their adult chaperones for a summer afternoon at a public pool in Helena-West Helena, roughly 35 minutes away, up state Highway 44. The group was departing from the Elaine Legacy Center, led by James White, 58, an Elaine native, father of 12 and legacy center director. Among other duties, White oversees the center’s food pantry and clothes closet for the poor and its youth programs.

White owns a now weekends-only convenience store, The Spot, on the same side of Main Street as Olson’s dreamt-of museum to commemorate 1919, and, thereby, spur dialogue and action that builds bridges among different races and classes of people.

“We have a filling station in town that sells some stuff but not enough of what people need.

So, I’m hoping this fall to run my convenience store full time,” said White, who bought his storefront two years ago. “I also want to put in a barber shop for the community. We don’t have one. We are looking for ways to send some people to barber college. In Elaine, we need so much of so many things.”

Back in February, White was among those testifying at the “Elaine, Arkansas Race Massacre Truth Seeking Conference,” hosted by the Chicago-based Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference, a United Nations-sanctioned nonprofit that has been investigating, among other things, unadjudicated race crimes.

Proctor, the conference’s namesake, was a pastor of Harlem’s vaunted Abyssinian Baptist Church, university president and friend and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. The February testifiers included, as they were listed on that day’s agenda, “heirs of 1919,” black people with handed-down tales of how whites stole land from blacks in Elaine and adjacent farming communities, then killed hundreds of black people. Who, those sometimes weeping, sometimes matter-of-fact testifiers asked, is going to pay for that?

Brian Mitchell, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock history professor, has followed the Elaine story. He’s urging that graves where those slain blacks were dumped be located ARKANSASTIMES.COM

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and excavated so that, forensically, certain questions can be answered.

Some parts of this — no matter what Mitchell might unearth — may never be satisfactorily settled.

“Oral traditions are really big in the black community. Inside of all those stories, there are some things that are true and some things that are embellished … . As yet, we’ve not found any proof, no evidence whatsoever of black land ownership,” Mitchell said.

Making a case for paying reparations to descendants of a white-on-black land theft is a huge task, said Margaret Burnham, a Northeastern University Law School professor who heads the school’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project and who sat on that Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference panel gathering testimony in

tor Conference hearing on the Elaine massacre is being compiled and contextualized. There are no specific plans about what to do with the coming report based on that testimony, said Olson, who helped spearhead the event, hosted at her center.

Whatever happens with it, said the Rev. Anthony Davis, 63, a retired Pine Bluff schoolteacher and sometimes preacher whose family is among the black landowners in Phillips County, the hearing allowed a needed airing of the issues, pent-up anger and angst.

“There is so much doom and gloom in Elaine,” said Davis, who’d testified in February about what elders of his own family had told him about the massacre. “It’s a shame that a landscape so beautiful has been stained so badly. The people still walk around like zombies, tip-toeing around these ghosts that just won’t

ers own big swaths of farmland in Elaine and Phillips County; one of those who owns large stretches of acreage is one of Carpenter’s most reliable customers.

It’s also a fact of farming that more and more machines are doing the work that used to be done by field hands. That aside, Carpenter’s betting that better things are ahead for Elaine: “We are not totally forsaken.”

Yet, it takes a certain steeliness and optimism to live and venture to do business in Elaine, said Rickey Lee McCraney Jr., 29, a trucker who returned to his hometown in May 2018. After his father died, he wanted to keep closer watch on his mom. In addition to trucking, he owns and operates R&L Pit Stop, a combination auto repair-and-detailing business and community events space.

Elaine. “You need a legal accounting, records,” said Burnham, a former state judge in Massachusetts. It’s well documented that Tulsa’s Greenwood community, including its “Black Wall Street” business district, was 36 blocks long before whites burned it to the ground in 1921 and murdered an estimated 300 blacks.

(Today, mainly white-owned restaurants, clubs, boutiques and hotels are in spaces that, before the massacre, housed black-owned businesses.)

Also, well documented was the all-black Rosewood community in Florida, Burnham said.

That state’s lawmakers in 1994 approved $2 million in reparations to descendants of those who lost property in 1923, when whites incinerated Rosewood. Nine living survivors also received reparations checks. Before that payment, Florida lawmakers had hired experts to develop a special report on Rosewood.

“This is not the kind of work one community group can do successfully, on its own,” Burnham said. Thus far, nationwide, Northeastern’s restorative justice project has archived 500 cases of land once owned by but stolen from or otherwise lost by blacks, from 1930 through 1970.

“We explore these cases,” she said, “investigate them and bring them back home.”

Testimony gleaned at last February’s Proc-

lay down and die.”

It’s no wonder, he said, that so much of Elaine today is so hollowed out.

More storefronts than not on Elaine’s threeblock-long, dusty, cob-webbed Main Street are vacant. Even so, the strip’s occupied buildings include the post office; Southern Bancorp, a partly rural-development-focused bank that replaced Delta State Bank; Elaine Baptist Church, which covers almost a whole block; and Delta Grill, with outdoor flower boxes hanging from its windows. One of the area’s big-time farming families owns the grill.

The spanking new thing on those three blocks is a house with a slate-black and charcoal-gray façade and a front door colored in coral. It’s cutting-edge, could be on a magazine cover. Gary Carpenter, 67, owner of Delta Hardware & Lumber, designed and built it and lives there.

“We had the best year ever in 2018,” Carpenter said of sales at the store, which his grandfather established, his father later ran and passed on to his son.

“There’s no question in my mind,” Carpenter added. “Elaine has bottomed out. I think it’s got a future, even if some farmers won’t survive.”

It’s true that some wealthy out-of-town-

“I serve people in this community who can’t afford to pay the usual hourly rates to get their vehicle fixed,” McCraney said. “The building I’m in was one that had been used by the school system. It had sat empty for 13 years. It symbolizes what happened when the schools closed, and the town sort of dried up.

“This lot was a mess, a totally overgrown field of grass and weeds. It ain’t much to look at it now, but it’s way better than what it was. I can see the potential, that this could be a pot of gold for me and a way of giving back to Elaine.”

It bears noting, added McCraney, who is black, that Gary Carpenter, who is white, was the first in Elaine to extend him a line of credit to get his business off the ground. “This place is still really segregated. But people are coming together more and more. We’re realizing we cannot do this without each other.”

In 2010, the U.S. Census counted 636 people in Elaine, where the population peaked in 1970 at 1,210 and, according to the Census’s 2018 estimates, dropped to 510. In 2010, blacks accounted for 61 percent of those individuals and whites for 37 percent. By latest count, in 2017, Elaine’s average household income was $16,547 annually, down from $24,808 in 2010. In 2017, 26 percent of households earned less than $10,000

36 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

yearly and 3 percent of them earned more than $200,000 yearly.

Those are race-riven economics. Elaine’s major landowners, a minority of people, have always been white. Elaine’s black majority has provided the bulk of farm labor.

“The last time I worked on a farm, doing a favor for the brother of a white friend of mine, I made $10 an hour because I demanded that. I wouldn’t work for less,” said the legacy center’s White. “Most of the people were making less, $7.50, $6. At that point, I knew I would never work on a farm again.”

“Elaine is a typical Mississippi Delta town,” said Lucien Webster, a former school superintendent and mayor of Elaine. “It’s dying — like all these towns up and down the river are dying.

There’s not a big demand for labor here, which

Center in Helena-West Helena, where he was an adult coordinator. He’s now the board president for the Helena-West Helena-Phillips County Port Authority and is active at the Elaine Legacy Center as its honorary chairman.

He remains one of a handful of residents — black, white or other — who regularly attend city council meetings. “The last time I was at a city council meeting,” he said, in mid-summer 2019, “it was about the problem we have with drainage. When it rains, we can’t flush our toilets. It infuriates and perplexes me … . Though I do sometimes think the city council and mayor deliberately won’t do anything about it because some of our people, black people, keep throwing trash in the ditches.”

Inside City Hall, photos of most in that lineage of white mayors line one wall. On the

forging a path forward. The massacre should be rightly positioned in history. But there also needs to be a pivot, something more than mere memorials, some residents said.

“We need better drainage, jobs, better streets throughout the city — better, better, better … ” said Quiney, who also is active in the Elaine Legacy Center and testified back in February. “In some ways, I’m tired of talking about this massacre — though I cannot possibly stop talking about it. I’m tired of people asking, of journalists asking, of the student doing her thesis who wanted to know, well, everything. What do the people of Elaine get in exchange for giving all that away? Where is our compensation?”

What’s next? That’s what’s being asked by Quiney and others who want a revival in Elaine, who know Elaine is on the brink.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR ELAINE?: That’s what’s being asked by White (left), Carpenter, (center), Quiney (right) and others who want a revival in Elaine. is a bad deal. A lot of people are in a bad situation. They have nowhere to go. People are not happy. They’re depressed, they give up. Having jobs changes the attitude of people. I believe that. I’ve always believed that.”

The current mayor, Michael Cravens, did not respond to repeated Arkansas Times requests to be interviewed about his views on Elaine.

In the town where Cravens is the latest in a white-only succession of mayors, Main Street is a demarcation. Residents with addresses south of Main are mostly, but not exclusively, white. Those with addresses north of main are mostly black.

William Quiney III, 81, is a black man who lives on the north side. His wife Willie Mae’s grandfather told her about the massacre; he said his people owned land that whites took from them.

Roughly four years ago, Quiney said, the city for the first time paved the street in front of his brick home, which is as pretty and pristinely maintained as many in town. Making him and his neighbors on Nelson Street wait for asphalt — a big step up from gravel they used to get — was a punishment for speaking out on Elaine’s festering inequalities, said Quiney, who is retired from the Phillips County Developmental

opposite wall is a years-old photograph of the then-15-member Elaine Fire Department. One of the 15 was black.

One of the white firefighters is the now-40year-old son of Tricia Caery, a City Hall secretary. Her son is no longer with the fire department; he took a better-paying job in a different Delta town. “A lot of people left here,” said Caery, born and reared in Elaine. “Especially after the schools shut down, it seems like a lot of people moved away. My husband said when his parents died, we’d move. But they died and we stayed put, I guess, because this is home.”

One of Caery’s key City Hall colleagues, Police Chief Alvin Scaife, is a black man, who supplements his law-enforcement salary with a side gig on a farm he does not own. Two police officers, one black, one white, comprise the rest of Elaine’s police force. In July, a storm was brewing over the firing of the first black, a woman, to ever work for the city as something other than a firefighter or cop. She’s filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and, depending upon how that’s settled, may sue to have her case heard in court.

Hard, decisive action on several fronts is what’s required if Elaine has any prospect of

“A lot of people who live in Elaine have never been anywhere, they don’t know any other way,” said McClain, new co-owner of the old Crumrod store. “I have friends who, literally, died on the vine, way too young, working on those farms but never earning much of anything. If someone who cared saw this shell of a town and really, truly wanted to make it a place that people would be attracted to … .” That would be a marvelous thing, McClain said. The idea of what Elaine could be compels him.

It also fires octogenarian Olson. Elaine’s century-old terrors are instructive right now, she said, on an afternoon when two fiftysomething-year-old sisters from Helena-West Helena, Julia Meritt and Rebecca Meritt, who’d gotten lost during a day’s road trip to anywhere, landed at Olson’s legacy center. They knew a bit about the massacre. Olson gave them an impromptu primer and talked about what — in addition to upcoming bike trails along Elaine’s Mississippi River edges and the planned Dollar General on Elaine’s Main Street and that dreamt-of museum — she hoped would be made real.

“They’re tourists,” she said, of those women.

That they got lost, ending up in her audience of two, was no accident. “You see, if we just tell the story, people will come.”

ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 37

CULTURE

‘GOOD NOISE’: Shakey Joe’s harmonica microphones were inspired by technologies used in the development of hearing aids.

Viva Shakey Joe

HOW HARMONICA MICROPHONES FASHIONED BY AN ALPENA TRANSPLANT HAVE LANDED IN STEVEN TYLER’S HANDS — AND IN DAVID BOWIE’S DREAMS.

BY DANIEL FORD PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON 38 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

I

n 1991, while playing harmonica in the typically frantic style that earned him the nickname “Shakey Joe,” Joe Harless dropped and broke the microphone that he had been using to amplify his playing. Strapped for cash, he decided to rely on his experience as a draftsman to design and build a replacement on his own.

Armed with little more than $167 and the assurances of a distributor that his homemade microphone was a winning design, Shakey Joe and his wife, Dawn, converted their Chandler, Ariz., back porch into a workshop and started a company out of thin air: Shaker Microphones.

By 2019, the Harlesses had relocated to Alpena, just south of Harrison, and brought with them a starry customer-base that includes the likes of David Bowie, Huey Lewis and famed jazz harmonica player Peter “Madcat” Ruth.

-----------------------------When Harless and his wife decided to start Shaker Microphones out of their home, Harless was 39 years old, working as a landscaper. He had three young boys. Unable to quit his day job, Harless worked nights and weekends to develop and build a prototype of what he considered a vast improvement on the current state of harmonica microphones. Old-fashioned and bulky, microphones for harmonicas (or harps, as they are often called) hadn’t seen a lot of innovation since the 1940s. Harless wanted to build a microphone that worked more organically with the way a harmonica is actually played.

“I wanted something that fit in the hand and didn’t take a lot of effort to continue to hold,” Harless said. “So I went and got clay and I started actually doing clay models to fit in the hand — in my hands — and I had others try it out.”

The result was an ergonomically designed microphone, made with a proprietary mixture of thermosetting resins that allowed the mic to weigh only 3.5 ounces, as opposed to others that weighed as much as 18 ounces.

Harless was also focused on sound, particularly on controlling and eliminating unwanted feedback, a persistent enemy of harp players everywhere. “I went to a couple of conventions where they sell hearing aids and discuss hearing technologies, and I took that information and came up with a technology we call GNS — that stands for Good Noise Sampling,” Harless explained. “The physics of the mic are actually different; our microphones don’t function like anybody else’s.”

The GNS technology developed by Harless allows for a much more nuanced amplification of sound. “With the GNS technology, you can actually play the microphone also,” Harless said.

“You get different effects, different tonalities … it’s a different animal.”

That Harless’ innovations were much needed in the industry is evidenced by the rapid — and hard-earned — success the company had in its early days in Arizona. In 1992, about six months after developing his first prototypes, Harless was encouraged to attend the National Association of Music Merchants annual show in Anaheim, Calif., considered to be the largest trade-only music prod-

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A FAMILY AFFAIR: C.F. Martin ordered 268 of Harless’ microphones to distribute nationally, a humongous order for an operation being run by a man, his wife and his three sons from the back porch of their home.

40 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

“My wife is very good on a drill press,” Harless said. uct and technology convention in the world.

Harless was told that no distributor would be likely to order any products in their first year of production out of a fear of the unknown. His microphones, however, drew the eye of some of the largest music distributors in the country, including C.F. Martin & Co., known most widely for its Martin guitars. “[The C.F. Martin distributor] came to us, and he said, ‘I love it, play this,’ and I played it,” Harless said. “He looked at me and said, ‘You know, no one signs any company right away, but I’m gonna make an exception.’ ” At Harless’ very first appearance at the NAMM show in 1992, C.F. Martin ordered 268 microphones to distribute nationally, a humongous order for an operation being run by a man, his wife and his three sons from the back porch of their home. Unable to secure a business loan — financial institutions tended to balk at the absence of a traditional engineering background — Shaker relied on the generosity of those in his community, with loans from his parents, his brother-in-law and his sister. Even an old girlfriend chipped in.

“It was hard man, it was really hard,” Harless said. “I think we had 21 days to fill those first 268 orders, and we had to work around the clock seven days a week until we got the first orders filled.”

From that point on, the quality of the microphone, the national distribution and Harless’ relentless and effective salesmanship snowballed into an increasingly successful operation. By 1996, Shaker Microphones had picked up additional distributors in the United States, Australia, Japan and across Europe. Over that period, Harless and his family had gone from four prototype microphones to an annual production of about 2,700 — all handmade with American materials found as close to home as possible.

“I had [my family] working with me at night,” Harless said. “My wife is very good on a drill press. It’s a big machine that you can drill through steel and stuff.”

About a year later, Harless stood at the end of a tunnel, backstage at an arena in Tempe, Ariz. At the other end of the hallway was Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame. Tyler was such a fan of Shaker Microphones that he had not only

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2019-2020 LRSD Student Calendar Available online now Print calendar coming soon!

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Some wonderful accomplishments to celebrate: • Graduation rates improve from 74% three years ago to 82% this year • LRSD’s 2018 Teacher of the Year selected as 2019 Arkansas Teacher of the Year - Stacey McAdoo • State Champs in Swimming and Tennis • 2nd Lien Loan Projects – HVAC, roofs, security camera/alarm upgrades, air conditioning at all high school gyms, resolution of drainage issues at Dunbar, turf/track/field improvements for Central, Fair and Hall • Scholarship total of $23.0 million • ViPS Partnerships - $27.2 million in volunteer support • $150,000 grant for new Health Clinic at Chicot Elementary to support the Southwest community • Little Rock Southwest High School, slated to open in 2020, will be one of the largest state-of-the-art secondary campuses in Arkansas • LRSD’s Pre-K/Early Childhood Centers continue to serve as one of the strongest early learning programs in the State • Career Education Expansion – doubled student numbers in medical program and Police and Fire Academies

We look forward to seeing all our students and staff for an AMAZING 2019-2020 school year!

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AN ALPENA EXPORT: Harless’ microphones have been used by legends like David Bowie, Steven Tyler, Van Morrison and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. bought three and used them for both recording and live shows, but had personally invited Harless to the arena so he could meet the man behind the microphones.

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In the mid-aughts, on their way back to Arizona from a music distribution convention in Nashville, Tenn., the Harlesses took an impromptu detour, leaving Interstate 40 while passing through Arkansas to drive up National Scenic Byway 7, eventually settling in Harrison for the night. Harless, harmonicas in hand, went out to see some local sights and landed at the historic Hotel Seville, where a band of local teenagers was jamming.

As tends to happen when a man carries multiple harmonicas on his person, Harless ended up on stage alongside the band, lending an assist on Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

“I went back home to the motel,” Harless said, “and I was stoked ... this is a pretty cool town.”

Three days later, after returning to their home in Arizona, Dawn Harless was calling a real estate agent in Harrison.

Just like that, the Harless family and Shaker Microphones moved to Alpena, a community of less than 400 people about 14 miles from Harrison. They bought a 10-acre farm and built a factory. While the couple was drawn to the state largely for its natural beauty and vibrant music scene, Harless had a more specific draw as well: the King Biscuit Blues Festival, held annually on the banks of the Mississippi River in Helena-West Helena.

“When you’re from the West Coast, it’s legendary,” Harless said. “Everybody in the world knows about the King Biscuit. One thing I always thought in my mind was, ‘I’m gonna play the King Biscuit.’ ” And play it he did. Harless even won the 2005 Arkansas Heritage Blues Award with his band Big Red and the Soul Benders, though he doesn’t think much of awards.

“I didn’t even know I was competing,” Harless said. “I don’t think music should be a competition, that’s just my own personal thing. … I think it’s an expression and it’s an art.”

-----------------------------Shaker Microphones may be manufactured in Alpena, a fact of which its founder is immensely proud, but they are used by some of the biggest names in music around the world. These microphones — with castings from Springfield, Mo., knobs from Texas, grills cast in Baton Rouge, La., and a great deal of Arkansas parts and labor — are used by legends like Peter “Madcat” Ruth, Van Morrison, Jimmy Buffett’s harmonica player (nicknamed, incredibly, “Fingers” Taylor), Norton Buffalo (apparently harp players are required to have memorable names) of the Steve Miller Band and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Not long after the company started in 1991, Huey Lewis called Harless and asked for one of the microphones he’d been hearing about. Lewis eventually invited Harless to have dinner with him when his tour came through Arizona.

Harless’ most famous customer, however, might be David Bowie. While rehearsing for what would be his final tour, Bowie had a nightmare about someone stealing all of his Shaker microphones. When he woke up, he ordered more Shakers just to be safe. “We had to ship him three mics overnight,” Harless said, “and it was so cool, the guy takes the phone, he’s in the recording studio, and I got to listen to the [dress rehearsal for] the tour before anybody else did.”

-----------------------------Harless is approaching retirement age now, and the future of Shaker Microphones is somewhat cloudy, despite healthy production numbers and virtually endless customer demand.

While Harless initially wanted to keep the company in the family by having one of his sons take over, his sons are happily employed in Alaska and aren’t interested in taking on the business.

“Your life isn’t your kid’s life. ... I actually think I will probably have to sell the company,” Harless said. “But it has to be to somebody cool.

“I have the greatest job in the world. I hang out with bands. I go to dinner. I play music. And I build something that I’m proud of.”

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FOOD & DRINK

Eat, Think and Be Daring

SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE HOLDS UP BENTONVILLE AS MODEL FOR REGIONAL CHANGE.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK PHOTOGRAPHY BY SADIE RUCKER

FRENCH TWIST: Bentonville’s Oven and Tap makes a French dish Southern with its okratouille, which it serves as a breakfast item with eggs and toast.

44 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

I

was at first reluctant to attend the Southern Foodways Alliance Summer Field Trip to Bentonville. Wouldn’t it be for chefs and restaurateurs? Would someone who is not particularly apt in the kitchen be worthy to take up the SFA’s offer to take part? But, I bit, and ended up well fed in more ways than one.

The SFA, part of the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, is about more than eating: It is about nourishing Southern communities and telling their stories. Bentonville was the perfect setting for the field trip: Its growing immigrant community has introduced culture as well as cuisine; its super-wealthy business families have plowed their dollars back into their hometown. The past decade has brought enormous change, making Northwest Arkansas the most vibrant area of the state.

Since this is the dining page, first the food: We ate Mexican food, Salvadorian food, Chinese food, Indian food. In a nod to a settlement with deeper roots in Northwest Arkansas, Italian food. We drank the local coffee (Onyx) and breakfasted on “okratouille” from the young “food and beverage hounds” of Oven & Tap. We shopped in the Bentonville farmers market, where Hmong vendors sold beautiful leafy vegetables and other locals sold the last of the strawberries.

But the meat of Southern Foodways’ field trip was in the two days of morning talks, where speakers addressed subjects from meatless chicken nuggets to the plight of Italian immigrants in the Delta in the 19th century and their move to Tontitown, from overlooked activism by black women who worked to improve health and civil rights to how Walton money has (per-

haps ironically) made Bentonville a magnet for progressives.

If there was a leitmotif on Day 1 of the field trip (Friday, June 13), it was crickets. Yeyo’s Mexican Grill, the subject of an upcoming short documentary by SFA, served a lunch at Compton Gardens of street tacos stuffed with grilled meats, vegetables and jalapenos, along with chunky guacamole, refried beans, queso — and seasoned crickets. “Just take a couple,” the server suggested, so I did. One was enough, but now I can say I have eaten a cricket. (Actually, what I ate was a grasshopper, but the difference between the two, both physically and gastronomically, I assume, is minimal.) Yeyo’s has both a food truck on the square and a bricks and sticks location in the 8th Street Market, where it adds mezcal to the menu.

Immersion in the booming South Asian population of Northwest Arkansas meant dinner at Flavors Indian Cuisine, one of the many restaurants owned by Indians and Pakistanis in Northwest Arkansas, and lessons in cricket afterward from the Northwest Arkansas Cricket club. On the cricket pitch (at Phillips Park’s baseball fields), with instruction from Bentonville’s Cricket for America players, we hoisted the incredibly heavy bats and hit away at tennis balls in a much-simplified version of the game.

Back to Flavors. The buffet was fragrant with the spices and dishes of southern Indian, offering a feast of lamb marinated in yogurt, ginger and garam masala (vindaloo), chicken in a curry of coconut milk and tomato sauce, chicken cooked with tomatoes, cashews and spices (rayalaseema), deep fried boiled eggs, Indian cottage cheese cooked with ginger and tomato sauce (reshmi paneer), rice puddings and the like. SFA folk came around with pitchers of Golden Ale from Bentonville’s Bike Rack Brewing Co., the perfect complement to Indian food.

Topping it off was Kwality ice cream, made of milk and ground cashews. The television was tuned to what has to be a channel devoted to cricket, perhaps the world’s most complicated game and one now come to Arkansas.

Day 2 started off with eggs scrambled with buds of loroco, a Central American plant; plantains; and sweet empanadas from Bentonville’s Little Beans. Talks, at the Meteor Guitar Gallery just off the square, concluded with a demonstration in how to eat lychees, mangosteens and durian fruits and a lunch of roast duck and porkstuffed buns from Tang’s Asian Market. In a nod to Tontitown, Matt McClure, the acclaimed chef of The Hive in Bentonville, served up spaghetti, the best fried chicken in the world, roasted eggplant and Southern (no sugar) cornbread at dinner.

If anyone needed proof that immigrants enrich culture and community, she got it here.

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When at the turn of the century the Catholic immigrants fled to white, protestant Northwest Arkansas to make a new life, they weren’t greeted with open arms. One writer said they “disgusted the whole community.” But they stayed, farmed and had successes, and Tontitown became the home to one of Arkansas’s most famous restaurants, Mary Maestri’s, in 1923.

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CRICKET, TWO WAYS: Yeyo’s, a Mexican food truck (and now, a brick-and-mortar restaurant) served up street tacos and spicy crickets at the field trip. Later, the cricket league gave lessons in the favorite sport of India.

Speaker Jennifer Jensen Wallach, a native of Rogers who is a food historian and a history professor at the University of North Texas, illustrated how her native Arkansas has changed with a simple slide: It was of a flyer from the Aloha Chinese Restaurant from the Rogers of her youth (lunch for $2.45). While as a child she was fed with fish sticks, tuna casserole and AQ Chicken, she noted that today she can, should she choose, eat a cricket. Immigrants who’ve brought their native dishes to Northwest Arkansas are providing genuine cuisine. Wallach noted Tyson Inc.’s response to today’s demand for healthy, plant-based products: its development of meat-free chicken nuggets, a food that requires no slaughter of animals. She also noted the chicken industry’s reputation as cruel and its labor practices as exploitative.

Cherisse Jones-Branch, a professor of history at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, specializes in the economic history of the Delta and is writing a book about the role of unsung African-American women activists. Her talk was revelatory to our nearly all-white group: She spoke about Eliza Nolden, who was flogged by a white planter in 1938 and who responded with a lawsuit against her attacker. She provided history on African-American home demonstration agents in the first half of the 20th century who fended off a suspicious white power structure by declaring they were merely improving the health of the black labor force when, along with canning, they were talking to black farm women about birth control and how to register to vote. She talked about the Arkansas Association of Colored Women, which fought for the Fargo Training School as an alternative to incarceration for young black girls who had been convicted of crimes. And about Annie Zachary Pike, a black Rockefeller Republican who served on the Arkansas Welfare Board in the 1960s and who still gets people to the polls today.

Political change in Northwest Arkansas, a region that sent two women Democrats to the legislature in the last election, can be traced in part to improvements in the quality of life: That was the thesis of Angie Maxwell, the director of the Diane Blair Center of Southern Politics at the University of Arkansas. Maxwell, a native of New Orleans, said she found the more open and egalitarian nature of Arkansas — as opposed to the stratified society entrenched in her home town — freeing. She noted the 11/11/11 opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where “men in Razorback sweatshirts” mingled with the suits to enjoy Alice Walton’s world-class museum. She believes the influx of progressives that can be traced to the opening of the museum and new investment in Bentonville — from bike trails to craft beer to new businesses to new flavors — will chip away at the more regressive politics of Northwest Arkansas. While acknowledging she’s not on board with all of the Walton endeavors — such as charter schools — Maxwell said should the wealthy elsewhere take to heart the Walton investment in projects that lift up the whole of the population, Arkansas could see more thoughtful politics. Maybe rise up from 49th or 50th place in education, or health, or children’s welfare.

That is SFA’s goal for all of the South, not just Arkansas. As the final dinner wrapped up, Southern Foodways Alliance Director John T. Edge declared, “The South is a broken-ass place. Let’s all work together to mend this broken-ass place.”

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TRAVEL

Taking Notes in Tulsa LITTLE ROCK SHOULD BORROW IDEAS FROM THE COUNTRY’S BEST NEW PARK.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

KELLY KURT BROWN/GATHERING PLACE

I

CROWDED, BUT NOT CONGESTED: Tulsa’s 66-acre Gathering Place uses inventive landscaping, meandering paths, skywalks and ziplines to shepherd and partition its visitors.

48 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

f you squint a little, you can see it: A near-future where Little Rock is known throughout the country for its parks and outdoor recreation. We’ve got the pedestrian bridges. Only a tiny — if logistically and politically fraught — section of the river trail loop remains incomplete. The Southwest Trail, which will run 65 miles from the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site to Hot Springs, is scheduled to be finished in 2022; Little Rock officials anticipate connecting it to the River Trail.

Then there’s War Memorial Park, which occupies 200 acres in the center of the city, including 90 acres of green space newly available for reconsideration after the city decided in June to shut the park’s golf course to help deal with a budget shortfall. (There’s also 100 acres newly up for redevelopment at the former Hindman Park Golf Course, which was also closed in June, and another 130 acres nearby at the old Western Hills Golf Course, which the city bought years back.) Should the city find money somehow, either by putting forward a dedicated tax for parks or finding wealthy donors who believe in the importance of green spaces, War Memorial Park could be Little Rock’s defining public attraction, a central city park that serves all sorts of interests and people — in the most grandiose and aspirational terms, a Central Park for Little Rock.

Amid daydreaming about that possibility in June, I decided it was time to visit Tulsa.

If you’re like me and sometimes get the itch to go somewhere to see/do/eat things you can’t see/do/eat in Central Arkansas, you can probably easily summon the list of destination cities within relatively easy driving distance: Memphis (2 hours), Dallas (5), St. Louis (5.5) Nashville (6), Houston (7), New Orleans (7), Austin (8). But Tulsa, just 4 hours from Little Rock, had not been in my geographic Rolodex.

Maybe because, while it’s bigger — about double the size in population — it’s not teeming with the sort of cultural attractions you’d find at those other nearby big cities.

Or that was at least the case until last fall when Gathering Place opened. That’s the fairly-on-the-nose name for the city’s spec-

tacular new 66-acre, $465 million public park that sits along the Arkansas River. It has everything: A 5-acre playground filled with some 160 whimsical play structures. A massive expanse of green, open space. Two areas in which to splash around, replete with fountains and water cannons and sand and other ingredients for cooling off and making a mess. A sculpted, sandstone-edged pond that can be toured with borrowed canoes, kayaks and paddleboats. A huge skatepark and BMX pump track, designed by industry leader California Skateparks, undulating within view of the river. Basketball and street-hockey courts. A high-end restaurant that overlooks the park. A cafe that serves ice cream and coffee with a massive lounge area upstairs.

And that’s just what was completed in the first of a planned three-phase project.

The answer to why the country’s best new park is in Tulsa is the same as to why one of the world’s best art museums is in Bentonville: because a billionaire wanted it to be. The money man, in this case, is George Kaiser, 76, a lifelong Tulsan whose estimated $7.9 billion net worth comes from oil and banking. He’s also a progressive Democrat who signed “The Giving Pledge,” promoted by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, promising to donate at least half of his assets to charity. Through his George Kaiser Family Foundation, he’s tackling intergenerational poverty with huge investments in early childhood education, low-income housing and community health. The foundation has also spent big on projects that make Tulsa cooler: It purchased the archives of Oklahoma native Woody Guthrie in 2011 and, in 2013, opened the 12,000-square-foot Woody Guthrie Center. In 2012, it opened Guthrie Green, an urban park and performance space with a tagline borrowed from its namesake — “land made for you and me.” In 2016, it partnered with the University of Tulsa to acquire the Bob Dylan archives. (In the “downside to billionaires having so much power” column: The Kaiser Foundation has essentially taken over the University of Tulsa and gutted its liberal arts departments in favor of more STEM offerings, a TU professor has argued in The Nation.)

Gathering Place is the George Kaiser Family Foundation’s most ambitious and expensive project to date. Its goal, according to George Kaiser: to transform Tulsa by providing a community space that bridges divides of class and race, while also attracting visitors and helping retain young professionals. The George Kaiser Family Foundation spearheaded the project and contributed $200 million to it and convinced other donors to match that amount. (That combined $400 million donation eclipses the previous largest gift toward a park — hedge fund manager John Paulson’s $100 million donation to New York’s Central Park Conservancy.) The city of Tulsa provided $65 million, funded with a sales-tax extension, for infrastructure in and around the park. Acquisition of the riverfront property cost $50 million. Designing, engineering and constructing the park amounted to $250 million.

The foundation gifted the property to the River Parks Authority, a city and county parks agency, but GGP Parks, LLC, a foundation subsidiary, is responsible for operating the park for the next 99 years. It’s a massive undertaking: 200 people work at the park. A $100 million endowment supports that effort as well as programming and maintenance.

So, does a park that’s funded and staffed like an amusement park share the same chaotic,

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congested vibe? Perhaps as a credit to the park’s design — no. At least that was my experience on a Wednesday afternoon in June once I had half-convinced my wife that it was not reckless to take our two elementary-age sons to tour and play with the heat index inching toward 100.

Famed landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, who also designed New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Park and renovated Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., won a competition to design the park. His firm pulled off plenty of topographical wizardry: It used 450,000 cubic yards of river silt to create rolling hills, including the two land bridges that cross Riverside Drive, a major thoroughfare. It built fantastical, made-to-be-played-on sculptures out of what look like huge sections of driftwood. It used massive slabs of limestone and sandstone from quarries in Arkansas and Oklahoma to line ponds, provide natural seating and create a dramatic opening statement with towering walls of stacked rock that line a path at the southern entrance. But, aside from the grandeur of it all, the thing that stood out to us the most was how organically partitioned the park felt.

After four hours in the car, my boys entered Gathering Place ready to play. First, they scaled ropes to climb inside hanging pods that looked like something out of the Ewok village as designed by Buckminster Fuller. That got them quickly overheated. We could see — and hear shrieks of joy coming from — “Water Mountain,” but it took several wrong turns and under-the-breath cursing before we successfully weaved our way to it. We passed by toddlers opening and closing mini dams that let water flow through stone channels and found a relatively unoccupied splash pad with fountains controlled by metal, lever-action platforms designed to be jumped on.

Once we cooled down, it was easier to understand the layout. Before opening, Gathering Place projected it would have 1 million annual visitors, but it surpassed that estimate after five months. Even on a hot midweek afternoon, people were everywhere. But they were spread out or tucked away. Though the playground is packed with features, it’s subdivided by landscaping and fencing and connected by meandering paths that often lead to unexpected and delightful destinations. For a tired dad, that was a boulder shaded by tall sycamore and oak trees that made for an ideal spot to rest and catch a river breeze.

Here’s what my boys did: Attempted to hypnotize themselves by gazing at a spinning spiral optical illusion wheel. Scaled a ladder up four stories of a medieval castle turret for a view of the whole park. Bopped across rope bridges; descended down a slide that doubled as the trunk of a two-story elephant sculpture. Boarded a life-size — at least in kid scale — pirate ship.

“Swam” through a giant river grass sculpture to climb inside a monster paddlefish and then inside a pair of 20-feet-tall blue herons, from which they escaped down slides. Waited patiently in line, over and over, to ride the sit-down zip-line. Explored a rope skywalk that traveled far out of their parents’ view and offered another opportunity to go down a fast slide.

Amid all that fun, we needed ice cream and air conditioning, so we headed to the Lodge, a two-story building that’s aptly named. Wildhorse Swirl stone, a unique Oklahoma variety of sandstone, lines most of the floors. There’s a two-story fireplace, floor-to-ceiling windows looking out into the park and a cafe that specializes in sweet treats on the bottom floor.

Before opening, Gathering Place projected it would have 1 million annual visitors, but it surpassed that estimate after five months.

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OCT. 9-12 2019 Goodies procured, we climbed the stairs to find a wide-open, sunlit hall, filled with mid-century modern furniture, mostly made of wood and often incorporating thick, live-edge slabs. Even though there were a lot of folks in the massive room, it had the revered, peaceful quality of a library, with everyone talking in hushed tones, playing card games or reading books. That proved restorative and helped us get in an extra hour of play.

But we definitely didn’t see the entire park or even come close. Don’t tell my kids, but we didn’t get to a slide that goes underground, or to “Swing Hill” and its views of downtown, or to the “beach” along the pond. It’s easy to imagine spending several days at Gathering Place on a future trip, especially as the park grows.

Construction on Phase II, which includes a 50,000-square-foot children’s museum, is expected to begin this year. Phase III will replace a now-closed pedestrian bridge across the Arkansas River, adding more bike and multiuse trails to paths that already line the perimeter of the park and continue along the riverfront.

Though Arkansas has billionaires (including at least one in Little Rock), none has stepped forward to provide millions of dollars for a park.

That’s OK. It wouldn’t take hundreds of millions to dramatically improve our parkland. At least for parents, the best park developments in Little Rock in recent years have been the cleverly designed splash pads and natural play areas built in Riverfront Park and War Memorial Park.

The former cost $830,000 and the latter ran $500,000. A Tulsa takeaway: What better first step to transforming War Memorial than a giant sculpture, visible from Markham, that doubles as a play structure? Maybe a dragon. Or a bumblebee (state insect) or Arkansaurus (state dinosaur). Or even the humble catfish.

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King of the Hill

CANNABIZ

DR. BRANDON THORNTON, HEAD OF THE LAB STEEP HILL ARKANSAS, TALKS MEDICAL CANNABIS TESTING.

BY DAVID KOON

T

he first thing you notice when you walk into the nondescript West Little Rock strip mall storefront that is home to Steep Hill Arkansas is the smell of cannabis. Not weed smoke, as nobody there is partaking. Just the heady, skunky, somewhat sour-sweet scent of ganja.

Steep Hill Arkansas is the only Arkansas Department of Health-certified cannabis testing lab in the state. Because of that, Steep Hill winds up with a small, very aromatic sample of every cannabis crop grown legally in Arkansas. From there, the lab runs each sample through a battery of tests to determine both the desirable and the undesirable within it, including THC content and any potential contamination, before reporting its findings back to the health department. The health department, in turn, reports back to growers whether a crop has passed or failed.

In short, if you’re a patient who has used legal cannabis since the dispensaries opened for business, you’ve got Steep Hill Arkansas to thank for making sure the products you tried are as safe as they can be and as potent as advertised.

Dr. Brandon Thornton, Pharm.D., is the co-owner and CEO of Steep Hill Arkansas, which is part of a company with labs in cannabis-friendly states across the nation. A pharmacist who has worked in largescale pharmaceutical operations in several states, Thornton and Steep Hill Arkansas have been in fire-

MMJ UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Steep Hill’s Little Rock lab is charged with ensuring that legal weed in Arkansas is as safe as can be — and as potent as advertised.

Steep Hill tests onehalf of 1 percent of each batch in the state.

drill mode pretty much constantly since Arkansas’s first cannabis cultivation centers started shipping product in the spring of this year. It’s a demand that Thornton said often has him in the lab long after midnight, swapping out sample vials in automated testing machines to keep up with an ever-accelerating schedule. Since its official opening in December 2018, Steep Hill has increased its staff from four to seven, Thornton said. It plans to hire more people soon to keep up with demand as the medical marijuana industry continues to blossom in Arkansas.

After a cannabis crop has been harvested and dried at a cultivation center, Thornton said, a representative of Steep Hill Arkansas personally visits the facility and randomly selects one-half of 1 percent of each batch. In Arkansas, a “batch” is limited to a maximum of 10 pounds of dried cannabis. Thornton said the average batch size in the state is around eight pounds, so the samples Steep Hill collects average around 20 grams. That’s a little less than three-quarters of an ounce.

Once the samples are returned to Steep Hill’s Little Rock lab, they’re electronically checked in and then prepared for testing in various ways, including treatment with acids and solvents. The process renders the samples unusable as a drug. Thornton said any cannabis that remains in a potentially intoxicating form after the samples are prepared is destroyed.

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TESTING THC: Since all of Arkansas’s medical marijuana is grown indoors, it’s at less risk of absorbing pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants than cannabis grown in states like California.

For security reasons, he said the preparation of samples and destruction of excess cannabis is all completed within 24 hours of the samples being received.

From there, Steep Hill uses a series of hightech machines and procedures to test the prepared samples, including gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, which uses high-energy plasma to ionize a sample to look for contamination. The test results reveal a long list of useful information about each sample, including moisture content (under state regs, dried flower cannabis is required to have a moisture content under 15 percent), THC level and the strain’s unique profile of terpenes, the fragrant essential oils that contribute to the flavor and — according to devotees — medicinal benefits of each variety.

To help guard patient safety, Steep Hill’s testing can also reveal a variety of potentially harmful contaminants, including pesticides, microbes like E. coli, heavy metals like lead and mercury and — if the sample is a THC concentrate or edible — residual traces of the solvents used to separate THC from the dried cannabis.

Testing for heavy metals, Thornton said, is particularly important because cannabis is a bioaccumulator plant that can draw out contaminants in the environment. It does that so well that hemp has been used to help clean up industrial pollution. Thornton added that the risk of heavy metal contamination in Arkansas-grown cannabis is low because all the legal marijuana being cultivated in the state is grown indoors, under carefully controlled conditions.

“They’re bringing in their own dirt. Their irrigation system is very controlled. They’re filtering all the water. All the inputs are very clean,” Thornton said. “In Arkansas, metals contamination is less of a risk than in a place like California where a lot of products are grown outdoors, where the soil is less controlled, the water is less controlled. That’s where you get metals contamination: water, soil, even the air.”

Pesticides, Thornton said, are another potentially harmful factor Steep Hill tests for carefully. Unlike some other states with recreational or

medical cannabis laws on the books, Arkansas doesn’t have an official list of pesticides that are approved for use when growing cannabis.

Given that, Steep Hill tests for a wide range of agricultural chemicals, including common and obscure pesticides. Again, Thornton said the very controlled growing conditions used by cannabis cultivators keep the risk of pesticide contamination low.

“California gets a lot of pesticide hits, and the reason is, maybe you’ve got a crop, and you’ve planted it somewhere that people have been growing grapes for 50 years,” he said.

“They’ve been using Myclobutanil [a commonly used agricultural fungicide] on it or some other pesticide, and it’s just in the dirt. You can’t do anything about it. Or maybe your neighbor is growing cherries and is spraying, and you’re downwind. You get drift. Here, it’s more controlled, so it’s not as big a risk.”

Testing for pesticides is particularly important in cannabis products, Thornton said, because of the unique ways cannabis is often used. Myclobutanil, for example, is considered safe on fruits and vegetables, but converts to cyanide gas when burned. “With cannabis, we’re using it in dosage forms where we’re vaporizing and smoking,” he said. “There are just no studies out there that show what happens if you smoke pesticides. Some consumers and patients are immune-compromised, and it doesn’t take a lot to make them sick, whether it’s microbiological contamination or pesticide contamination ... . If we aren’t testing for those things, we’re really no different than the black market.”

While Thornton said he often sees patients complaining online about the high price of dispensary cannabis (including tax, dried cannabis is about $60 per eighth-ounce at Arkansas dispensaries, compared to around $40 per eighth on the black market), he believes knowing that products have been independently tested and proven safe, potent and free of harmful contaminants is worth the extra expense.

“I know patients don’t love the prices,” he said, “but for me, I’d rather pay a premium and know I’m going to get something that’s not dangerous. The other thing I think is crazy is people

complaining about the THC percentages. These are actual, tested numbers. The guy that’s selling on the black market, he might have some sort of lab report telling you that this is 25 percent [THC content] flower, but there’s no checks and balances there. You don’t know. It’s not an independent lab.”

Thornton said he has considered approaching the Department of Health or local law enforcement agencies for samples of seized black market cannabis for testing, both to satisfy his own curiosity and to show patients what they could potentially be ingesting when they use cannabis from sources other than approved cultivators. “I would love to test black market weed, just to see what’s in it,” he said. “I suspect a lot of the stuff that’s available is coming from states where [legal marijuana samples] haven’t passed and wound up going out the back door. We don’t test any black market products, but I haven’t had any black market growers contact me and say, ‘Can you test this? I’m worried about my customers.’ ” As the range of available cannabis products in Arkansas grows — cannabis-infused edibles, tinctures, oils, balms, lotions and even personal lubricants are popular in other marijuana-friendly states — the challenge for Steep Hill Arkansas grows exponentially. While it’s one thing to test samples of dried cannabis for moisture, pesticides and potency, it’s quite another with something like a THC cookie, which can contain everything from flour to chocolate chips to yeast, with the potential for potentially harmful contamination at every step of production.

Vape cartridges in particular, Thornton said, are sometimes found to be contaminated because of a lack of quality control at the facilities that make the empty cartridges. Thornton believes Steep Hill’s network of laboratories and long track record in the industry will help it keep up with changing demands.

“One of the things that I appreciate about working with Steep Hill is that we’ve been around for 10 years, and we’ve got a lot of resources we can call on,” he said. “It is difficult when you start getting into a lot of complex matrixes like cookies, gummies and even a lot of topical products like transdermal patches. It gets more difficult, so just having some experience into what solvent to use to extract that, the process, how long you need to [ultrasonically vibrate] something, that process is something that over time, Steep Hill has figured out. We can kind of lean on them to help us know how to do it.”

While we had Thornton on the spot, we couldn’t help but ask about a debate that’s been raging since long before states started getting into the cannabis business: Cannabis indica vs.

Cannabis sativa. Indica and sativa are crossbred to create the unique genetics behind the cannabis hybrids on the market. Devotees claim the level of sativa or indica genetics in each strain results in demonstrably different effects when ingested. It’s a belief popular enough that in addition to THC content and harvest date, the labels on most cannabis products sold in Arkansas reveal the percentage of indica vs. sativa. Though Thornton said laboratory test results like those performed at Steep Hill do reveal marked differences between the chemical profiles of indica and sativa, he feels it is an outdated way to consider cannabis.

“I think it’s a generalized way to look at things,” he said. “If you have a lab report, you can tell exactly what’s in it. That’s a better way to go about it.”

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2019 COLLEGE GUIDE

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENTS

DR. JAMES SHEMWELL ARKANSAS NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE “We are very proud of the Arkansas Northeastern College’s reputation for both personal attention and excellence in teaching; however, we are especially proud of the individual achievements and successes of the thousands of students who comprise our history. ANC is a two-year institution of higher education, which boasts the lowest cost of any college in the state while its graduates earn the most. ANC graduates go on to become doctors and lawyers, business owners and corporate managers, steel industry technicians and welders, nurses and EMTs—the possibilities are plentiful.

Technical certificates and training programs provide relevant skills for entering the workplace with better earning potential—in one year or less, in many cases. ANC can provide the foundation for future academic studies, training for career advancement, or skills for a whole new career. Join us at the Arkansas Northeastern College to prepare for a better future.”

DR. CATHIE CLINE EAST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE “EACC’s career-ready and transfer-ready programs provide students with the best and most economical education available, complemented by the highest degree of personal service. We are small but mighty, and we care deeply about our students. Our recent merger has resulted in an institution that is better than ever. All programs continue in the new institution, offering students the opportunity to select from a diverse menu of options when developing their educational plans. Our goals remain the same: to improve students’ lives and strengthen our community.”

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DR. STEVE COLE, CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS COSSATOT “We know you have choices in life—choices about your friends, your music, your life. We would love to be your choice for education.

We refuse for UA Cossatot to be an old and stale college. We love technology and are always looking for ways to make our college fresh. Our textbook program is really cool;gone are the days where your books cost more than your tuition. We offer textbook rentals for a small fee and many classroom materials are completely free. If you are looking for a job, we have many technical options that will get you trained quickly. If you are looking for a university college experience, enjoy the community college life first and then make the leap to a four-year college. We are excited about another awesome year and hope to be your choice for higher education!”

DR. JOHN A. HOGAN NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE “There is a lot to get excited about at National Park College. Join Nighthawk Nation and be a part of amazing student life, athletics and campus organizations. NPC has NJCAA teams for men and women’s basketball, men and women’s cross country, baseball and softball. We offer more than 75 transfer degrees and if your ACT is 19 or higher, you may qualify for scholarships.

Nearly 70 percent of NPC students receive financial aid and scholarships. Last year, NPC students received over $7.5 million in grants and scholarships. At National Park College, you can have a full college experience– close to home–at less than half the cost of the average four-year university. Our experienced faculty and staff are committed to your success in the workforce. Find your path at np.edu.”

DR. ROBIN E. BOWEN ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY “Arkansas Tech University empowers students to apply their grit and transform their lives for the better. We rank No. 1 in Arkansas and among the top 10 percent of colleges and universities nationwide in providing students with access to upward social mobility after graduation. Over 93 percent of our more than 12,000 students are from Arkansas, and approximately one of every four ATU students comes from a diverse background. We are tenacious, yet supportive; competitive, yet compassionate and caring. Innovative, leading-edge and forward-thinking—we are Arkansas Tech University. Learn more at www.atu.edu.”

DR. JUDY I. PILE, CHANCELLOR BAPTIST HEALTH COLLEGE LITTLE ROCK “BHCLR is a unique institution guided by the health care workforce needs in Arkansas.

We offer one-year programs, associate degrees, and bachelor degrees through several university affiliations. Our outcomes in retention, board/registry passage and graduate placement are competitive and are available on our website. BHCLR offers rich clinical experiences and a Christian environment. Individuals who fit well in health care have a natural tendency to care for others, enjoy learning and challenges and exhibit professionalism in all areas of their lives. The field of health care is dynamic and growing and there are many avenues to an incredible career. Visit our website to learn more at www.bhclr.edu.”

DR. KELLY DAMPHOUSSE ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY “I want every high school senior in our region to know that he or she has a place at their research university. I want our faculty and staff to know they are respected and their ideas matter, and that we all share the same goal of helping our students reach their highest aspirations. Most of all, I hope for a university community that truly believes that ‘Every Red Wolf Counts.’ ”

ELAINE KNEEBONE, J.D. HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY “At Henderson State University, we believe in the ability of every student to be extraordinary. We offer more than 65 undergraduate and graduate programs to prepare you for the career of your dreams.

Whether you want to study with our highly ranked education, nursing, or business programs or take flight with Arkansas’s only professional pilot degree, we invite you to visit our campus. Henderson State University encourages scholarly and creative activities in a caring, personal atmosphere that reflects the university’s motto for more than a century, ‘The School with a Heart.’

Learn what it means to Live Reddie at hsu.edu.

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DR. STEVE ROOK COLLEGE OF THE OUACHITAS “College of the Ouachitas is changing the lives of the residents of Hot Spring, Grant, Dallas, Saline, and Clark Counties. For 50 years, COTO has been committed to making a positive difference in people’s lives. COTO ensures you have an opportunity to achieve your educational goals by providing programs and services designed for students who plan to seek immediate employment, transition to a new career or a four-year degree. Nowhere else in Arkansas will you find the state-ofthe-art technical programs with cutting-edge technology to prepare you for today’s hightech world. Visit us at One College Circle in Malvern or on the web at www.COTO. edu.

At College of the Ouachitas you will discover a Higher Degree of You!”

DR. W. JOSEPH (JOEY) KING LYON COLLEGE “Lyon College leads the way in preparing students for today’s workforce. The skills sought by employers--critical thinking, leadership, collaboration--are those in which our graduates excel. Small class sizes foster mentoring between students and faculty in an interdisciplinary liberal arts program where experiential learning and a culture of innovation are embraced. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive residential community focused on educating the whole person. Campus priorities include restoring a computer science major and the addition of a film and media studies minor. We have also expanded varsity and club sports, and have a professional gamer to coach the new esports program, offering another “only at Lyon” experience. A ROTC military science concentration is planned, along with an exercise science major and minor, pending final approval by the college’s accreditor.

Lyon is the only pet-friendly campus across the region, and a newly opened dog park is one of many spots where students find respite. Come see what has made Lyon College such an exceptional place for nearly 150 years.”

myfuture@walton.uark.edu

PL AN YOUR VISIT: OBU.EDU/ADMISSIONS 1.800.DIAL.OBU

At Ouachita, we do more than learn together. We do life together. As a nationallyranked, top-tier university, we pride ourselves in offering high-impact learning experiences that will prepare you for your future career. Our commitment to a love of God and love of learning means you’ll leave here ready to engage with the world – and make a difference in it.

Come see how Ouachita can invest in you.

We would love to show you around!

2019 COLLEGE GUIDE PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt COLLEGE GUIDE EDITOR Lindsey Millar

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Brooke Wallace, Lee Major, and Terrell Jacob

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mandy Keener

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Hannah Peacock

DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY Jordan Little

ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER Roland R. Gladden

ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Mike Spain GRAPHIC DESIGNER Katie Hassell DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Phyllis A. Britton

IT DIRECTOR Robert Curfman CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Anitra Hickman CONTROLLER Weldon Wilson BILLING/COLLECTIONS Linda Phillips

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2019 COLLEGE GUIDE

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENTS

DR. RANDY ESTERS NORTH ARKANSAS COLLEGE “North Arkansas College ranks as the 17th Best Community College and the 24th Most Affordable Community College that Offers Online Degrees in the nation.

We’re excited to announce a new online hybrid format delivery of our Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT) program. Coursework is online and the clinical is completed in a facility near the student’s home. We’ve added four university partnership agreements: Arkansas Tech University, John Brown University, the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business, and Evangel University recently. Internships with FedEx Freight, Tyson Foods and Pace Industries enable students to get hands-on experience while they pursue their education. We are a nationally recognized college with a small-town feel. I’d like to extend a personal invitation to you to visit us in Harrison and tour Northark for yourself. We are proud to be Pioneers!”

JASON L. MORRISON, ED.D. SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY TECH “SAU Tech is moving forward at a fast pace with the inclusion of NJCAA softball for fall 2019. The Rockets’ first basketball season went beyond expectations and we are excited to gear up for another year. Next summer, we will be adding an addition to our health care lineup and this fall we have added non-destructive testing to our industrial technology area of study. SAU Tech continues to grow with student housing and extensive student support services. Our business and industry partners share our excitement as they are supporting our efforts as never before and our team of faculty and staff are looking forward to a busy and successful 2019-20 academic year. Be Great! Be Tech!”

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DR. EVELYN E. JORGENSON NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE “NorthWest Arkansas Community College seeks to empower lives, inspire learning and strengthen community through accessible, affordable, quality education at locations throughout Benton and Washington counties.

We focus on providing what our learners need, whether that’s adult basic education, new job skills for today’s workplace, or the foundation to pursue a four-year degree and post-graduate study. NWACC creates an environment that inspires students and encourages them to maximize their potential.”

DR. TERISA C. RILEY, CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS – FORT SMITH “The University of Arkansas–Fort Smith offers a transformational educational experience, where students learn from highly-trained professors in state-of-the art facilities. UAFS lives up to the promise of providing both a deep and rich knowledge in a major area of study as well as engaging students so that they learn to think critically, communicate expertly and work with diverse teams. Our graduates are prepared to compete nationally for jobs in their chosen careers, and gain admission to some of the world’s top graduate programs. We are committed to providing an affordable education, providing students with exceptional scholarships and grants which allow graduates of UAFS to take out less debt than their peers. UAFS: Excellent Education, Affordable Investment, Invaluable Opportunities.”

DR. BEN R. SELLS OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY “Ranked by Niche.com as the top private university in Arkansas, Ouachita is a Christ-centered learning community that prepares students for ongoing intellectual and spiritual growth, lives of meaningful work, and reasoned engagement with the world.

Ouachita is rising to further innovate and achieve so that the students of today will be able to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities of tomorrow. Students benefit from the university’s liberal arts tradition and unique high-impact learning opportunities, which afford valuable perspectives and experiences in their respective fields. With a 99 percent placement rate for new graduates and record retention for current students, Ouachita is committed to providing students with a college experience that shapes their lives and sets them on a trajectory for success. At Ouachita, our students are truly known–by the dedicated faculty and staff who take a personal interest in them, and the close-knit campus community they do life with.”

DR. ANDREW ROGERSON UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK “As chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, I invite students to consider an education in the state’s capital city, where access to many research, internship, community and employment opportunities are just minutes away. We are dedicated to providing an affordable, quality education to Arkansas students to ensure they graduate with as little debt as possible in their pursuit of higher education. Our goal is to see them through to a timely graduation and ensure the appropriate skill sets are acquired so they are career-ready. We are proud to be an engine of social and economic mobility for Arkansas. Come by for a visit and learn about all UA Little Rock offers.”

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DR. RODERICK L. SMOTHERS, SR. PHILANDER SMITH COLLEGE “For 142 years, Philander Smith College has been inspiring and educating the next generation of leaders who seek to enact change in our communities, state, nation and world. Our legacy of providing a quality liberal arts curriculum, with a focus on social justice, has withstood the test of time and asserted Philander as an educational pillar in Arkansas. Though a small, private institution, PSC dreams big. Our dreams include making education accessible to students who have a desire for knowledge and academic achievement. As we celebrate this great milestone in our history, we know our greatest assets are our students and our faculty and staff.

It is with a student-centered approach to learning and a steadfast dedication to helping our scholars thrive that we continue to move FORWARD into the future.”

DR. TREY BERRY SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY “Over the past six years, Southern Arkansas University has experienced record enrollment and growth. New academic programs in cyber criminology, public health, game design and animation, poultry science, musical theater and engineering have attracted students and have transformed SAU into a truly global campus. The School of Graduate Studies has also grown dramatically and offers a wide variety of programs, both online and on campus. Our primary mission at SAU is to serve students, and our culture of caring has new and current students and alumni throughout the state and nation saying SAU ‘feels like home.’”

JOE STEINMETZ, CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS “The University of Arkansas is proud to have students from every county in the state. Helping them maximize their potential and advancing Arkansas together has been a part of our mission for 148 years. We are also the most academically comprehensive university in the state with nearly 240 different degrees and certificates available. Nowhere else in Arkansas can you find the range of majors, classes, research opportunities and access to world-class faculty. That’s helped more than 300 U of A students win nationally competitive scholarships, fellowships, grants and internships over the last academic year. Our graduates are state governors, Fortune 500 CEOs, scientists and novelists. They’re nurses, teachers, architects, engineers and lawyers. We’re routinely recognized as one of the best values in higher education, and Fayetteville has been ranked among the nation’s best places to live. I encourage you to come see why.”

DR. RICHARD DAWE OZARKA COLLEGE “Ozarka College has been committed to our students for more than 40 years and we continuously strive for ways to enhance our students’ experience and to offer the highest quality education at affordable rates. We are passionate about providing excellent educational opportunities to help students succeed in their careers and in life.”

Dr. Laurence B. Alexander, Chancellor UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT PINE BLUFF “Access and opportunity are the foundations of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Since our inception, UAPB has educated and inspired some of the world’s greatest minds to reach beyond their circumstances and be who they want to be. New to our campus this fall, UAPB launches its first engineering program— agricultural engineering—the hospitality and tourism management degree program and the associate-to-bachelor’s degree program, in partnership with SEARK College. UAPB’s designation as an 1890 land-grant institution means that our mission to serve a diverse student population and foster learning, growth and productivity will never change.

Our core values of empowerment and accountability drive our tight-knit community of educators and learners. What truly makes UAPB stand out—strong support from faculty and administration and the familial atmosphere—create the optimal environment for student success.

And our 1890 land-grant designation continues to pave the way for innovations in technology, agriculture, medicine and business. UAPB shapes the minds that go on to reshape the world.”

DR. MARGARET A. ELLIBEE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS PULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE “UA-Pulaski Tech’s longstanding reputation for dedication to student achievement is a direct result of the dedication and professional excellence our faculty and staff bring to the student experience.

UA-PTC’s students dig deeper to find value and excellence within themselves.

Our job is to give them the tools to do it. Whether a student pursues a university-transfer degree or needs cutting-edge technical training, it’s the personal touch that makes the difference.”

DR. HOUSTON DAVIS UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS “At the University of Central Arkansas, we are committed to the success of our students and helping them reach their degree goals. We are proud of our vibrant and diverse student body that is excelling inside and outside of the classroom. UCA students are part of a dynamic and growing university that aims to set students up for success in their careers and lives after graduation.

UCA is recognized nationally as the most beautiful campus in Arkansas and when you combine that with some of the best faculty in the nation, you get a complete collegiate experience that is second to none. It is our goal that students will soon join the outstanding alumni of UCA who are making a huge difference in Arkansas and beyond. Go Bears!”

DR. KARLA HUGHES, CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT MONTICELLO “UAM is a place where opportunity abounds. Students come to UAM for small classes where faculty know who they are and care about their success.

Life-long friendships are developed while students pursue an academic path that will change their future. We have more than 70 distinct programs for students at three southeast Arkansas campuses–our main campus in Monticello and our technical campuses in McGehee and Crossett.

UAM is a unique university in that we offer a broad range of opportunities for learning from certificates of proficiency to undergraduate degrees to master’s degrees. With hundreds of scholarship opportunities, an affordable education at UAM is a great first step toward your professional goals. We’re ready to invest in you and your success. Go Weevils!”

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DIGITAL EDUCATION The U.S. Department of Education reports 6 million college students took at least one online class in 2015, according to a report released last year. Of these, 3 million were completing their degree exclusively online. These numbers illustrate how distance education continues to redefine higher education.

UOFA-MONTICELLO

Dorm life, as seen here at the University of Arkansas-Monticello, provides important social connections that are key to college success.

ARKANSAS NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE

Arkansas Northeastern College offers many online classes as well as several fully online programs. These include Associate of Arts, Associate of General Studies and curriculum in criminal justice, steel industry technology, business, criminology, early childhood education, elementary education (K-6) and mid-level education.

ANC students have access to computer labs on campus. Resources such as loaner laptops and internet service are available to students who qualify, enabling them to complete work from home. The college also has Opportunity Buses providing those with transportation issues a way to access the campus and its amenities.

In 2016, ANC adopted a Best Practices in Online Learning model that encourages online instructors to focus on interaction with students as well as the importance of leaving rich and detailed feedback. Several online

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instructors have adopted the use of Open Educational Resources in their classes. OER are free of charge and allow instructors to update sources without being tied to a single textbook.

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Arkansas State is the in-state leader in online education, having provided 100 percent online graduate and undergraduate degree programs since 2008. With more than 5,000 online students, A-State Online is the largest online program. Degree completion and advancing a career through a graduate degree are the top motivators of A-State’s online students, the average age of whom is 35. At the 2019 spring commencement, more than 900 of the 2,200 degrees were conferred to online students.

The flexibility of A-State’s online program, along with a robust relationship with the area’s business community, allows the university to provide new areas of emphasis, A A SPECIAL SPECIAL ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT SUPPLEMENT OF OF THE THE ARKANSAS ARKANSAS TIMES TIMES

certificates or degrees to meet the changing needs of the business community. A computer coding certificate and master’s degree in social media management are two examples of programs created in response to regional businesses asking for a way to train individuals to maximize these new marketing tools.

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

Arkansas Tech University offers online degree programs from certificates to master’s degrees. These include certificates in business technology, dyslexia therapist K-12, special education K-12, law enforcement, online teaching and professional leadership.

Associate’s degrees include early childhood education, general education, law enforcement and logistics management.

Among online bachelor’s degrees offered are applied sciences, professional studies, business administration, criminal justice/ criminology, history and RN to BSN. Master’s degrees include business administration,

emergency management and homeland security, health informatics and nursing administration among others. A specialist degree in educational leadership is also offered.

ATU offers Interdisciplinary Project Based Learning courses as a means to work on real-world problems. Examples of these classes include Collaborative Solutions, a course that tackles such topics as global warming, artificial intelligence and human migration. Another partnership has allowed ATU students to develop improved data management and social media strategies for a national environmental sustainability company headquartered in Russellville.

COLLEGE OF THE OUACHITAS

College of the Ouachitas offers live online classes which are lectures simulcast to a mixed live and online student audience. Also offered are traditional online only classes and hybrid classes which require periodic class attendance as well as online work. COTO’s distance education program provides convenience and flexibility as well as lower cost of $102 per credit hour. COTO students have online access to 24/7 tutoring through Tutor.com.

COTO strives for all students to gain pertinent technology experience. Its Fundamen-

tals of Information Technology course gives students the basics of real-world, practical experience. Students planning a career in teaching get hands-on experience with the same technology used to teach COTO’s simulcast classes and professional development by COTO’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

COTO’s Division of Health Sciences also relies heavily on technology. Instructors record lectures using classroom technology, then make the recordings available online to students as study aids. The Division of Health Sciences uses live online technology to teach from the Malvern campus to students in COTO’s Sheridan satellite campus.

HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY

Online classes are a great option for working adults who want to complete an undergraduate or graduate degree on a more flexible schedule. Henderson State University offers online classes for undergraduate and graduate students as well as concurrent enrollment for partner high schools.

Specific applications of technology by departments include the Innovative Media Department giving students hands-on opportunities to develop products in new and rich

media. HSU’s Nursing Department is introducing Nursing Anne and Sim Baby simulators thanks to a $140,447 grant from Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas.

This technology will allow students to experience treating a full range of medical scenarios in a realistic health care environment.

Aviation students gain valuable experience in the two-seat cockpit of the Redbird FMX simulator as part of their prelude to live flights with an instructor.

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

National Park College requires all students to take a training course that prepares them to take classes in the online environment. Any student may elect to take online or blended courses anytime they are offered. This has been an option for students for over 15 years and the number of online offerings continues to grow.

NPC strives to provide e-learning options that do not require students to purchase additional software or equipment. Computers are available for student use in both the library and computer services labs. The college provides Office 365 to all faculty and students, available through a download from the college website. In addition, Brightspace

by D2L provides unlimited access to support

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UCA

Students at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway enjoy the benefits of digital resources and one-on-one instruction.

through the Learning Management System.

This support may be accessed via a link, email or phone.

The college’s education program prepares students to use technology to support future teaching. The criminal justice program uses technology to provide students with a rich experience in crime scene investigations.

Computer information systems curriculum has been revised to provide more instruction to prepare students planning to major in computing at four-year schools. NPC’s science classes offer up to two on-campus lab experiences per semester, giving students the flexibility of e-learning with the benefit of fully equipped science labs.

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

NWACC offers more than 120 courses online. The college offers several degree options that can be completed entirely online, including Associate of Arts Transfer, Associate of Science-Business General Transfer and Associate of Applied Science-Environmental and Regulatory Science: Safety and Hazardous Materials Management. Students may also complete other certificate and degree programs partially online.

Nontraditional and traditional students alike opt for online courses to better fit their work schedule and family needs. Online classes are affordable, accessible and allow students to complete coursework at their convenience using the Canvas learning management system. NWACC provides many online support services, including online tutoring, online proctored testing, library resources, writing assistance and online academic advising.

OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

Ouachita Online provides online learning opportunities to nontraditional learners and the residential student population. Ouachita Online began offering online courses with full B.A. degree options in January 2015.

Courses are scheduled in five eight-week terms with two terms in the fall, two terms in the spring and a summer term.

Courses are facilitated by appropriate-

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ly credentialed instructors who are actively engaged with learners in the online learning environment. In addition to the courses existing fully online, the university’s library offers online services for the purpose of research.

OBU’s online curriculum includes two options for a Bachelor of Arts degree: Christian Studies, which prepares students with an eye toward practical ministry and Interdisciplinary Studies, an online degree completion program that allows students to engage multiple disciplines.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The University of Arkansas offers a robust online program including eight bachelor’s degrees, 22 master’s degrees, four doctoral programs and 14 graduate certificates. In 2019, online graduates numbered 357 students, nearly 80 percent higher than just four years ago.

Online students are full-fledged members of the University of Arkansas, which is consistently ranked among the nation’s top public research universities and a best value. Students who study online take courses from the same academic departments that offer degree programs on the Fayetteville campus and have access to the same academic resources and support (see onestop.uark.edu for a full list). They also receive UA diplomas, participate in commencement and join the more than 200,000 graduates whose names are engraved on Senior Walk.

The Departments of Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Information Systems teach the futuristic tech fields of cybersecurity and blockchain encryption, but all UA academic programs offer a window into new technology. For example, biomedical engineering examines nanotechnology delivering treatment to isolated cancer cells and the Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments uses gaming technology to recreate ancient civilizations such as Pompeii before the volcano.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASLITTLE ROCK

UA Little Rock provides more than 400 online courses each semester, offering more than 40 fully online degree and certificate A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

programs in business, health, information technology and more. Students participating in fully online programs receive a reduced rate and have access to academic resources online and on campus. (ualr.edu/online/).

Online military students have access to the Military Student Success Center, do not pay the application fee and receive discounted tuition. These benefits apply to active duty, guard/reserve, and honorably separated veterans. UA Little Rock is an Air University Associate to Baccalaureate Cooperative (AUABC) Partner and part of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges.

Ottenheimer Library works closely with online students to provide access to scholarly journals and databases, aiding research.

The library also works with online students via the library reciprocity program, ARKLink, allowing students to access library privileges in other parts of the state.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASMONTICELLO

Online courses have been part of the UAM curriculum since 1998 and use the latest version of Blackboard. The course management system enables professors to interact with students and monitor their progress. Many undergraduate students choose to take online courses throughout their time on campus.

Summer courses are particularly popular online because students can go back home while still earning credit.

UAM offers an online-only Bachelor of Science degree in education studies, as well as several graduate degrees. The online master’s in secondary education has been named one of the nation’s best by TheBestSchools.org, and its master’s in educational leadership has been named a Best Value by AffordableColleges.com.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPINE BLUFF

Online courses are delivered in each of the five academic units: School of Arts and Sciences, School of Business and Management, School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences, School of Education, and University College. During the 2018-19 academic year, UAPB piloted e-books that integrated

STUDENTS WHO TAKE ALL OR PART OF THEIR CLASS ONLINE PERFORMED BETTER, ON AVERAGE, THAN THOSE TAKING THE SAME COURSE THROUGH FACE-TO-FACE INSTRUCTION. BLENDED LIVE AND ONLINE LEARNERS DO EVEN BETTER.

E.J. Martin, Junior Criminal Justice Major from Benton, Arkansas

Source: U.S Department of Education, 2009

e-learning into selected courses.

UAPB has a variety of majors looking into the fundamentals of “what’s next” as it relates to technology. Those majors include: industrial technology, aquaculture, biology, chemistry, computer science, arts and education.

New degree programs include agricultural engineering and hospitality and tourism management.

The use of technology, at some level, is infused in all courses. Additionally, the John Brown Watson Memorial Library offers information literacy courses to assist students in navigating library databases and other resources in the digital age.

How does UAM fit your bold academic goals?

- 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio - More than 70 unique programs of study - Up to $12,000 in institutional aid each year - No Application Fee

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

Today’s students want the flexibility that online courses afford, so to meet these needs, UCA has expanded its online offerings. In 2015, the university launched UCA Online to develop and market high-quality online degree programs.

Today, UCA offers six online undergraduate degree completion programs in general business, health and safety, addiction studies, insurance and risk-management, nursing (for RNs), and general studies; 24 online graduate degree and certificate programs in fields such as business, education, geographic information systems, health sciences, family and consumer sciences, nursing and sports management.

UCA also supports hundreds of online courses taught by the same faculty who teach the traditional on-campus courses. UCA’s online instructors are trained in how to develop high-quality, innovative online courses and are assisted by professional instructional designers from UCA’s Center for Teaching Excellence.

Prepare for your future at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and set yourself on a bold course to success.

Visit the home of the home of the UAM Boll Weevils and find out

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The University of Arkansas at Monticello Monticello • Crossett • McGehee

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PAYING FOR COLLEGE While it is a fact that college degree holders earn more money over their lifetime than nondegree holders, it’s also a fact that paying for higher education is a challenge. Fortunately, there are a variety of financial aid options available for students and their families to consider.

UOFA FAYETTEVILLE

Students relax on a sunny day between classes at the University of Arkansas.

ARKANSAS NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE

Over 88 percent of the student body received some form of aid in the fall 2018 semester. In addition to federal and state aid, the college maintains various financial aid programs.

The Board of Trustees Academic & Technical Scholarships award students who excel during high school and are nominated by their high school counselor. They are based on class rank or test score of 24 and above on the ACT. The ANC Foundation provides need-based scholarships. Recipients must meet SAP requirements of 67 percent completion and GPA standards to maintain the scholarship.

The Career Jump Start Scholarship program targets students without a high school diploma who are dually enrolled in Adult Education and ANC while pursuing a GED.

tion and minimize student loan debt. Federal work-study is available for students who qualify, and additional on-campus job opportunities are available for students.

Institutional aid includes the A-State Scholar program, a scholarship that can provide up to $14,000 per year. This is a competitive scholarship and requires a separate application. Selections are made in December of each year.

Merit-based scholarships, valued up to $7,000, are available to students who have earned at least a 21 on the ACT and a high school GPA of 3.00 or better. Transfer students with a 3.25 or above and 24 transferable hours or more may be eligible to receive a scholarship valued up to $5,000 per year.

Other private and need-based scholarships are available to those who meet certain guidelines. Check with the A-State Financial Aid Office for full eligibility requirements.

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

Arkansas State offers scholarships to students who have excelled in areas such as athletics, arts, music and academics. Many private scholarships are available to students who meet certain criteria. A-State offers a variety of financial aid awards to help 90 percent of students with the cost of educa-

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Faculty and staff in Leadership Tech have partnered with the ATU Office of Financial Aid to develop a new student resource called Tech $ense, a one-stop shop for financial literacy. The program provides information about federal financial aid, scholarships, student loans and more. Visit atu.edu/finaid/ A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

techsense for information about budgeting for college.

The university offers a range of scholarships including Board of Trustees, Presidential, University, Deans, Academic Excellence, Green and Gold, Incentive and Leadership Scholarships. These awards have a priority scholarship deadline of Nov. 15 and a final scholarship deadline of Feb. 15 of the current award year.

Arkansas Tech students may also avail themselves of scholarship opportunities through the Arkansas Tech University Foundation. These privately funded scholarships provided more than $550,000 to more than 350 ATU students during the 2018-19 academic year.

HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY

Henderson State University offers a wide variety of academic scholarships for incoming and transfer students. The Distinguished Freshman Scholarship awards $11,000 plus $1,000 per year residence hall/campus housing credit. Eligible students have a 3.5 or higher high school cumulative GPA and an ACT score between 31 and 36.

The Presidential Scholarship awards $9,500 plus $500 per year residence hall/

IN 2017, HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES LEFT $2.3 BILLION IN FEDERAL AID, INCLUDING PELL GRANTS, ON THE TABLE. THE REASON? NEARLY 40 PERCENT NEVER FILLED OUT THE FAFSA. Source: NerdWallet campus housing credit in Tier 1. Applicants must have 3.5 or higher high school cumulative GPA and an ACT score of 28 to 30.

Tier 2 awards $9,000 plus $500 per year residence hall/campus housing credit and requires a 3.25 to 3.49 high school cumulative GPA and ACT score between 28 and 36.

A third major scholarship is the University Centurium Scholarship, another two-tiered program. Tier 1 awards $7,000; to be eligible, students must have earned a 3.5 or higher high school cumulative GPA and an ACT score of 25 to 27. Tier 2 awards $6,500 and requires a 3.25 to 3.49 high school cumulative GPA and ACT of between 25 to 27 to be eligible.

LYON COLLEGE

Lyon College maintains an impressive level of financial aid, benefiting 99 percent of the student body in any given year. That’s because all admitted students are eligible for institutional aid based on their academic record.

In addition to federal and state programs, Lyon also features a host of scholarships based on a special talent or heritage, including academics, athletics, art, music, theater, band and choir, among many others. Two unique awards include one based on a student’s Scottish heritage and a second one for esports athletes.

The financial aid department works to advise students on landing additional outside sources of aid to help defray the cost of attending Lyon College. The school also maintains work study and campus employment programs, rent-a-textbook and other initiatives to help keep costs contained.

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

National Park College tuition and fees are less than half the cost of the average university. NPC offered almost $7 million in scholarships and aid last year with more than 70 percent of NPC students receiving some type of financial assistance.

NPC’s Academic Achievement Scholarship is a full tuition award for two semesters. It requires a 2.75 cumulative GPA, a 19 or higher on the ACT, and the student must be

enrolled within one year of high school graduation. The President’s Scholarship, a full tuition and fees scholarship renewable for up to four semesters, requires two of the following criteria: 3.0 cumulative GPA, 22 or higher on the ACT, or rank in the top 25 percent of one’s high school graduating class.

One unique award is the Nighthawk Leadership Scholarships, available for students who take an active role on campus in student government, student ambassadors and other student organizations. It requires a 2.0 cumulative GPA and a minimum of 12 credit hours each term. In addition, Nighthawk athletic scholarships are available for men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and cross country.

NORTH ARKANSAS COLLEGE

With one in four students receiving some form of financial aid, North Arkansas College’s financial aid department works hard to help each student afford a college degree.

Presidential Scholarships are awarded to students based on ACT scores of 21 or higher who are high school graduates of Arkansas and Missouri contiguous counties, beginning the fall semester immediately following high school graduation. Students are eligible for this award for up to four semesters.

There are four tiers of award amounts based on ACT scores: Bronze Level awards $500 per semester and requires an ACT of 21 or 22. Silver and Gold levels award $1,000 and $1,500 per semester, respectively, and require an ACT of 23 or 24 for silver and 25 to 29 for gold. The Platinum Level of the Presidential Scholarship covers tuition and mandatory fees up to 18 hours per semester. To qualify, a student must have scored 30 or better on the ACT.

OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

A full 99 percent of degree-seeking students receive some type of financial aid at Ouachita Baptist University. Ouachita merit scholarships are awarded to incoming firstyear students based on a combination of seventh-semester high school GPA and ACT/SAT score through February of entry year. Merit A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

scholarships also are available to transfer students and those awards are based on cumulative transfer GPA at the time of acceptance.

Performance-based scholarships are available for 15 athletic teams, including cheer.

School of Fine Arts scholarships are awarded based on performance in vocal and instrumental music as well as visual arts, theater arts performance and design. Audition and/ or portfolio may be required for selection.

Denominational scholarships also are available to students pursuing ministry majors. Legacy and leadership scholarships also are awarded through the alumni program.

SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY

SAU offers various departmental scholarships for students majoring in specific disciplines as well as awards in art, band, choir, theater and esports. The SAU Foundation offers a wide range of additional scholarship opportunities.

The Presidential Scholarship, worth $11,000 per year for eight semesters, requires a student to have scored 30 to 36 on the ACT (1360 to 1600 SAT) and been named a National Merit or National Achievement finalists or semifinalist.

The University Scholarship awards $9,000 per year and requires a 27 to 29 ACT (1260 to 1350 SAT). The Blue and Gold Scholarship awards $6,600 per year; applicants must have scored between 24 and 26 on the ACT (1160 to 1250 SAT).

Valedictorian/Salutatorian/Top 10% and Leadership scholarships each award $6,600 per year for eight and four semesters, respectively. The V/S/T requires ranking in the top 10 percent of one’s high school graduating class and have a qualifying ACT/SAT score.

In addition to GPA and ACT/SAT requirements, the Leadership Award also requires a recommendation letter detailing the student’s leadership activities.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The University of Arkansas offers a wide variety of scholarship programs for students, including for new freshman, transfer students, currently enrolled students, military, college ARKANSASTIMES.COM ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 11 AUGUST 2019 67

and departmental scholarships. The majority of scholarship funding is merit-based and competitively awarded based on written applications, special talent, test scores and high school and/or college GPA. Other scholarships might require recipients to be members of an underrepresented community such as first-generation college students, students with interest in a field that does not typically attract members of their ethnicity or gender, students from underrepresented ethic or minority groups or students who reside in an underrepresented county in Arkansas.

The university also works to find ways to contain costs, such as University Libraries developing open-source textbooks and study materials in a variety of classes to reduce costs of textbooks.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASLITTLE ROCK

Every year, UA Little Rock awards millions in scholarship funding, benefiting 87 percent of the student body.

Aid is awarded and eligible to be renewed to students as long as they continue to meet eligibility criteria. Students must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as soon as possible. Final deadlines are in November. The university also offers payment plans so that any balance due may be broken up into smaller, more manageable monthly amounts over a semester.

Often, though not always, scholarship awards are based on standardized test scores. For example, the Chancellor’s Academic Distinction requires a minimum ACT score of 30 (1330 SAT), plus 3.5 GPA, and results in $10,000 per academic year award. Lower scores and GPAs can still result in some funding to offset college expenses.

Visit ualr.edu/scholarships/academic for more information on eligibility and a full listing of scholarships.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPINE BLUFF

The University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff reports 93 percent of the student body receives some form of financial aid. Besides federal and state funding programs, UAPB maintains various merit-based scholarships, ranging from $2,500 to $16,500, which are awarded based on academic performance and minimum ACT/SAT scores. UAPB’s academic tuition–based awards require a minimum ACT test score of between 21 and 28.

Other types of aid include Alumni Endowment scholarships (of which many are major-specific), U of A Foundation awards, military assistance and other external entities from private organizations, churches and Native American tribal heritage to worldwide organizations.

UAPB awards athletic scholarships to athletes in 12 sports and the performing arts which include the Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South (M4) and world-renowned Vesper Choir.

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UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS PULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE

UA Pulaski Tech students are now able to participate in the Arkansas Transfer Achievement Scholarship. This allows students who graduate with an associate’s degrees from any two-year college in the University of Arkansas System to transfer to the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville to work toward a bachelor’s degree and pay the same credit hour tuition they paid at their two-year institution.

The college offers other scholarship options, which annually benefit 80 percent of UA-PTC students. The Chancellor’s Scholarship awards up to $10,920 in tuition and fees and is renewable for up to four consecutive semesters. This award is open to graduates from accredited Arkansas high schools in the UA-PTC service area of Pulaski, Faulkner, Lonoke or Saline counties, enrolling in the first semester following high school.

GED Scholarship awards up to $10,920 in tuition and fees and is renewable for up to 60 hours. It is open to first-time college students who have completed the GED examination at an adult education center in Lonoke, Pulaski, Saline or Faulkner counties To see the full list and complete eligibility/application information visit uaptc.edu/ scholarships.

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

Two notable scholarships for incoming UCA freshmen include the Distinguished and Out of State Distinguished, offering $8,500 and $12,000 per year, respectively, including housing award. Both require a 31 to 36 ACT score (1390 to 1600 SAT) and a 3.5 high school GPA. Additional scholarships are available with awards ranging from $1,000 per year to $7,000 per year.

UCA offers a number of performance-based scholarships in athletics, cheer, dance, band, music and other areas. In addition, the UCA Foundation has scholarship opportunities for students based on specific donor criteria such as field of study, hometown, volunteerism or special interests. Information regarding UCA Foundation scholarships is available at uca. edu/foundation/foundation-scholarships/.

Cheryl Lyons, director of financial aid, recommends families do their homework to inform themselves of costs and scholarship options.

“Know Before You Go was developed and implemented by UCA to assist local students and families as they begin to investigate college choices, cost and financial assistance options,” she said. “This seminar outlines the questions students and parents should ask themselves as they weigh their options to ensure they are making fully informed decisions.”

CENTENNIAL BANK’S CENTS TO WIN PROMOTION PROVES IT PAYS TO SAVE

Centennial Bank is offering a new service exclusively for Arkansas customers: CENTS to Win, a Prize Linked Savings Promotion Raffle. Designed to promote wider saving among its customers, the program provides incentives in the way of prizes to all eligible account holders.

When it comes to financial health, studies show few Americans have adequate savings.

Centennial Bank’s program reinforces the idea that it’s never too early or too late to start learning the benefits of saving. Customers who open a CENTS to Win account and meet program requirements are automatically entered to win weekly and monthly prizes ranging from $25 to $100. And one fortunate raffle winner will be rewarded with the annual prize of $10,000.

Arkansas residents need only open a Centennial Bank CENTS to Win Personal Savings Account with $100 minimum to start saving.

New customers are encouraged to visit any Centennial Bank branch in Arkansas and ask to enroll in the CENTS to Win program.

Centennial Bank Savings Accounts can be opened online or in-branch.

Member FDIC. Please see my100bank. com/centstowin for official rules and more details.

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2019 COLLEGE GUIDE

UOFA UOFAFAYETTEVILLE/ATU FAYETTEVILLE/ATU

WHAT’S NEW ON CAMPUS

(Left) Arkansas Tech University officials cut the ribbon on land that will serve as a new sod farm. (Right) The newest addition to the University of Arkansas campus, Adohi Hall, will open with the fall 2019 semester.

ARKANSAS NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE

Arkansas Northeastern College’s new Center for Allied Technologies celebrated its grand opening last summer, just in time for the start of fall classes. The $14.4 million, 90,000-square-foot center houses the headquarters for the college’s customized training programs. Amenities include general purpose and specialized classrooms and lab space for electrical, mechanical, safety and HVACR programs as well as computer classroom and large multipurpose rooms. A world-class welding laboratory is also onsite.

The facility also houses the aircraft complex, combination nondestructive testing/ composites laboratory and general-purpose classrooms to fully accommodate ANC’s Federal Aviation Administration-certified aviation maintenance program. Other related facilities include an aircraft apron, paint booth, and tool room.

The Center is home to the newly-created Arkansas Steel Academy, in partnership with SMSgroup of Germany, which began operations in summer 2019. By partnering with SMS, Arkansas Northeastern College has become a satellite training hub for North America in cutting-edge techniques in steelmaking and processing.

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Arkansas State University’s students, faculty and staff have a new dining experience thanks to a $3.5 million renovation of the campus’ main cafeteria, featuring new dining stations focusing on gluten-free and oth14 AUGUST 2019 70 AUGUST 2019

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er special dietary needs. The improvements follow on the heels of improvements to the campus food court.

The university received a $450,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Transportation to fund the second phase of a planned campus-wide multiuse path. Phase one provided a parallel multiuse path for pedestrians and bicycle riders along two of the higher traffic areas of campus. Phase two will extend the protected lane along the southern border of campus along University Loop and connect to the eastern half of campus.

A-State is the first Bicycle Friendly University in the state and recently upgraded to BFU Silver status by the League of American Bicyclists. The university is one of only 59 silver-level honorees in the nation.

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

A new student union and recreation center is in the works for the university. Initial plans call for a gaming lab, theater, ballroom, conference center and space for university-sponsored programs in student leadership, civic engagement, student involvement, fraternity and sorority life and student government.

Those same plans call for the recreation center to feature basketball courts, climbing wall, indoor track, bouldering area, racquetball courts, cardio equipment, free weight equipment, spin bikes and fitness studios.

“This building would be the centerpiece of the campus and create a home for students in the center of campus,” said Jayson Simmons of Jacksonville, 2018-19 ATU Student Government Association president. “The facility A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

will not only better meet our needs, but it will also strengthen our connection to our peers, faculty and staff and to the university we all love.”

Also moving forward are plans to renovate the former swimming pool area in the Hull Physical Education Building. Once complete, the renovated space will provide a multipurpose area with lounge, event and recreation facilities. The project is targeting a 2020 completion.

LYON COLLEGE

Lyon built on its status as the only dog-friendly campus in the state with a “leash-cutting ceremony” for the new Schram Memorial Bark Park in March. The dog park is located in a centralized area on campus and is a great place for staff, faculty and students to bring their furry friends to exercise and play together. The dog park, combined with Lyon’s pet-friendly residence hall, allows students to bring their four-legged friends with them to campus.

The college is also in the process of developing a new arena for its esports program, the first varsity collegiate program in Arkansas. Located in the Mabee-Simpson Library on campus, the arena will be finished this fall and feature 15 gaming stations, each including a PC, monitor, headset, mouse and keyboard. Esports players will be able to practice and compete in the arena.

Lyon also completed its new multipurpose practice facility in 2019. Artificial turf and lights were installed in fall 2018 and a net was added behind one of the end zones to

catch stray shots and keep balls in the playing area. Lyon hopes to further enhance the facility by adding a scoreboard and possibly a press box and bleachers.

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

The college will christen a new Student Commons with the fall 2019 semester. The $15 million expansion included construction of a new student commons facility, renovation of the Fisher Campus Center, and updates to technical program facilities. The new building will house a new bookstore, food services, coffee shop and other student amenities.

A new marine technology building will also be constructed as part of phase one of the master plan. The Gerald Fisher Campus Center will be converted into classroom spaces with the Innovative Technologies Center and the Hospitality and Tourism Program located on the first floor. The Oaklawn Foundation announced a $400,000 investment in the NPC Hospitality and Tourism program, funds that will be used for new equipment, construction and renovation to create a 7,500-square-foot Hospitality and Tourism Center.

The college began construction this summer of a new residence hall, a $9 million project that will be completed in 2020. The three-story residential unit will encompass 52,000 square feet and feature capacity of 180 beds. Housing fees are estimated to be approximately $575-$725 monthly depending on the type of unit.

NORTH ARKANSAS COLLEGE

The college reimagined its library as a comprehensive, efficient student space named the Learning Resource Center. The LRC encourages student conversations in the center of the building and encourages collaboration. Designed for group study throughout the interior areas and in the workrooms, multiple devices can broadcast onto one projector, allowing students to view others’ work. Students can also edit and develop presentations working collaboratively in this manner.

A new Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence was created and housed in the LRC. Other improvements in the LRC include the addition of a new computer lab, two new group study rooms with computers, relocation of the academic tutors, Wi-Fi and printing services.

Northark has also invested in technology infrastructure, selecting Colleague® by Ellucian for its Enterprise Resource Planning software. New capabilities give students the ability to conduct all school business online and provides complete visibility into academic progress, putting them in control of their own timeline to graduation.

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

More than a year in the making, NWACC’s Integrated Design Lab will open in time for the 2019 fall semester. The IDL will house classes and dedicated space for students pursuing an education in art and design. The

facility has areas for students to learn valuable, creative and technical skills in drawing, painting, ceramics, printmaking and other media. The lab will include a maker space for students to test creative entrepreneurial ideas and use the skills learned in various construction and design courses.

Under construction is a consolidated academic building for NWACC-Washington County. The facility will house courses and services currently offered at the college’s smaller Washington County, Farmington and Jones Center rented locations. The building will feature classrooms, computer labs, science labs, a nursing simulation lab, an event center and open office space. The facility will also house NWACC’s High School Relations which oversees the early college experience program. The new center is expected to be open for the spring 2020 semester.

Thea Foundation is awarding 36 scholarships in 2020!

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SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY

Arkansas Hall, a 132-bed residence hall, has been completed and joins Magnolia, Columbia and Burns-Harsh halls, which combined offer a capacity of almost 500 students. The new hall opened in July.

The university also completed work on a new agricultural shop, serving the Agriculture Department/College of Science and Engineering. The new facility adds technological improvements including upgraded welders, cutting bays and plasma cutting table.

Other academic improvements include a new $1.4 million addition to the SAU Band facilities with expanded rehearsal space and practice rooms. There’s also a $2.5 million improvement to the College of Education, which will result in additional classroom and administrative space. Both projects are due to be completed next year.

Several sports and recreational facilities have also been added or improved, including a new tennis complex completed last year, a golf range and practice putting area completed this summer and a trap shooting range and facility to be completed this fall.

New tennis and soccer locker rooms are also in the works, to be completed in 2020.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The state’s flagship university is completing two major projects, including Adohi Hall, a new housing unit expected to be completed in time for the fall 2019 semester. The $79 million project comprises two five-story residential wings and a common space connecting them. The hall includes 200,000 square feet of total space, 368 residential rooms and kitchens on each residential floor. It also houses a variety of specialized spaces, including a recording studio, flexible design, art and maker studio, classroom spaces, gallery spaces, music practice room, interior and exterior performance spaces and dance and yoga studio.

Also in the works is the new Student Success Center, a part of the Academic Affairs and Student Affairs divisions. The Student Success Center will be built just north of Old Main AA SPECIAL SPECIAL ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT SUPPLEMENT OF OF THE THE ARKANSAS ARKANSAS TIMES TIMES

Visit theafoundation.org/scholarships for more information and to register.

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and house all of the student success programming and initiatives. The center is planned to have 77,000 square feet of space, including a variety of advising studios and tutoring and mentoring spaces. Construction of the project is expected to start this year and be completed by December 2021.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPINE BLUFF

Golden Lion athletes can now practice and compete in state-of-the-art facilities thanks to various recent improvements. In football, a $2.5 million renovation to Simmons Bank Field included new turf, jumbotron, digital scoreboard, audio and video system and time clocks all intended to provide an exciting fan experience.

Baseball players and fans will enjoy improvements to Simmons Bank Pavilion at Bill Jones Field at Torii Hunter Stadium, completed just this year, which brought $1.2 million worth of improvements to the concession stand, restrooms, press box and locker rooms. Improvements to the Kenneth L.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

Johnson, Sr. Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) Complex, home to the basketball team, include new bleachers, a new floor and new basketball goals.

The university has also invested heavily in the academic success of its athletes with improvements to the Student-Athlete Academic Center. The $150,000 project added a new computer lab, tutorial lab and meeting space for staff to boost the success of student-athletes.

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

This fall, the university will break ground on two major projects. The first, a new 80,000-square-foot Integrated Health Sciences Building, will be home to the School of Nursing and the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, along with the Nabholz Center for Healthcare Simulation and an interprofessional teaching clinic to be used by the entire college.

The second, Greek Village Phase II, will include three fraternity houses and a build-

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ing for National Panhellenic Council chapter rooms. The 7,445-square-foot, 11-bedroom fraternity houses will be situated across the street from Greek Village Phase I, which consists of UCA sorority houses.

This fall, UCA will begin work on a $975,000 tornado-proof, stand-alone safe room for residents of Bear Village and those living in surrounding apartments and homes. The building will provide protection for 516 people in the event of a catastrophic storm. Upgrades to residence halls include new lighting, HVAC systems, new private restrooms and upgrading card access to Conway Hall new roof on Bernard Hall and forthcoming renovations to State Hall.

On the horizon, UCA announced a $20 million gift from Windgate Foundation which will support the new state-of-the-art Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts. The world-class facility, expected to be completed in 2022, will include a 175seat black box theater, experimental lab, a scenery shop and 450-seat concert hall.

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ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 73

2019 COLLEGE GUIDE

UOFA-FORT SMITH

CAMPUS NEWS

Collaboration is the name of the game at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith library.

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

The Red Wolves are known for being competitive in many endeavors and starting with the 2019-20 school year, that field will grow by one: esports. The A-State esports team will initially be introduced as a major club team (like the university’s national champion rugby, softball and shooting sports), but quickly transition it into a varsity team that will offer scholarships.

More than 250 students expressed interest in joining, and tryouts were held this summer to set the rosters for the first competitions. The team anticipates partnering with other universities on contests and scrimmages this fall and A-State plans to host high school esport tournaments as well. A new training venue is also being completed on the Jonesboro campus.

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

ATU has established a record for enrollment. In fall 2018, ATU enrolled 12,101 students, a 2.3 percent increase over fall 2017.

The student population represents all 75 counties in Arkansas, and more than 93 percent of students are from The Natural State.

Arkansas Tech University has achieved the distinction of Military Friendly School 74 AUGUST 2019 2019 18 AUGUST

ARKANSASTIMES TIMES ARKANSAS

for 2019-20 following compilation of data by ratings organization Viqtory Media. ATU opened a student veterans lounge in the Doc Bryan Student Services Center during Homecoming 2018, giving student veterans a space to gather with peers with shared experiences.

A team of six ATU students achieved a fuel efficiency of 993 miles per gallon to finish third among teams from the United States and seventh overall in the prototype internal combustion engine division. The group was competing in the 2019 Shell Eco-marathon Americas challenge in Sonoma, Calif., April 3-6.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association recognized Arkansas Tech University as the 2018-19 NCAA Division II Team Works Helper Helper community service champion.

ATU student-athletes completed 3,535 hours of community work during the three months of the competition.

Arkansas Tech University’s softball program earned its second consecutive Great American Conference Tournament title. The Golden Suns went on to reach the championship game of the NCAA Division II Tournament Central Regional in Edmond, Okla., before ending their season with 47 wins and A A SPECIAL SPECIAL ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT SUPPLEMENT OF OF THE THE ARKANSAS ARKANSAS TIMES TIMES

a No. 20 national ranking.

The women’s golf team also captured the Great American Conference championship, its fifth straight title and sixth overall. Arkansas Tech qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships for the fifth time in the last six years and finished tied for 10th in the nation.

The men’s golf team won the 2019 conference title, defeating five-time conference champ Henderson State University. It is ATU’s 13th conference championship in men’s golf, but only the second as a member of the Great American Conference. The Wonder Boys also advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Championships for a third consecutive year.

HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY

The university launched two new degree programs for nursing: Master of Science in Nursing Administration and Family Nurse Practitioner. The Nursing Administration program prepares nurses as advanced practice registered nurses and the family nurse practitioner program prepares nurses to be primary caregivers. Participants also can earn a post-graduate nurse educator certificate.

The school is also in the process of adding

a Doctor of Education in Instructional Leadership degree. The degree has been approved by the state of Arkansas and will be considered by the Higher Learning Commission.

This degree will be offered online and is an extension of two educational specialist degrees already in place.

LYON COLLEGE

Affiliated with the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), Lyon College’s esports program is the first varsity collegiate program in Arkansas. In May 2019, Lyon became the only college in Arkansas to hire a professional esports player as its coach.

Lyon College and Batesville announced a partnership to bring competitive swimming to the college and the greater community.

Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh and Lyon President Dr. W. Joseph King signed a memorandum of understanding, signifying the partnership in June.

The women’s basketball team earned its eighth straight trip to the NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship. Lyon College’s baseball team earned its third straight trip to the NAIA Baseball National Championship.

A new Reserve Officers’ Training Corps military science concentration will debut this fall. Arkansas State University’s ROTC will support Lyon’s program by providing ROTC instructors who will travel to Lyon to train and instruct students. A-State ROTC will also provide uniforms, equipment and textbooks to students at no charge.

Last year, the career search site ZIPPIA calculated Lyon produces the highest-earning graduates in the state. In 2017, Lyon was also named a Best Bang for the Buck College (Washington Monthly), a Top 25 Low Debt College (Forbes), a Private College With the Most Creative Arts Scholarship Aid (The Student Loan Report) and a Top 50 Private College That Give Students the Least Private Student Debt (The Student Loan Report). Lyon is also on U.S. News and World Report’s list of Top National Liberal Arts Colleges.

NORTH ARKANSAS COLLEGE

North Arkansas College has been named a Best Community College (WalletHub 2018) and a Most Affordable Community College That Offers Online Degrees (affordableschools.net).

Last year, Northark introduced a short-term study abroad program with a group visiting Thailand, a trip that provided unique cultural experiences to participants. This year, the program visited Italy and will travel to Eastern Europe next May. The college has added several 2+2 partnership agreements to increase transfer options with four institutions: Arkansas Tech, John Brown University, the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business and Evangel University in Springfield, Mo. Online enrollment at Northark continues to grow. Students can now take Medical Laboratory Technology online with the clinical portion in their hometown. A new online

National Park College and Southern Arkansas University announced a degree partnership that will bring bachelor’s degree programs to Hot Springs beginning in fall 2019.

All four years of the three new degree programs will be offered through the National Park University Center on the NPC campus.

Students will complete the first two years of a degree enrolled as NPC students and junior and senior years enrolled as SAU students.

The degrees will include biology, pre-health; chemistry, pre-health biochemistry; and computer science.

Students will pay NPC tuition rates for the first two years of coursework and SAU tuition rates for the junior and senior year coursework. Fees will be shared among both institutions. Students who participate will have access to all of the services and resources NPC offers as well as those SAU offers. Students will earn an associate’s degree diploma from NPC and a bachelor’s degree diploma from SAU upon graduation.

New fields of study available at National Park College include curriculum in biology, business, chemistry and digital and media arts.

percent.

The Tiger soccer team won the Great American Conference championship, its second title in as many seasons. The football team also took top honors in the conference, posting only the second undefeated regular season in school history. The team’s run ended in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II football playoffs.

OBU has begun offering an after-school, community steel band program for fourthand fifth-graders from Peake Elementary School in Arkadelphia. The steel band, called Pan Harmony, meets once a week on Ouachita’s campus. Students start each session with homework and a snack before beginning the music lessons. The students have the opportunity to show the skills they have learned during fall and spring concerts.

The university’s Department of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies received the credential of Gold Status from the American College of Sports Medicine’s Exercise Is Medicine® program. A team of finance students were firstplace winners at the ninth annual Quinnipiac Global Asset Management Education Forum held in New York City. Students in Ouachita Baptist University’s chapter of Alpha Chi national college honor society were recognized at the organization’s recent national convention with three national awards, including first place for Collaborative Research Project.

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY

post-associate degree in biomedical electronics technology also provides valuable internship experiences to students.

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

Earlier this year the nursing program at NWACC was ranked fourth among nursing programs in Arkansas by the website www. registerednursing.org.

With the addition of the Integrated Design Lab, which is expected to open in fall 2019, NWACC has developed a new integrated design program that offers a technical certificate in integrated design. Students will develop an educational foundation in artistic creativity, design-thinking principles, construction methods and business practices.

In partnership with the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, NWACC is offering a new robotics and automation program at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Robotics Training Center in Fayetteville. The new center will offer a significant contribution to Arkansas’s workforce while responding to national manufacturers’ needs for employees with scalable skills in robotics and automation.

NWACC and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville have established a joint transition academic program which enables students to simultaneously pursue associate’s degrees at NWACC and bachelor’s degrees at UA. After at least two semesters, students with a qualifying GPA can transfer full-time to UA, while still taking courses toward an associate’s degree at NWACC.

OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

A record 1,660 students enrolled at OBU last fall. The school also achieved a record freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 83.4 A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

SAU was ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 2 in the nation in Cyber FastTrack competition. The university has also achieved several national rankings, including No. 1 Most Affordable Master’s in Cybersecurity in the U.S. (Online Value Colleges), Top 25 Most Affordable Online MBA Programs (College Consensus) and Top 30 Best Online Master’s in Secondary Education Programs in the U.S. (OnlineMasters.com).

SAU’s women’s disc golf team captured the national title in Appling, Georgia. The Southern Arkansas University Rodeo Team earned its 13th consecutive trip to the College National Rodeo Finals in Casper, Wyoming.

SAU also placed in the top 20 at the YETI Fishing League Worldwide National Championship.

The Southern Arkansas University men’s tennis team (20-6) captured the Great American Conference regular season championship and competed in the NCAA Division II National Championship. SAU’s women’s tennis team (25-5) also won the GAC regular season and tournament titles.

The Mulerider men’s golf team competed in NCAA postseason play for the first time in the 2019 NCAA Division II Central/Midwest Regional. The SAU softball team finished 46-13 overall, the fourth consecutive season of 45 or more wins, en route to a second straight conference regular season title and fourth straight appearance in the Central Region Tournament.

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AUGUST 2019 75 AUGUST 2019 19

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASCOSSATOT

UA-Cossatot continues to find ways to reduce costs for students to attend college. Since 2015, the UA-Cossatot Textbook Rental/Open Educational Resource program has saved students over $1 million. UA-Cossatot now offers free 24/7 online tutoring through a partnership with Tutor.com.

The school’s basketball team is now part of the NJCAA and competes against other twoyear schools in Arkansas. This is the first academic year that women’s basketball has been added to the athletic program. Home games are played in the historic UA-Cossatot Bank of Lockesburg Gymnasium in Lockesburg.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The Razorback women’s track and field team won the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, bringing its total to four national championships and a total of 45 overall track and field championships between the women’s and men’s programs.

The University of Arkansas added six new undergraduate majors, two new master’s degrees and three new graduate certificate programs.

Students and alums receiving special recognition included Tyler Bishop of Fayetteville, Austin Kreulach of Bentonville and Meagan Olsen of Fayetteville named 2019 Goldwater Scholars; Samia Ismail of Fort Smith, named a 2019 Harry Truman Scholar; and Olivia Caillouet of Little Rock, Brayley Gattis of Fort Smith and Alexander O’Brien of Springdale, awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

In addition, Jordan Farris of Marianna was selected to attend the 2019 Ralph Bunch Summer Institute at Duke University; Darynne Dahlem of Greenwood won the 2019 Miss Arkansas competition; and Anthony Azzun of Bolivar, Missouri; Christopher Cowan of Overland Park, Kansas; Bo Fang of Little Rock; and Sarah Kouchebagh of Fayetteville were awarded Fulbright Student Awards. Luis Paganelli Marin of Fayetteville won the Hudson Doctoral Award in the Humanities.

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one roof, and introduced a full-service Chickfil-A restaurant to UAM, the first of its kind in the nation.

For seven of the last nine years, members of the UAM Rodeo Team ranked among the top in the country, competing in the College National Finals Rodeo. As the state’s only College of Forestry, UAM is a regular contender at the Southern Forestry Schools Conclave, most recently placing second overall.

UAM Boll Weevil athletics compete in the NCAA Division II Great American Conference. UAM Baseball posted a record 18game winning streak on its way to its second consecutive GAC regular-season title.

First-generation graduates now receive a special pin at commencement denoting their status as the first in their families to attend college. Each fall, incoming UAM freshmen classes are made up of about 50 percent first-generation students.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASFORT SMITH

This fall, incoming freshmen at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith will have the opportunity to lock in their tuition rate for up to four years at the most affordable university in the state. UAFS will begin offering a fixed tuition program named the UAFS Promise for first-time entering freshmen in fall 2019.

The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith’s Adult Degree Completion Program will provide a streamlined educational pathway for students to pursue either a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership or a Bachelor of General Studies. For more information, email adultdegree@uafs.edu or visit uafs.edu/ADCP. The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith has introduced the state’s first youth apprenticeship program for advanced manufacturing.

The ABB Youth Apprenticeship Program targets rising high school juniors and seniors. Once accepted into the program, they work full-time over the summer and part-time during the school year while attending high school and earning technical concurrent college credit.

Beginning this fall, the Lion Launch Pad will equip all entering freshmen in the College of STEM, including students in the School of Education, with an iPad to enhance their abilities to learn, share and excel academically.

A new degree at UAFS in unmanned aerial systems is unparalleled in the nation and will prepare students for careers in one of the nation’s top emerging fields, incorporating coursework in operations, maintenance, regulations, data collection and data analytics of remotely piloted aircraft.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASMONTICELLO

The University of Arkansas at Monticello has been ranked No. 8 in the 2018 Best Bang for the Buck Southern Colleges by Washington Monthly magazine.

Last academic year, UAM opened the Student Success Center, which brings together a number of essential student resources under A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPINE BLUFF

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Southeast Arkansas College officially launched a collaborative degree program known as Associate to Bachelors, or A2B. The program allows students to earn both an associate’s degree at SEARK and a bachelor’s degree at UAPB, concurrently.

The Learning Institute and Opportunities for New Students (LIONS) program prepares new UAPB students for college academic rigor. Started in Summer 2008, benefits of attending the program include completion of six credits of English and algebra.

The university is the recipient of a number of grants, including $4 million from the National Science Foundation to support the Arkansas Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation’s implementation of a Louis Stokes Pathways Research Alliance program.

A $2.2 million grant from the Windgate Foundation will establish the Windgate Foundation Scholarship Endowment and fund the John Miller Howard Art and Education Legacy Exhibition at the Leedell Moorehead-Graham Fine Arts Gallery.

UAPB student Kyra Rattler was among 44 students from 34 historically black colleges and universities named a 2019 HBCU Competitiveness Scholar. Announced by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, it is the initiative’s highest student recognition.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Students today expect a tangible reward for their efforts, meaning they want the result of becoming more employable as soon as possible. UA-PTC facilitates that goal through high-quality facilities, using the latest technologies and dozens of “2+2” transfer agreements with four-year institutions across the state. One such agreement is with UA Little Rock, called the Metro Degree.

At its Central Arkansas campuses, UA-PTC works to ensure that students succeed and seeks to increase retention by offering conve-

WE DON’T JUST OFFER DEGREES.

WE LAUNCH CAREERS.

T

he University of Central Arkansas equips undergrads with hands-on learning opportunities that prepare them for future success.

The goal? Transforming students into professionals.

Learn more at gouca.com today.

• Research

• Service-learning

• Internships

• Mentorship and networking

• Study abroad

• Professional organizations

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AUGUST 2019 77

nient class scheduling, strengthening relationships between students and advisors, offering tutoring and other wrap-around services that diminish barriers to success. The college offers stackable credentials so students can get certificates of proficiency and technical certificates on their way to receiving Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, or Associate of Applied Science degrees.

The University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute received WorldChefs Recognition of Quality Culinary Education Programme approval. UA-PTC CAHMI is the fifth educational institution in the United States to have this approval and the 63rd worldwide.

UA-Pulaski Tech’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute is ranked No. 22 on the Best Choice Schools’ 50 Best Culinary Schools in the United States. The university’s Hospitality program ranked No. 14 in Best Online Schools.

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

The University of Central Arkansas teamed with University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton and Arkansas State University-Beebe to become Bear Partners. The partnerships give UACCM and ASU-Beebe students pursuing an associate’s degree access to academic resources at UCA, along with the opportunity to explore UCA and participate in campus activities.

The University of Central Arkansas continues to rank among the top 30 best regional public institutions in the South, according to the 2019 Best Colleges rankings by U.S. News & World Report. UCA ranked 26th in the category of Top Public Schools among regional universities in the South. TheLadders.com also recently named UCA the best Total-Package College in Arkansas. The UCA College of Education was recently selected as an Apple Distinguished School for its unique implementation of Apple technology. There are only 400 Apple Distinguished Schools in the world.

UCA was honored with its third Committed to Diversity Award from Minority Access, Inc. The Learning Resources Network honored the UCA Division of Outreach and Community Engagement with a 2019 International LERN Award for Best Marketing for the Women’s Leadership Network.

The Bears’ soccer team won both the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title and the MVC Tournament championship for the first time. It was the second consecutive MVC Tournament title for the Bears. The UCA men’s cross-country team won its first Southland Conference championship and produced two AllSLC selections.

The Sugar Bears’ volleyball team earned the No. 2 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament and reached the championship match.

The softball team racked up 26 victories marking the 10th straight-season of 25 or more wins for UCA. In women’s soccer, UCA claimed its second Southland Conference championship in the last three seasons and went 10-1-0 in league play.

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THEA FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2020 SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Little Rock-based Thea Foundation is awarding 36 scholarships in 2020. Thea’s annual scholarships remain a unique opportunity for students, as neither test scores, GPA nor intent to major in the arts is considered during the competition process.

There are six different competitions to enter, open to all Arkansas seniors including homeschooled students: visual arts, performing arts, slam poetry, creative writing, fashion design and film, the latter presented in partnership with the Arkansas Cinema Society. Students benefit from Thea’s education partners, which include almost every four-year college and many two-year colleges in Arkansas, where the scholarship could be matched with thousands more dollars in scholarship money.

Although Thea Foundation does not anticipate every student to explore furthering their education specifically in the arts, the 2019 winners do include students that will attend prominent art schools, including The Savannah College of Art and Design as well as The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

For the 2020 scholarship competition season, students who compete in the visual arts, slam poetry, creative writing, fashion design and film competitions will need to follow this year’s theme: Brilliant, Radiant, Overcoming the Senses. There isn’t a theme applied to the performing arts scholarship competition.

Below is the breakdown for Thea Foundation’s 2020 Scholarship Competitions: • Slam Poetry Registration Deadline - Monday, Feb. 24; Competition - Saturday, Feb. 29 • Fashion Design Registration Deadline Monday, March 2; Competition - Saturday, March 7 • Creative Writing Registration Deadline Monday, March 9; Competition Results Saturday, March 14 • Performing Arts Registration Deadline Monday, March 16; Competition - Saturday, March 21 • Visual Arts Registration Deadline - Monday, March 23; Competition - Saturday, March 28 • Film Scholarship Registration Deadline Monday, March 30; Results - TBD Thea Foundation’s mission is to advocate the importance of the arts in the development of our youth, reverse the trend of budget cuts to arts programming and help young people across the state receive an impactful education and financial help for higher education. Since 2002, Thea Foundation has awarded more than $2.3 million in scholarships to students across the state and provided more than $1.6 million in art supplies and other creative materials to underfunded schools.

Interested and qualifying seniors should visit theafoundation.org/scholarships for more information about the scholarship program and to register. For more information about Thea Foundation, call (501) 379-9512 or visit theafoundation.org.

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EAST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE FIVE FAST FACTS (Forrest City)

1. Full-service education Serving a large portion of east Arkansas, EACC provides students of all ages access to high quality and affordable education.

EACC offers students a variety of academic, technical, vocational, allied health, business and industry training.

Core general education classes are fully transferable to other state-supported colleges and universities.

2. Accessible Students have the option of taking classes at the campus in Forrest City, the Wynne Center, and many other locations within the five-county service area.

Evening classes, online classes, and distance learning options are offered each semester.

3. Affordable EACC has one of the lowest tuition rates in the state with tuition discounts available for students aged 50+.

The college offers a full range of academic and technical scholarships, as well as financial aid and payment options.

4. Overcoming obstacles East Arkansas Community College offers Arkansas Career Pathways services to help qualified students overcome barriers to higher education.

In addition to free training and college classes, Pathways can assist with childcare, transportation assistance and tutorial services among others.

5. Campus life Student may participate in intramurals, student government, volunteer opportunities or one of several campus clubs and organizations to develop leadership skills and networking.

NURSING HISTOTECHNOLOGY M E D I C A L L A B O R AT O R Y S C I E N C E NUCLEAR MEDICINE TECHNOLOGY O C C U PAT I O N A L T H E R A P Y A S S I S TA N T RADIOGRAPHY SLEEP TECHNOLOGY SURGICAL TECHNOLOGY

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Baptist Baptist Health Health College College Little Little Rock Rock does does not not discriminate discriminate on on the the basis basis of of age, age, color, color, creed, creed, physical physical challenges, challenges, gender, gender, marital marital status, status, race, race, national national origin, origin, or or religion. religion. Gainful Gainful employment employment and and consumer consumer information information can can be be found found at at bhclr.edu/outcomes. bhclr.edu/outcomes. All All BHCLR BHCLR programs programs are are certified certified by by the the Arkansas Arkansas Department Department of of Higher Higher Education.

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AUGUST 2019 79

2019 COLLEGE GUIDE

SAFETY

In a recent survey by Wearsafe, seven out of 10 respondents said campus safety was a critical factor in picking a school. The following summaries show the steps some of Arkansas’s institutions of higher learning are taking to help keep students, faculty and staff safe on campus.

Henderson State University in Arkadelphia provides a modern, safe campus where students can thrive.

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Arkansas State University Is ranked in the top 25 for on-campus safety by national organizations for its commitment to training officers and university staff through FEMA and the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. Recent improvements include enhanced on-campus lighting and cameras to monitor campus safety and investment in new residence hall security systems.

One of the most successful projects is Safe@State key chain tabs that list all area emergency agency numbers. It also includes the number to request on-campus escort from campus officers and student volunteers. The university supports QuikTips mobile app that allows students to report concerns directly to UPD. A-State also takes part in specific training throughout the year for active threat, fire safety, personal safety and sexual assault awareness.

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

During the 2017-18 academic year, the Arkansas Tech University Department of Public Safety, a service-oriented agency, introduced a new and enhanced tool for notifying the university community in the event of an

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emergency. ATU Alert reaches Arkansas Tech faculty, staff and students with important information when time is of the essence.

Other safety programs include Tech Safety Transport, an on-campus transportation service to ensure no student, faculty or staff member must walk alone on campus at night and multiple education outreach programs by the ATU Department of Public Safety on topics such as women’s self-defense, theft prevention and emergency preparedness.

Each incoming student at Arkansas Tech University participates in two online trainings: AlcoholEdu and Haven. AlcoholEdu is a resource that empowers individuals to make well-informed decisions about alcohol, while Haven provides education about healthy relationships and the importance of consent.

Additional resources are offered via the Jerry Cares Program, administered through the Health and Wellness Center. This initiative is named for the university’s campus ambassador, Jerry the Bulldog, and disseminates helpful information about keeping Tech safe for all.

ATU’s Division of Student Affairs oversees the Arkansas Tech University CARE (Campus Assessment, Response and Evaluation) team.

This group serves as a multidisciplinary proA SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

active campus threat assessment and behavioral intervention team.

HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY

Henderson State University uses Alertus and Rave notification systems to provide notification in the event of emergencies. This includes notifications via outdoor warning system, text messaging, mobile app, email and desktop notifications. The university also provides Reddie Rides, an on-call ride-home service. The campus has installed 10 outdoor emergency call phones across campus to connect students to assistance should the need arise.

Student Support Services also provides academic tutoring, support groups, workshops and academic advice to help students navigate the challenges and stresses of college life.

LYON COLLEGE

According to Campus Safety and Security data, Lyon has one of the safest campuses in Arkansas. Lyon has a 24-hour campus safety team patrolling campus, which also provides walk-home and ride-home services. Campus safety officers have completed ALICE (Alert

As a student-athlete, I’ve been challenged both in the classroom and on the field. Between the education that I’ve received and the relationships that I’ve built, my time at Henderson State University has prepared me to

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Between classes, students find many ways to have fun, like these roommates at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia.

OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate) training, which involves protocols for active shooter or campus intruder.

Lyon hosts an orientation for new students at the beginning of each school year called Weeks of Welcome (WOW). The Student Life Office resident assistants and resident directors reiterate safety procedures and regulations with students in a required meeting after move-in.

In addition, all freshmen participate in the Year One program designed to help them adjust to life at Lyon and make connections across campus. Each new student has a Year One faculty/staff mentor, Year One student mentor and a faculty adviser.

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

NPC employs a Director of Campus Safety and contracts with the Garland County Sheriff’s Office for a School Resource Officer.

During normal business hours, armed officers are available to students, faculty and staff.

During evening operating hours, one GCSO deputy is assigned specifically to campus.

The college has an all-call system to alert the campus community of emergencies; these alerts are broadcast over all-campus loudspeakers, phone calls, texts and email. All exterior lights on buildings and in parking lots were upgraded during summer 2019.

At mandatory NPC orientation, new students are briefed on campus safety and procedures for reporting concerning behaviors.

NPC’s Behavior Intervention Specialist meets with all new students to cover Title IX sexual harassment and discrimination topics and the campus nurse presents information regarding alcohol and drug abuse prevention.

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NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Students who may be struggling are identified and communicated via Success Planner (Starfish) by faculty and staff. Identified students then receive the appropriate messaging, interventions or outreach for support.

Additionally, faculty often reach out to the Office of Student Success directly for additional student support.

NWACC has two different peer mentoring programs. The LIFE program is a group of eight student mentors who visit high schools in Northwest Arkansas to encourage underserved and underrepresented student populations to pursue a higher education. In many cases, the mentors become advocates for these students by helping connect them to the resources to be successful in college. Peer Pack students serve as peer advisers and mentors for students on campus.

State-certified police, consisting of full-time and part-time officers, as well as trained security officers help keep the campus safe. The main campus in Bentonville provides security staff and dispatch services 24/7/365. Officers and security personnel are available to escort individuals to and from classes, work stations or cars at any time day or night.

The college maintains several different notification systems for emergencies and alerts, including access to the Benton County Emergency Alert system and an NWACC-deployed smartphone app called LiveSafe. LiveSafe has emergency notification capabilities as well as live chat functions and reports in real time to a dispatch office. Also, digital security cameras are located in all campus locations, including parking garage.

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Ouachita holds a required online orientation for new students that covers sexual assault, bystander intervention, alcohol and drug awareness and reporting various situations. Each student is presented a quiz after each section and must maintain a passing score throughout the orientation to complete the training. Residence halls have mandatory meetings to address where to go and what to do in case of an emergency, how to perform situation assessment and what situations to avoid and policies dealing with alcohol abuse, opioids and other drugs.

Ouachita Baptist University’s Office of Safety and Emergency Management is staffed with commissioned police officers who provide a full spectrum of law enforcement services with a focus on student safety and protection.

OBU maintains a campus-wide emergency notification system. Additionally, Ouachita offers Rave Guardian to improve the university’s ability to summon aid in the event of an emergency and to report criminal activity.

Resident assistants live on each floor of each residence hall and are trained to “do life” with each student. They assist with anything from questions about academic majors, to dealing with roommate conflicts, to where to go shopping in the community. The Residence Life staff spends many hours with students in order to connect them with campus resources as needed.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The University of Arkansas publishes annual statistics as part of the Jeanne Cleary Act, allowing students and their families access to actual numbers of reported campus crimes.

These statistics continue to bear out the university as a place of very low incidences of crime, thanks to ongoing vigilance and preparedness.

The University of Arkansas Police Department recently added a campus security patrol separate from the law-enforcement division to provide an extra layer of safety. UAPD pursues a strategy of prevention and education to help students recognize things they can do to increase their own safety and deter crime.

Students seeking information about safety on campus should check out safety.uark.edu.

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AUGUST 2019 83

THE GOOD NEWS IS, STATISTICS SHOW COLLEGE CAMPUSES ARE GETTING SAFER OVERALL. BURGLARY, RAPE, ASSAULT AND ROBBERY ARE THE MOST COMMON CAMPUS CRIMES. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

The university provides emergency notification through RazAlert, which sends key messages by text, email and voice to all campus community members whenever an imminent threat is posed. The university also offers the Guardian app, which offers several safety features. The Associated Student Government operates a safe-ride program for students, and campus escorts are available for any student who is out at night. Residence halls are secured with advanced card readers at all entrances.

All freshmen take a course called University Perspectives during their first year. The Substance Education and Alcohol Resources Office works collaboratively across many departments, including presentations to freshman University Perspective classes, regarding alcohol and other drug use topics. The Pat Walker Health Center coordinates several peer-to-peer groups in which students work to educate their fellow students about health and safety, including awareness on sexual assault, wellness, nutrition and mental health.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASMONTICELLO

UAM is located in a safe, rural community.

The campus police force includes six officers in addition to the lieutenant and Chief of University Police. UAM opened a state-of-the-art police station in 2018 and added a satellite police office in its new Student Success Center, which houses a number of other essential student services.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPINE BLUFF

University Police and Public Safety provides 24-hour police services, including patrols of campus, and a police substation is located near the two most populated residence halls.

University police provide complimentary shuttle services to students to and from classes.

Other campus resources include pedestrian

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lights, access control via a card-activated programmable security maglock system, and walk-through and hand-held metal detectors at events.

UAPB employs the RAVE Alert mass notification system broadcasting campus-wide text messages, emails and voice calls in the event of a crisis. The Guardian app turns a cell phone into a personal safety device with one-push 911 calls and safety timers for going from one point to another. If the timer expires, a tip is submitted to police.

Most first-year students reside in Living Learning Centers which provide for educational, recreational and social needs. The First Six Weeks of Pride initiative provides interactive learning experiences designed to promote leadership development, encourage positive and inclusive community awareness and healthy living.

For students experiencing difficulties during their matriculation, student peer tutors are available in six locations across campus, including the residential hall for first-year students. Student Success Coaches are on hand in academic schools across campus and are assigned to students by major.

Pride Assist is available as an emergency aid program for students at risk of dropping out of college due to unexpected financial emergencies not related to enrollment at the university. Assistance is available for childcare, gas, food, housing, medical bills and utilities.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE

The North Little Rock-based college employs certified, uniformed police officers who assure the safety and well-being of students, visitors and employees. In addition, all employees are given regular training in emergency procedures, Laura’s Law, Title IX, and other measures that enhance the safety and well-being of the campus community.

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UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

The University of Central Arkansas participates in numerous awareness and prevention programs, including Stand Up and Speak Out Carnival, One Billion Rising, Clothesline Project, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and Sexual Assault Awareness Month. UCA also requires online training courses for students, staff and faculty that address a range of topics, including sexual misconduct.

The UCA Police Department has 28 fulltime officers, all with arrest authority. The department operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has a 911 communication center. The UCAPD offers multiple services to the UCA and Conway community, including safety escorts across campus, motorist assists and numerous education and safety classes. All officers are equipped with an opioid overdose naloxone kit; officers are required to complete appropriate training so as to be equipped and qualified to provide assistance in the event of a suspected opioid overdose.

Throughout the year, the UCA Police Department also provides training for the community on different topics such as situational awareness, self-defense, active shooter and alcohol and drug awareness. During the fall 2018 semester, UCAPD launched the Safe@UCA app, key features of which include Friend Walk, allowing users to send their location in real time to a friend. Another feature, Report a Tip, allows individuals to report a crime or Title IX tip and access the confidential reporting hotline.

Strategically located throughout campus, Blue Light Emergency Phones are available for requesting assistance. Students press a button to automatically dial the UCA Police Communication Center. There is also a mobile “blue-light” feature in the Safe@UCA app.

NEW PROGRAMS

THIS FALL Agricultural Engineering Hospitality & Tourism Management Associate to Bachelor’s

we Take

in INNOVATION. We also take PRIDE in discovery, curiosity, determination and courage.

Since 1873, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has educated and inspired some of the world’s greatest minds to reach beyond their circumstances and become who they want to be.

We are a family of educators and learners, and our tight-knit community shapes the intellectual and social development of students who go on to reshape the world. Don’t take our word for it, just ask the countless number of Fortune 500 companies that look to UAPB to help them fill their ranks.

It’s time you become a part of the PRIDE.

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Joshua McCray Industrial Technology

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2019 COLLEGE GUIDE

Social development and involvement are as important as classroom learning at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

UOFA-FORT SMITH

SCHOOL LIFE BALANCE

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

The Office of Title IX and Institutional Equity is available to all campus constituents as a general resource provider. This office frequently partners with other campus entities to bring awareness to mental health concerns within Title IX and seeks to consistently provide a platform to have difficult and necessary conversations related to emotional health and well-being. imPACT is a registered student organization comprised of students passionate about peer-to-peer education concerning bystander intervention, consent, healthy relationships and a discrimination-free campus community. Through imPACT, campus constituents are challenged to think about difficult topics under the umbrella of Title IX, and are encouraged to be a voice of support for both those who speak out and those who are afraid to speak out. Students are encouraged to follow imPACT on social media through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more information concerning fall 2019 member applications.

Any person interested in learning more about these resources may contact the Title IX Coordinator, Stephanie Lott, at title9@astate. edu.

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

Tech Fit provides a workout space and indoor walking track for Arkansas Tech University students, faculty and staff. The newly opened Tech Connect trail provides members of the ATU community with access to a network of bicycle and pedestrian trails that includes Bona Dea Trails and Sanctuary. In all, the Arkansas River Valley features more than 150 miles of trails. There are also mul30 86 AUGUST 2019

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tiple waterways within an hour of campus that ATU students explore using free outdoor equipment available through the Office of Campus Recreation.

The Health and Wellness Center received a new and expanded home in the Doc Bryan Student Services Center at the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year. ATU Counseling Services provides a wide range of free and confidential counseling, consultation and outreach services to the Tech community.

Each student may receive 10 counseling sessions per academic year.

There are more than 170 registered student organizations at Arkansas Tech University representing a wide variety of academic and social interests. The Student Activities Board provides entertainment throughout the school year with movie nights, appearances by comedians, bowling nights and additional social activities.

During the 2018-19 academic year, ATU students participated in volunteer activities that resulted in more than 15,870 hours of direct service, which is equivalent to a $349,137.43 monetary influence.

COLLEGE OF THE OUACHITAS

College of the Ouachitas has partnered with Healthy Connections, Inc. to provide both medical and behavioral health services to students, faculty, staff and community at the Malvern campus. These services are provided by a nurse practitioner and a licensed social worker. The college also partners with Henderson State University Counseling Department to provide additional behavioral health services through their counseling intern program.

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The college has a Student Government Association that provides social activities, relaxation and destressing opportunities for students. The college is implementing a Holistic Student Support Initiative to help new students navigate the resources needed to mitigate barriers to success.

Faculty and staff have professional development opportunities and training in suicide prevention. Through the college’s Parents as Teachers Program, parent educators focus on family well-being and make referrals to agencies as needed.

HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY

The Student Health and Counseling Center promotes students’ quality of life by offering prevention and early treatment or referral for physical, developmental, emotional or interpersonal difficulties that arise during the educational process. Primary health care for illnesses and minor injuries and health promotion services are provided by registered nurses and an advanced practice registered nurse.

The University Counseling Center is available to help students with a variety of concerns. Professional counselors provide oneon-one consultation, and group therapy is also available to provide peer support. The University Counseling Center’s staff refers students, faculty and staff to specialists if there is a need for extra psychological support.

The Charles D. Dunn Student Recreation Center is a hub of student activity and campus life. The facility features an elevated jogging and walking track, 12-foot climbing/ bouldering wall and state-of-the-art weight

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LYON COLLEGE/OBU (Left) Ouachita Baptist University students get in a round of disc golf on the campus course. (Right) Students take advantage of outdoor activities through Lyon College’s LEAP program.

training, cardio and fitness equipment as well as an outdoor recreation program.

Henderson’s dining hall provides vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. Students have access to menus and nutritional information on the foods to help them plan a well-balanced diet while on campus.

LYON COLLEGE

From healthy dining options in the cafeteria to workout facilities around campus, Lyon strives to support students’ physical well-being. The campus has a disc golf course, hiking and biking trails, a rock wall, a ropes course including high and low elements, tennis courts and more for students to stay active.

For outdoor enthusiasts, the college offers the Lyon Education Adventure Program (LEAP), which provides students with information and access to the many activities available in the Ozarks such as paddling, camping, caving, rock climbing, fishing and hunting.

Lyon has partnered with Creative Dining Services to provide fresh and healthy dining experiences to its students, including vegan and vegetarian items and The Zone’s allergen-aware selections.

Lyon College provides ample opportunities for campus connections, with over 30 interest-based clubs and six fraternities/sororities on campus. Student Activities Council (SAC) also hosts events throughout the school year.

The college also encourages early connections by having freshmen participate in the Weeks of Welcome and the Year One course to engage with their peers and learn about the campus culture. Lyon’s pet-friendly dorm allows students to destress with their pets while meeting other animal-loving students.

NORTH ARKANSAS COLLEGE

Northark approaches students holistically, focusing on non-academic issues as well as academic ones. All students are required to meet with their adviser each semester and

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may meet with advisers throughout the semester as needed. During personalized advising sessions, barriers to success are identified collectively.

A Behavioral Intervention Advisor is available for crisis assessment and emotional support to assist students as necessary. Northark also provides an online mental health website for student access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The college provides a workout room with treadmills, free weights and other exercise equipment for student use. Northark also offers sports such as basketball, softball and baseball and physical education courses designed to increase activity and provide instruction on correct techniques for weight training, walking and jogging.

Northark also provides a pantry for students struggling with food insecurities. The college partners with the Arkansas Department of Health to provide flu immunizations each year to students, faculty and staff on Northark’s south campus. Currently, the college sponsors 26 student organizations with a streamlined process for students with specific interests to create additional student organizations.

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

NWACC offers 23 student clubs and organizations on campus and an easy process to start a new club if students are unable to find one that meets their needs. The Student Ambassador and Government Association (SAGA) hosts several student and community events throughout the year as well.

The college supports a food pantry accessible to all students and employees and offers students a free shared bicycle program, game room, hammocks, fitness center and lounge areas to relax.

NWACC’s Counseling and Wellness Center offers sessions at no cost to students. The center helps students with personal and career counseling and offers individual counA SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

seling as well as group counseling sessions throughout the year. The center employs two licensed mental health counselors (LPC/LADAC) and three mental health counseling interns.

OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

The Roy and Christine Sturgis Physical Education Center is a versatile, multipurpose facility containing an Olympic-size pool, racquetball, weight and tennis facilities.

Ouachita offers free fitness classes in yoga, Zumba and barre. Evans Student Center has a 24-hour fitness center furnished with free weights, machines, treadmills, ellipticals and stationary bikes.

Ouachita offers an on-campus medical clinic staffed with a nurse and a campus physician. Counseling services assists students with individual counseling needs. Resident directors and student development staff are trained to recognize issues and facilitate discussion when dealing with stress and anxiety.

Ouachita has nine local social clubs, and 22 academic, professional and honors organizations that recognize the qualities of leadership, scholarship or interest in a specific academic field. Twelve special interest organizations provide other outlets for connecting on campus. Campus events such as movie nights and trivia nights are organized through the Office of Student Life and the student-led Campus Activities Board.

SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY

Each residence hall offers specific programs and activities catered to its residents.

Students can also be in a Residential Interest Group (RIG) in which they live amongst a group of peers who share interests or academic interests such as art, music, video gaming, outdoor sports and recreation, health and fitness, community service, business and agriculture. In addition, SAU encourages students to take advantage of more than 145

We have a calling.

To build a better world.

Dedicated, creative people come here for the real-life learning opportunities that make anything possible. Our one-of-a-kind traditions and welcoming campus only make the U of A more of a destination for those who are determined to make a difference. As Razorbacks, it’s our calling.

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AUGUST 2019 89

ATU

Community service and involvement are a way of life at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.

student organizations as well as community involvement and leadership opportunities.

SAU’s University Health Services Department provides a variety of services to meet the mental, emotional and physical needs of the SAU student body. The Counseling Center staff is available for students, faculty and staff to talk openly about a range of issues, including resolving conflict, solving problems and handling crisis situations. Group therapy is also available and is an opportunity for people to interact in a safe environment.

The SAU campus has a wide variety of extracurricular facilities for students to exercise, get outdoors and enjoy intramural sports or leisure activities. New to campus are four official sand volleyball courts, an 18-hole disc golf course and a new golf driving range available for recreational activity as well as use by the SAU golf team.

The SAU Mulerider Activity Center (MAC) provides open recreation, intramural sports, equipment checkout and special events. Students get free access to the wide array of weight lifting and exercise equipment as well as the basketball courts, indoor walking track and exercise and wellness classes.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASCOSSATOT

UACC’s biggest advantage among twoand four-year institutions alike is class size and one-on-one instruction. Instructors and staff make time to help students through every aspect of the transition from high school student to college student and then from college student to professional.

The school’s philosophy and programs don’t just make students feel good, it helps them move from classroom to workforce faster. The school recently opened the Lockesburg Industrial Maintenance Institute (LIMI) that allows students from all service areas ac90 AUGUST 2019 34

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cess to one-on-one training, preparing them to enter the workforce in two years or less.

The majority of the school’s demographic is age 18 to 24, but one thing that sets the UA-Cossatot student body apart is its diversity. The college is the only school in Arkansas that bears the U.S. Department of Higher Education’s designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution. This means over 25 percent of students are of Hispanic descent.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

University Recreation offers two facilities for student exercise and recreation. The Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building offers comprehensive fitness and recreational opportunities for all students, from club sports such as rugby, hockey and quidditch to intramurals in basketball, flag football and volleyball. Outdoor activities include rock-climbing, canoeing, kayaking and bicycling, and inclusive recreation activities such as wheelchair basketball. The second facility is a smaller exercise-intensive center in the Arkansas Union with weights, elliptical bikes, treadmills and a workout studio.

The Pat Walker Health Center at the University of Arkansas offers health care services to all students on campus, including wellness classes, psychological counseling, orthopedics and other health matters. The center’s counseling and psychological services department offers clinical consultations, group therapy and psychiatric services for a range of mental health concerns.

The University of Arkansas has more than 400 registered student organizations. University Programs plans more than 200 events annually for the campus community. Students organize campus programs, from concerts by national musical acts to distinguished national and international lecturers.

The university has two theaters and two A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

concert halls offering plays, musicals, recitals and opera throughout the year. Students operate three art galleries, the Ann Kittrell Gallery on campus, the sUgAR gallery dedicated to student art located on the Fayetteville Square, and a sculpture gallery at the new Sculpture Studio.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASFORT SMITH

The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith offers health services through Powell Student Health Clinic, a convenient and affordable way for students to get needed health care free of charge. UAFS also offers a counseling clinic with licensed professional mental health and paraprofessional staff available daily. Students are eligible for up to eight sessions per year at no charge.

Aramark, UAFS’s campus dining service, provides nutritional information for all items served at the dining hall and all menus are linked to the MyFitnessPal app for easy tracking. Daily menus include a variety of food with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. A dietician is available to answer questions about healthy eating.

The Recreation and Wellness Center (RAWC) features climbing and bouldering walls, strength and cardio equipment, basketball and volleyball courts and more. The university’s Blue Lion Bikeway spans more than 30 miles, connecting the UAFS campus to neighborhoods, parks and public facilities.

The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Student Activities Office lists more than 100 registered student organizations. Greek Life at UAFS is another opportunity for students to be involved via three sororities, four fraternities, two governing councils, two all-Greek honor societies and a programming board that creates events such as Greek Week and Anti-Hazing Week.

Cub Camp, a high-energy educational experience that promotes positive relationships and university pride, helps to ease the transition from high school to college for new students. Cub Camp introduces incoming freshmen to the UAFS campus, faculty, their peers and campus traditions.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASLITTLE ROCK

The university has a fitness center and pool supported by Campus Recreation to enhance the quality of life for students. A pathway meanders through the heart of campus and runs parallel to Coleman Creek, ideal for walking or running.

Health Services provides a variety of outpatient clinical services designed to meet student needs, and the campus garden provides another path toward healthy living, using only organic and sustainable methods for cultivating fresh produce each year. Dining Services offers a variety of meal plans with healthy meal choices and dining locations.

Opportunities to get involved on campus include intramurals, Greek life and numerous other student organizations, along with honor societies and social groups. Students get in free to all Trojan basketball games and other men’s and women’s sports. In addition, UA Little Rock introduces wrestling in fall 2019,

making it the only campus with a NCAA Division I wrestling program in the state.

Students may also take advantage of free rides on central Arkansas’s public transit system, Rock Region Metro, and the downtown trolley.

Counseling Services offers clinically trained professionals who help students overcome personal barriers and life’s stresses, as well as assist the student in exploring and assessing strengths and developing healthy and sustainable coping skills. Health Services provides free outpatient clinical services for registered students, including physical exams, flu shots, prescriptions, women’s health, wellness and more. Every student receives Student Health 101, a monthly newsletter that addresses issues of school-life balance, stress management, depression and health.

Other assistance and support are available through the Trojan Food Pantry, Trojan Career Closet, and The Alliance, an organization for LGBTQ individuals.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPINE BLUFF

Student health and wellness is important at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. There are several options available on campus for students to meet their fitness goals including a weight room and swimming pool in the Ken-

neth L. Johnson, Sr. Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) building, and a second fitness center that includes treadmills, ellipticals, free weights, and more. Each location includes licensed physical trainers.

The student-led Union Programming Board plans activities such as movie nights, talent shows and late night in the union to provide an engaging student experience. Intramural sports plans pool tournaments, game night, ping pong tournaments and other activities.

The Panhellenic Council hosts Greek shows, social events and community service opportunities. The Student Government Association serves as an advocate for students concerns and also plans concerts for the student body during the academic school year.

The Office of Student Counseling, Assessment and Development provides effective counseling, psycho-social support, testing and enrichment activities. During freshman orientation and freshman lab, the center personnel address new students about depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety and stress.

The Office of Disability Services and Veteran Affairs provides services based on each student’s disability or disabilities. Accommodations include modification or adjustment made to a course, program, ser-

uafs.edu/jointhepride At the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, you’re never just a number.

We pride ourselves on being large enough to make a difference in our world, but small enough that every student can make an impact. We keep our classes small so you know your faculty, who are experts in their fields, and we make sure our campus feels like home to every Lion.

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University of Central Arkansas students receive a challenging, well-rounded college experience.

PHILANDER SMITH COLLEGE FIVE FAST FACTS (Little Rock)

1. History meets the future Founded in 1877, Philander Smith College offers a heritage of excellence while embracing the challenges of the future.

A private, four-year HBCU, Philander Smith has a student body of 891 and a student-teacher ratio of 16-1.

2. Academic Excellence

UCA

Four degrees are offered (Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Social Work, Bachelor of Arts) as well as certificates and dual credits.

vice, activity or facility to fit the student’s needs.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE

UA-PTC employs counselors for all students, as well as more specialized services such as disability and veterans services.

The college also hosts student health and wellness fairs twice yearly.

Students can take a break from studies by engaging in some of UA-PTC’s cultural activities. Its Center for Humanities and Arts is a state-of-the-art facility hosting concerts by internationally famous musical artists plus plays, lectures and other presentations. The Windgate Gallery features visual artists ranging from local artists to internationally renowned masters.

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

UCA offers over 200 registered organizations, clubs and recreational activities to help students engage in campus life and to become active members of the UCA community. The Student Activities Board offers free events such as comedians, concerts, movies, ice cream socials and laser tag for students to enjoy.

Each of the five Residential Colleges has a unique theme and is associated with an academic college. Throughout the academic year, Residential Colleges participate in service-learning, undergraduate research, networking and global-discovery, allowing students unique living and

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learning arrangements.

The Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) Center is outfitted with a 10,000-square-foot weight room, six-lane indoor lap pool, large group exercise classrooms, racquetball courts, treadmills and other equipment. Students can sign up for personal training sessions at the HPER, as well as fitness and nutrition assessments. UCA also operates the Campus Outdoor Pursuits and Activities (COPA) program that checks out kayaks, canoes and bicycles. Campus Recreation is adding a ropes challenge course in fall 2019.

UCA’s Student Health Clinic offers patient-centered healthcare who can diagnose, treat and monitor students’ medical needs as well as prescribe medications.

Most services provided are included in the student health fee. The UCA Counseling Center provides a range of mental health services. UCA has a Behavioral Intervention Plan in place that assists faculty, staff and administration in responding to concerning behaviors.

The fall 2019 Welcome Week will debut a new program focused on self-awareness, self-confidence and self-advocacy, which will help students learn strategies to feel more in control of their college experience. This in addition to departmental and student organization-led efforts to host fun, stress-reduction programs. An example is Paws and Relax, which combines pet therapy, healthy snacks, a coloring book activity and yard games.

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Curriculum of note includes economics, technology, health, sciences, education, public policy, the humanities, social work and criminal justice.

3. Social Justice Institute The Institute seeks to embrace and catalyze work in social justice across education, health, environment, community, economics, politics, identity, civil, criminal, religious, racial, gender and age.

Reinvented in 2017 with strategic thought partners Auburn Theological Seminary and Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the institute works to transform the campus, the community and the world.

4. Active and Involved More than 30 student organizations on campus, offering something for every level of interest and background.

5. Get off to a good start PSC’s First Year Experience peer mentoring program assists first-year students in social, personal academic and leadership development while helping them successfully transition to college life.

Unlimited Pathways means unlimited possibilities for your successful future.

It starts with the 100+ degree programs we offer, the great internship opportunities that only a capital city can provide, and our cutting edge research experiences typically not available to undergraduate students at most universities.

Apply today to take advantage of all that UA Little Rock offers.

Apply now at ualr.at/advantage

University of ArkAnsAs At LittLe rock

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2019 COLLEGE GUIDE

CAREERS

UOFA-FORT SMITH

At the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, nursing and other health-related majors are in high demand.

ARKANSAS NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE

ANC supports a nationally recognized Customized Workforce Training Department– Solutions Group, which provides flexible training tailored specifically for local industry. ANC provides internship opportunities, some of them paid.

Some of the high-demand fields for which Arkansas Northeastern College is preparing students are construction trades and emergency medical technician, each of which requires a one-semester certificate of proficiency and pays an average yearly wage of more than $56,000. A one-semester certificate of proficiency in welding is also a good investment, paying an average yearly wage of $48,000. Nearly nine out of 10 welding graduates are employed within 12 months of graduation.

Paramedics, LPNs and HVAC technicians are also in demand and all require just a oneyear technical certificate. These roles pay on average between $31,000 and $57,000 and 83 percent of graduates find work within a year of graduation. In just two years, students can earn an associate’s degree to be an RN and earn an average of $53,000.

A degree in steel industry technology earns an average of $93,000 with 92 percent of grads employed within 12 months.

Combined, Arkansas Northeastern College leads all colleges and universities in Ar-

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kansas in average full-time wages for associate’s degree graduates – $51,624 in the first year of employment. This is higher than that earned by any four-year degree in the state except for medical school.

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

Arkansas Tech University is a leader for STEM education in Arkansas; Arkansas Department of Higher Education data shows more graduates from Arkansas high schools choose to major in STEM at Arkansas Tech than at any other university in the state, with many in-demand degrees offered through the Colleges of Natural and Health Sciences and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

ATU founded its Bachelor of Science degree in computer science education in 2016, providing K-12 school districts in Arkansas a supply of educators prepared to leverage technology in the classroom. The university’s Bachelor of Science and Associate of Applied Science degrees in cybersecurity debuted in fall 2017.

Arkansas Tech’s Associate of Science degree in business administration, new in 2018, specializes in accounting, business data analytics, economics and finance, management and marketing. Also debuting in fall 2018 was a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, targeting students in game and interactive media design and graphic design. Learn more at www.atu.edu/career.

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BAPTIST HEALTH COLLEGE, LITTLE ROCK

Nurses are an integral part of the health care team and at the heart of Baptist Health’s education programs. The college is dedicated to working directly with the Baptist Health System and other health care systems in Arkansas to stay current in health care trends and produce workforce-ready graduates.

Often on the front line in physician’s offices, clinics, health care facilities and hospitals, the roles and duties of nurses are consistently changing and expanding. The job market is expected to increase by an estimated 15 percent by the year 2026 for registered nurses and by 12 percent for licensed practical nurses.

Categories of nurses include licensed practical nurse (LPN) and registered nurse (RN).

Under the supervision of a registered nurse, a licensed practical nurse provides direct patient bedside care such as personal hygiene, treatments and medication administration.

Baptist Health College Little Rock offers a one-year program in practical nursing.

Registered Nurses provide and direct others in the provision of nursing care to patients in acute care settings and a variety of other healthcare agencies. Nurses work closely with physicians and other members of the healthcare team. Baptist Health College Little Rock offers a three-semester program in registered nursing en route to an Associate of

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NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

National Park College students pursue their degrees in a modern, technology-forward environment.

Applied Science in Nursing degree.

An accelerated two-semester track is also available for individuals currently holding an unrestricted Arkansas LPN or LPTN license.

Arkansas paramedics with certification and national registration who are interested in registered nursing are also eligible for this program. Accelerated nursing track grads receive an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing degree.

At the completion of each of these three programs, graduates are eligible to apply to take the National Council for Licensure Examination.

Another rapidly expanding field is sleep technology, also called polysomnographic technology. This allied health specialty focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. PSG techs operate a variety of electronic monitoring devices, record brain and cardiac activity, blood oxygen levels, eye movements and other physiological events during sleep studies.

Baptist Health College Little Rock offers a one-year program with no college prerequisites for students interested in sleep technology. At the end of this one-year program, graduates qualify to sit for certification and begin working in the health care field. For more information or to schedule a tour, visit www.bhclr.edu, call 501-202-7951 or email study@bhclr.edu.

HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY

Henderson State continues to see healthy demand for teachers, nurses and pilots. HSU is experiencing especially high demand for its aviation program, which includes tracks for professional pilots as well as aviation management and maintenance. Henderson offers the only aviation degree in the state.

HSU also partners with CHI St. Vincent in a program that assists students in completing nursing degrees. The graduates then work at St. Vincent for two years upon graduation.

Graduates of the HSU Nursing Department have a 100 percent employment rate within three months of graduation, a rate that’s remained constant for the past five years.

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The university also maintains a network of connections within the local business community, including the Business Advisory Council, made up of alumni representing a variety of industries who provide advice and assistance.

HSU’s career development office provides resources to aid students in finding the proper degree that results in a rewarding career.

LYON COLLEGE

Among the class of 2018, 99 percent were employed or enrolled in graduate or professional school within six months of graduation. Psychology, business administration and biology are the most popular fields, accounting for 50.3 percent of Lyon graduates. Health care, occupational therapy and pharmacy are also popular career choices.

Lyon alumni, parents and friends play integral roles in the career development of Lyon students via classroom presentations, employer site visits and one-on-one mentorship.

Lyon provides students relevant insight and networking opportunities to prepare them for leadership and meaningful involvement in the workplace.

Courses like econometrics, entrepreneurship and investment portfolio expose students to real and mock business situations and management of significant assets. The college also boasts an Enactus chapter, a student organization focusing on social entrepreneurship.

The Lyon College Career Center offers customized individual career coaching appointments for students at all levels, as well as a host of career and networking events throughout the academic year. The EXPLO job fair connects students with employers, graduate schools and professional schools.

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

Health care careers remain in high demand, partly because people are living longer. This increases the need for health care services, which results in jobs.

Currently, the demand for bedside registered nurses and licensed practice nurses remains very high and will remain in demand A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

for the foreseeable future. One-hundred percent of NPC’s nursing graduates land a job within three months of graduation and most have a job at the time of graduation.

Various allied health discipline fields such as respiratory therapists, radiologic technologists, medical laboratory technologists, paramedics and EMTs are also finding immediate jobs upon graduation. Some are even landing sign-on bonuses.

Average salaries in this field are substantial. Some selected jobs and their compensation are registered nurse ($61,000); licensed practical nurse ($40,000); respiratory therapist ($52,000); radiologic technologist ($49,000); medical laboratory technician ($47,000); paramedic ($32,000); EMT ($26,000) and health information technologist ($35,000).

National Park College has a robust Career Services Office that coordinates campus work study and internship programs. The CareerLink system seamlessly connects students in real time to employers, alumni and the community to discover job opportunities.

NORTH ARKANSAS COLLEGE

Northark uses partnerships with area business and industry to provide students internships and off-campus work-study opportunities. Northark routinely partners with area hospitals and clinics to provide clinicals, practicals, observations and career mentorship for health career students.

Among the most sought-after graduates are those in allied health and nursing careers, including RN and LPN nursing, CNA nurse assisting, radiologic technology, surgical technology, medical laboratory technology and paramedic or EMT. These health and medical fields will continue to be in demand as the aging and elderly populations increase.

Within these high-demand areas, Northark offers the following courses of study: EMT Certificate of Proficiency (starting salary $18,660); CNA Certificate of Proficiency (starting salary $9.25 per hour); Paramedic Technical Certificate and Associate of Applied Science (starting salary $22,400) and Medical Laboratory Technology Associate of

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AUGUST 2019 97

Applied Science (starting salary $24,070).

Other high-demand professions include Practical Nursing Technical Certificate (starting salary $28,540); Radiologic Technology Associate of Applied Science (starting salary $33,040); Registered Nursing Associate of Applied Science (starting salary $41,730) and Surgical Technology Technical Certificate and Associate of Applied Science (starting salary $27,500).

Northark students have access to a range of career assistance, including an annual career fair for all majors; Health Professions Day, spotlighting nursing and allied health programs; and Manufacturing Days, spotlighting technical programs.

• One of the Lowest Tuition Rates in the State • Various Academic, Technical, Vocational and Allied Health Programs • Core Classes Transfer to Other Arkansas Public Universities • Admissions Assistance, Financial Aid, and Career Counseling Available!

Visit

EACC.edu for more information.

1-877-797-EACC

YOUR STORY STARTS HERE

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The skilled trades have been in high demand over the last decade and continue to see a steady increase in Northwest Arkansas as the region continues to grow. Projected job openings for construction managers in Arkansas will grow 16 percent by 2026.

NWACC offers a career path in construction management via an Associate of Applied Science in Construction Technology and also offers a certificate of proficiency as well as a technical certificate.

NWACC offers apprenticeships in plumbing, electrical, HVAC and, soon, sheet metal, which gets students into the workforce even faster.

The Northwest Arkansas Regional Robotics Training Center in Fayetteville was created through a partnership between NWACC and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

Dedicated to developing the next generation of skilled workforce among local Arkansans as well as visitors from around the country, the robotics center is a significant milestone.

In 2017, NWACC committed to the construction of an Integrated Design Lab, an 18,000-square-foot building that will be completed for fall 2019. The lab will house construction and all-purpose labs, kilns and drying room, studios for clean art, printmaking, ceramics, painting and drawing and an exterior ceramics and fabrication space.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASCOSSATOT

APPLY ONLINE TODAY! PROVIDING LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCES THROUGH EDUCATION Learning • Caring • Quality Responsibility • Community

WWW.OZARKA.EDU 42 98AUGUST AUGUST2019 2019

ARKANSAS ARKANSASTIMES TIMES

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Welding is a career choice that has stayed in high demand since UA-Cossatot’s program began, and pay for welders can be $17 to $29 per hour. Local industries assist UACC in providing the necessary equipment and expertise to train students in industrial maintenance, a field that is expanding due to the age of current workers. Students completing this program successfully are almost guaranteed a job in the community.

In addition to supporting traditional skills, UACC has also branched out into a wider array of curriculum tailored to help meet the demands of the modern workplace. Associate of Applied Science degrees (business management, accounting and administrative

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AUGUST 2019 99

assistant) can be completed online. UA-Cossatot also offers an Associate of Science degree with a STEM concentration to allow for easier transition to a four-year university to finish a STEM bachelor’s degree.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The University of Arkansas offers career guidance both from the Career Services Office and through the advisers in individual colleges and departments. Numerous job fairs with specific themes are held throughout the year.

In the College of Engineering, the most popular majors are computer science, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering. These majors see about a 76 percent placement rate for those graduating with bachelor’s degrees. Salaries range from about $60,000 to $67,000.

The College of Education and Health Professions offers a wide variety of majors to fill those needs including a new Doctor of Occupational Therapy program. Starting salaries range from $47,000 for a kinesiology degree to $70,000 for someone with a degree in nursing.

Graduates who are well-versed in information science, logistics, supply chains, traditional management and marketing are in high demand. In fact, nearly 90 percent of Walton College of Business graduates have jobs lined up before graduation. The average salary for a Walton undergraduate business

major is close to $53,000. MBA graduates’ median salary is $69,000, and 85 percent of business grads land a job within three months of graduation.

Teaching continues to be a career choice in high demand and the College of Education and Health Professions has expanded its offerings in teacher education. Elementary educators can expect to earn around $57,000 a year.

The university consistently renews and revises its curriculum to stay on the cutting edge within the business community. For example, the Department of Civil Engineering maintains a close relationship with the Arkansas Department of Transportation and student interns work on research projects related to concrete, asphalt and traffic. Similarly, a student in a Walton College business class is likely to meet the CEO of Walmart, who visits campus and talks with classes, or work on a supply chain problem for J.B. Hunt Transport Services. A student in Bumpers College has probably interned at a major international company like Tyson Foods. All of these opportunities happen, in part, because of the strong relationship between the university and companies across the state.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASFORT SMITH

The office of Career Services is dedicated to providing guidance and services to current and former UAFS students and the school’s

many regional employer partners. In addition, students have access to resources to prepare for employment or graduate school through a range of workshops covering resume writing, interview skills preparation, LinkedIn profiles and more.

Career Services offers a range of networking opportunities with employers through business mixers where students can meet potential employers while practicing networking skills. The department also hosts career fairs and coordinates campus and classroom visits by employers. Students even have access to professional attire through the Clothing Closet.

The UAFS Alumni Department sponsors Mentor Connections, which teams a senior or junior student from the College of Business with young alumni and a local business executive. Teams meet at least once a month for mentoring and support. The alumni office also teams with the business college for the student/alumni roundtable conference whereby alumni come to campus for Q&A with students.

UAFS Alumni, UAFS Career Services and the College of Business at UAFS are all board members for the PRIME River Valley Professional Summit, participating in that organization’s events specifically for young professionals.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASLITTLE ROCK

Careers in health care have consistently been in high demand, as have careers in

ENROLL TODAY AND CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE

BETTER.

44 100AUGUST AUGUST2019 2019

ARKANSAS ARKANSASTIMES TIMES

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No out-of-state tuition!

computing and information science. UA Little Rock’s School of Nursing was recently recognized by Nurse Journal as one of the top five paramedic-to-RN programs in the nation and offers a number of degrees in the helping professions such as social work and rehabilitation counseling.

The university also offers degrees and certificates at the graduate and undergraduate levels in computer and information science, including bioinformatics. The Emerging Analytics Center and Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences provide world-class laboratory spaces for students to collaborate with faculty in engaging, multidisciplinary research that has practical applications in central Arkansas and beyond.

UA Little Rock’s College of Business graduates have strong employment opportunities, with average central Arkansas salaries of a BBA and MBA at $69,000 and $76,000 respectively. UA Little Rock is proud to offer the state’s only Dance Performance major, which places graduates in Italy, New York, Los Angeles and other cities across the U.S.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASMONTICELLO

UA-Monticello received a record gift to its nursing program, which will support nursing student scholarships. Students can pursue an LPN, LPN-to-RN, RN/BSN, or RN-to-BSN track to join the highly sought workforce of Arkansas nurses.

UAM-Crossett just began a 10-month HVAC/R Technology program. UAM-McGehee’s LPN program has been named No. 1 in the state by PracticalNursing.org for its unmatched six years of earning a 100 percent NCLEX licensure pass rate.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPINE BLUFF

Over the past five years, engineering, business and computer science are career choices that continue to remain in high demand, with salaries ranging between $50,000 and $72,000 per year. The University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff offers bachelor’s degrees in agricultural engineering (new), industrial technology, management and applied engineering as well as business administration with concentrations in finance, economics, management, marketing and international business and accounting. UAPB also offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science.

The Office of Career Services has partnerships with employers within a 50-mile radius for summer internships and cooperative education. Many students who participate in an internship or cooperative education assignment are converted to a full-time hire as a result. Career Services also offers career coaching, resume help, interview assistance and other services.

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UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

The Arkansas Department of Workforce Services reports general and operations managers, registered nurses and clergy are the projected top-growing occupations in Arkansas for 2019. ADWS reports the following projected salaries in these fields: general and operations managers, $85,000; registered nurses, $59,000; and clergy, $45,000.

UCA offers the following degree plans to prepare students for careers in high demand fields: computer science, cybersecurity, business (all), information systems, management information systems, engineering, physics and nursing.

The UCA College of Business works on multiple fronts to ensure its curriculum stays relevant and valuable to its graduates and the business community. The college’s advisory board and business leaders routinely advise and review curriculum changes to ensure continued merit and applicability.

UCA Career Services hosts roundtable discussions with employers to identify new trends in hiring processes and in-demand skills. The office is transitioning to a new career platform, Bears4Hire powered by Handshake, that will allow for enhanced services and increased access to job opportunities for students. The department also hosts five career fairs each year for students interested in the fields of health care, STEM/graduate school and education; and two general fairs in fall and spring.

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AUGUST 2019 45 AUGUST 2019 101

To compile this, forms were sent to every qualified college and university with instructions to return by a specified deadline. Those schools not meeting the deadline were repeated from last year. Every attempt is made to gather and verify the information. The Comments section was removed due to lack of space.

SCHOOL

CITY

PHONE

ENROLLHRS/SEM MENT/SEM

TUITION/SEM

HOUSING/SEM

Arkansas Baptist College Arkansas State University

Little Rock Jonesboro

501-420-1200 870-972-2100 800-382-3030 (in-state only)

878 14,058

12-18 15 (full-time undergraduate)

$4,380 $4,450 (in-state)

$4,412 (double occupancy: 16 meals/week) $4,325 (room & board)

Arkansas Tech University

Russellville

12,101

15

$4,627.50 (includes mandatory fees)

starting at $3,208 (includes meals)

Central Baptist College Crowley’s Ridge Technical Institute Harding University Henderson State University

Conway Paragould

479-968-0343 800-582-6953 501-329-6872 870-236-6901

745 200

15 12 or more

$7,575 $6,075

$3,750 $3,175 (includes meal plan)

5,122 3,557

15 12-15

$9,570 2772 (12 hrs)

$3,502 3940 (room & board)

Hendrix College

Conway

800-477-4407 870-230-5028 800-228-7333 501-450-1362 800-277-9017

1,208

4 courses/sem

$23800 (including fees)

$6,230 (including meals)

John Brown University

Siloam Springs

2,474

12-18

$13,229

$4,728

Lyon College

Batesville

877-528-4636 479-524-7157 870-307-7000

700 est. *census date Sept. 1, 2017

12-17 (including tuition costs)

$14,395

$4,565 (for freshmen)

Ouachita Baptist University

Arkadelphia

870-245-5000 800-DIAL-OBU

1,574

up to 18

$13,640 (including fees)

$4000 (room & board)

Philander Smith College

Little Rock

501-375-9845

800

12-16

$5,902

Southern Arkansas University University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Magnolia Little Rock

870-235-4040 800-482-8892

4468 (Fall 2018) 10,515 (Fall 2018)

15 15

$3,210 4764.30 (tuition & fees, 15 hours)

1st/2nd-yr $2,596/upperclass suites $2,954; board/sem $1,528; room reservation $235 $3,208 $3,502 (including room & board)

University of Arkansas at Monticello University of Arkansas Pine Bluff University of Arkansas

Monticello

870-460-1026 800-844-1826 870-575-8000

3,643

15

$150/credit hr

$1,320-$2,260

2,579 (Fall 2018)

15

$2,565 (AY 2019-20)

$4,236 (20 meals)

27,778

15

$4,692 (including fees)

$5,665 (room & board)

University of Central Arkansas University of Arkansas at Fort Smith University of the Ozarks

Conway

479-575-5346 800-377-8632 501-450-5000

11,177

15

$4,594

$3,599

Fort Smith

479-788-7000

6,626 (Fall 2017)

15

$2,208-$3,506/sem + meal plan

Clarksville

872

12-17

Williams Baptist University

Walnut Ridge

500

12-17

$8,334

$4,013

Arkansas Northeastern College Arkansas State University Beebe Arkansas State University Mid-South

Blytheville

479-979-1227 800-264-8636 800-722-4434 870-759-4120 870-762-1020

$166/credit hr (in-state); $461/ credit hr(out-of-state) $12,475

1,400

15

$71/hr

N/A

Beebe

800-632-9985

3,739

12

$100/hr

West Memphis

870-733-6722 866-733-6722

1561 (2018-2019) 1-18

$95/hr (in-county); $115/hr (out-of-county/in-state); $155/hr (out-of-state)

$2,640(double); $3,065 (single) (including meals) N/A

Arkansas State University at Mountain Home

Mountain Home

870-508-6100

1,345

15 to 18

N/A

Arkansas State University at Newport Arkansas Tech University Ozark

Newport

870-512-7800

2,711

15

$2,304 In-State Plus Books and Fees/$3912 Out-of-State Plus Books and Fees $96/hr

Ozark

479-667-2117

2133 (Fall 2018)

15

N/A

Baptist Health College Little Rock Black River Technical College College of the Ouachitas

Little Rock Pocahontas Malvern

800 1583 (Fall 2018) 1,258

Varies by program 12 15

Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas East Arkansas Community College

De Queen

1,550

12

1047 (Fall 2017)

12

National Park College

Hot Springs

501-760-4159

3,327

12

$85/hr (in-county)/$100/hr (non-resident) $85/credit hr (in-county); $95/hr (out-of-county); $113/hr (out-ofstate) $90 per credit hour

N/A

Forrest City

501-202-6200 870-248-4000 501-337-5000 800-337-0266 870-584-4471 800-844-4471 870-633-4480

$1806 (Tuition only - 15 Hours); $2562 (Tuition and fees - 15 hours) Varies by program $124/credit hr with fees (Fall 2019) $1,530

North Arkansas College

Harrison

1,786

15

$1,110 (in-county)

N/A

North West Arkansas Community College Ozarka College

Bentonville

8000

15

N/A

1,139

12-15

$1,125 in-district ($75/credit hr); $2,025 out-of-district ($135/credit hr) $90/hr

Phillips Community College

Helena

870-743-3000 800-679-6622 479-986-4000 800-995-6922 870-368-2300 800-821-4335 870-338-6474

1,522

15

$73

N/A

Pulaski Technical College

North Little Rock

501-812-2200

6,038 (Fall 2017)

Varies

$132.73/credit hr, in-state

N/A

University of Arkansas Rich Mountain Shorter College

Mena

479-394-7622

938

15

$1,215

N/A

North Little Rock El Dorado

501-374-6305

N/A

12

$2,052

N/A

870-862-8131

1,472

12

$1,260/$1,455/$2,580

N/A

Pine Bluff

1,400

3-18

$96/hr

N/A

1,800

15

$108/hr (in-state); $156/hr (outof-state)

$1100/sem double (on-campus); $1300/sem double (off-campus]; $1850/sem single

South Arkansas Community College Southeast Arkansas College

Searcy Arkadelphia

Pine Bluff Fayetteville

Melbourne

$3,800

N/A

No Campus Housing N/A N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Southern Arkansas University Tech

Camden

870-850-8605 888-SEARKTC 870-574-4500

University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville

Batesville

870-612-2000

1328 (Fall 2018)

12

$74/hr (in-district); $87.50/hr (out-of-district)

N/A

University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana

Hope & Texarkana

870-777-5722

1,500

12

$66/credit hr (in-district); $74/hr (out-of-district)

N/A

University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton

Morrilton

800-264-1094

1902 (Fall 2018)

12

$92/hr (in-district); $102/hr (in-state)

N/A

46 AUGUST 102 AUGUST 2019 2019

ARKANSAS ARKANSASTIMES TIMES

SPECIAL ADVERTISING ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT SUPPLEMENT OF OF THE THE ARKANSAS ARKANSAS TIMES TIMES AA SPECIAL

TOTAL TOTAL SEM SEM COST COST

SCHOLARSHIP SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE DEADLINE

REQUIRED REQUIRED EXAMS EXAMSAPP. APP. DEADLINE DEADLINE FEE FEE CREDIT CREDIT EXAM EXAM ACCEPTED ACCEPTED

$9,033 $9,033 (Tuition (Tuition + room + room & board) & board) June June 30th 30th $8,775 $8,775 June June 30th 30th

None None Feb.Feb. 1st 1st

ACT/SAT/ACCUPLACER ACT/SAT/ACCUPLACER ACT/ASSET/SAT ACT/ASSET/SAT

Open Open Enrollment Enrollment CLEP CLEP 1st 1st dayday of classes/$15-Underof classes/$15-Under- AP/CLEP AP/CLEP graduate; graduate; $30-Graduate/Masters $30-Graduate/Masters Specialist; Specialist; $40-International $40-International Students; Students; $50-Doctoral $50-Doctoral

$7,835.50 $7,835.50 (not(not including including books) books)

Open Open

Nov.Nov. 15 15 Priority, Priority, Feb.Feb. 15 15 Final Final

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

Open/No Open/No FeeFee

AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

$11,325 $11,325 $10,425 $10,425 for for boarding boarding students students

JulyJuly 31st31st Open Open

Dec.Dec. 10th 10th FirstFirst Priority Priority Aug.Aug. 1st 1st

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

Aug.Aug. 15 15 Aug.Aug. 1 1

AP/CLEP AP/CLEP CLEP/AP CLEP/AP

$13,527 $13,527 withwith fees, fees, approx. approx. $7,698 $7,698

Aug.Aug. 1st 1st N/AN/A

Aug.Aug. 1st 1st June June 1st 1st

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

Open/$50 Open/$50 None None

AP/CLEP/IB AP/CLEP/IB AP/CLEP/IB AP/CLEP/IB

$30,030 $30,030

Mar.Mar. 1 Priority 1 Priority

Early Early Action Action I - Nov. I - Nov. 15, 15, Early Early Action Action II - IIFeb. - Feb. 1 1

AP/IB AP/IB

$18,562 $18,562

Feb.Feb. 15 15 Priority Priority

Feb.Feb. 1st 1st for for most most scholarships, scholarships, however however ACT/SAT ACT/SAT scholarships scholarships are are awarded awarded through through all applicaall applicationtion deadlines. deadlines.

Feb.Feb. 15 15 Priority Priority ACT/SAT/CLT ACT/SAT/CLT

Rolling/$25 Rolling/$25

AP/CLEP/IB AP/CLEP/IB

$18,960 $18,960

Rolling, Rolling, but but priority priority considerconsider- Rolling, Rolling, but but priority priority consideration consideration

by Mar.

by Mar. 1st 1stACT/SAT ACT/SAT ation ation

by Feb.

by Feb. 1st 1st

$17,950 $17,950

Rolling Rolling (Awards (Awards are are made made on on Rolling Rolling (Awards (Awards are are made made on an on ongoing an ongoing an ongoing an ongoing basis. basis.

TheThe priority prioritybasis. basis.

FallFall Priority Priority Deadline: Deadline: MayMay 1, Spring 1, Spring deadline deadline for for fall fall entry entry is May is May Priority Priority Deadline: Deadline: Nov.Nov. 1) 1) 1, for 1, for spring spring entry entry Nov.Nov. 1). 1).

Mar.Mar. 1st 1st Rolling Rolling Deadline Deadline

$10,459 $10,459

FINANCIAL FINANCIAL AIDAIDDEADLINE DEADLINE

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

EarlyEarly Action Action 1-1 November - November 15, 15, 2018, 2018, AP/IB AP/IB EarlyEarly Action Action 2-2 February - February 15, 15, 2019, 2019, Regular Regular Decision Decision - April - April 1, 2019 1, 2019 Open/No Open/No Application Application FeeFee AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

Open/$25 Open/$25

$7,698 $7,698 MayMay 1st 1st Mar.Mar. 1st 1st $7979.50 $7979.50 (est(est 15 15 hrs hrs tuition/fees, tuition/fees, February February 1 (Priority), 1 (Priority), NovemNovem-Dec.Dec. 1st 1st Priority, Priority, March March 1st 1st Final Final rm/brd, rm/brd, books/supplies), books/supplies), $9166.80 $9166.80 ber ber 1 (Final 1 (Final Deadline) Deadline)

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT ACT/SAT/ACCUPLACER/ ACT/SAT/ACCUPLACER/ COMPASS COMPASS

Open/No Open/No FeeFee AP/CLEP AP/CLEP Freshman Freshman admission admission andand credential credential AP/CLEP/ECE/DepartAP/CLEP/ECE/Departdeadline deadline is one is one week week before before mental mental Exam/DSST/ Exam/DSST/ classes classes begin. begin.

Foreign Foreign Language Language Placement Placement Exam/IB Exam/IB

$8,503 $8,503 including including campus campus room room & & board board $8,268 $8,268 (based (based on 15 on 15 hrs/sem) hrs/sem)

Rolling Rolling

Mar.Mar. 1st 1st Priority Priority

AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

Rolling Rolling Basis Basis

Mar.Mar. 1st/ 1st/ AprilApril 1st 1st

ACT/ASSET/SAT/COMPASS/ ACT/ASSET/SAT/COMPASS/ Rolling/No Rolling/No FeeFee - Except - Except for for ACCUPLACER ACCUPLACER (for(for placement) placement) international international applicants applicants ACT/SAT ACT/SAT Open Open

$10,357 $10,357

June June 1st 1st

Feb.Feb. 1st 1st (Freshmen), (Freshmen), Apr.Apr. 1st 1st (transfers) (transfers)

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

Aug.Aug. 1 1

AP/CLEP/IB AP/CLEP/IB

$8,193 $8,193

Open Open

Dec.Dec. 10th 10th

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

None None

AP/CLEP/IB AP/CLEP/IB

Varies Varies

June June 15th 15th

Nov.Nov. 15 15

ACT/COMPASS/SAT ACT/COMPASS/SAT

Open/No Open/No FeeFee

AP/CLEP/Challenge AP/CLEP/Challenge

$16,275 $16,275 (not(not including including books) books)

Feb.Feb. 15 15 Priority Priority

AprilApril 1st 1st Priority Priority

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT (Test (Test Optional) Optional)

MayMay 1st 1st Priority Priority

AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

$12,347 $12,347

MayMay 1st 1st

None None

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT

Open/No Open/No FeeFee

AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

$1,065 $1,065 plusplus feesfees

Open Open

Apr.Apr. 1st 1st Priority Priority

ACT/ACCUPLACER ACT/ACCUPLACER

Open Open

ACT/ASSET/ACCUPLACER ACT/ASSET/ACCUPLACER

Open/No Open/No FeeFee

AP/CLEP/Prior AP/CLEP/Prior Learning Learning CLEP CLEP

$1,440 $1,440 tuition/fees tuition/fees

Priority Priority dates dates June June 1/Nov. 1/Nov. June June 15th 15th 1/April 1/April 15 15 Approx.

Approx. $2,675 $2,675 but but varies varies depending depending Open Open FallFall 2019; 2019; Spring Spring 2020 2020Nov.Nov. 1 (Spring 1 (Spring 2020); 2020); MayMay 1 (Fall 1 (Fall 2020) 2020) on academic/technical on academic/technical program program (does (doesPriority, Priority, Oct.Oct. 30 30 not not include include transportation, transportation, personal personal expenses, expenses, housing). housing).

Priority Priority Consideration Consideration Mar.Mar. 15 15 Deadline Deadline - June - June 1st 1st

AP/CLEP/IB AP/CLEP/IB

CLEP CLEP

ACT/ASSET/COMPASS/SAT/ ACT/ASSET/COMPASS/SAT/ Open Open ACCUPLACER ACCUPLACER

AP/CLEP/Prior AP/CLEP/Prior Learning Learning

AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

$2,610 $2,610 (plus (plus books books & fees) & fees)

Open Open

June June 1st 1st

$2652 $2652 (not(not including including books books or or applicable applicable course course fees) fees) Varies Varies by program by program Varies Varies $1,530 $1,530 plusplus books books & fees & fees

Open Open

June June 15 15 (Fall)/Nov. (Fall)/Nov. 15 15 (Spring) (Spring)

ACT/COMPASS/SAT/ACCUACT/COMPASS/SAT/ACCU- Open/No Open/No FeeFee PLACER PLACER CLASSIC/ACCUPLACER CLASSIC/ACCUPLACER NEXT NEXT GENGEN ACT/ACCUPLACER/COMPASS/ ACT/ACCUPLACER/COMPASS/Open/No Open/No FeeFee SATSAT ACT/SAT/ACCUPLACER ACT/SAT/ACCUPLACER Open/No Open/No FeeFee

MayMay 1 /1Oct / Oct 1 1 Open Open Open Open

June June 1st/Dec. 1st/Dec. 1st 1st Mar.Mar. 1st 1st MayMay 1st/ 1st/ DecDec 1st 1st

ACT/SAT ACT/SAT Varies Varies

By Program/No

By Program/No FeeFee ACT/ACCUPLACER ACT/ACCUPLACER Open/No Open/No FeeFee ACT/ASSET/SAT/ACCUPLACER ACT/ASSET/SAT/ACCUPLACEROpen/No Open/No FeeFee

CLEP/AP CLEP/AP AP AP AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

$1100-$1500 $1100-$1500

Apr.Apr. 1st 1st Varies Varies

ACT/ASSET/COMPASS/SAT/ ACT/ASSET/COMPASS/SAT/ Open/No Open/No FeeFee ACCUPLACER ACCUPLACER ACT/ACCUPLACER ACT/ACCUPLACER Open/No Open/No FeeFee

AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

N/AN/A

Fall-FallNone, None, SpringSpringNone, None, SummerSummerAprilApril 15 15 JulyJuly 1st 1st

Varies Varies

Open Open

1-Apr 1-Apr

ACT/ACCUPLACER/SAT ACT/ACCUPLACER/SAT

N/AN/A

Varies Varies

June June 15th 15th

ACTACT or ACCUPLACER/COMPASS or ACCUPLACER/COMPASSOpen Open

AP/CLEP/IB/AccuAP/CLEP/IB/Accuplacer placer AP/CLEP AP/CLEP

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TheThe average average costcost of tuition of tuition andand basic basic Fall-May Fall-May 15, 15, Spring-Oct. Spring-Oct. 15, 15, Open Open feesfees for for a full-time a full-time student student taking taking 15 15Summer-Mar. Summer-Mar. 15 15 hours hours is $2,815 is $2,815 per per semester. semester. $2,130 $2,130 including including feesfees & books & books JulyJuly 1st 1st Nov.Nov. 15 15 & Apr. & Apr. 1st 1st

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AUGUST AUGUST2019 201947 103

104AUGUST 48 AUGUST2019 2019

ARKANSAS ARKANSASTIMES TIMES

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT OF THE ARKANSAS TIMES

E H T IT’S Y T R PA HE T O T Y! T R A P UES BUS AS WE

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AUGUST 2019 105

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION BY OAKLAWN RACING CASINO RESORT AND VISIT HOT SPRINGS

AUG. 15

NORTHWOODS FULL MOON RIDE

LOCATION: Northwoods Trailhead, 300 Pineland Drive Do you want to howl at the moon with the Northwoods crew? Shred Valkyrie and Blue Jay by the light of the full moon? Well, turns out you’ll have 10 chances to join us on a monthly FULL MOON GROUP RIDE in the Northwoods.

Who: All mountain bikers/all skill levels What: Full Moon Rides Where: Northwoods, Waterworks Trailhead When: 6 p.m.

How much: Free Why: Full moons are awesome and mountain bikes are, too. *Contingent on weather, follow Northwoods Trails — Hot Springs Trail Conditions group for weather updates!

106 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

AUG. 31

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, AUG. 16-18

Historic Downtown Hot Springs. Spa City Blues Society’s flagship event, the Hot Springs Blues Festival, will take place Labor Day weekend, Saturday, Aug. 31 at Hill Wheatley Plaza in downtown Hot Springs. This year, the festival will again focus on “getting back to their roots” by featuring talent from Arkansas. Festival gates open at noon with the first performance beginning at 1 pm. The lineup is: Mike Tripp, Spa City Youngbloods, Greg “Big Papa” Binns, Ben “Swamp Donkey” Brenner, Charlotte Taylor and Gypsy Rain, Grant Garland Band, Steve Hester Band.

& Spa. 239 Central Ave. We are excited to say that we have an upcoming event at the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa Aug. 16-18 in Hot Springs. The tattoo convention is a three-day weekend event that brings the most renowned artists from all over the country to Hot Springs and gives people the opportunity to get tattooed from one of them. $20 presale weekend passes, $20 day pass, $30 weekend pass, Kids under 14 free. Visit www.arkansastattoofiesta. com for more information.

23RD ANNUAL HOT SPRINGS BLUES FESTIVAL at Hill Wheatley Plaza,

ARKANSAS TATTOO CONVENTION at the Arlington Resort Hotel

TA C O S AT A N O T H E R L E V E L

AUG. 23, AUG. 29-SEPT. 1

28TH ANNUAL HOT SPRINGS JAZZFEST

The 28th Hot Springs JazzFest includes five days of concerts: A Night of Jazz with Spa City Stompers, Jazz Night at The Ohio Club, Classical & Jazz Blow Out! JazzFest Block Party! Smooth Jazz Essentials with the Stateline Avenue Band and Jazz Mass at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Tickets range from free to $40. For a full schedule and to purchase tickets visit HSJazzSociety.org or email HSJazzSociety@ gmail.com or call 501-627-2425.

Mon-Thur 11-9 • Fri-Sat 11-10 • Sun: 11-3 Brunch Only 200 Higdon Ferry Rd. • Hot Springs • Across the street from the racetrack.

(501) 623-TACO (8226) • capostacoshs@gmail.com

EST. 1988

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, AUG. 9-11

THE FISHING LEAGUE WORLDWIDE

The 2019 FLW Forrest Wood Cup will visit Lake Hamilton and the Hot Springs area Aug. 9-11. The tournament will feature 53 of the best bass-fishing anglers from around the world competing for the sport’s top prize — $300,000 and the prestigious FLW Cup. In addition to the three-day tournament, a full Outdoors Expo show will take place each day at the Hot Springs Convention Center before the weigh-ins at Bank OZK Arena.

BEST MEXICAN FOOD AROUND THE STATE (HOT SPRINGS) BEST MEXICAN FOOD (LITTLE ROCK)

Serving up the BEST MEXICAN FOOD in Central Arkansas year after year.

Little Rock • Benton • Hot Springs

lahamex.com

AUG. 11 TRACE ADKINS

Country music superstar Trace Adkins will perform a free concert on Sunday, Aug. 11, before the final weigh-in beginning at 4 p.m.

ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 107

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION BY OAKLAWN RACING CASINO RESORT AND VISIT HOT SPRINGS

EMPTY NEST? FULL GLASS!

Feeling the summertime blues now that the kids are going back to college? Visit Superior Bathhouse Brewery in downtown Hot Springs National Park, for the best craft beer happy hour in the state!

Pitchers of the world’s only thermal spring water beer and great deals on appetizers! Happy hour runs Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.! 329 Central Ave, Hot Springs National Park.

501-624-2337.

please drink responsibly

Mayday by Midnight

AUGUST AT OAKLAWN RACING CASINO RESORT SPECIAL DATES Aug. 25: Birthday Bash

Aug. 26: $3,000 Travel Voucher Drawing

GET YOUR DANCE ON

230 Ouachita Ave., Hot Springs National Park. 501609-0609.

Aug: 28: $1,000 Sissy’s Log Cabin Gift Card Drawing

SINCE 1981

DON’S MEAT MAR WEL“QUALITY TELLS, QUALITY SELLS” KET

Aug. 29: $1,000 Visa Gift Card Drawing Aug. 31: Race to the Finish Drawing LIVE ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULE POP’S LOUNGE: Every Thursday: Team Trivia , 7–9 p.m.

Every Fri.: Connect 4, 6–10 p.m.

SILKS BAR & GRILL: Live music every Friday and Saturday 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Aug. 2-3 Big Dam Horns Aug. 9-10 Oreo Blue Aug. 16-17 Brent Frazier Band Aug. 23-24 Sensory 2

BEST BUTCHER AROUND THE STATE

WELDON’S MEAT MARKET

Labor Day is coming, so get to Weldon’s Meat Market for the best meats in Arkansas. Weldon’s deli has fresh cut meats and more! 911 Central Ave., Hot Springs National Park, 71913. 501-525-2487.

Aug. 30-31 Mayday by Midnight

TACO MAMA EVERYTHING IS CUT TO YOUR SPECIFICATION, AND WE’RE BIG ON CUSTOMER SERVICE! 3911 CENTRAL AVE. • HOT SPRINGS (501) 525-2487

108 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

DON’T MISS THIS AT POP’S LOUNGE Fridays: $10,000 Bust the Bank, 6–10 p.m.

Party Pit, 8 p.m.–midnight Connect 4, 6–10 p.m. in Pop’s Lounge

Serve us up on a platter! We don’t mind.

Feature Taco Mama’s authentic handmade Mexican food at your next fiesta! Catering options are available for all size events and get-togethers.

Hassle-free and delicious! 1209 Malvern Ave, Hot Springs. 501-624-6262.

BEST MEXICAN AROUND THE STATE

CAPO’S TACOS: BODY BY TACOS

1209 Malvern Avenue • Hot Springs • (501) 624-6262 • www.tacomama.net

Today the dream is a reality! Capo’s is a vibrant, fun place to hang out and eat awesome tacos, burritos, tortas or anything else on our menu, all made from scratch with premium ingredients like Angus ribeye, free-range chicken and homemade tortillas. Our tacos are a steal at around $3. Don’t forget to try our signature mixed drinks and ENJOY! 200 Higdon Ferry Road, Hot Springs National Park.

501-623-TACO.

LA HACIENDA

We have 11 lunch specials to choose from priced from $6.25 to $8.99 and made fresh just for you!

Imported beers are $2.50 all day Tuesday, and Wednesday’s margaritas are $5.99. 3836 Central Ave., Hot Springs National Park. 501-525-8203.

We Have The #1 Customers In The State!

AROUND THE STATE:

THE PATIO IS OPEN!

Join Rolando’s VIP Club and get a half-price appetizer. Text ROLANDOS to 51660. Stay updated on exclusive offers! Rolando’s has Martini Monday, any liquor for $6.75, and Wine Down Wednesday on the patio, any glass of wine for $5 and a bottle for $20! 210 Central Ave., Hot Springs National Park. 501-318-6054.

Open Daily at 11am 7 Days A Week 210 Central Ave. Hot Springs 501.318.6054

BEST BUSINESS LUNCH BEST DESSERTS BEST DOG FRIENDLY BEST GLUTEN FREE BEST HEALTHY BEST OTHER ETHNIC, BEST WINE LIST BEST RESTAURANT IN HOT SPRINGS

rolandosrestaurante.com ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AROUND THE STATE: BEST VEGETARIAN

AUGUST 2019 109

WHAT YOU NEED THIS MONTH!

1. JUST ONE MORE STORY These Back-to-School bedtime titles will leave your kiddos dreaming of their first day back. WordsWorth Books, 501-663-9198, wordsworthbookstore.com 3. ROLL IT UP Meet CuffedUp! Keep your sleeves rolled and crisp all day! Feel instantly put together in seconds. It’s style, simplified.

Rhea Drug, 501-663-4134, rheadrugstore.com 2. FRIENDS FOREVER The Jellycat collection is so cute, quirky and super cuddly. It will make the perfect playmate for your young ones as they head back to school. Cynthia East Fabrics, 501-663-0460, cynthiaeastfabrics.com 4. IT’S COOL TO BE SQUARE Rosecore’s Nexus Squared, this gorgeous carpet can be used to make custom rugs for your home. Find it at C&F Flooring.

C & F Flooring and Rug Gallery, 501-399-9909, candfcarpet.com

110 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

A special advertising promotion

Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival

benefitting Argenta Arts District

SPONSORED BY

$25 early bird

$40 at the door

Friday, October 25th • 6:00 till 9:00

NEW LOCATION @ DIAMOND BEAR BREWING 600 N. Broadway Street, North Little Rock, AR

Music by DJ Mike Poe f o o d for pu rc ha s e f rom l ocal f ood tr u c k s Pa r t i c i pat i n g b r e w e r i e s BLACK APPLE CROSSING BRECKENRIDGE CRANE DIAMOND BEAR FLYWAY FOUNDERS

GOLDEN ROAD GOOSE ISLAND HORNY GOAT INDEPENDENCE KARBACH LAGUNITAS

LAZY MAGNOLIA LOST FORTY NEW PROVINCE OZARK PINEY RIVER PRAIRIE ARTISAN ALES

RAHR & SONS REBEL KETTLE ROGUE SAM ADAMS SQUATTERS STONE’S THROW

M O R E TO B E A N N O U N C E D ! ! !

Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com

SUPERIOR BATHHOUSE TOPPLING GOLIATH WASATCH

1

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18

ARE WE FINISHED?

BY CAITLIN REID / EDITED

BY WILL SHORTZ Caitlin Reid, 35, is a stay-at-home mother with four young children in Santa Ana, Calif. She says, ‘‘When I’m not herding cats, you can find me playing Chopin on the piano or dancing to the Beatles in my kitchen.’’ The inspiration for this puzzle was 89-Across. Her favorite theme entry is the last one she thought of — 23-Across. This is Caitlin’s fourth crossword for The Times and her first Sunday. — W.S.

19

23

1 Knock 4 Amped 9 Racket 13 Chocolate component 18 Humans’ closest relatives 20 Alternative sweetener source 21 Trendy superfood 22 Coral formation 23 “Should I not use my oven clock?”?

26 “My turn! My turn!”

27 What bankers and prospectors both seek 28 Sends a Dear John letter 29 An arm and a leg 30 Soprano Fleming 31 Numerical prefix from the Greek for “monster” 32 Gloria, in the animated “Madagascar” films 33 Scrubs 35 The “Iliad” and the “Odyssey”?

40 ____ vu 41 Some spicy fare 43 Father of Zeus 44 Composer of “The Microsoft Sound,” which, ironically, he wrote on a Mac 45 President-____ 47 Its calendar begins in A.D. 622 50 Members of a flock 51 Put up 52 Give a ride to an Indiana hoopster?

55 Bargain-priced 56 New Year abroad 57 Teacher of the dharma 58 Orange juice option 59 “I can’t take this anymore!”

61 The Kremlin, e.g.

63 “____ in the Underworld” (Offenbach opera) 65 Show impatience with, as an envelope 68 “Cool beans!”

70 ____ health 71 Pope’s “____ on Solitude” 74 Shared spirit 75 Printer’s low-ink alert?

78 How balloons are priced?

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81 Unwanted looks 82 Less outgoing 83 Bygone monitor, for short 84 What no single speaker is capable of 86 Offerings in a bridal registry 88 Cause of an R rating 89 What a plumber did for a clogged drain?

93 Given a yellow card, say 95 Top of the Special Forces?

96 Little dippers?

97 Relish 98 Like a Tour de France rider on Day 20 vis-à-vis Day 10 99 Classical personification of ideal human beauty 101 Overlord, for the Battle of Normandy 104 Supereasy quiz question 105 World’s shortest-reigning monarch?

107 Sphere of influence 108 Tweak, in a way 109 In no way reticent 110 Sketch out 111 Tries 112 Flotsam and Jetsam, in “The Little Mermaid” 113 Really like 114 Sign of a packed house

DOWN

1 Bust 2 Locale for a shrine 3 Personal favorite on an agenda 4 Least taxing 5 Colorful stone in a brooch 6 Flaps one’s gums 7 Actress Mendes 8 What strawberries become as they ripen 9 Cover-up for a robbery?

10 Notoriously hard-to-define aesthetic style 11 Servings from a tap 12 La Baltique, e.g.

13 Big figures in 47-Across 14 Back to the original speed, in music 15 They usually include drinks 16 Relief 17 ____ Miss 19 Sole supporter?

24 “____ She Lovely” (Stevie Wonder song) 25 Neighbor of an Armenian 29 Some prom rentals 31 Scenic fabric 32 Improve gradually, say 33 Doing well (at) 34 Give a false impression of

35 Got taken for a ride 36 Unsolicited mentions online, in the press, etc.

37 “Meeeeeeeeow!”

38 It makes you yawn 39 Shelfmate of Webster 42 One who gets take-out orders?

46 Subject of an annual festival in Holland, Mich.

48 Mini-program 49 Egyptian ____ (cat) 51 Derbies, e.g.

53 Spread out at a banquet?

54 Attire 55 Parts of a gymnastics routine 59 Calculation for an aerospace engineer 60 When doubled, “I agree!”

61 Alternative to a condo 62 Certain finish 64 Comparative in a wedding vow 65 Flinch or twitch, say 66 Computer guru, informally 67 Pops up in a flash?

69 Common sports injury site, briefly 71 Piquant bakery offerings 72 John who pioneered the steel plow

73 Messed up 75 Get bent 76 Green lights, so to speak 77 “Stop being such a baby!”

79 Old dentist’s supply 80 Ingredient in insect repellent 84 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

85 Powerpoints?

87 Envelop in a blanket 90 “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green” crooner 91 Opposites of 76-Down 92 Palais des Nations locale 94 Say for certain 97 Echolocation method 98 Bull, e.g.

99 Half of a children’s game 100 Dastard’s doings 101 Popular 2017 Pixar film set in Mexico 102 “Caboose” 103 Old Bond rival 104 Hit 2010s HBO series, familiarly 105 Late ____ 106 Fish-taco fish

MARKETPLACE Arkansas Times local ticketing: CentralArkansasTickets.com

UPCOMING AUGUST EVENTS 1-4

14

The Studio Theatre Mamma Mia the Musical

South on Main Sessions :: Nick Black

1-3, 9-11

16

The Weekend Theater Between Riverside and Crazy

La Terraza Rum & Lounge National Rum Day!

QUALITY ASSURANCE MANAGER: lead & direct

QA dept. to achieve safe & quality food product. MS in Food Science req. Jobsite: Searcy, AR 72143.

Mail resume to: Schulze & Burch Biscuits Co., Attn: HR-1133 W. 35th Street, Chicago, IL 60609.

17

2

South on Main Route 358 & Ten Penny Gypsy

South on Main The Ginsingers :: SOMA After Dark

21

7

South on Main Sessions :: Dazz & Brie

South on Main Sessions :: Lachaz Holloway

SINGLE MALE 65 SEEKS FEMALE 45/ IN LITTLE ROCK AREA Enjoy karaoke. Also seek home owner finance or rental near main street have retirement income; can make reasonable payments (903) 246-5333 albertogiliberti@yahoo.com

San Damiano Ecumenical Catholic Church

23-25

8

The Studio Theatre The Old Maid and the Thief: A 1939 Radio Hour

The Mixing Room Preservation Conversation: Quapaw Tribal Pottery with Betty Geadtke

24

South on Main Seth Walker

Quapaw Quarter Association QQA Summer Suppers: Dinner in the Valley, An Artist’s Home

10

28

9

Four Quarter Bar Groovement

South on Main Sessions :: Funkanites

Go to CentralArkansasTickets.com to purchase these tickets and more!

Arkansas Times local ticketing site! If you’re a non-profit, freestanding venue or business selling tickets thru eventbrite or another national seller – email us phyllis@arktimes.com or hannah@arktimes.com – we’re local, independent and offer a marketing package!

The open, thinking, healing, welcoming faith community you’ve been looking for.

LOCAL TICKETS, ONE PLACE ANSWERS TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE D E J A

I M U S

A B R A S L E I T W O D E N H E P C A T

O R I O L E

O B A M A

A R L E N

W A R M A N D F U S S Y

N A E R Y O F M O T A R A T P I E I M R I B G R H I A T E O F R M T E R A R A G I C E L O C S A A R

C R Y P T I C M A S S I F M E A R A

R A B I C E O U R P R E E D A T E E T E I N A P L O E A T N N I E S A N D Y R E S U M E D O W N I T S A M E C E O R N T B E T I E S P Y

A T H O S C H A S E I E R C E D D A T S C R O A T I I P O D T B I E B S C R A M R A H E A R S U P P I E E S P O R V O L O N A L L U A E A N D Y C L E O H L I E V E O G L E W H I R

S H O A P D L R E E R H A B B E S T S O P F O O A N M M Y A M N A

T E L L M E N O L I C E

A L G A E

B L A N D

E D I T O R

R A G S O N

A R M E N I A N

R T C E A N E C H O

E E L S

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS at 501.492.3974 OR EMAIL LUIS@ ARKTIMES.COM

Come and see.

Mass Saturdays • 5:00 PM 12415 Cantrell Road Little Rock 501-613-7878 LRCatholic.org ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 113

THE OBSERVER

Happy Birthday, Mary Jane

L

ike you, your cousin, your Dutch uncle, Meryl Streep, the guy at the corner store and your ol’ dog Blue, The Observer ain’t getting any younger. Time only flows in one direction, thank God, but the downside is that as you get a little older, you start to feel every one of those ticking seconds in your muscles and bones, ligaments and tendons, your wonky knees and tennis elbows and bum discs in your lower back that periodically tune up and belt out the all-shrieking version of Handel’s Messiah. As we heard a comedian say once: You know you’re in your 40s when the doctor stops talking about how to fix your medical issues and starts telling you how to suck it up and live with it.

The Observer is there.

The Observer was a July baby, born a month before Richard Nixon flashed his looney V-for-Victory signs and boarded the last chopper out of an America that actually halfass trusted its politicians, so we’re starting the long slide down the backside of 40 as of this week by turning the big four-five. It’s an age, we’ve found, when you can either quit telling yourself that bullshit about 45 being the new 25 or else your body will nag you about it until you concede the point. Over the years, The Observer has collected our various aches, pains and health bugaboos like the world’s crummiest baseball cards — “I got the gallstones rookie card!” — but it was all stuff we could live with until last year, when an injury we would have rubbed some Pabst 114 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES

Blue Ribbon on when we were 35 turned into pretty much constant, inescapable pain that ranges from a light screwdriver in the ribs to 196-proof agony.

As a reporter, The Observer has written extensively about opioids, those delicious little pain-muting goofballs that the doctors and dentists were passing out like breath mints even a few years back, sending home pretty much anybody who had a tooth drilled or a bum knee looked at with enough hydrocodone to whack out a good-sized trailer park for the Labor Day weekend. The Observer, who doesn’t even have the willpower to swear off Hostess Twinkies, much less a weaponized, lab-grown siren like oxycodone, wanted no part of that whatsoever. So, for many months, we grinned and bore it, eating way too much Ibuprofen, swigging from the medicinal hooch jug on top of the fridge when it was time to sleep, the pain often driving us from our Beloved’s side for a few more long hours before the TV while the rest of the house slept.

The Observer has also researched and written extensively about medical cannabis. On the job, we’d talked to people who swore by it as a nonaddictive, pain-relieving wonder, as a drug that by some miracle worked like gangbusters, but which you could likely eat a bushel basket of and not die as long as you didn’t choke on it. So we talked to a doctor, told him our issues, and paid our 50 bucks to the Great State of Arkansas. We received our card in the mail a few

weeks later. Thus began our mid-life adventures in medical cannabis.

For the most part, everything the true believers will tell you about cannabis and pain has panned out for Yours Truly. The hurt becomes a rumor of hurt, spoken somewhere in the kingdom of our body. With some experimentation, we’ve since found a strain that, used in careful moderation, will both dull the pain and let us to do everything we want to short of driving. We’ve got another strain that sends us straight to sleepytown, even when the pain is screeching like Hitchcock violins. A redose in the middle of the night, and we can get eight full hours again, a feat we believed had gone the way of the brown in our beard.

Though you count on The Observer to tell you the facts clear-eyed and straight as a string, Dear Reader, it seems odd to admit all this to you. The Observer was a kid in the 1980s, and sat through our share of school presentations on the evils of Reefer Madness. It’s even odder talking about it to our friends and family, including the large contingent of our kin so straight-edge that they would never let lips that touch Demon Rum touch theirs, much less the green kisser of ol’ Mary Jane.

But The Observer believes it is important to let you know that the people who are benefitting from medical cannabis in Arkansas aren’t losers or dead-enders, not criminals or scofflaws, not Cheech or Chong.

Sometimes they’re people like you, who just need a little rest.

THAT TIME AT OAKLAWN WHEN A BIG PLAY MADE FOR A HUGE NIGHT

It’s time to place bets on your favorite sports at the all-new Race & Sports Book, with in-game betting, proposition bets for all games, and fast self-serve kiosks.

OAKLAWN – A NEW LEVEL OF ACTION. OAKLAWN.COM Gambling problem? Call 1-800-522-4700.

ARKANSASTIMES.COM

AUGUST 2019 115

BOOST! 2.30 up to

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Get more with Rewards Plus Checking.

8 0 0. 4 5 6 . 3 0 0 0 | a f c u . o r g /c h e c k i n g Fe d e r a l l y i n s u r e d b y N C U A 1. APY = Annual Percentage Yield. Rewards Plus Checking is a tiered variable rate product. To qualify for the 2.30% APY Rewards Plus checking account, members are required to complete 10 monthly transactions of at least $1.00 each, defined as: ACH, direct deposit, bill pay, debit card (used as debit or credit), and checks. Members who currently have a Rewards Plus checking account that is inactive can qualify for the offer by meeting the same criteria. 2.30% APY currently applies to balances of $0 - $24,999.99. Balances $25,000.00 and more earn 0.25% APY. Fees could reduce earnings. Earn 1 point for every $2.00 spent through your Arkansas Federal debit card. A monthly fee of $12.50 applies if daily balance drops below $2,500.00. Offer and rates valid as of 6-7-19 and subject to change. Certain exclusions may apply.

116 AUGUST 2019

ARKANSAS TIMES