The Forum: August 22nd

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Radio quiz show to air

Artist finds fresh pad

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New Sports complex opens

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Volume LXXXV Number I

News in a

FLASH

Professor Bruce Plopper, who has taught journalism at UALR since 1990, was recently awarded his fourth Laurence Campbell Research Award by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The award was in recognition of a winning paper he co-authored with Anne Conaway, a former UALR journalism graduate student. English Professor Zabelle Stodola co-edited a recently published book that discusses a little known but bitterly contested war waged against a Native American tribe in Minnesota. The book, which is titled “A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity: Dispatches from the Dakota War,” remembers the Dakota tribe’s 1862 struggle against the U.S. military to commemorate its 150th anniversary. Health Sciences Professor Nita Copeland was given a Blackboard Exemplary Course Catalyst Award at the Blackboard World Conference last month in New Orleans. The award recognizes Copeland’s development of her online course, Structural Kinesiology. The award recognizes Copeland for her development of her online course, Structural Kinesiology. Brad King resigned from his position as chief of the UALR Department of Public Safety to take a job with the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training. His last day at the UALR Department of Public Safety is Aug. 31, King said. He has been employed with the university for 12 and half years.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Student Newspaper

Tech Park rethinks locale Cameron Moix News Editor

The Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board has recently accepted recommendations for alternate construction sites in lieu of a six-month study of locations that would not require the use of eminent domain to displace local citizens. During the Spring 2012 academic semester, The Forum reported on a percolating eminent domain matter that was attracting media attention across the state and incurring quite a controversy among certain sects of property rights enthusiasts. Board members representing the Little Rock Technology Park Authority convened and reconvened to discuss plans to begin the first phase of the project, which the organization’s website states should cost around $45 million. Phase one includes three steps: 1. the acquisition of land; 2. master planning and construction of site infrastructure; 3. development of the first building(s). The controversy is the same now as it was then: concern for the wellbeing of the community. These concerns spur

from the possibility of citizen displacement if the Authority chooses to use eminent domain to acquire the roughly 60 acres of land within five minutes (driving time) of its university sponsors, UALR and UAMS. The City of Little Rock, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital also sponsor the LRTP. After nearly a year of having their ears filled with the concerns of several hundred homeowners and others opposed to such action (eminent domain), the board is considering other options. According to a Aug. 1 Arkansas Times cover story by Managing Editor Leslie Newell Peacock, “their newfound openness was brought about by an ordinance proposed by City Director Dean Kumpuris and passed in June that point to fears in Ward 2 that the Authority would exercise its power of eminent domain to remove unwilling residents from their homes.” The story, which is titled “Location, Location, Location: 10 places to put the Technology Park that won’t require people upheaval,” features

TECHNOLOGY, continued on page 3

Liz Fox

Entertainment Editor

See CONSTRUCTION, page 3

See DEAN, page 3

Win 2 01 es -2 m Ti 08 as 20

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UALR residents enjoy an evening of burgers and banter at the recently finished Trojan Grill.

Photo by Cameron Moix

Master Plan takes step toward completion News Editor

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master plan forges clear connections with the surrounding community, strengthening the University’s role as a cultural and economic resource to the region.” The Recreation and Sports Complex, which features facilities for intramural and intercollegiate activities such as track and field and soccer, was completed in time to meet its updated September 2012 deadline (according to

Paula Casey, a professor at the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law, assumed the position of interim dean upon Dean DiPippa’s receiving Emeritus status earlier this summer. Casey, whose position was announced in February, is to serve as interim dean until the national search for DiPippa’s replacement comes to a close. “We’re steering a pretty good course,” she said in a recent news release. “Dean DiPippa was a great leader, and he did a really good job for us.” After being raised in a small Arkansas town, Casey went on to graduate in 1973 from East Central University of Oklahoma with her bachelor’s degree. Four years later she obtained her JD from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville School of Law, and soon became a professor at the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law. While teaching, she also served as an associate dean from 1986 until 1991. After leaving Bowen in the mid-1990s, Casey served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, a

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Opinions News Campus Life Features Entertainment Sports

Angelica Scott, a freshman nursing major, came away a winner at the Casino Night in Ledbetter Hall on Aug. 16. Photo by Chelsey McNiel

Bowen names interim dean, search goes on

Cameron Moix

Index

Winner, winner chicken dinner!

Board asks for input from neighborhood

The Department of Construction Management and Civil and Construction Engineering has announced that it will offer two new degree programs beginning this fall, which will be A B.S. in Architectural and Construction Engineering and a M.S. in Construction Management.

Send news tips and information for news in a flash to editor@ualr.edu. To keep up with news and happenings at UALR, be sure to visit ualr.edu/ forum often!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Construction crews completed some of the major construction projects included in the Campus Master Plan while most students were on summer break, including the new Student One-Stop Center and Coleman Sports and Recreation Complex. The buildings were some of the many projects first slated by the Campus Master Plan, which was devised

as a “10-year vision for the physical development of the university” that was devised originally devised in 2005. “The master plan lays the groundwork for a rich physical environment that, along with excellent instruction, research, and public service programs, will draw students and community members to the campus,” according to the university’s website. “In keeping with UALR’s mission as a metropolitan university, the

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