THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS’ STUDENT NEWSPAPER
SINGLE COPY PAID FOR BY STUDENT PUBLICATION
WEDNESDAY
MARCH 16, 2022 Volume 117 — Issue 21
ucanews.live TODAY’S FORECAST CONWAY
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BY MACI ENGLAND
THE NEWSDESK
Staff Writer
FROM THE ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
I N T E R N AT I O N A L McDonalds exits Russia amidst war
McDonalds announced it would temporarily close nearly 850 stores in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday, March 14, via McDonald’s Russian website. McDonalds said that it is impossible to predict when they will be able to reopen restaurants in Russia. But, it is continuing to pay its 62,500 Russian employees. The company said this week that it expects the closure to cost around $50 million per month.
N AT I O N A L
Search for killer of homeless underway A search was underway on Monday, March 14, for a gunman who has been stalking homeless men. The gunman stalked the streets of Washington, D.C., and New York City, fatally shooting two people and wounding three more in less than two weeks. Police released surveillance photographs of the suspected gunman late Sunday, March 13, including one in which the hooded man can be seen holding a pistol in a blue glove.
Astronaut to return on Russian capsule U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei faces his trickiest assignment yet — riding a Russian capsule back to Earth at the end of the month in the midst of deepening tensions between the countries. Hei is due to leave with two Russians aboard a Soyuz capsule for a touchdown in Kazakhstan on March 30. NASA insists Vande Hei’s homecoming plans remain unchanged, even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in canceled launches.
Former principal arrested for killing Rocky Dodson, 53, of Omaha, was arrested Thursday, March murder
second-degree
warrant.
Jewel Moore, former UCA biology professor and eponym of the Jewel Moore Nature Reserve, died on Feb. 25 at 103 years old. Moore taught biology and ecology at UCA when it was still called the Arkansas State Teachers College from 1947 to 1983. Before teaching at Arkansas State Teachers College, she taught math and science at Mountain Pine High School and Beebe Jr. College. Moore’s legacy was immortalized on UCA grounds in 1980 when the nature reserve was named in her honor. The area that is now the nature reserve was originally used to pasture livestock in the beginning days of UCA. In 1977, Moore began using the pasture as an outdoor classroom. Her dedication to students and love for the
outdoors led then-UCA President Jeff Farris and the UCA Board of Trustees to name the reserve the Jewel Moore Nature Reserve after her in 1980. A UCA Foundation scholarship was also established in her name and is still given out to biology students today. Throughout her life, Moore strived to make a difference in the community by spreading her love for education and the natural world. She even received the Conservation Education Award from Arkansas and National Wildlife Federation. Moore also served as state president of the American Association of University Women from 1969 to 1971, vice president for both the state and Conway organizations from 1967 to 1969, and was named the 1976-1977 contributor to the Educational Foundation Programs. Moore’s time at UCA is remembered fondly by her
old coworker, Dr. Donald Culwell. Moore and Culwell spent 13 years together on faculty at the Biology department. Some of Culwell’s favorite memories of Moore come from the field trips they would take students on together. These trips included going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for a wildflower pilgrimage and to the Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. “She was excited to see the students get out and see life in a different place. We took tents and sleeping bags and did our own cooking in the campsite,” Culwell said. The two also shared a passion for going on hikes. They would often take hiking trips to Blanchard Springs Caverns in Mountain View. Culwell believes that Moore impacted the world through the lives of her students. He described her as a kind professor who was in her element when she
Dodson
was a northwest Arkansas high school principal and basketball coach and has been arrested in the death of his wife. Jail records show Dodson remained in custody Saturday, March 12, and does not list an attorney who can speak on his behalf. Authorities have not said how Amanda Dodson is believed to have died.
could be with students. “She was always smiling. She was willing and able to work with students. She loved to have students around, and they knew she
was a friendly person,” Culwell said. Moore was born June 5, 1918, in Hot Springs and died Feb. 25, 2022, in Conway.
FUNDRAISING
Day of Giving achieves second highest donation total BY
MIA WADDELL
News Editor
UCA achieved its second-highest donation total with $758,130.49 on its eighth Day of Giving event on March 10th, 2022. Over 1,950 donors contributed, bringing UCA’s year-to-date giving total to $9,957,771, passing the current year’s fundraising goal. Donors from 40 states and 14 nations gave during the 24-hour fundraising event. “It’s geared towards giving back to the part of the university that meant the most to them … It’s a department, it’s a program, it’s a student organization or maybe it’s a general scholarship fund,” Davis said. “The opportunity to pay it forward, if we are here at all, relative to the world we’re blessed. Jenny and I are giving to quite a few. I just gave to News 6 and SGA,” Davis said. “Forget the overall
Photo by Mia Waddell
SGA members Kaleb Vassar, McKenzi Bogan, Kylie Garritty, and Chanel Dale collected donations outside the Ronnie Williams Student Center. SGA gave $3000 to the African/African American Studies Program.
dollars. We are always interested in trying to break that record of donors. In the end, that means whether it’s a dollar or 10,000 dollars, we want to have more people involved with the university,” Davis said. Additionally, Davis said he gave to the Oxford American Fund, the Bear
Food Pantry, the English Enhancement Fund, the Pride Alumni Club Fund and the Arkansas Shakespeare Fund, to name a few. “We’re in the $100,000,000 capital campaign. All these efforts go towards that,” Davis said. UCA Now: Impact Arkansas and Beyond is a
capital campaign running from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2024. “To be nearly 85% towards our $100 million goal is a testament to the incredible support for our students and our university,” Davis said in a press release from UCA news. The UCA Now campaign fund now sits at $84,517,095. The newly built Integrated Health Sciences Building and The Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts have benefited from the fund. It also supports the only educational range in the region and the only comprehensive film production in the state. 43% of donors were students, 36% were alumni, 15% were Faculty/Staff, 3% identified as friends of the university, and 3% were parents. UCA’s Student Government Association collected donations at a booth outside of the Ronnie Williams Student Center. “The students come in waves,” Honors College
Representative Audra Watts said. “When classes get out, we get more donations.” In an Instagram post, SGA said, “Each year SGA is able to give back from donations to a selective organization and/or program. This year SGA wants to match up to $3,000 of student donations towards the African/African American Studies Program.” SGA donated $3000 to the AAAS program, pulling from its reserves, freshman class representative Brad Lewis said. The grand total was presented by SGA president Mya Hall, alongside President Houston Davis at the Buffalo Alumni Hall. Centennial Bank provided food to all in attendance. Since Day of Giving began in 2015, the university has raised more than $3.9 million in funding for the university. The highest Day of Giving total was $1,126,580 in 2020. 2021 saw a donation total of $717,095.
C U LT U R E
Fight at Bears Den Pizza leads to arrest Windgate opening looms, S C faculty talks collaboration BY
YDNEY
YR
Entertainment Editor
Antonio Battles, 23, was arrested for third-degree battery and disorderly conduct after physically fighting with multiple different people at Bears Den Pizza on 235 Farris Rd. March 5, 2022, according to the Conway Police Department. Conway PD was dispatched to Bears Den Pizza after receiving reports of males fighting in the parking lot. After arriving at the scene, officers found Battles, who was yelling and would not follow the officers’ orders, saying, “I don’t give a fuck.” Officer Hannah Slajer told Battles he was detained due to his “belligerent behavior and obvious intoxication.” “Battles smelled very strongly of intoxicants and, due to him already being involved in several physical altercations, was proven to be a danger to others,” Slajer said.
Battles told officers that a male inside Bears Den Pizza grabbed his butt, so he hit him, and that he did not know who the male was. Video surveillance showed an unidentified male walking up behind Battles and moving his right hand in a motion towards Battles’ butt. “The camera angle is cut-off due to another male standing in between them, so you cannot see if the man touches Battles’ butt,” officer Charles Reynolds said. The video then shows Battles reaching for the man’s throat, causing the man to fall to the ground. Another man attempted to step in between the two, but Battles pushed him to the ground. A third man attempted to grab Battles from the back, but Battles pushed him away and threw four punches at him. Shortly after this, Battles was grabbed and walked out of
view of the camera. Additionally, a security guard at Bears Den told Reynolds that Battles had punched Kaden Mitchell, 25, who was one of the other Bears Den security guards. Reynolds went to the back of the business to find Mitchell and found him shirtless, sitting in a chair, while people tended to his injuries. “I observed a cut over his left eyebrow, and Mitchell also had blood on his person. Mitchell also showed me where he stated that Battles had bit him,” Reynolds said. Mitchell told Reynolds that Battles swung at him, striking him in the face, as he was outside attempting to have Battles get into his vehicle. Video surveillance of the incident confirmed Mitchell’s story that Battles threw the first
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Photo courtesy of Legacy.com
Former biology professor Jewel Moore died Feb. 25, 2022, at 103 years old. The Jewel Moore Nature Reserve is named after her.
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Jewel Moore dies at 103, namesake of nature reserve
Sunny
on
Softball: Bears split to games at University of Memphis tournament.
New release: ‘Loverboy’ delivers summer vibes.
Artist in Residence: Chase Kahwinhut Earles demonstrates Cato pottery making. 4 page 3
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BY
BENNETT TINNERMON
Associate Editor
The Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts is set to open in January of 2023 and will hold new equipment, facilities and a state-of-the-art concert hall. The building, originally scheduled to begin holding classes in the fall semester of 2022, will be used for visual arts, theater and music departments. “I’m excited to hear the first musical notes to be played or sung in the hall,” Stephen Plate, professor and chair of the music department, said. The Department of Art and Design will move from its current home in Schichtl Hall, along with some classes from McAlister Hall, art chair and professor Bryan Massey said. The interior design major will not move with the rest of the
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department due to space issues. “[The possibility for growth] was sort of plateaued in this building,” Massey said about the move from Schichtl Hall to the Windgate Center. Massey said Schichtl Hall will go offline to be revamped, then the Center for Chinese Language and Culture and the Center for Global Learning and Engagement will move in. Massey said he was excited for the space and the possibility for growth, as space was quite limited for his department in Schichtl. For the theater department, the space for performances can be reconfigured for different events, theater department chair and associate professor Shauna Meador said. There will
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