Holcombe Hall Incident Still Under Investigation

Holcombe Hall Incident Still Under Investigation

A reported rape incident that happened on campus in September is still under investigation by UAPD. No further details have been disclosed.

A reported rape in a dorm room Sept. 2 triggered a RazAlert at the UofA. A later report showed details different from the original account.

The victim reported the rape at 1:37 a.m. Monday in Holcombe Hall on Garland Avenue, when she said that a stranger came into her room and assaulted her, UA Police Capt. Gary Crain said.

The next day, the victim of the alleged assault said she was acquainted with the accused, and that the perpetrator was invited in to the dorm room by the victim, Crain said.

UAPD is investigating the case, but no further details have been disclosed.

Crain encouraged students to take safety precautions such as locking bedroom and car doors to reduce the possibility of crimes.

Rape is committed by someone the victim knows 80 percent of the time, according to rainn.org, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.

Sex crimes are a common issue at universities, according to data. In fact, one in five women in college experience sexual assault, and students are at a higher risk of sexual assault in the first few months of their first and second semesters of college, according to womenshealth.gov, an affiliate of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

These first few months are referred to as the RedZone, according to thetab.com, a news website with articles from students at top universities. After gathering more than 800 reports of rape and sexual assault cases from crime logs at 12 colleges, the data showed that more than 32 percent of sex crimes happened from September to November.

Most new students live in dorm rooms during their first year of college, and most are coed, where boys and girls are in close proximity. The results of the same study from thetab.com showed that 46.9 percent of the 800 cases from those universities occurred in freshman dorms.

Grant Could Help Crack Down on Concrete Deficiencies

Senior Walk, an integral part of the University of Arkansas campus, spans five miles of pavement etched with graduates’ names reaching back to 1876.

As the university’s oldest tradition, and as the only Senior Walk in the country, preservation of the pavement is vital. When walking around campus, however, it is hard not to notice the cracks and wear that stretch along the pathways.

Now Senior Walk and other future campus concrete projects might benefit from research supported by a recent $500,000 gift from the Oklahoma/Arkansas chapter of the American Concrete Pavement Association. The intent is for researchers to study methods of creating stronger, more cost efficient concrete.

The half-million-dollar pledge will make the U of A a national leader in concrete pavement research, said Cameron Murray, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. It also supports Campaign Arkansas, the university’s $1.25 billion capital campaign to advance academic opportunity.

This gift comes at an appropriate time; many noticeable sections of campus pavement could use a touch up, including portions of Senior Walk that have been mauled by construction or simply become worn over time.

“We have cracking sometimes. Concrete cracks,” Mike Johnson, the associate vice chancellor for facilities management, said. “We try to put in joints so it cracks where we want it to crack. We’re quasi-successful.”

New concrete is always tested when it is placed, Johnson said.

“They’ll take cylinders and they’ll break cylinders at 7, 14 and 28 days and look at the compression to make sure we actually have what we paid for,” Johnson said.

The association gift will be provided in five yearly installments and will support teaching and research activities in the concrete laboratory at the Engineering Research Center, Murray said.

“Early on it looks like we will mostly use the money to fund graduate students who will do work related to concrete pavements,” Murray said. “In particular we will be looking at ways to make more efficient, more cost effective concrete pavements.”

More cost efficient concrete could make it easier for the university to make some quick fixes around campus.

They can approach the matter of more efficient pavements by either selecting more cost effective combinations of ingredients for concrete or by proposing different designs to the pavement, Murray said.

“For example, we can look at how the ‘structure’ of the pavement is designed, trying to use a thinner section that will be more cost effective,” Murray said.

Concrete is designed for its specific application, said Daniel Clairmont, the director of engineering and construction.

“Foundations, patios, sidewalks and roads are all different strengths and different thicknesses,” Clairmont said. “If it is expected to carry heavy loads, it would generally be thicker and stronger.”

These differences in the pavement around campus might explain why some portions look pristine and have held up well over the years, while adjacent areas are cracked or otherwise damaged.

“Senior walk is a totally separate formula and process because it has to be a very smooth surface so we can glue down the rubber stencils and do the sand blasting,” Johnson said. “So it’s higher strength; we pay more attention on how it’s finished and that type of thing.”

The quality of the base on which the concrete is poured also plays a factor in its longevity, Clairmont said.

“A poorly compacted base, or if it is not protected from water infiltration and erosion, will almost guarantee the concrete will crack and fail,” Clairmont said.

As graduating classes are added to Senior Walk, alumni will appreciate any effort to preserve the names that have been engraved for decades.

“Concrete is pretty simple,” Johnson said.

Fulbright Student Panel to Give Students Internship Tips

By: Student Reporter

Students work internships because they want jobs, college career counselors advise.

Toward the goal of landing an internship, a student-focused panel, Internship Tips from Fulbright Students, is scheduled to take place at 5 p.m., Oct. 30 in 512 of the Arkansas Union.

“It’s vital for students to prepare for jobs and they should spend a lot of time connecting with professionals in the area,” said Erica Estes, director of Employer Relations at the Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences.

“It’s not enough to just upload an application and resume. Getting connected is key. That’s where the magic happens,” she said. “Students should spend 60 percent of their time connecting, 30 percent should be researching and 10 applying.”

The panel will feature six Fulbright College students – representating math, journalism, international studies, political science, music, social work and biology. They have been asked to give their peers the inside scoop about how they found their internships, describe the application process and discuss their internships.

Math major Nicole Norman completed an internship with Anheuser-Busch in Portland, Oregon. Molly Feigle completed a journalism internship with Universal Pictures in Rogers. Maya Ungar, an international studies major, has worked internships at The Washington Center, Churches for the Middle East and the Peace Corps.

Emma Kromer, a political science and music major who worked internships with the Faulkner Performing Arts Center, Fulbright College Advising Center, and the Washington County Planning Office. Aja Pence, a social work student, completed an internship with Potter’s House through the United Way and Tyson Community Summer Internship Program.

“Plan your internship right, get tips from your peers,” Estes said.

History professor Alessandro Brogi, who is director of Undergraduate Studies, will moderate the panel.

Some students get help outside the university.

“For me, my mom actually found the internship, but it was great as I want to work in the medical field and this position gave me great exposure. It sealed my passion for medicine and gave me knowledge how to work in a clinical setting,” biology major Johnson said.

Students can find more info about the event on the Handshake website.

“Don’t be afraid to ask questions about things you do not know,” she said. “Your bosses are not expecting you to know everything, but they do expect you be active in acquiring information you do not know.

“Be professional. Our generation has a reputation for not having certain aspects of professionalism, such as proper dress, email etiquette and being on time to work,” Johnson said.

Spring Launch Set for Career Connections Class

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The UofA is scheduled to launch a Fulbright college career connections class in the spring semester. The 3000-level course will provide a platform to connect students with employers while also giving students the opportunity to look into diverse career communities, UA career professionals said.

“In the last several years, I have not had individual counseling appointments with students. Instead I’ve been developing relations with employers in order to relay that to students. However, some of that is transforming, because in the spring we will be offering a Fulbright Career Connections class,” said Erica Estes, director of Employer Relations for Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences.

Titled ARSC 3013 in the course catalog, the class will incorporate life-design, a concept employed at Stanford University, Estes said. By using human-centered designs and applying it to the career class Estes believes this class will be “fairly large” and “very interactive.”

“Based on my experience running the Fulbright Advising Center, this will be a course that should be a very popular elective for students of all majors. I hope that plenty of students take advantage of it. I know the content and I think it will be a very worthwhile experience for students,” said Shane Barker, Fulbright assistant dean for advising.

The UofA also offers a one-hour Career Exploration Course (UNIV 1401). It allows students to graduate from the nationally recognized, Career Track Razorbacks that is offered by the Career Development Center. The class also is an eight-week session.

Coursework will include self-awareness, career exploration, experience, job search strategies, resume/cover letter writing, interview skills and professional networking.

Estes also recommends that students enroll in the Design Your Life nine-week mini-session.

“If you’re anxious about your next steps after graduation, consider enrolling in the Design Your Life nine-week mini session class. I will be co-teaching this class with two highly knowledgeable faculty and staff,” Estes said.

“We will move through the human-centered design thinking process to help students feel more confident about building their plans for the future,” she said. “In order to enroll in UNIV 3401, you must email me at ericae@uark.edu before the first class meets.”

The mini-session is a one-hour class but Estes said, “we hope to continue offering this for students and are wanting to expand the course to two hours.”

The class will include lectures on career communities as well as have an online component where students can cultivate e-portfolios. “We want to plug students into something we’ve been growing for years,” Estes said.

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UAPD Bike Cop and K9 Officer Share Retirement Party

Two veteran members of the UA Police Department retired Friday after years of service to the department.

Officer Steve Meyer served the department for 43 years, working as one of the department’s primary bicycle cops.

K9 Officer Dingo, a German Shepherd, served the force for six years, 42 in dog years, working with his handler, Cpl. David Nguyen.

UAPD Director Steve Gahagans thinks that Meyer stayed with the department so long because he cared deeply for the UA students he protected, he said.

Officers have to have “a deep-seated love for the UofA and the people you serve” to stay for 43 years, Gahagans said.

Meyer thinks that small positive interactions with students on a day-to-day basis helped keep him encouraged over the years, he said.

Mike Terry, who worked in the UAPD from 1981 to 1998, said that he was persuaded to join UAPD after talking to Meyer in a training course.

“You could tell he loved the UofA by the way he talked about it,” Terry said.

Dingo was trained in Austria to detect narcotics like methamphetamines, cocaine, marijuana and heroin by smell, Nguyen said.

Nguyen was selected as Dingo’s handler and only works with him, he said. When Dingo is not on the job, he lives with Nguyen and his family.

“When he’s at home, we treat him as a pet,” Nguyen said. “We don’t do any training at home.”

Nguyen thinks that Dingo is one of the friendliest dogs UAPD has, and he would often take Dingo around to meet with students, especially during finals, he said. Some students even recognize Dingo around campus.

“They know him as the lovable one, the one they can pet,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen thinks Dingo is still in great physical shape, but UAPD policy is for dogs to retire after seven or eight years of service, he said.

“He’s still young enough to enjoy retired life,” Nguyen said.

Now that he is retired, Dingo will probably just be a lazy house pet, Nguyen said.

UAPD still has four other dogs working for them, Nguyen said. Three of them are trained to detect explosives and one, Ricky, will take over Dingo’s job of narcotics detection.

Meyer will continue to support his former coworkers by delivering refreshments to officers on duty during game day, Gahagans said.