Category: Campus

By Kayla Nunez
The Razorback Reporter

Florida State University became the third major campus this year to record a student death involving a Greek-letter organization. That prompted the FSU administration on Nov. 6 to suspend indefinitely all 55 of its sororities and fraternities after a Pi Kappa Phi pledge died after a weekend party, according to an FSU announcement.
The incident, on the heels of similar ones at Pennsylvania State University and Louisiana State University, has once again revised the question of hazing – a national topic of discussion – on campuses across the country.
A freshman Phi Delta Theta pledge at LSU died in what was described as a potential hazing incident in September and a Beta Theta Pi pledge at Penn State died in a hazing incident in February.
LSU formally suspended Phi Delta Theta and indefinitely suspended all Greek activities.
Parice Bowser, director of UA Greek Life, said that if a similar circumstance happened, an investigation and disciplinary procedures would follow.
“It’s my prayer that the University of Arkansas does not ever experience such a loss,” Bowser said.
The UofA has zero tolerance for hazing among its 35 Greek-letter organizations.
Mark Rushing, UA assistant vice chancellor for university relations, reiterated the university’s stance on hazing.
“The safety of our students is a top priority and the university strongly opposes any form of hazing,” Rushing said.
UA policy also is supported by Arkansas state law.
“Any requirement imposed upon prospective, new or current members which is not related to the organization’s purpose is prohibited and will become the subject of a University investigation once the practice is brought to the attention of the Office of Greek Life,” according to the UA anti-hazing policy.
In the case of any hazing allegations, the university would take a look at the case and then the police might get involved, depending on the severity of the situation.
There have been some reported allegations of hazing in the past at the UofA, including as recently as January of 2016.
As of March 31, 2016 four reports of hazing were filed and 10 fraternity violations of Greek Life conduct rules since 2013, according to a report from the Office of Student Standards and Conduct.
Some examples of hazing are making new members be silent for a certain amount of time, requiring physical exercises such as sit-ups and push-ups, and making a member wear uncomfortable clothes, among others, according to the UA Greek Life website.
The website lists 19 activities that “have at one time or another been identified as hazing by courts and/or institutions of higher education.”

Greek Life has many programs throughout the year that educate members on hazing prevention, said Danica Ridgeway, Panhellenic President.
UA Greek Life participated in National Hazing Prevention Week in September and Ridgeway said the UofA has been participating in the event for years.
Fraternities and sororities also participated in an educational program in September called These Hands Don’t Haze. The program focused on hazing awareness and prevention and how students should report hazing concerns.
“Hazing is prohibited under Greek Life policies and by the Code of Student Life,” Rushing said.

 

 

By Chase Reavis

The Razorback Reporter

Those who want to carry a handgun on Arkansas campuses must be able to shoot straight, hang onto their weapon and defend themselves, according to the state police preliminary draft of training procedures.

The Arkansas State Police Department released the first version of required training procedures necessary for licensed weapons owners to get the enhanced permit that will allow concealed carry on campus sometime next year. That was Oct. 11.

Arkansas State Police are taking public comment about proposed draft changes until Nov. 10, but as of Oct. 24, they had received minimal response, Bill Sadler, Arkansas State Police public information officer, said in an email.

The training program is projected to be in place within the first three months of 2018, Sadler said. The enhanced carry license will be valid for five years, according to the draft.

Enhanced carry applicants must complete eight hours of instruction proctored by training instructors across the state, according to the draft. Training will be offered at all concealed carry courses. All registered concealed carry instructors must complete an exam regarding the enhanced training license by Jan. 1, 2018. If an instructor cannot complete the exam, the instructor’s registration will be revoked, according to the draft.

In the eight-hour course, instructors must explain the rights and responsibilities of having the enhanced license as well as where carriers cannot take handguns. Applicants will undergo self-defense and weapon-retention training.

They also must score at least a 70 percent on a firing-accuracy test, which they get three tries to complete, according to the draft. A firing-accuracy test is not included in the standard concealed carry training but was added to the enhanced training program with the new revisions.

The firing-accuracy test is meant to “ensure the license applicant can safely handle and correctly fire the weapon,” Sadler said.

Instructors also will go over emergency situations, how to respond to police officers during these situations and the difference between firearm possession and storage, according to the draft.

In preparation for concealed carry on campus, UA officials have acted as panelists for three forums regarding the new law; two of them have been on campus. One was at a Faculty Senate meeting Oct. 26 in Old Main.

Faculty members asked about their own safety as well as the safety of UA students on campus once the training program is implemented.

UA professor Bill McComas told the panel he felt very unsafe that students in his class could have handguns.

“I don’t quite understand how I can do my job if I feel unsafe,” McComas said.

At the forum and at the two before it, UA professors asked panelists whether they are allowed to ask students not to carry concealed handguns in their classrooms or into their offices. At the first two forums, panelists did not have an answer.

Mark Rushing, assistant vice chancellor of University Relations, answered the question at the Faculty Senate meeting.

“You can state your preference as to whether you would like firearms to be allowed in your area or your office or classroom or not, but you cannot prohibit them,” Rushing said.

UA junior Trystan Spears plans to get an enhanced carry permit after he turns 21 years old in January, but even then, he wants to respect his professors’ wishes about when to carry a gun.

“If I am going into someone’s home, I respect their wishes,” Spears said.

If Spears completes the training program and receives the enhanced carry license, he plans on keeping his handgun in his vehicle more often than on his person, he said.

Spears keeps all sorts of tools in his vehicle, and his handgun will be “another tool in my toolbox,” he said.

Licensees are allowed to store their handguns on or about their person and in their vehicles, according to the draft.

After Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed the law earlier this year, Arkansas State Police began drafting rules.

The bill was opposed by UA Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz. He released a statement Jan. 23, saying the proposal threatened campus safety and the retention of students, faculty and staff.

UA Police Department officials would not comment on the draft because it is not a finalized training program, UAPD Capt. Matt Mills said in an email.

Mills had not suggested changes to Arkansas State Police as of Oct. 30, he said.

By Taylor Klusman

The Razorback Reporter

The UofA was one of at least 12 universities and two campus systems across the US to offer in-state tuition to academically qualified students affected by Hurricane Maria. UA officials decided to extend this offer for the Spring 2018, Summer 2018 and Fall 2018 semesters.

When the university made a similar motion to students in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, they had 66 students take them up on their offer, 14 of whom ended up graduating from the UofA.

“Transferring may prove difficult for some students who are currently enrolled in a university program in Puerto Rico because they don’t know now when their semester is going to end,” UofA Media Relations Manager Steve Voorhies said. “One student has said that she may not be able to start school here because her current semester will likely still be going into our spring semester.”

UofA officials are unsure of how many storm-struck students will take advantage of their offer at this time.

“About 10 have contacted us to ask for more information so far,” Voorhies said. “Other schools are making similar offers, so it is very hard to predict.”

Comparatively, 667 hurricane-affected students from the Caribbean, mainly Puerto Rico, have already signed up at Florida International University, also offering in-state tuition, for the spring semester.

“We don’t expect any to be incoming freshmen – this is aimed more at undergrads and grad students who are already enrolled in Puerto Rican institutions that have been damaged,” Voorhies said.

Alvin Lopez, award winning song-writer and Latino performer, was originally from Puerto Rico himself and believes the university to be a trend-setter in their actions of helping others.

“It’s a matter of getting the word out,” Lopez said. “The reality is there has been an influx of Puerto Ricans into the area already, even getting the word out to the Puerto Ricans in the area right now so that they hear what the university is doing, it could be an incentive for them to send their kids here to go to college.”

The admittance of these students at the UofA following the natural disaster almost a decade ago did not have a financial impact on the university, Voorhies said.

The UofA’s offer of in-state tuition, which adds up to $9,062 a year, could assist students affected by Hurricane Maria in their continuation of college, Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz said.

“For me, it would be a perfect opportunity to connect with the people that are here,” Lopez said. “It’s awesome that you’re doing this for Puerto Ricans but we’re across the ocean and there are people in our backyard that also need help that we could be doing something for.”

There are around 2,500 Puerto Ricans in Northwest Arkansas that have been here before the disaster of Hurricane Maria, Lopez said.

“There are children who have lived here for their whole lives and need the same kind of support, kids who are so amazing with big brains that could be great students at the university of Arkansas,” Lopez said.

By Hermon Negash

The Razorback Reporter

The Walton College of Business has scheduled what organizers call a Blockchain Hackathon, Oct. 27-28 in downtown Fayetteville.

Students of all technical experience levels will work together to solve various problems that will be provided by sponsoring companies such as Walmart, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., ArcBest and Tyson Foods. IBM also will sponsor the event and its cloud platform will be utilized.

“Teams will work together to develop a functional blockchain business network utilizing the Hyperledger architecture running on the world-class IBM cloud platform,” said Zach Steelman, assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems at Walton College.

The sponsors will challenge participants to work on real-world problems given by companies and solve them using blockchain technologies, according to the website.

Blockchains are a fairly new form of technology that creates an online record of transactions that anyone can view and alter but does not belong to one single person.

“Blockchain technology offers a secure and verifiable way to maintain an encrypted accounting ledger of transactions,” said Paul Cronan, an Information Systems professor at Walton College.

The distribution of the transactions creates redundancy and a system of accountability, Cronan said. Information cannot go from one place to another without being verified. This allows for blockchains to be extremely secure, contrary to the competition name, Blockchain Hackathon. Blockchains can drastically change how businesses interact with partners and customers by creating a trust in the system, Steelman said.

Some say that blockchains could be so substantial that it could compare to the introduction of the internet, Cronan said, although he said he thought it was too early to make a statement of that magnitude. He also said the technology is very promising.

The competition is scheduled to take place at the Brewer Family Entrepreneurship Hub, 123 W. Mountain St., Fayetteville.

By Erin McGuinness

The Razorback Reporter

Experts in nutrition and health will meet for the first Arkansas Nutrition, Obesity and Health Research Retreat, Oct. 25-27, at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences.

Jamie Baum, assistant professor of nutrition in the Department of Food Science, teamed with Sean Adams, the director of the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center, and Rudy Nayga,  UA distinguished professor and Tyson Chair in Food Policy Economics, to organize the event.

Partners from the Fayetteville and Little Rock campuses, including the Center for Human Nutrition, UA System Division of Agriculture Research and Extension, UofA at Fayetteville, UofA for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center and Arkansas Children’s Research Institute will attend.

The organizers invited 22 scientists who have had successful research programs in the area of nutrition, obesity, health and exercise and have established collaborations with other researchers in the state, Baum said.

This is the first time that researchers from Fayetteville and Little Rock will gather for this retreat, she said.

“To get institutions like that together under one roof to support a common theme like this is kind of unusual, and it’s a really great thing for the state of Arkansas,” Adams said.

The gathering is intended to create collaborative research within the state on issues ranging from obesity to exercise and food insecurity, or a lack of access to nutrition.

Last year 34.7 percent of adults in Arkansas were overweight and 35.9 percent were obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We realized we need to bring people together to help start solving this problem and sharing our research to create more outcomes that would help Arkansans,” Baum said.  

Scientists and participants will meet Wednesday and get an overview. The Thursday program is open to faculty and administrators from the campuses, food industry employees and government officials who are interested in the topics. Researchers will present studies that they have conducted in the state.

Kevin Fitzpatrick, UA sociology professor and director of the Community and Family Institute, is presenting his research, called Assessing Food Insecurity, Weight Status and Health Among Northwest Arkansas Youth.

Food insecurity is related to nutrition and obesity because it describes a lack of access to nutritious food, Fitzpatrick said. His research focuses on food insecurity for children in northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville and Springdale.

Fitzpatrick’s research on homelessness, as showcased in Community and Family Institute Reports, also will be included in brief, he said.

Fitzpatrick conducted a food insecurity survey in Springdale High and Owl Creek School in Fayetteville, the responses of students are incorporated into his presentation.

 “I’m really feeling like (our presentation) is really the only one that’s going to be focused on food insecurity and why that is important when we talk about nutrition and health,” he said. “If we don’t have access to food, that’s a problem, and if we don’t have access to good food, that’s another level to the problem.”

On Friday scientists will have a chance to develop ideas for federal grant funding. The research projects in need of grants also will be presented. There are three sources of grants, including the UofA, UA System Division of Agriculture Research & Extension and UAMS, though the amounts have not been decided yet. Experts in these fields from around the country have agreed to review and choose up to four winners, Baum said.

The six partners will award grants to establish collaborative research projects on nutrition, obesity and health in the state of Arkansas.

“The most powerful effect and impact of the research is really going to come from when all of these disciplines are melded into teams that can address quite complicated probes, such as obesity, diet quality and exercise,” Adams said.

Next year, the organizers hope to have a second retreat where people who received grants at the retreat can present their findings and research, Baum said.

If the retreat is successful, Baum hopes to turn this into an annual event – possibly a regional conference where Arkansas researchers can build connections with scientists in other states, she said.

“I really have a feeling that this trickle down from this conference within the state is going to be very positive,” she said.