She followed her interest in public service to the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Leadership, Public Policy, and Public Service at Albion College. Though most students in the program focused heavily on politics, Leitz found her home in sociology.

"For me, it was a discipline that brought together economics, politics, and psychology," she explained.

In fall 1997, she participated in a peace studies program and lived in the Middle East.

"I came to see that people weren't buying into the Oslo Accords," she said. "I got a real sense of the importance of social change at the grass-roots level, and that really solidified, for me, that I'm a sociologist."

Leitz graduated from Albion in 1999 and started graduate school that fall at Ohio State University. In graduate school, she worked with at-risk girls who were physically fighting each other. She left school for a semester to serve as the assistant director of the Great Lakes Colleges Jerusalem Program, the same program she had participated in as an undergraduate student.

In Ohio, she met David Dufault, today an F/A-18 F Super Hornet pilot in the U.S. Navy, whom she married. She earned her master's in 2001 and in 2002 transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara for her Ph.D. In 2004, she moved to Florida with her husband – one of 10 moves in six years – and helped register voters.

She also worked for the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign in Pensacola, where she met the late Elizabeth Edwards. At a campaign program, Leitz introduced Edwards and sat on a panel with her. Leitz inspired Edwards to develop a team of military mothers and spouses to travel the country for the Presidential campaign. While traveling to political swing states, Leitz and this team were covered in more than 250 media stories.

The experience was "reinvigorating," said Leitz.

Traveling with military spouses and families gave her a new research direction and dissertation topic – veterans and military families in opposition to the war.

"It's a really novel and important segment of the peace movement," she said.

Her experience with veterans and military families also reaffirmed her call to public service.

"It really solidified that I want to be an academic whose work changes our culture for the better," she said

Leitz joined the Hendrix faculty in 2009 after completing her Ph.D.

"I really wanted to get back to a liberal arts college," she said. "I just love actively facilitating students' interest and growth on various topics."

And she's done precisely that.

Last year, she helped with a student mission trip to Poland, where they toured former World War II concentration camps. The trip was funded by the Hendrix Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics, and Calling.

This summer, Leitz and three Hendrix students undertook a research project, conducting qualitative interviews with 30 Arkansas military veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to assess their access to benefits. The project was funded by Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning. Her student research assistants included Benjamin Thomas '12, Alison Pope '12, and Alison Selking '11.

The research, she hopes, will help bridge the divide between civilians and the military. She also intends to use the project as an example in her course on research methods. Later this year, Leitz will present the findings, along with excerpts from her forthcoming book titled Fighting the War Inside Out, at the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces & Society. Leitz presents often – about four conferences a year – and is an elected councilmember of a section of the American Sociological Association devoted to the study of peace, war, and social conflict.

In addition to mentoring students' public service and research projects, Leitz contributes to interdisciplinary programs in American Studies, film studies, and gender studies. She would like to see the College eventually develop interdisciplinary programs in peace studies and Middle Eastern studies.

Leitz received a faculty leadership grant in 2009 from Project Pericles, a national organization devoted to increasing civic engagement at undergraduate institutions. The grant allowed her to develop a community engagement assignment in her course on gender and sexuality. Through the grant, students developed a new student organization, planned a rally at the state capital for reproductive rights, and sponsored a conference on sexual assault.

"Challenging students to take what they learn in the classroom and do something about or with it ... That's the potential I see sociology having," she said.

Stephanie Oshrin '12 can't forget the third-grade boy she met while volunteering one summer at a women's shelter in her hometown of Hattiesburg, Miss.

He was struggling in school and needed help. When Oshrin discovered the boy couldn't read, she worked with him every day until he progressed from "See Spot Run" to books on sports, his favorite subject. She took him to the library, a place he had never been before but could now enjoy, in part, because of what she did.

"I'll always remember him because it was the best feeling I ever had," she said of the opportunity to help a child learn to read.

Oshrin continues to help children at the Women's Shelter of Central Arkansas, where she volunteers two to three times a week and routinely sees seven to 10 kids and their mothers who live at the shelter.

An estimated 1.3 million women in the United States are victims of domestic violence each year. During the 1960s and 1970s, shelters like the one in Conway where Oshrin volunteers were developed to offer safety and support to women and children. In addition to food and housing, shelters offer support groups and counseling services.

"I tutor and help with art, but the art projects we do are a part of therapy," she said. "Even though we do plenty of really fun things together, my main purpose is to facilitate children's group."

In her three years of serving at the shelter, Oshrin has experienced a cycle of emotions.

"Some of my happiest and most cherished memories of the past three years come from the shelter, but I have also lost many nights of sleep over the things I have seen there," she said.

The opportunity has also offered her perspective both on the difficult circumstances that women and children face and the role that she can play in their lives.

"I can't change the fact that the women and children have been harmed by those who were supposed to protect them," she said. "But I can prove to them that someone cares enough to show up week after week."

Thanks to a grant she received from Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, Oshrin is helping the shelter redo its backyard so that the kids will have a safe place to be active.

"I knew I wanted to help them through Odyssey and leave the shelter better than when I found it," she said. "I found out what they really needed was a better backyard."

"I want to fix the backyard because it is often the only place that the children can get away from what has happened to them, and it is the mothers' oasis from a crowded house," she said. "The children deserve a world that is full of love and safe from abuse. I can't give them that, but I do have the resources to give them a swing set, a garden, and a place to ride their bikes."

But a building project was a bit out of her element, she said.

"I'm good at organizing people and ideas," she said. "But as far as construction goes, I need a lot of help."

She is currently assembling a group of Hendrix students to help put together playground equipment and complete the project.

Oshrin is indeed good at organizing people and ideas.

In January 2011, she helped organize the state's first Rally for Reproductive Justice on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock. The rally brought together more than 250 reproductive rights advocates on the 38th anniversary of the U.S Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

The seven-member planning committee for the event included Oshrin, who chaired the committee, and fellow Hendrix students Daniel Williams '12, Hailey Travis '12, and Leigh Ann Jensen '11.

The rally was sponsored by the Arkansas chapter of ACLU, Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma, and the Little Rock chapter of the National Organization for Women, a group Oshrin worked with the previous summer as an intern in NOW's national office in Washington, D.C.

Through the event, she connected with Hendrix alumna Maria Jones '77, president of the Little Rock chapter of the American Association of University Women, which also co-sponsored the event. Serendipitously, Oshrin was living in Jones' former room in Galloway Hall.

"There was definitely some really good social justice mojo going on there," Oshrin said.

One of the rally's speakers was Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States, who commented to Oshrin that it was the first time she had witnessed an event of this magnitude in Arkansas.

"The energy was just astounding," said Oshrin, who attributed the event's strong attendance to the intergenerational audience of older women's rights advocates and younger, college-age activists.

Oshrin clearly represents the latter group and believes she and her classmates can play an important role in social change.

"I think college students have special resources and skills, and we're capable of giving back," she said. "Why wouldn't we use the time we have to give back?"

In addition to her work on the rally and at the women's shelter, Oshrin has worked with Hendrix education professor Dr. James Jennings' Above the Line project, helping third-grade students in the Delta learn basic skills to improve their standardized test skills. This summer, she studied for five weeks in Stellenbosch, South Africa with ISEP's Nation Building and Development.

"Hendrix has given me the opportunity to learn outside the classroom and that's where I've learned the most," she said.

An international relations major and gender studies minor, Oshrin plans to go to graduate school, likely in public service.

We all get spam messages. My favorite spam is the one I regularly receive from someone trying to sell me cheap Viagra pills (do they know something I don’t?). These messages usually end up in the trash, but the other day I received a spam message at work that set me to thinking.

The subject of the message read: "Stop the painful craving for food." As a natural reflex I was just about to hit the delete button but since I’m living in Africa and working for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the largest provider of food aid to the world’s hungriest people, I thought it might be worth a read.

At first I thought it might be some clever new anti-hunger slogan from one of our very creative public relations folk. Turns out, it’s about some miracle pill that helps people shed unwanted pounds.

Sign me up! I kind of like the idea of a magic pill that makes all those nasty little cravings for things like processed Velveeta cheese and pork rinds go away. Just before dialing in my pill order, it occurred to me that the state of the world’s food situation has become extreme.

On one end, obesity, which is caused by overeating, is dramatically increasing. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.5 billion adults and 43 million children under 5 are overweight. By 2015, the number is expected to increase to 2.3 billion posing serious health and economic implications.

On the other end of the spectrum, are the almost 1 billion people who do not have enough to eat. Most of these 1 billion "food insecure" people live in developing countries. They are hungry and it’s the kind of "hungry" that stunts a child’s growth because their bodies lack nutrients needed for proper development.

With these extremes, and the expected population growth from 7 to 9 billion people in the next 40 years, we need to get smart about food production and food access, and take a critical look at the entire global food supply system. We need a frank discussion about not only the kinds of food we eat and how to expand access to the right kinds of food, but also how to create a sustainable food supply to meet rising demand for future generations, who stand to inherit a much hungrier planet.

Recently, some big names in the agriculture and food production industries came together at the World Economic Forum to launch a new vision for global agriculture. The roadmap titled "Realizing a New Vision for Agriculture: A roadmap for stakeholders" challenges the reader to think about food as our collective responsibility. It’s worth a read. The document asks the reader to think of what we can do to ensure a safe, nutritious, abundant, accessible and sustainable food supply for the coming generations. It doesn’t offer a magic pill to stop our craving for food; it calls us to have an honest global dialogue about everyone’s right to this most basic human need and how best to create a sustainable food supply. With global food prices on the rise again, this roadmap has come just at the right time.

Jonathan Rhodes ’98 has worked for WFP for five years, first in its Rome, Italy, headquarters and now in Sudan, Africa, where WFP fed 9 million people in 2010 alone. Prior to joining WFP, he served on U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln’s Washington staff for more than seven years, including as her aide for hunger issues. Jonathan is from Cherokee Village, Ark.

For more information about WFP or the "Realizing A New Vision for Agriculture"
report go to: www.wfp.org or
www.weforum.org/agriculture

Jean-Paul Sartre would not eat crabs and lobsters because they reminded him of insects.

Galileo Galilei engaged in an egg fight with a Jesuit priest.

Flannery O’Connor received a letter from a reader who complained that one of O’Connor’s books "left a bad taste in my mouth." O’Connor’s reply: "You weren’t supposed to eat it."

Georgia O’Keefe read cookbooks in bed at night before she went to sleep.

Maria Callas, in preparation for an operatic role, lost weight by ingesting a tapeworm.

Henry Ford regularly ate a lunch featuring weed sandwiches.

Former and current Hendrix students of philosophy, physics, literature, art, music, and business will find these morsels of unusual information featured in the 2010 book What the Great Ate, written by alumnus Mark Jacob ’76, and his brother Matthew Jacob. Readers devoted to all of the other traditional liberal arts disciplines, as well as people who maintain a keen interest in popular culture or in the art and science of cuisine, will encounter in this delightful volume a treasure trove of facts concerning the food choices and dining habits of hundreds of famous or infamous men and women representing many diverse cultures and different eras.

On May 21, 2011, Mark Jacob will lead a discussion of this book at the annual Alumni Odyssey College to be held on campus.

Recently, Mark cheerfully agreed to answers questions concerning his career as a journalist and author and about the evolution of What the Great Ate.

Q. After your graduation from Hendrix in 1976 as an English major, did you directly enter the field of journalism? Please summarize your occupational history during the past 35 years.

A. After Hendrix, I had two job offers: Become a sportswriter at the Pine Bluff Commercial newspaper or manage a Taco Bell in Little Rock. The Taco Bell job paid $10 a week more, but I opted for the newspaper job. After a year, I moved to Boulder, Colo., where I washed dishes and processed magazine subscription letters for a year. Then back to Arkansas, where I was a copy editor for the Arkansas Democrat for six months and the Arkansas Gazette for five years. Then I moved to Chicago to work at the Chicago Sun-Times as a copy editor. I eventually was promoted to executive news editor and then Sunday editor. After 14 years at the Sun-Times, I jumped to the Chicago Tribune as a news editor. I was promoted to foreign/national news editor and then to deputy metro editor, the position I now hold.

Q. By what process and over how long a period of time did you and Matthew decide to undertake the project that resulted in the publication of What the Great Ate?

A. I had already co-authored three books when I persuaded my younger brother Matthew to collaborate on a book that would be his first. We spent at least six months brainstorming dozens of ideas before we settled on gathering stories about the dining habits of history’s most famous people. Matt and I both like history, and he’s a foodie. So it made sense. I was trying to get a literary agent to help me sell a novel I’d written, and the agent asked if I had any non-fiction projects. I told him about our idea and that I had come up with the title "What the Great Ate." He said he wanted to represent us. I had already been collecting historical trivia for many years (I co-write a history feature for the Chicago Tribune called "10 Things You Might Not Know"), so that gave us a start. Then Matt and I spent about two years or so working on the book.

Q. At the end of the book you include a "Selected Bibliography" that covers 19 pages. What methods of research did you and Matthew employ to be able to conduct this massive gathering of facts?

A. We are speed-readers. We drafted a list of hundreds of "greats" and then checked out books about them and searched for articles online. One weekend, I speed-read about 2,000 pages from four different histories of Richard Wagner. He was a detestable guy, and I’m not just saying that because he consumed my weekend. Here’s another trick: We would go to Google Books on the web and type in search terms such as "Eisenhower" and "breakfast," or "Amelia Earhart" and "meat." Sounds time-consuming, and it was, but we found fun stories that way. We also read many, many histories of food. One of my favorites was a history of bread. Did you know that the Eucharist that Catholics take at mass used to be the size and shape of a wreath and feed an entire congregation? Another important aspect of the research was debunking stories that were too good to be true. For example, we got a nutritionist to help us disprove the story that Elvis Presley’s daily calorie intake was equivalent to that of an Asian elephant. Elvis ate a lot, but not that much.

Q. You organize the book into chapters based on the principle of the professional endeavors or life statuses of groups of individuals: Rulers; Writers; Prophets and Philosophers; nine more chapters. How did you decide upon this structure and upon the sequence, with (in this era of obsession with celebrities) stage and screen stars coming sixth and musicians ninth?

A. We tried to find categories that would cover most of humanity and were of interest to readers. We probably could have organized it in any of a dozen ways, but this way seemed to work. The book is intended to be both amusing and informative, so we knew we had to include movie stars and musicians. But we didn’t want the book to seem too frivolous, so we put the chapters about world leaders and religious figures at the front.

Q. Did you and Matthew consider devoting an entire chapter to Elvis?

A. We certainly had enough material to do that, but it would have broken the format. Besides, we wanted to touch on as many "greats" as possible. There’s an excellent book devoted to Elvis’ diet – The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley by David Adler. That book was helpful to us. But in general, we found our anecdotes about famous people by sifting through long biographies in order to sift out the one funny story that might be on Page 342. And believe me, food anecdotes are not flagged in any indexes. You simply have to read the whole book. Food must have been unimportant to the architect Le Corbusier, because I didn’t find a single food story in his entire biography. It’s a wonder he didn’t starve to death.

Q. Please talk about the website and the blog that you and your brother have created in connection with your book.

A. We created whatthegreatate.org to promote the book, and we continue to post interesting facts several days per week. Since the book came out last summer, we have encountered a lot of new food facts. For example, Tina Fey said that "the recurring dream of my childhood is to be in a room up to my neck in McDonald’s French fries and I’ve got to eat my way out." She said that after we had finished our book. Maybe we’ll put that story in a sequel someday.

Q. Please describe the three books that you have published before this one.

A. The Game That Was: The George Brace Baseball Photo Collection (Contemporary Books, 1996), co-authored with Richard Cahan. This collection of black-and-white photos, the vast majority never before published, was praised by the New York Times Book Review.

Wrigley Field: A Celebration of the Friendly Confines (Contemporary Books, 2002), co-authored with Stephen Green. Photos by Green, the Cubs’ official photographer, were combined with my text. I got terrific access to the ballpark, including spending a game inside the scoreboard with the guys who manually change the scores. I also got to interview Ernie Banks and ghost-write his foreword.

Chicago Under Glass: Early Photographs from the Chicago Daily News (University of Chicago Press, 2007). co-authored with Richard Cahan, sponsored by the Chicago History Museum. This was an examination of the glass-plate negatives produced by the Daily News from 1900 to 1930, with captions that provided historical insight into that era.

I also write fiction. An unfulfilled goal is to get a novel published, but my short stories have appeared in the literary magazines Other Voices, Pikestaff Forum, Samsara and Minnesota Review. My non-fiction articles have been published in Library Quarterly, Chicago magazine and Chicago History magazine.

Q. Heartiest congratulations on your winning of the Pulitzer Prize. As you may know, two other alumni – Mary Ann
Gwinn ’73 and Doug Blackmon ’86 – join you in having won this highly prestigious award. Please summarize the work that you did resulting in this honor.

A. I was part of a team of journalists who won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. But it was a staff award, with dozens of Tribune employees involved and no one cited by name. Frankly, there were others on the staff that did much more than I did. It was an excellent series. Called "Gateway to Gridlock," it explained why O’Hare Airport is such a disaster for travelers. We revealed chronic overbooking that guarantees that planes are late, plus preferential treatment for some passengers at the expense of others.

Q. What are your most vivid memories of your experiences working as a member of The Profile staff?

A. When I was a freshman and worked on The Profile, the editor was Larry Jegley ’74, who is now the prosecuting attorney for central Arkansas. We would go down to the Log Cabin Democrat every two weeks, where our news stories had been set into print and were waiting for us. We’d use X-acto knives to slice the copy into strips and put melted wax on the back. Finally we would "paste up" the newspaper pages by hand. The process was barbaric—just a little more sophisticated than chipping words into rocks.

The next year I was co-editor with Junius Cross ’75. We went hunting for controversy, which is what newspapers are supposed to do. In an interview with the chief officials of the Hendrix administration, we learned that these leaders believed our students to be satisfied with the strict dormitory visitation policy then in effect. When we published the interview, the resulting uproar led to a reform of the policy. We also caused trouble when Congressman Wilbur Mills got into a scandal in Washington with a stripper named Fannie Fox, also known as the Argentine Firecracker. The new social science center on campus had just been named for Mills, and we demanded a name change. I know now that we were wrong about that stance. Mills was actually a responsible lawmaker with a temporary drinking problem, and later he reformed himself nobly. It’s easy for 19-year-olds to be overly judgmental.

Q. Do you have any particular recollections relating to food while you were attending Hendrix?

A. I ate at Hulen Hall, since my parents paid for it and I was quite poor in college. I liked the food quite a lot. I recall mixing red Jell-O and vanilla ice cream for dessert every night. (I think of the Hendrix cafeteria whenever I tell the story of Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam War memorial on the mall in Washington. Lin was a student at Yale when she created the winning design, and her brainstorm occurred in the school cafeteria. She created the original model out of mashed potatoes. And then she ate her design.)

I lived in Couch Hall and Martin Hall, where we ordered pizza deliveries a lot (my roommate got a monthly Social Security check, and spent it on pizza for himself and his friends). We drank Tang during the day and Pabst Blue Ribbon at night.

In the student union, we used to order "grichburgers," which were cheeseburgers cooked like grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Late at night, we would go to an all-night diner down the road. I’m not sure what it was really called, but we always referred to it as the Glittering Jesus Truck Stop, or GJ’s, because there were religious icons inside. We were served by an old waitress we called the skull lady.

Mark Jacobs will discuss What the Great Ate at Alumni Odyssey College May 21-22.
www.hendrix.edu/odysseycollege

The restaurant industry never sits still.

There are always new movements, new ways to make a plate into an adventure and turn a night out into an evening of surprise and delight.

Not surprisingly, Hendrix alumni are at the forefront of satisfying Arkansas’ ever-changing appetite, giving customers a singular dining experience, whether that be pizza from an Italian built wood-fired oven, authentic French crepes from a mobile truck or a smorgasboard of local food grown within miles of the table where it is served.

John Beachboard ’01 majored in history but was lured away during his last year with classes in the business department.

"It kind of piqued my interest," says Beachboard. "The rest of my senior year I took all business and finance courses."

While Beachboard, a co-owner of ZAZA Fine Salad and Wood Oven Pizza Co. with Scott McGehee, enjoyed cooking back in his Hendrix days, he says, "I never thought it would be my profession."

But business was on his mind, even in high school, where he started his own record label. After college, he worked for a time for McGehee at his Boulevard Bread Company in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood.

"I just started out in front retail," says Beachboard. "Then I started cooking and became a sous chef. The way that it all started was that Scott and I both like to sit around and come up with restaurant concepts that would never see the light of day. These were outlandish ideas. ZAZA was one of those concepts."

Outlandish idea or not, ZAZA has been nothing short of a hit in Little Rock. Raves came almost immediately in the form of long lines. While the frenzy has died down a bit, ZAZA is consistently earning first-place accolades in readers’ polls taken in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Times.

Beachboard admits that at the start he and McGehee were passionate about different aspects of ZAZA’s yet-to-be formulated menu.

"We almost didn’t do it," Beachboard says of his restaurant. "He thought I was insane for wanting to do salads the way we do them. I thought making gelato from scratch was too laborious. It was just one of those things. I had to take him to New York to this one salad place I liked. He took me to a place in Brooklyn that made gelato. Everything started making sense."

Today Beachboard is overseeing the ZAZA that opened in the Hendrix Village in October. He is quite high on the location and is especially proud of the wood-burning pizza oven in the Conway restaurant.

"One of the things that the Little Rock restaurant can’t touch is that we have this absolutely incredible oven over here," says Beachboard. "It was shipped over from Italy piece by piece. It is amazing."

Beachboard likes the fact that his restaurant doesn’t just attract one type of customer. He noticed this on a recent night after coming back from a catering event.

"There were different age groups all over the place. This was nine at night. You had thirtysomethings. There were grandparents with kids and college students. I just looked around and there were all these elements that had come together. Wow, this is really awesome."

Jack Sundell ’00 won’t likely open his Little Rock restaurant, The Root Cafe, until May but a website (www.therootcafe.com) is up and running and anticipation is building.

The Root Cafe, which is taking over an old burger and ice cream place on Main Street, aims, as the website notes, "to build community through local food."

The website also touts a quote from Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food.

"Food consists not just in piles of chemicals; it also comprises a set of social and ecological relationships, reaching back to the land and outward to other people."

Sundell graduated from Hendrix in 2000 and majored in International Relations and Global Studies. He worked for while in a restaurant in New York City before eventually joining the Peace Corps. It was while he was with the Peace Corps in Morocco that he started to see food in a different way.

"It was where I got interested in food systems and animals," says Sundell. "It seemed like the people doing this kind of work were doing something productive. There in Morocco having a cow and chickens in the backyard was a normal part of life."

When Sundell came back to Arkansas, he went to work for Heifer International and had an internship in livestock. He made connections with area farmers during his internship. Those connections have come in handy as he and his wife Corri prepare for opening day at the restaurant.

"I had always had this idea that I would like to someday own a cafe," says Sundell. "I guess a lot of people have this idea. Just by happenstance the local food movement had become a big thing around the country and it was something I wanted to participate in."

Root Cafe will have fans at the ready because Sundell and his wife have spent the last two years as caterers and holding workshops on canning and other food-related topics. Sundell says the part about opening a restaurant that he had not anticipated was the depth of government regulations.

"We met with the health department and had inspections from the city," says Sundell. "I had to meet with the fire marshall the other day."

But the Root Cafe is slowly coming into view. Sundell notes that those interested can keep current thanks to the blog on Root Cafe’s website.

"We’ll have breakfast and lunch," says Sundell. "We are striving to have all our meat from local suppliers. When you come, you’ll have an experience unlike anywhere else. We want the food to be delicious and want you to be totally satisfied whether you care about local food or not."

For Sundell, his restaurant and the local food movement are small parts of a larger idea.

"Food is a good entry point in a conversation about local as a lifestyle. The dollars stay in Arkansas and increase the tax revenues we have here and make the place better."

In her post-Hendrix life Paula Jo Chitty Henry ’88 has worked as an actress in Key West and in France, where she filmed a scene in a cab with Omar Sharif.

But today she can be seen working cast iron skillets while making French crepes for Crepes Paulette, the mobile trailer restaurant that’s currently parked in downtown Bentontville.

Crepes Paulette is a partnership Henry shares with her husband, Frederic, who is a native of Brittney, France. The couple wanted to open a sit-down restaurant but went another direction when they looked at the numbers.

"We worked a couple years trying to get a brick and mortar place," says Henry. "We didn’t feel like taking on that much debt. This is a way to step back from that and see if it works."

Crepes Paulette, which opened alongside the Bentonville Farmers’ Market, has been a draw from the first day. Henry says that it wasn’t necessarily part of the plan that she do the cooking.

"We didn’t have any idea what we were doing," says Henry with a laugh. "I had made 10 crepes in my life. Fred started taking the orders and he would take all comers. We had people waiting for an hour for their crepes. Now we only take five orders at a time."

They are still working out issues with what hours they are going to be open — the winter weather has played havoc with Crepes Paulette’s schedule — but they try to serve crepes at least two days a week. Henry is trying to keep fans notified by e-mail and through Facebook.

Crepes Paulette serves authentic French sweet and savory crepes filled with various fruits and meats. For the winter, French soup was added to the menu.

"We don’t do any plate service," says Henry. "We have tables near the trailer."

Henry’s restaurant fits right in with a growing downtown Bentonville that will get an even bigger boost when the highly-anticipated Crystal Bridges Museum opens in November 2011. Henry is quite happy to have Crepes Paulette be part of the scene.

"We enjoy the idea of people strolling around with the crepes and being casual about it."

Hendrix alumnus Werner Trieschmann is a freelance writer, playwright and instructor. He lives in Little Rock with his wife and two sons.

Growing up in Little Rock, Emily English ’02 had no experience with gardening. She hopes her current work leads to fewer Arkansas children being able to make that claim.

As Program Manager of the Delta Garden Study for the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, English works on a USDA-funded research project bringing fruit and vegetable gardens to 10 middle schools across the state.

"As far as we can tell, it’s the largest school garden research study that’s ever been conducted," English says, adding that school gardens can help students make valuable connections, both to where their food comes from and to other aspects of having a healthful life.

Focus on sustainability

She’s a city dweller who loves farming. How did that happen?

"There’s farming in my roots, but nothing I remember, per se," she said. "I’ve always been very connected with the environment and being outside, even as a small child.

"It turned into sustainable agriculture when I started to focus."

English’s time at Hendrix helped her hone in on her interests to the point that she was able to create her own degree program. Working with an advisory team of four professors, she chose Sustainability, Culture and Environment as her major, which included studies in science, sociology, politics, and anthropology. She also earned a minor in religion.

As she designed her major, English’s advisory team encouraged her to think carefully about her word choice.

"We talked about using the word ‘sustainability,’ and the dangers of it being a buzzword," she said. "They had me keep that in mind ... [but] I wanted to understand this idea of sustainability as something that could be applied to every area of your life. It’s so exciting that now I think we can safely say that it is no longer considered a buzzword."

One of the experiences that led her to that particular word choice came during her sophomore year. She enrolled in religion professor Dr. Jay McDaniel’s State of the World course, which required logging five hours of service learning per week. McDaniel recommended Heifer Ranch in Perryville, as a service learning option.

Owned and operated by Heifer International, Heifer Ranch includes a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm. English’s service learning hours at the farm soon extended beyond her course requirements. She even used the farm as a case study for her senior thesis.

"I just really fell in love with the magic of growing food," she said, "and had a hard time walking away from it. I connected growing fresh produce with the sustainability of individuals, communities and relationships."

Some of her core classes came from outside of Hendrix. In the fall of English’s junior year, she studied abroad through the University of New Hampshire in a four-month learning community-designed program. "It examined the study of sustainability in the context of community, ecology, and spirituality," she said.

The study included time in Vermont and France, then an extended amount of time in India, where the students lived for two months with "a sustainable spiritual community, who through the study of their spirituality had developed a lot of sustainable practices around living and growing and being together," she said.

English appreciated the support of her advisory team in pursuing the study abroad option. "They understood that this could form the core of my major," she said, "and that they could continue to support and enhance it during the rest of my time at Hendrix.

"It was amazing, and very life-changing."

Discovering a calling

As her 2002 commencement approached, English became convinced that she needed to spend time as a full-time farmer. "So I went to Heifer and I farmed," she said. After graduation, she secured a job at Heifer Ranch, working on the CSA farm during 2002 and 2003.

"I worked for a $200 a month volunteer stipend," she said. "I didn’t really know if I would be a farmer the rest of my life, but I knew that somehow or another, my destiny was to be involved in this movement toward fresh, local produce, and helping people reconnect to where their food comes from.

"I decided that no matter what, I needed to know how to grow, and I loved it. I loved farming," she said. "I loved being outside, I loved the magic of putting a seed in the ground and taking care of it, and watching it grow, and then feeding people. That was the best part of all of it, sharing that harvest."

Weekly deliveries to Conway and Little Rock gave her the opportunity to take food harvested from the eight-acre plot of land and put it directly into the hands of the people who would eat it.

It was during those deliveries that she first saw a child get excited about a vegetable.

"Kids loved our fresh tomatoes," English said. "It was amazing having kids come up and eat and be covered in tomato juice ... knowing that they could pick them up and eat them right there. They were freshly plucked, chemical-free, sweet, tasty tomatoes. Nutrition at its finest!"

In 2004, English returned to Little Rock and took a job at Boulevard Bread Company. Boulevard’s then-owner, Scott McGehee, knew her background and asked her to help him start Boulevard Organics, a small farming enterprise that served the bread company and sold at the Little Rock Farmers Market.

It was during the Boulevard Organics year that English realized how much she valued the educational aspects of growing produce.

"At Heifer, there were kids who came and did service learning, and there were all kinds of educational experiences for people, and I missed that part of it," she said. "And I think it was that moment of farming just for business that I realized how important the service of education was to me.

"I definitely believe you can combine the two, but I’m not a business person, I’m a service person."

A broader context

English then held a couple of other jobs in other states—some related to farming, others not. For the 2006 growing season, she returned to Heifer Ranch as a co-manager of the CSA farm. Returning to that work helped her conclude that it was time for another adventure in learning.

"It was in that year that I realized again, ‘It’s time to go back to school. It’s time to figure out how I can apply this to a larger picture,’" she said. "What’s the bigger picture? How can I take my skills and my interest level and apply it in a way that really moves the movement?"

She saw two options: Learning more about health education and nutrition, or more about how to serve the world. She considered applying either to the UAMS College of Public Health or to the Clinton School of Public Service.

While researching her options, English discovered that the two schools were starting a program together. The timing was perfect, and the partnership matched her interests. She earned concurrent masters degrees in public health and public service, graduating from both schools in December 2009.

During her time at the Clinton School and UAMS, she joined the board of Arkansas Urban Gardening Education Resources, Inc. (AUGER), the non-profit organization that works with Dunbar Garden, the community garden situated between Little Rock’s Gibbs Elementary and Dunbar Middle Schools.

Her work with AUGER led to her work on the planning committee for a farm-to-school conference for Arkansas.

"‘Farm-to-school’ is a national movement to get fresh produce into school cafeterias," English said. "My capstone project for both of my degrees was to help plan Arkansas’ first statewide farm-to-school conference, sponsored by Heifer in November of 2009."

Around the same time, the Children’s Hospital Research Institute approached AUGER for help in gardening expertise. The Institute was preparing a grant proposal to the USDA that would fund research examining the impact of school gardens on childhood obesity.

The convergence led to English’s dream job.

The Institute needed to know how to build a school garden. They also needed to know what the school garden movement looked like, what its larger implications were, and what was already going on.

"I had just finished my master’s, so my work experience and education lined me up to be exactly what they needed," English said. "And so when they got funded and the position of program manager opened up, I applied."

The Delta Garden Study team spent the first year of the four-year study designing the program: curriculum, garden plans and building relationships with the schools. One test garden is already in progress, and in the fall of 2011, four more will launch. The remaining five schools will launch their gardens in the 2012-2013 school year.

The study will monitor students’ fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity levels, academic achievement and a concept known as school bonding.

"School bonding is a child’s attachment to his or her teachers, peers, and to the school in general," she said. Literature shows that children with those types of strong connections may have lower rates of absenteeism, fighting and other social risk behaviors.

"Each of our ten intervention schools, those with gardens, will be demographically pair-matched with a control school," English says. "Both will be measured exactly the same, and hopefully allow us to draw conclusions about the impact of gardens on these identified childhood obesity risk factors."

Each of the intervention schools receives its full-time Garden Program Specialist in June. That person then spends the summer developing a small section of the garden to serve as a model for what the students will do.

"When the kids come to school, they’re inspired, and they’re excited, and they get to taste something right away," English says. "And then they spend the duration of the school year expanding, using that initial garden as motivation."

Mabelvale Middle School has served as the test site, and English reports that the experiment is going well.

"So far, the kids are enjoying it," she says. "They’ve seen and tasted new vegetables, they’ve prepared recipes from garden-fresh produce, they’ve learned how to use shovels and hoes and raise worms.

"We want [kids] to take responsibility for what they eat. When they’re at the grocery store, we hope they will be able to recognize what all those different vegetables are, and to be able to ask for them from their parents or at a restaurant or wherever life takes them. We also want them to know that it can taste good, too—it can be healthy and taste good."

English also hopes to see at least a few students develop the same excitement she has for growing food.

"Even if out of the whole study we get just a couple of kids interested in growing, then we’re contributing to the number of farmers in our state and in our country, we’re increasing the ability for other people to have access to fresh produce," she says.

She is especially glad that she has had the experience of working in the fields, dealing with pests, bad weather, drought and more.

"I never thought I would be in research at all," English says. But it doesn’t just feel like research to her. "It feels like grassroots community development around school gardens and our local food system. But, it’s the research component that gives us an opportunity to gather much-needed data that will hopefully be the evidence we need to ask for systematic change."

It’s a path she may not have expected to follow, but one she truly enjoys.

"I don’t think coming out of Hendrix I knew exactly where I would be in 10 years, but this is quite a fantastic place," she says. "And I’m really glad that I’m in Arkansas, and that I’ve been a part of and witnessed the growth of Arkansas’ local food system and sustainable agriculture movement.

"I am so glad to see this movement grow in Arkansas. There are amazing people out there working to make these changes reality for our state. It pleases me to be part of it all, and I’m incredibly excited to see what our future holds."

Amy Meredith Forbus ’96 is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist, the newspaper of the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church. She lives in Little Rock with her husband John. 

Despite his physics degree from Hendrix and leadership of two successful start-up businesses, Cody Hopkins may have dashed the dreams of his father and grandfather.

"They were brick masons, and they didn’t want me to have to work with my hands," he said, laughing at the irony.

When he graduated from Hendrix in 2001, the Van Buren native became the first member of his immediate family to graduate from college. And soon after, he became a farmer.

In 2007, Cody formed Falling Sky Farm near Marshall, Ark., with his partner Andrea Todt, a Searcy County native and alumna of Earlham College in Indiana. In addition to raising grass-fed livestock, they have a newborn son, Samuel Hopkins, who was born in November 2010.

Like the food he grows on the farm, Cody’s interest in farming and food culture grew organically.

"One of the side effects of going to a liberal arts college is that you get interested in so many things," he said.

During college, Cody spent two summers working in a restaurant in Providence, R.I., where he first became interested in food.

When he graduated from Hendrix, he moved to Providence and spent two years teaching math and physics at an all-boys Catholic high school.

"I enjoyed teaching, but not in a classroom per se," he said. "And I missed the South and missed my family."

He followed his interest in food back to the South, first to Lafayette, La., where he lived for a year baking bread, before he moved back to Arkansas to manage Serenity Farm, a bakery in Leslie beloved by locals and travelers.

Living in rural Arkansas quickly left an impression on the recent college graduate.

"Searcy County is an economically-challenged environment," he said. "It’s hard to find a job. Most people go off to find work."

Inspired by reading Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin, he began to get interested in economic development. He initially considered getting a master’s degree but decided instead for a more hands-on look at the local food movement and its impact on rural economics.

"I thought ‘Wouldn’t that be awesome if some of these farmers marketed their products this way’," he said. "The idea at the time was there was no way in hell."

So he resolved to start "a demonstration farm" to show that organic farming can be a viable agri-business model that’s better for the farmer, consumers, animals, and the land, he said.

Somewhat fortified with capital thanks to a grant from Wild Gift, an Idaho-based nonprofit that supports young entrepreneurs, the couple started raising meat chickens, turkey, ducks, beef, and pork on 40 acres they leased for free from a family friend of Andrea’s.

They stayed there for three years before they outgrew the space and moved to a 160-acre parcel, where they now live in a newly acquired Airstream trailer.

"We don’t have a lot of money, but we’re committed to showing it can be done," he said.

Most customers will immediately notice the improved flavor of 100 percent grass-based livestock. More importantly, Hopkins noted, is the meat is healthier because of the conditions it’s raised in.

"It’s not just what you eat but what you eat eats," he said.

The couple realized really quickly that the infrastructure for their type of farming doesn’t exist anymore.

"A hundred years ago, 80 percent of the population lived on a farm, today it’s less than one percent," he said, adding as an example that there are no more than three USDA-certified facilities in the state where small scale farmers can get a cow butchered.

To sell their products, Cody began establishing relationships with central Arkansas farmers. He joined the Certified Arkansas Farmers Market, a group of central Arkansas area farmers, and now serves on its board. They began selling crops to restaurants and looking for a venue in Conway.

Hopkins soon met Eric Wagoner, an Athens, Ga.-based farmer, at a conference in Kentucky. Wagoner had created Locally Grown, a web-based farmer’s market program.

Cody quickly adapted the turn-key program and, in 2008, Conway Locally Grown, his second venture, was born.

It has grown rapidly – from five farmers, 15 customers and less than $30,000 in total sales in 2008 to 40 farmers, 300 members, to more than $150,000 in gross sales in 2010.

"That’s pretty fast growth," he said. "It’s going to be really interesting to see how the growth trend continues."

"We’ve grown really fast, but I still feel like we’re in the start-up phase of this business," he said, adding that the money they have made so far has gone back into the farm.

Their goal is to make the farm financially viable and to serve as a model for rural economic development.

The couple has clearly piqued the interest of the local community, which voted them Searcy County Farm Family of the Year.

"It was surprising because we’re kind of oddballs," he said. "We didn’t have any experience, which was sort of a good thing … Young people trying to start a business in this community are unheard of."

Though he didn’t exactly meet his family’s goal of not working with his hands, Cody calls his journey "stressful but exciting," and no one is more surprised than he.

"Out of all the things I’m doing, the thing that surprises me most is being an entrepreneur," he said. "I wish I would have taken more accounting classes in college."

Farming, he said, is an education unto itself.

"Farming is a lot like going to a liberal arts college," he said, citing the accounting, marketing, product development, and research that go into farming. "There’s lots and lots of problem solving, which hopefully you get better at in college … I know I did."

They – the chickens – are Rhode Island Reds ("a hearty, all-American breed"), Barred Plymouth Rocks (another strong, American "Puritanical" breed), and a Chilean breed called "Easter Eggers" for their ability to lay pink, green, and light blue eggs.

The chickens are the subject of Fowl Play: The Hendrix Chicken Project, an Odyssey project designed by Nash, a mathematical economics major from Fremont, Calif., and Hafner, an international relations and sustainable communities major from Edinburg, Va.

They – Nash and Hafner – anticipate an approximate weekly yield of 70 eggs, demonstrating the viability of small-scale, self-sufficient agricultural production. They also plan to donate a share of eggs to a food bank in the local community.

The project comes at a time when a number of families in rural, suburban and urban areas are initiating back yard chicken projects of their own, Hafner said.

"The chicken movement is taking off across the U.S. as well as the U.K., and will likely continue to expand," she said. "While I was studying abroad in the Findhorn eco-village in Scotland last semester, watching that particular community rally around the initiation of their own chicken project was especially inspiring, and I expect that we will see similar results here at Hendrix."

"While a few other schools such as Pomona and Earlham have initiated similar small-scale chicken operations, Hendrix is a pioneer institution in this movement," she said. "It’s incredibly exciting that the administration supported us in being a leader in chicken/livestock raising."

The timing of the project has been serendipitous for student interest in food and sustainability.

"Student interest in food is growing … People were really eager for it," said Nash, who was president of the Hendrix Student Senate during her senior year. Prior to the chicken project, Nash studied organic gardening in Ireland. She spent the past summer as an intern for former U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln observing up close the workings of the Senate Agricultural Committee.

"Students have really claimed it for their own," agreed Hafner, adding that students work in shifts and keep logs and journals on the chickens. The birds are tame enough to be taken for walks on campus, even bike rides.

An e-mail list for the project goes to about 80 students, 25 of whom actively care for the chickens, she said.

The birds live in a small portable pen that is easily transported around the yard behind Physical Plant, which the administration agreed to supply for the project. Chicken manure is also used to fertilize a community garden, yet another student Odyssey project.

One unforeseen advantage of the location has been the input and support the project has received from Physical Plant staff.

"They really love the chickens," Nash said. "They have actually set up chairs around the pen to watch the chickens during their lunch break!"

A number of staff have raised chickens before and have been very helpful, offering advice on how to care for the chickens and other tips, she added.

The chicken project has brought people with varying interests (e.g. student athletes, student body leaders, artists, activists, etc.) together around a common interest, Hafner said.

"I’ve met so many people through this that I never would have met. That’s really exciting," she said. "Chickens seem to have an almost universal appeal on campus.

Hafner said the project is "never truly ending" and hopes it will pass down to other students.

After graduation, Nash plans to pursue a Ph.D. in agricultural economics.

This semester, she is interning with Hendrix alumna Emily English ’02 in the Delta Garden Study (Story, Page 32).

Hafner, who grew up on livestock farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, hopes to have a farm of her own one day.

"It’s always been in my life," she said.

A former Heifer International intern, she hopes to combine her interest and experience in sustainable agriculture with a career in diplomacy.

"This project is an effort to begin that journey."

Hendrix students have a healthy appetite for more than simply eating. They want to know where it comes from, how it was grown, and how it can improve their health and their world.

In this issue of Hendrix Magazine, we highlight just a small sample of students who are engaged in food-related projects through Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, along with some examples of Hendrix alumni and their food-focused Odysseys.

As a senior capstone project for an interdisciplinary studies major she designed in sustainable development, Katherine Roehm ’11 from Austin, Texas, developed "Hendrix Edible Forest Garden and Arkansas Heritage Vegetables."

With the help of an Odyssey project grant, she and a group of five students spent three weeks before the beginning of the fall semester creating a garden of multifunctional, perennial fruits and vegetables, on a College-owned plot of land across from campus between Washington Avenue and Clifton Street and adjacent to a community garden operated by a student garden club.

Students tilled and tested the soil, which they enriched with organic manure they received from Cody Hopkins ’01 of Falling Sky Farm (Read more about Cody on page 30). They planted 22 species of edible perennial fruits and vegetables, including 15 edible species native to North America. The Edible Forest uses the principles of permaculture, incorporating a layered landscape of trees, shrubs, vines, and groundcovers. Roehm studied permaculture in a previous Odyssey experience that took her to Sirius Ecovillage in Massachusetts.

Ultimately, the Edible Forest will feature a forest-like structure of stacked perennial plants and vegetables that is self-sustaining or at least low-maintenance.

In a special section in the garden, students planted heritage vegetables – beans, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, and mustard greens – grown from seeds from the Ozark Mountain Bioregion. They enjoyed a bumper crop of Big Potato Cucumbers, which they made into pickles and presented to students during a presentation on their Odyssey project. They also spoke about the Edible Forest Garden project in classes, including Dr. Stella Capek’s Food, Culture, and Nature course, Dr. Joyce Hardin’s Introduction to Environmental Studies, and Dr. Ann Willyard’s Plants and People.

In addition to the Edible Forest Garden, Roehm served as a co-chair of the Environmental Concerns Committee during her sophomore year. She helped start several new campus sustainability initiatives, including the Green Team, which collects cardboard and other recyclable material from students during move-in day, and Trash to Treasure, a similar concept for collecting material when students move out. She also participated in a sustainable development study abroad program through the School of Field Studies in Costa Rica and served on a campus sustainability committee appointed by the President. After graduation this spring, she plans to participate in an organic farming program in South America operated by the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms and ultimately pursue a master’s degree in ecology or landscape architecture.

Opportunities like these are why Roehm chose Hendrix.

"The Odyssey Program is a big part of it," she said. "For self-starters who are motivated, there is support. I definitely would not have been able to do this without the help of Odyssey."

"You can really get involved with what you are passionate about," she said. "I think Hendrix is a really great place for that."

The Odyssey Professorship has enabled Jennings to build upon work he and students had begun during two previously funded Odyssey projects called "Above the Line," which studied 22 third graders in the Forrest City School District in 2007 who previously scored "below" or "below basic" on the Arkansas Benchmark Exam, a state-sponsored testing program designed to grade the educational aptitude of public school students.

Following three weeks of intensive remedial studies utilizing the Above the Line Project curriculum, a majority of students improved their test scores in a number of subject areas.

"Our findings can be a roadmap for improving test scores in struggling school districts," Jennings said following the success of his program. "Specifically, providing intensive educational attention to these students, while arming their parents with proven techniques to continue the learning process at home, could drastically change the lives of these students and the educational footing of school districts fighting to meet minimum standards."

Through his Odyssey Professorship, Jennings expanded the project to examine a full grade level for a full school year at Junction City Elementary School and Retta Brown Elementary School in El Dorado. In the project, Hendrix students conduct research, surveying teachers and principals each quarter, and collect the data.

Jennings and the students work with Sheri Shirley, principal of Oakland Heights Elementary in Russellville, who serves as a third party evaluator of the student-collected data. Shirley was featured in Karin Chenoweth’s It’s Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools, which Jennings called "a leading book on turnaround schools."

Jennings is also teaching a course called Closing the Achievement Gap to six Hendrix students interested in local and state policy needed for turnaround school success. In the course, Jennings and students examine education policy in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana and, based on their analysis, will make policy recommendations related to turnaround schools.

"Hendrix students are very concerned with statistics that I’ve shared about what’s going on in the Delta," said Jennings. "They know that for students who are not succeeding in the third grade, there are long-term implications for high school success, and college and career choice."

"They realize they have a responsibility to address social problems," he said. "I was really surprised at how much students are really interested and concerned about what needs to be done to make these schools and these students successful. That’s a social justice project."

Your Hendrix Odyssey and the Odyssey Professorships Program have changed the academic environment at Hendrix, Jennings said.

"We’re creating possible solutions, as opposed to just memorizing information for a test," he said.

"Students come here with that interest," he said. "They want to be involved in decisions that shape their world before they step into it officially."

Your Hendrix Odyssey has also changed the way students and faculty members collaborate, Jennings said.

"We sit down as a group. It’s not just a case of the professor instructing them," he said. "We were solving it together, and it’s important to have that experience in liberal arts education."

Jennings, who joined the Hendrix faculty in 1992, has seen firsthand a renaissance of faculty and student research thanks to Your Hendrix Odyssey.

"Now there is an emphasis on and support for research, but we think of the student connection to research and how we can involve students in a meaningful way … and learn from them too. Odyssey did that."

Your Hendrix Odyssey has also provided a source of financial support for activities that allow faculty to continue to grow as teachers and scholars.

In 2007, Hendrix introduced the Odyssey Professorships program to acknowledge the vital role that faculty members play in the success of Your Hendrix Odyssey, its effect on academic life at the College, and the impact of engaged learning experiences on students.

Hendrix received a challenge grant from the Murphy Foundation to endow 12 Odyssey Professorships that provide resources for faculty development and encourage faculty members to develop courses and co-curricular projects that create additional engaged learning opportunities for Hendrix students.

"The Odyssey Program and the Odyssey Professorships have had a profound impact on the academic culture at Hendrix," said Dr. Robert L. Entzminger, Provost, Dean of the College, and Professor of English. "They have provided the means to weave together formal classroom teaching with out-of-classroom learning opportunities in a way that is unique in higher education. In so doing, they have shifted the relationship between faculty and student to something closer to a partnership."

"The Odyssey Professorships carry sufficient funding for a large number of students to be involved, and they are sustained over a three-year period, so projects that require a longer period for gestation can be pursued," added Entzminger. "They also allow for faculty professional development."

When Your Hendrix Odyssey was announced at the inaugural Founders Day Convocation in 2004, Hendrix began a new tradition of awarding Odyssey Medals to alumni in recognition of their personal and professional accomplishments in the six categories of the Odyssey Program, including Artistic Creativity, Global Awareness, Professional and Leadership Development, Service to the World, Special Projects, and Undergraduate Research.

Odyssey Medals are awarded yearly by the Board of Trustees. Students who have completed Odyssey projects that are closely connected with the Odyssey Medal recipients and their experiences after Hendrix are chosen to introduce the alumni at Founders Day Convocation each fall. Odyssey Medal recipients are also invited to speak to students in class. The interaction between alumni and students at Founders Day allows students to see firsthand how their Hendrix experience can change the world.

From Belize to Bosnia, China to Chile, Ghana to Greenland, Malawi to Mexico, The Netherlands to New Zealand, Peru to Portugal, Romania to Rwanda, Singapore to Slovenia, Tanzania to Turkey.

The impact of these international Odysseys is an institution whose alumni have engaged with the world before they enter it as college graduates and professionals. The support of Your Hendrix Odyssey doesn’t simply take students to countries all over the world. It ensures that students bring what they learn back to campus and connect those experiences to the classroom, share their encounters with peers and place their newfound knowledge in new contexts, creating effective and entrepreneurial solutions to new challenges that impact their campus and their local and global communities.

How has Your Hendrix Odyssey internationalized the Hendrix campus?

"The easy response is that the Global Awareness category helped codify study-abroad and other international experiences that students were already having," said Dr. Peter Gess, Director of International Programs and Associate Professor of Politics. "But Odyssey brings intentionality to the experience, requiring students to reflect on the cross-cultural experience."

The breadth of Odyssey categories has contributed to a diverse body of international experiences for students, said Gess.

For example, theatre students performing at the Fringe Festival in Scotland earned Artistic Creativity credit; and students have earned Undergraduate Research credit by studying traditional medicine in China and comparative health care policy in Europe.

"We have moved far beyond the traditional model of study abroad," said Gess. "Students are engaging foreign cultures and ideas through faculty-led endeavors and through self-designed activities. This type of engaged learning can both supplement traditional study abroad and complement it by offering new avenues for the experience."

"We really want to see how a student is changed by the experience, how this contributes to creating the ‘citizen of the world,’ how it teaches students to apply what they learn in the classroom, how they become ‘the whole person,’" said Gess.

At Hendrix, Odyssey is the way in which students challenge what they learn in the classroom with what they encounter in the world through hands-on learning. It is how they discover their gifts, talents and passions. It means a liberal arts education is the beginning of a life’s journey, not the end of four years of studying and student life.

During A Commitment to National Leadership, alumni, friends and philanthropic organizations invested more than $5 million in gifts to endow this landmark initiative and provide the financial resources for students to fulfill their Odyssey. Since Your Hendrix Odyssey was introduced, the College’s Committee on Engaged Learning has considered nearly 800 funding requests for a total of $3,442,464.66 and has funded more than $1.7 million in project grants, supporting 526 projects involving more than 1,200 students.

Through the support of Odyssey grants, students have hiked the Appalachian Trail and chronicled Aboriginal culture. They have examined the face of Islam in Europe and Tibetan Buddhist monks exiled in India. They have studied social psychology, Southern poverty, and solar power.

With the excitement among prospective students created by Your Hendrix Odyssey, the student body grew from 1,000 students to a record enrollment this year of 1,468 students, representing 43 states and 14 countries. Not only are there more students. Because Hendrix is committed to a 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio, there are more professors teaching more courses. There are more majors and minors for students to explore. There are more mentors creating more engaged learning opportunities for students.

Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning earned national attention for Hendrix with hearty endorsements from Loren Pope’s Colleges that Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College and U.S. News and World Report, which listed Hendrix as the nation’s #1 "Up and Coming" liberal arts two years in a row.

Through Odyssey, Hendrix College became a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education.

With the support of $45 million in capital gifts and pledges from alumni, friends, and philanthropic organizations during this campaign, the Hendrix campus too was transformed with more than 200,000 square feet of new facilities completed during this campaign.

In 2004, a three-building Art Center was completed with studio space for ceramics, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, along with welding and wood shops and an auditorium for art history.

In 2007, the College completed a new Wellness and Athletics Center, which includes space for aquatics, intercollegiate basketball and volleyball, intramural and recreational sports, personal health and wellness, and classrooms for kinesiology. The Wellness and Athletics Center also serves as the gateway to a new athletics complex featuring an eight-lane track with artificial surface infield for men’s lacrosse and women’s field hockey, and new lighted fields for baseball, soccer, and softball.

In 2010, Hendrix opened a $26 million Student Life and Technology Center, the largest capital project in the history of the College. Among its many amenities, the SLTC is the home of Your Hendrix Odyssey; the Oathout Technology Center; the Hendrix-Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics, and Calling; the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture; and offices for Academic Support Services, International Programs, Student Affairs, and Student Activities. The SLTC also includes a beautiful main dining hall. The SLTC was certified LEED-Gold by the Green Building Certification Institute, making Hendrix the first college in Arkansas to receive this environmentally-friendly distinction, according to the Arkansas chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Marshall Oathout ’65 and his wife Edie provided a significant gift to the SLTC through his estate. The Oathouts estate gift was used to support a state-of-the-art environment for students and faculty to work collaboratively using the most advanced academic and social technology available.

"Our careers focused on science, technology, and education, so we felt that the SLTC and the Technology Center would be a good fit for us," Oathout said.

To honor their commitment, Hendrix was pleased to name the Oathout Technology Center in their honor.

Garth Martin ’52 and his wife, Joann ’55, supported the construction of the Wellness and Athletics Center through a charitable gift annuity.

New buildings are much more than bricks and mortar, Martin said.

"The new Wellness and Athletics Center is such a great improvement over what was there when I was a student," he said. "I’m just delighted to see the College upgrade their facilities, and I count it a privilege to help them continue to develop."

But Bonnie’s family did not qualify for federal financial assistance, and her father, a computer consultant, had been out of work for three years when it was time for her to go to college.

In 2003, Hendrix received a $3.9 million challenge grant from the Robert and Ruby Priddy Trust of Wichita Falls, Texas, to establish a new endowed scholarship program for middle-income families. Alumni and friends responded enthusiastically to the Priddy Challenge with more than $6 million in gifts to help Hendrix establish a $10 million endowment for this vitally important scholarship program.

With the support of a Priddy Scholarship, Bonnie came to Hendrix. During her four years, she was an active student leader. She helped start an Ecology House for students who desired an environmentally-conscious lifestyle, and she co-founded a bee-keeping society. She also served on the campus’ Environmental Concerns Committee. She graduated in 2007 with an economics degree. Bonnie would not have been able to attend Hendrix without the financial assistance that she received from Hendrix and the Priddy Trust.

"The scholarship made a huge difference in my decision to come to Hendrix," Bonnie said.

Through its support of Hendrix during A Commitment to National Leadership, the Robert and Ruby Priddy Charitable Trust positioned Hendrix to meet its goal of providing greater access to higher education for hundreds of talented and deserving students.

The result of the Priddy Challenge – 1,079 student scholarship awards totaling $4.16 million have provided transformational educational opportunities and access to a world of unlimited possibilities.

During A Commitment of National Leadership, the Hendrix Annual Fund received $29 in gifts from alumni, friends, parents, and other supporters. While the campaign is complete, the College continues to rely strongly on annual gifts to ensure current students have the kind of unique experience that Hendrix alumni enjoyed as students and appreciate today.

As a student, Shawn Johnson ’98 received grants and financial aid to help offset the cost of attending Hendrix. A double major in politics and history, Johnson was involved in Student Senate, Social Committee, Student Congress, Hardin Hall Council, the Hendrix Choir, Young Democrats, and worked in the Registrar’s Office. As an alumnus and member of the Alumni Board of Governors, Shawn supports the Hendrix Annual Fund.

"Hendrix taught me to think critically and to consider diverse views while forming and expressing my opinions," said Johnson, Assistant Attorney General in the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office. "The Annual Fund ensures that other high school graduates like I was in 1994 will have the opportunity to afford the expenses at Hendrix and thus have the benefit of the Hendrix experience."

"In my professional life as a lawyer, I have found that Hendrix alumni are everywhere - in business, the arts, and sciences. Despite variations in their careers, they embody the same respect for differences in culture and life experience that I came to appreciate from my Hendrix experience," said Johnson. "Now more than ever, these values in our society are immensely important, and one of the ways to help them grow into wider acceptance is through support of our alma mater."

Parents of current Hendrix students are important Annual Fund supporters through their gifts to the Parent Fund. Cindy and Rick Maley of Mountain Home are the parents of Dana Maley ’13 and proud Parent Fund supporters.

"Our gift is a form of unconditional giving. It is an example we, as parents, feel obligated to set," said Cindy. "The opportunities presented to her encourage us to support Hendrix so that others needing any kind of financial supplement can benefit as she does. We are committed to supporting such programs, hoping our children will perpetuate the same principles and ideals."

"As parents, we feel inspired and obligated to recognize and promote the program that benefits our daughter and affords her unique opportunities," she said. "She’s evolved into a more focused and driven person. It’s opened her eyes to new opportunities and her own budding potential."

"This campaign gave us the momentum to enhance the Hendrix experience by increasing scholarships, supporting faculty and student Odysseys, and building critical new buildings on campus," said R. Madison Murphy ’80, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Murphy and his wife, Suzanne Nodini Murphy ’80, co-chaired the campaign with Board of Trustee member Dan Peregrin ’80 and his wife, Jennifer Jacuzzi Peregrin ’81.

"We are deeply grateful to the many alumni and friends of who have made this success possible," the Peregrins said. "The campaign has brought national attention to Hendrix for its focus on offering unique learning opportunities to students."

The institutional goal of national leadership would not be possible without the individual leadership exemplified throughout the campaign by Hendrix faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees, said President J. Timothy Cloyd.

Cloyd praised Murphy’s leadership of the Board of Trustees.

"The Murphy family’s generosity has historically been very instrumental in the progress of Hendrix," Cloyd said. "And Madison’s leadership, commitment and vision have been critical to our continued success and the success of our campaign."

Murphy is likewise appreciative of the role of Dr. Cloyd, who became the tenth President of Hendrix in 2001 after serving as Vice President for College Relations and Development.

"He rose to the challenge boldly, creatively, and entrepreneurially," Murphy said. "In addition to seeking the funding to complete the campaign, he found more work to be done."

"Through his persistence, we have the Hendrix Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics, and Calling, which furthers the College’s foundation as a United Methodist Church institution and places faith exploration and life calling as a central part of a liberal arts education; The Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture, which celebrates the growing diversity of the student body; The Village at Hendrix, a walk-able New Urbanist neighborhood that echoes institutional values with regard to sustainable community development; a new student and faculty exchange program in Harbin, China, and other international alliances that prepare students to be leaders in a global society; the Rwanda Presidential Scholars Program, which recognizes the role we can play in helping other nations recover from events we cannot imagine," said Murphy. "To me, Hendrix would not be the institution it is today without him."

The first step in this journey was both remarkable and reflective. Faculty members were challenged to create an innovative academic program that distinguished Hendrix among the country’s leading liberal arts colleges. To do this, they examined essential elements that have consistently defined the Hendrix experience for generations of students – namely the opportunity for students to work closely with faculty who are dedicated to teaching undergraduate students in the classroom and mentoring students in research, internships, international study, and other hands-on learning activities.

The Hendrix faculty answered this challenge. They identified something that makes Hendrix unique in the landscape of liberal arts education – an atmosphere that encourages active learning or engaged liberal arts. And they gave it a name. Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning was announced in 2004 and formally launched in 2005.

Through Odyssey, faculty broadened the horizon of what has historically made Hendrix an incredible institution. Encouraging undergraduate research and other hands-on activities has long been a hallmark of the Hendrix experience and is increasingly more common on the campuses of national liberal arts colleges. What made Odyssey distinct was that it was universal, not elective. Through Your Hendrix Odyssey, students were now required to complete – not simply encouraged to pursue – a minimum of three engaged learning experiences. They could choose these experiences from six broad categories, including Artistic Creativity, Global Awareness, Professional and Leadership Development, Service to the World, Special Projects, and Undergraduate Research.

Not only was Your Hendrix Odyssey to be universal for all students, it was to be embedded – not ancillary – to the academic program. Students graduating from Hendrix would not only receive a transcript noting their performance in academic courses but also an Odyssey transcript detailing their engaged learning experiences. The Odyssey transcript would show not just what or how well they had learned but what they could do.

To encourage students to undertake the most ambitious engaged learning experiences, Hendrix needed substantial resources to endow the program and create a means for students to apply – on a competitive grants basis – for project support.

So with the introduction of Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, the College announced the campaign to fund Odyssey and other critical needs that would make Hendrix a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education.

It wasn’t enough for Hendrix to simply excite students with the unique opportunities inherent in Odyssey and the enterprise of engaged liberal arts. The reality of a fiercely competitive marketplace, even more acute in the wake of post-9/11 economic uncertainty, meant that Hendrix would have to commit substantial resources to access and affordability just as it had committed to making sweeping curricular change.

Just as the inception of Your Hendrix Odyssey required a dual focus – affirming tradition and imagining the future – Hendrix had to look honestly at its position in the marketplace of leading liberal arts colleges. Research showed that the current generation of college-bound students was more sensitive to the level of institutional financial assistance (both merit- and need-based awards) offered than they were to the price of tuition they saw printed in the viewbooks they received from college admissions offices. Surveys of students who had considered but did not ultimately select Hendrix showed that – based on the printed cost of tuition – students did not perceive Hendrix to be as competitive with its peers.

To address this curious perception, Hendrix adjusted its tuition structure, concurrently raising the printed cost but increasing the level of institutional financial assistance. The latter required an added emphasis in the campaign on raising annual and endowed gifts to support student aid. Following the precedent established by Your Hendrix Odyssey, the College devised the Odyssey Distinction Awards, a new program to award institutional financial assistance based on the students’ gifts, talents, and passions.

Along with an entrepreneurial re-imagining of the academic program and price positioning, the Board of Trustees addressed the critical need for new facilities on campus. A decade earlier, Hendrix had completed a major campaign that revitalized the teaching and undergraduate research infrastructure for the sciences. The result was a quantum leap forward in the College’s capacity to deliver on its historic strength of preparing future leaders in health, medicine and science. A similar leap forward was now needed for Hendrix to fulfill its promise as a national leader. So in preparation for A Commitment to National Leadership, the Board of Trustees identified the need for two new facilities, one to include recreational health and wellness and intercollegiate athletic programs and another to offer enhanced student life opportunities and weave the most advanced academic and social technology into the fabric of campus life. Through A Commitment to National Leadership, the College would seek philanthropic support to complete a new Wellness and Athletics Center and new Student Life and Technology Center.

The precincts are closed. The votes are counted. Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. Through A Commitment to National Leadership, Hendrix significantly increased the level of financial assistance and scholarships offered to students, providing access and affordability for all qualified students. Our faculty collaborated to create innovative programs that blend intellectual inquiry and hands-on learning, programs that have quickly become national models and are now being emulated at other institutions. State-of-the-art facilities that enrich academic and student life every day now stand on campus as a monument to a courageous course chartered by the College at the beginning of this campaign.

"Flag This!," Leigh’s sophomore intramural flag football team, didn’t quite tear up the competition on the field, though they "could have won the intramural championship in laughing," she says. The team may not have won a championship, but not many teams choreographed their own halftime show.

A decade later, Leigh, who by this time was working for the College’s Advancement Division, watched as Grove Gymnasium was torn down and replaced by a new Wellness and Athletics Center.

One of the strangest things she recalls as a staff member is the gym floor being carved into pieces for alumni during the "Goodbye Grove" celebrations.

"You think about all the games that have been played, all the stories that gym had seen, the blood, sweat and tears left out there by a generation of Warriors ... and there it was, sitting in six-inch square pieces in my office."

Grove gave way to a great new facility for current students, but as a former student athlete, she is "completely jealous" of the Wellness and Athletics Center.

Along with being a four-year letterman in intercollegiate tennis and championship intramural laugher and choreographer, Leigh was active in Campus Kitty, Social Committee, Student Athlete Advisory Council, Orientation, and the Volunteer Action Committee.

A Monticello native, Leigh graduated from Hendrix in 2001 with an interdisciplinary major she designed called "The History of Medicine." She was also awarded the President’s Medal, given to the student who best exemplifies the values of Hendrix.

After Hendrix, she earned a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of Arkansas. She worked as a fundraiser at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, before returning to Hendrix in 2005, where she has served as Major Gifts Officer, Associate Alumni Director, and Director of Annual Giving.

In her current role as Associate Director of Career Services and Internship Coordinator, Leigh works with current students looking for internships or post-graduate employment, coordinates employer site visits and identifies professionals for students to shadow in their career field of interest. She also runs the Friday Alumni Connection Time (F.A.C.T.) program, which invites alumni from different career areas to come to campus each Friday to meet one-on-one with students.

"This job is a perfect mix for me – combining my passion for helping students with my relationships and friendships built through my five years in the development and alumni offices," says Leigh. "[The students’] imagination, energy and ideas make every day an adventure."

Outside of work, Leigh recently ran a half-marathon. She enjoys her book club and attending Hendrix sporting events with her husband, Richard Counts ’01 and their daughter, Eliza Clare Counts, born on April 11, 2009.

Having spent nearly a decade of her life on campus, Leigh says Hendrix "has always felt like ‘home’ to me both as a student and now as a professional. [The college] is still holding true to the values that made me love it as a student – the faces and buildings may have changed, but the "feeling" of Hendrix is still the same."

Jay Barth, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Professor of Politics, co-published "Educating Citizens or Defying Federal Authority? A Comparative Study of In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students" in The Policy Studies Journal.

Chris Camfield, assistant professor of mathematics, received a $2,500 grant from the Academy of Inquiry Based Learning.

Stella Capek, professor of sociology, published "Foregrounding Nature: An Invitation to Think About Shifting Nature/City Boundaries" in City & Community,
Vol. 9.

Jenn Dearolf, associate professor of biology, received a grant from the National Institutes of Health, IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence ($641,840 for 2010-2015) for her research "Effects of prenatal steroids on the fatigue properties of breathing muscles."

Robert Entzminger, Provost and Dean of the College and Professor of English, reviewed "Spiritual Architecture and ‘Paradise Regained’: Milton’s Literary Ecclesiology" by Ken Simpson in Milton Quarterly.

Gabe Ferrer, associate professor of computer science, served as the Regional Board Chair for the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges in the Mid-South Region.

Tom Goodwin, Elbert L. Fausett Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, received $274,374 from the National Science Foundation for the acquisition of a 400 MHz NMR spectrometer to enhance faculty and undergraduate research (with co-PIs Andres Caro and Christopher Marvin).

Joyce Hardin, professor of biology, received $120,000 from the Associated Colleges of the South. The grant will fund a post-doctoral fellowship in environmental studies.

J. Brett Hill, assistant professor of anthropology, reviewed The Neighbors Of Casas Grandes: Excavating Medio Period Communities Of Northwest Chihuahua, by Michael Whalen and Paul Minnis, in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

James Jennings, Cynthia Cook Sandefur Odyssey Professor of Education and History, was a guest commentator on four episodes of African Americans in the Military for the Arkansas History DVD series by the Arkansas Educational Television Network.

Lisa Leitz, assistant professor of sociology, served as a reviewer for European Political Science Review and The Social Service Review.

Kim Maslin-Wicks, associate professor of politics, published "Public Displays of Emotion (PDE): Some Preliminary Advice for Leaders" in Public Leadership.

Maxine Payne, Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Associate Professor of Art, presented a solo exhibition titled "Making Pictures: Three for a Dime" at the Arkansas Studies Institute, Concordia Hall.

Aleksandra Pfau, assistant professor of history, published "Crimes of Passion: Emotion and Madness in French Remission Letters" in Madness in Medieval Law and Custom.

John Sanders, professor of religious studies, published "The Eternal Now and Theological Suicide: A Reply to Laurence Wood" in Wesleyan Theological Journal Vol. 45.

Lawrence K. Schmidt, professor of philosophy, published "Critique: The Heart of Philosophical Hermeneutics" in Consequences of Hermeneutics: Fifty Years After Gadamer’s ‘Truth and Method’.

J. Aaron Simmons, assistant professor of philosophy, served as Humanities Advisory Editor for CultureFrame.

Tom Stanley, professor of economics and business, served as Associate Editor for Journal of Economic Survey. He also served as Senior Visiting Fellow at London School of Economics.

Alex Vernon, James and Emily Bost Odyssey Associate Professor of English and Humanities Area Chair, published Approaches to Teaching the Works of Tim O’Brien. He also presented "Revisiting Hemingway’s Spanish Civil War Dispatches" at the 14^th Ernest Hemingway International Biennial Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.

José Ramón Vilahomat, associate professor of Spanish, published "Sátira menipea en trayecto: La literatura latinoamericana actual vuelve a los orígenes" in Pterodáctilo: Revista de Arte, Literatura y Lingüística.

Ann Willyard, assistant professor of biology, served as a reviewer for the American Journal of Botany, International Journal of Plant Sciences, and Annals of Botany.

Leslie Zorwick, assistant professor of psychology, co-published "Urban debate and prejudice reduction: The contact hypothesis in action" in Contemporary Argumentation and Debate, Vol. 30.

Chemistry Professor Dr. Liz U. Gron was selected as the 2010 Arkansas Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Gron, who grew up in a blue-collar community outside of Boston, Mass., gave her Danish immigrant parents – the late Poul and AnnMarie Gron – credit for shaping her career.

“It’s not uncommon in immigrant families that education was the key to success,” she said.

Gron graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. She later worked as a chemical engineer at the University of Delaware. She joined the teaching faculty at Hendrix in 1994.

“We knew we were fortunate to get Liz here, but the ensuing 16 years have shown that we had no idea how lucky we were,” said Gron’s colleague and friend Dr. Tom Goodwin, Professor of Chemistry, who is no stranger to the kind of dedication to teaching exemplified by Professor of the Year honorees. Dr. Goodwin received the national Carnegie/CASE Professor of the Year award in 2003.

“Liz excels at teaching, mentoring, advising, counseling, research, publications, presentations, proposal writing, organizing meetings and workshops, curricular and laboratory innovation, lab and classroom assessment strategies, and community service, as well as increasingly displaying leadership on a national stage,” Goodwin said. “She is just a whirlwind of activity, a blast of fresh air, an encouraging and compassionate teacher and friend, and an inspirational dynamo.”

Dr. Eva Hurst ’98, a private practice dermatologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Washington University, was a student of Gron’s. She praised Gron’s passion for teaching and tireless devotion to student success.

“I took several courses with Dr. Gron and was always impressed by her teaching skills, but more importantly, by the care and dedication she exhibited for her students,” Hurst said. “She is an amazing combination of honesty, kindness, passion, brilliance, and enthusiasm.”

In addition to her teaching and research, Gron is very active in the local community. Most visibly, she has organized Ridin’ Dirty with Science, an outreach program for Hendrix students to teach science skills and concepts to local students at the Boys and Girls Club of Faulkner County. In addition to Ridin’ Dirty, Gron is known at the Boys and Girls Club as the “Cookie Lady,” a reference to the cookies she uses as an incentive to motivate young children to read.

Gron organized a holiday outreach project providing Thanksgiving dinners for people in need. In the past year, she raised more than $7,000, involved more than 100 high school students and 30 adults, and fed more than 1,500 people.

Dr. Robert L. Entzminger, Provost and Dean of the College, called Gron’s community leadership a “natural extension” of her work on the Hendrix campus and in the national community of chemistry scholars.”

“In an institution, and in a department, that takes justifiable pride in the quality of its faculty, Dr. Gron nonetheless stands out as exceptional,” Provost Entzminger said. “The excitement for her subject that she exudes is infectious, and her commitment to the success of all her students is legendary.”

Gron has two sons, Erik Urban ’13 and Bryan Urban, a senior at Conway High School. Five years ago, Gron married Dr. John Krebs, Professor of Music at Hendrix. The couple lives in Conway.

By Bruce Haggard

Dr. Ralph McKenna drove his family to Hendrix in the heat of the summer of 1976. Some of his future colleagues distracted him while one of them jumped into his overloaded U-Haul truck and raced it down the nearby hill, and then slammed on the brakes in order to shift the load of everything he owned forward enough to free the rear door so it could be opened. Fortunately most of the belongings survived. The faculty ‘moving crew’ couldn’t resist laughing at the sight of his toboggan when the door was opened.

Who knew that this Connecticut Yankee, his wife Linda and their five children (Colleen, Tim, Kevin, Daniel, and Connor, who was yet to be born), would play such a vital role at Hendrix and in the Conway community.

Ralph and I co-founded the Hendrix Faculty Colloquium Series that gives faculty an opportunity to present their experiences or discuss their research with their colleagues once a month throughout the academic year. Ralph was very active in the Hendrix AAUP faculty organization that played a significant role in helping form a sense of community and in dealing with multiple Hendrix faculty concerns over the years. He is a community activist, working to implement bike trails throughout Conway, and has a real passion for organic gardening.

Ralph plays a mean sax and had his own swing band starting in junior high. He drove his used 28 hp Volkswagen to local gigs, making the three-hour trip from Connecticut to gigs in New York to earn his way through college. He was a music education major and taught secondary school music before going to the University of Connecticut to obtain a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. He still loves to jam and can usually name the song, the singer, and give you the rest of the lyrics upon hearing a single key phrase from any 1950-70s rock and roll song. He used his knowledge of music as a DJ on KHDX and for the development of some unique courses such as "American Roots Music and Southern Culture" as well as "Psychology, Music, and American Culture."

Ralph was co-founder (1985) of the Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students. He has been recognized for the quality of his teaching on multiple occasions (including Teacher of the Year) and clearly enjoys mentoring student research, as well as conducting research and presenting papers of his own at the annual Southwestern Psychological Association meetings. He is teaching three courses this spring, though he officially ended his phased retirement last year. He thoroughly enjoyed leading the Hendrix-in-London Semester in the spring of 2005. Not so much his roles as Chair of the Department of Psychology for the 10 years between 1980 and 1990, followed by his ‘sentence’ as Chair of the Social Science Area from 1990 to 1994.

Alumni who wish to contact Ralph should email him at mckennarj@hendrix.edu. I am sure he would appreciate hearing from you. Ralph has helped lots of alumni to achieve their goals.

Bruce Haggard

By Ralph McKenna

"You’ll really love the Haggards – they’re into organic gardening and have goats – just like you all do! They have kids around the age of your oldest two, and recently moved to a house on a lake with three acres of land.
And … his wife Pat is a potter!"

So went my introduction to the Haggard family when I interviewed for a position at Hendrix. One of my first memories of Bruce is holding up one end of a monster 8,000 pound player piano that Linda and I had brought from our Pennsylvania farmhouse. Bruce and Jon Arms, holding up the other end, were stuck going down a flight of stairs, as the rest of us debated where the piano should best be placed for aesthetic prominence. Both have keen memories of that day whenever their backs go out.

Bruce and Pat, Tina ’87 and Kelly ’88 preceded the McKennas to Hendrix by four years, coming straight from Indiana University and some world-class graduate work in genetics. An unabashed Hoosier in the land of the Razorback, Bruce brought his love of sport to Conway. I remember his tree-like presence as center for our faculty intramural basketball team, and his rifle arm as center fielder for the faculty city-league softball team, where I had the brief chance to play right field. Many alumni will recall Bruce’s 10 years keeping the scoreboard for the Cliff Garrison- and Jim Holland-coached Warriors, working alongside Bob Meriwether (announcer) and Larry Graddy (statistician).

After 39 years at Hendrix, Bruce is retiring from his position as Virginia McCormick Pittman Professor of Biology at the end of this academic year. For years, Bruce was the "kid" member of a legendary department in biology, teaching nine courses per year alongside Art Johnson, Tom Clark, and Albert Raymond. This biology lineup had a statewide reputation for its highly successfully pre-med program. Over these years, Bruce has taught well over 400 students who have gone on to become physicians.

Arkansas summers were never complete without the Haggards’ Fourth of July celebration, which brought together colleagues, kids, friends, mimosas in bloom, a keg or two, kids lighting fireworks, and some folk music singing from the newest biology kid, Joe Lombardi, on guitar.

Though a confirmed biologist in his training, Bruce’s thinking and behavior began to be permeated by the liberal arts. In 1974, he was chosen as one of nine faculty members to spend six weeks at Columbia University studying ways to best implement a new liberal arts curriculum at Hendrix. Six years later, Bruce was asked to help establish the Arkansas Governor’s School, legislated into existence by then Governor Bill Clinton. Bruce was director of the program from 1983-2000 and fended off considerable controversy over teaching methods and content, especially when Clinton ran for President.

Bruce was also central to the formation of a Hendrix chapter of the American Association for University Professors, the closest thing we have to a union, dedicated to protecting and promoting faculty rights. An avid canoeist, Bruce fought to save the Cadron Creek watershed from damming; a decade later he was immersed in the Arkansas Creation Science controversy. He was even elected a Faulkner County Justice of the Peace.

Hendrix was a different institution in the 1970s. When hired, Bruce was instructed not to do research or serve alcohol at parties (even parties attended only by faculty friends and spouses). Rumor has it that he nearly ran down our president of that time, Roy Shilling, zooming away from Buhler on his Honda 250 motorcycle in the winter’s darkness. In many ways, Bruce Haggard’s Hendrix career symbolizes a time of intellectual commitment, innocence, social camaraderie, family bonding, and community activism in the history of our college. It’s been fun, too.

Eric Binnie

By Werner Trieschmann ’86

The impending retirement of Dr. Eric Binnie will leave – just on the auditory level – the Hendrix College campus bereft one distinct Scottish accent. For Binnie’s collegues in the Theatre Arts and Dance department and for former and current students, the loss is greater than his warm vocal burr.

"Over the last twenty years I have shared books — novels, plays, memoirs — films and good stories of travel and coffee, both good and bad, with Eric," says Ann Muse, chair of the Theatre Arts and Dance department. "His enthusiasm for what is good in life is a source of joy for me."

"Dr. Binnie’s attendance at student performances and presentations is legendary," says theatre professor Danny Grace. "I can remember only a handful of departmental performances he might have missed. He knows as many great places to eat in the world as anybody I have ever met. And he is happy to share that information with you. Like so many of our retiring faculty, Eric cannot be replaced."

Binnie was born and raised in Kilsyth, a small mining town in central Scotland. He was hired by Hendrix in 1989 and was working at Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State) before coming to Conway. Did he have any hesitation in relocating?

"I enjoyed the faculty and students I met then," recalls Binnie. "If you had ever seen Kirksville, Missouri, you would not ask this question — anyone would be glad to get out of there. But I was surprised here by the striking natural beauty of the surroundings here, particularly Little Rock, of which old black and white film images from TV had burned themselves into my mind — so a very pleasant revelation, indeed."

In his time at the Theatre Arts and Dance department, Binnie worked as a director and taught classes in theatre history, voice and acting. It is clear that, over the years, Binnie became known for his classes on stage movement and the Alexander Technique.

"About ten years ago when Dr. Carole Herrick and myself began teaching the Alexander Technique on campus, one young student in particular was very resistant, and frequently challenged our claims for the demonstrable efficacy and relief involved in use of the Technique," says Binnie. "We could both see that she had changed during the length of the course, yet she was unwilling to admit this. She graduated at the end of that semester and, the next day, the local newspaper had a wonderful photograph of this particular student smiling to those around her, and clearly demonstrating what, in the Alexander community, is called ‘good use.’ At last I had the proof she needed, so I mailed a copy to her the next day."

In Binnie, students found a mind that wasn’t narrowed or preoccupied with one aspect of the theatre.

"I found the culture of Hendrix reflected in many of his personal characteristics — intelligent, curious, warm and multi-talented," says James Mainard O’Connell, who graduated in 2003 and is working in theatre in New Jersey "In a world that increasingly values specialization, I was inspired by the variety of subjects that he taught within the general discipline of theatre. Each class that I took from him inspired a love of the subject in me. His advanced acting class, which focused on Shakespeare, so inspired a love of Shakespeare in me that I went on to earn an M.F.A. in the subject."

For his days after Hendrix, Binnie sees time to go to the gym, fix up his house and act when the occasion arises.

"I’ll be staying in the area, at least for a while, and I hope to continue to be of service to Hendrix College and to the community whenever possible, probably give more private Alexander Technique lessons than I’ve had time for till now."

So the good news is that Binnie’s talent, mind and — yes, his voice — won’t be completely absent from Hendrix for long.

Ian King

By Jay Barth ’87

I just didn’t understand Ian King when I met him midway through my undergraduate career at Hendrix — literally. My provincial ear just couldn’t get a handle on his British accent. But, it was also figurative. I didn’t understand his allusions to Monty Python sketches, his references to soccer and cricket, or his mentions of the politics in parts of the world that I had difficulty locating on a map.

It’s safe to say that I wasn’t alone. Hendrix—then a fairly provincial place with almost all of its students coming from Arkansas—didn’t fully get Ian King when he first arrived on campus in the fall of 1985. Wearing his trademark t-shirts, he didn’t look like a professor. His classroom style differed from the lecture style practiced by most of his older colleagues. His political views were challenging to a place that liked to describe itself as "liberal" but was very mainstream politically. And, his wife didn’t share his last name, a fact fairly disruptive to the norms of the Hendrix Dames (the already archaic faculty "wives" club that disbanded soon after his and Cindy’s arrival on campus).

My first engagement with Ian came during his first year on campus as we served together on a task force developed by President Joe Hatcher to study the College’s investments in companies doing business in apartheid-era South Africa. The following year I was a student in the first offering of "Politics and the Creative Arts," a course that became one of Ian’s most popular across time. In my two years of interacting with Ian King inside and outside the classroom, I slowly came to "get" him and to admire him personally and intellectually.

That admiration has grown exponentially across our 17 years as colleagues. Since 1994, I have watched his work as a faculty advocate, as a builder of the sense of community at Hendrix, as a model of life-long interdisciplinary learning, as a masterful classroom teacher and out-of-class mentor, and as a force for globalized thinking on the Hendrix campus. While his hard-headedness has occasionally frustrated me, Ian has been an irreplaceable colleague.

I had seen Ian’s willingness to challenge the Administration on the divestment task force because of principle. The willingness to confront those in charge has earned him the respect and appreciation of his colleagues across campus. It’s not accidental that Ian has likely served more terms as an elected faculty member on the Academic and Professional Concerns Committee than any other faculty member across his time on campus.

That sense of community building goes beyond Ian’s work on campus committees. It shows itself in his playing basketball or Wallyball with fellow faculty weekly, his showing up for the sporting events and theatre performances of his students, and his encouragement of the research of his colleagues.

Ian has also constantly strived to better himself intellectually with an eye to bringing that growth back to the classroom. Participation in seminars around the globe has taken his summers but enhanced his teaching about those parts of the world. Moreover, Ian’s teaching and research links to the natural sciences and humanities showing his students how the disciplines intersect. Ian is the model of a life-long, interdisciplinary learner that we strive to create in our students at Hendrix. That breadth and depth of knowledge combine with a sense of humor that deprecates himself and others to make him an extraordinary classroom teacher. His patience makes him just as good as an out-of-class mentor.

The ultimate role that Ian has played at Hendrix is in internationalizing the provincial liberal arts community that he entered in 1985. Year in and year out, Ian has worked to enhance the opportunities for students to spend time abroad and to enlarge the academic offerings related to global issues. Much has happened across the last quarter-century to make it clear that Hendrix College is part of a global community. But, it is Ian King that has ensured that we embrace that reality rather than resist it. As a result, hundreds of students (including this one) are more prepared to understand and shape that world.

This campaign financed a variety of new facilities that have raised the level of experience for all Hendrix students including the Art Buildings, the Wellness and Athletics Center, and the Student Life and Technology Center. But, the construction projects are only the most visible result of our fund-raising efforts. The Hendrix Campaign was about more than bricks and mortar. It was about programmatic changes and curricular and co-curricular changes that were entrepreneurial and innovative.

Many of the goals of the campaign are embodied in Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning. Odyssey was created by taking things that are organic to us and that represent what we value about the nature of our liberal arts and sciences education and making them real for all our students.

Your Hendrix Odyssey has lengthened the shadow of the institution and has created a national buzz. We’ve created that buzz by putting a name to what we believe and putting the dollars behind it to make it happen. We created things like the Odyssey Endowment that funds student grants, Odyssey Distinction Awards that recognize students for their gifts, talents and passions, and Odyssey Professorships that provide grants to fuel faculty creativity and innovation.

Through the course of this campaign, one new idea has led to another idea: together we have built the momentum necessary to move Hendrix forward. With the campaign complete, it is our task to build on our current momentum and keep Hendrix moving forward. To that end, we have already begun the process that will lead to another set of Board Priorities like the 2003 version that served as the impetus for this campaign.

The next strategic initiative will be focused on how we secure ourselves as an institution that is prestigious, has broad market appeal and is firmly positioned as the leader in hands-on liberal arts and sciences education. Over the next year or so, in conversation with the Trustees, the faculty, students, alumni and friends of the College, we will outline a new vision for the future of Hendrix – a vision for 2022 that will help launch students on their life’s odyssey. Our vision will be bold and our goals ambitious. A bold vision and ambitious goals will inspire us to continue our journey and see what new wonders we can discover together on our Hendrix Odyssey.

J. Timothy Cloyd, Ph.D.
President

 

Did you work anywhere else/pursue your education before returning to work at Hendrix? Where? 

Yes, I worked in Dallas at a doctor’s office and the office of two attorneys. In Conway most of my previous work time was at the University of Central Arkansas in the football office and athletic department. I have taken some classes at UCA and I’ve been involved in a free lance writing project, but my most of my career has been as a homemaker, and my greatest education after Hendrix has been acquired through my experiences as a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother and the lessons learned through those rewarding experiences.

What was your title at the college and what did your responsibilities include? 

I was Assistant to the Executive Vice President and Dean of Advancement. My responsibilities were to support Ellis Arnold and his Advancement division, which includes alumni, development, and communication work to advance the college.

How long did you work for the college? 

Ten years.

How have you seen Hendrix change? 

Hendrix has changed in so many ways. Today’s students who read some of these changes will probably laugh and think I am fabricating tales of our campus life, but I will share a few changes anyway! When I was a student, the enrollment was about 400-500 students, with few students from states other than Arkansas, although we had a small number of international students. Freshman Orientation lasted through about the first nine weeks, and freshmen had to wear green beanies, memorize the names of all upperclassmen and call them by name any time the upperclassman met them and demanded “Button, Freshman,” take weekly written tests about campus trivia such as “What kind of flowers are planted in front of the Bookstore?” Galloway housed the freshmen and sophomore women and Raney housed the junior and senior women. I lived in Galloway my freshman, sophomore, and senior years, the latter time as a resident assistant. Rules were very strict for the women students, such as curfews around 10:00 p.m. on weeknights, and we had to “sign out” to list our destination (such as “Library”) on a tablet in the dorm lobby whenever we left the dorm after about 6:00 p.m. and on weekends.

There was one campus phone on each floor of the women’s dorms, and one long distance phone available on the first floor. Of course there were no cell phones or computers.

We were not allowed to wear shorts or pants out of the dorm. We had required athletic shorts for physical ed classes, but we had to wear raincoats to conceal the shorts as we walked from the dorm and to the gym and back. There were very few cars on campus. A small number of women students may have had cars their senior year when they went to practice teach in schools. On Sunday mornings a big white school bus from the Conway First United Methodist would pick up women students in front of Galloway and Raney to take us to church. We were required to wear hats and gloves to church, and it was understood that we should attend regularly.

A major change occurred on campus during my sophomore year - football was discontinued. The board’s decision for this change was announced at a convocation (convocations required our attendance every week). Another major announcement at a convocation was the news of a large monetary gift to the college from Mr. H.F. Buhler. The library was subsequently named for him. With the recent opening of the SLTC, Buhler is now vacant.

During the time I have worked here, I have seen great growth in enrollment and an increased number of out of state students. I’ve seen the construction of Acxiom Hall, the Art Buildings, DW Reynolds, the Murphy Building, the Butler Plaza and fountain, the WAC, the Corner Apartments, the Village, and the Student Life and Technology Center. Programmatic changes I’ve seen include the Odyssey program, many more opportunities for study abroad and undergraduate research, the establishment of the Miller Center and the Crain Maling Center.

What did you enjoy most about working at Hendrix? 

I like the cultural environment, the beautiful campus, the friendly faculty and staff, the contact I enjoy with my alumni friends, and most of all, the inspiring students. Part of the soul of Hendrix has not changed since I was a student. Some of our greatest assets are caring professors who truly want students to succeed and to experience learning as individuals and as teams. Their interest in their students extends long after commencement. People are happy to work here. I do believe Hendrix is a very special place on earth, a place we love, where we are privileged to spend some of the best times of our lives.

What is the funniest story that you have from either your time as a student or staff member? 

During my time as a student – the Great Train Wreck. Learn more.

Another recollection from my student days which seems funny now: Male students were not permitted past the swinging doors in the dorm hallways. When maintenance personnel came for dorm repairs or dads came to carry heavy boxes or furniture to rooms for the female residents, we always had to announce loudly, “Man in the hall!” to warn female students who might not be properly dressed that they should stay in their rooms until they heard the announcement of the men leaving the hall.

Define the Hendrix Experience. 

A few years ago a frantic parent called our office. She was driving to a College Fair and at the last minute was substituting for her husband, who had to cancel his commitment to represent Hendrix at the fair. The lady asked me what she could tell people at the fair that really makes Hendrix different from other colleges. The example that came to my mind for her was a student at that time: he was a varsity soccer player, a soloist in the Candlelight Carol Service, and he had just been accepted into med school, a great example of “unto the whole person.” The Hendrix experience encompasses our students’ achievements that range from those from international leaders such as Jo Luck, executive director of Heifer International, to students who encourage recycling and serve on mission teams. In addition to “unto the whole person,” the Hendrix experience exemplifies the saying, “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

What are your interests outside of Hendrix? 

I spend time with my family. My husband (whom I met here when we were both freshmen) and I have five grandchildren in Fayetteville, Memphis, and Atlanta, and their ages are 2 to 13. We love to spend as much time as possible with them. I am blessed to have my mother in Conway and we cherish our time with her. We are active members of Conway First United Methodist Church and we enjoy time with many college and community friends. I enjoy walking, working crossword and jigsaw puzzles, reading, cooking, needlework, and membership in some women’s organizations, including an educational organization, an investment club and bridge club.

What is your favorite cafeteria meal? 

Honolulu chicken!

What is your favorite place on campus? 

Greene Chapel

Surveying Market Square before setting up to perform a brief set of original songs at Village Books, Justin is blown away by how different his alma mater looks after only one year.

"This is crazy ... I can't believe this," he said, admiring ZaZa Fine Salad and Wood-Oven Pizza Co. and envying the Hendrix students who get to live in the loft apartments above the two commercial buildings.

After his set at Village Books, Warren, a theatre major, will join fellow Hendrix alumni in Cabe Theatre for a reading of Hendrix alumnus Werner Treischman's new play Disfarmer about the life of eccentric and iconoclastic photographer Mike Disfarmer of Heber Springs.

When Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning was introduced in 2005, the Little Rock native wasn't sure he even wanted to go to Hendrix.

"I really didn't want to go to college in Arkansas," admitted Warren, who attended Episcopal Collegiate School.

But Justin's father told him there was a "pretty good liberal arts school in Conway."

He's glad he listened.

"From the first moment I stepped foot on campus, I felt like I was home," he said.

"I'm so thankful I came here. I did stuff here I never dreamed of."

Justin was in the first class to graduate under Your Hendrix Odyssey. During his four years at Hendrix, he studied abroad for a semester in London, performed Shakespeare with a group of Hendrix students at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and enjoyed an active campus social life that included Ghost Roast, concerts in the Burrow, and working with visiting playwrights like Rebecca Gillman.

Hendrix also offered an outlet for Justin to perform music.

"I used to play at Coffeehouse and Red Light Revue," he recalled.

The opportunity to play music was important to Warren. His grandmother was a church music minister and his mom "sang all the time."

"I started playing guitar when I was 15," said Warren. "I used to listen to a lot of Nirvana and Incubus, and it kind of evolved out of that."

Justin soon began writing and recording his own songs at home on a four-track recorder. In addition to guitar, he accompanied himself on bass, piano, and drums.

Fortunately his parents approved of his musical pursuits.

"That's one of the really cool blessings in my life. They're supportive of anything I do as long as it's fairly constructive," he said.

Warren's first album is called Violet and he recently completed a follow-up titled Every Which Way. Both were recorded at his home studio, which consists simply of a laptop and a microphone, he said.

"My newer stuff is kind of Prince-inspired and kind of John Mayer-ish," he said. "And vocally, Seal is a pretty big influence."

In addition to his Hendrix campus performances, he has also performed in Little Rock at Juanita's and has appeared with Ocean, a former college band, at Riverfest.

Now that he's completed college, Justin balances his passion to perform music with his work as youth director at First United Methodist Church in Little Rock.

Though he went to a United Methodist college, he didn't plan on working for the church.

"It wasn't calculated at all ... just coincidence, which is kind of funny," he said. "I wanted to give back to my community, so I applied for a lot of nonprofit jobs."

Like his college choice, he's glad it happened the way it did.

"It's really cool. My group is very open and very mission-oriented," he said, adding that he meets with about 30 to 50 students each month.

"I'm getting a lot out of it," he said. "It's a true church family. I actually feel like I fit in."

At 23, Justin's journey is just beginning. He's writing new music and continuing to perform live theatre.

"At this point, I don't know where I'm going next," he said. "I kind of take it one day at a time."

For more information, visit www.justinwarrenstudios.com.

Brent and Kristin after their Chesapeake Bay swimI walked onto the Hendrix Water Warriors team my freshman year at Hendrix because my older sister swam in high school and I wanted to be like her. I had never swum competitively and Coach Jim Kelly welcomed me, like any sucker, by asking the whole team "who wants to swim the mile?" I didn’t know what that meant, so I volunteered. Little did I know that long-distance swimming is the event they put at the END of every swim meet. It’s boring for spectators (if indeed, there are any by the time you’re finished) and truly a test of mental ability if you’re the swimmer.

Fast forward a bit. I swam for three years with the team, stupidly neglecting it my senior year, but never lost my love of being in the water. After college, I taught swim lessons at the "Y" in New Orleans and tried to keep up the shape I was in through sporadic month long re-dedications to swimming the mile. I moved to Baltimore in 2000 and joined a Masters Team for two years, but the 5:45 a.m. practices stopped working after awhile and eventually, I let that go, too.

Suddenly, it’s 2007. My life is different than I ever imagined it would be. Pursuing a career as a songwriter and musician, I had taken a flying leap in 2004 into the world of self employment and being an entrepreneur (something I believe Hendrix wholeheartedly prepared me for!), but wasn’t spending too much time thinking about my health. A family member’s health scare prompted me to get back in the pool. That first time was like returning to an old, familiar house. However, progress was disappointingly slow. Throughout this time, there were a few visits home to Texas, where I was lucky enough to be able to catch a dinner with my old swim team mate, Brent Spear ’97 (who is now a practicing dentist in Fort Worth).

In the Fall of 2009, I decided that I wanted to do something momentous, to commemorate the year. I had heard about The Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, an open water event. There were two options: the 4.4 mile swim-across-the-bay swim and a one-mile swim. Before I even signed up for the swim, I started telling myself and other people what I was doing as a form of self-imposed accountability. I saw Brent again in January 2010 and we talked about the swim. He decided that he wanted to travel to Baltimore and swim alongside me.

I kept a log of my progress. It was slow through the winter, but as spring approached, I was regularly slogging through a mile. Brent and I kept in touch through emails and texts – encouraging each other with accounts of our workouts and simultaneously renewing our friendship. I won’t say it felt like old times, because it was something better. It was my friend from times past, becoming a good friend again at a different chapter in our lives.

Brent made his travel plans to visit Baltimore. If all went according to plan, Brent’s brother, Brad Spear ’94, was going to pick him up the night before the swim and they would ride out to the Bay early in the morning. I was going to be rolling in at 2:30 a.m. the night of the swim from a gig in Virginia.

We met up on the shores of the Chesapeake early in the morning of June 13^th. We put on our numbered caps and our ankle bracelets that contain a computer chip to log our start and end times. I was running on adrenaline and very little sleep. I was in the second wave of swimmers (the one-milers go in heats of 100 swimmers) and Brent was in the fifth wave. I went down to the shore and heard the yell to "go!" It was all legs and arms and mass confusion for the first 500 yards as we all navigated the half foot chop in the water and aimed for the distant buoys. The only thing I remember about the swim itself was turning the corner that marked that I was a third of the way through. The singular thought in my mind was: "kick, pull, kick, pull, breathe ... repeat." Finally, the shore was in sight. Those last few yards seemed to pass very slowly, but I felt the water become shallow and I stood up and ran onto the beach.

As I passed the barrier that recorded my time (29 minutes and 6 seconds), I was overcome by the feeling of wanting to do the swim again immediately. It was thrilling. I returned to my friends who had come to cheer us on and waited for Brent to finish with his group.

Our times qualified us to attempt the 4.4 mile swim ACROSS the Chesapeake Bay next year and Brent and I made plans to swim together again. I recently joined another Masters Team to get myself in shape for that event. (The longer swim usually takes approximately three hours to complete.) Even though Brent and I live 1,300 miles apart, it was a wonderful opportunity to re-connect over our shared interest that began during our time at Hendrix. Just another example of how the Hendrix experience stays with you.

Submissions for Alumni Voices should be e-mailed to the editor at plotkin@hendrix.edu. We are interested in publishing alumni-written essays that either reflect on your time at Hendrix or discuss how the Hendrix experience influenced the course of your life. To be considered for the spring 2011 edition of Hendrix Magazine, your essay should be received by Jan. 5, 2011.

Ben Nichols' classmates at Hendrix might be surprised at how things turned out for the quiet, shy kid who kept mostly to himself.

Nichols, who graduated in 1996, is a professional musician. He is the songwriter and lead singer for Lucero, a band he formed in Memphis, Tenn., shortly after graduation.

Lucero has recorded seven albums in its 13-year history and toured extensively, winning a hard-earned and rabid fan base through high-adrenaline shows that split the sonic difference somewhere between Johnny Cash and The Clash.

Though his musical background is primarily in punk rock, "Lucero kind of blurs the lines," Nichols said. "But there are too many rules in punk rock ... We just do it our way."

Nichols' personal songwriting influences include Tom Waits, while the band collectively conjures impressions of indie-rock cult heroes The Replacements as adeptly as it does classic rock and roll warhorses like Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band.

In a review of the band's 2006 album Rogues, Rebels, and Sworn Brothers, Stephen Deusner of Pitchfork Media (www.pitchfork.com) writes, "With abrupt shifts in tempo and style and a foundation in rock lore, Lucero's brand of country rock remains unpretentious as ever. But the range and impact of Rogues, Rebels suggest the band has greater ambitions and the chops to realize them."

"I knew music was definitely something I wanted to pursue," said Nichols, whose musical path began with piano lessons when he was very young. He later played saxophone in junior high school band. Around the same time, he got a bass guitar, started learning rock and roll songs and started writing his own songs.

But while he played in a Little Rock band called Red Forty as a student, Nichols never took any music courses at Hendrix or performed on campus.

"I was kind of leading a dual life," said Nichols, who lived on campus, including two years in East Hall and a year in Couch Hall, before his senior year, when he and his roommate Matt Hoffine '96 lived in the Front Street Apartments.

Going to Hendrix was not part of his original plan.

"At first, I wanted to go to school out of state because I thought that was my one chance to get out of Arkansas," he said, adding that Hendrix was the best value of all the schools he was accepted to. "Lucky for me I ended up at Hendrix. I ended up not only appreciating the school, but I also ended up appreciating where I was from more as well."

As a student, Nichols' two hobbies were music and comic book illustration. Among his favorite illustrators and their works are Joe Sacco's books on Palestine and the war in Bosnia, Eric Powell's The Goon, Darwyn Cooke's series based on the crime novels of Richard Stark, and Mike Mignola's Hellboy.

While he didn't perform music on campus, he did pursue his aspiration to be a comic book illustrator through an independent study with former Hendrix art professor Don Marr. The result was a 10-page comic book Nichols illustrated with pencil and India ink, which he later sent to several publishing companies.

"I still have all the rejection letters," he laughed, adding that he hopes to self-publish a comic book one day.

After graduation, Nichols helped with his family's business, Nichols Furniture in Little Rock, before moving to Memphis with the hope of starting a band. He met a guitarist who shared his background and interest in starting a band.

"We wanted to do something different, something more roots-oriented," he said. "So I decided to try to write a bunch of country songs and start a pseudo-country band," Nichols said.

"We took it step by step, first writing songs, then trying to get a live show," he continued.

Lucero played its first concert in April 1998 in a warehouse in downtown Memphis across from the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 30 years earlier and now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum. The band continued to play live shows until "we started to catch on."

And catch on they did.

Lucero has played some of the country's largest outdoor music festivals, including Austin City Limits Festival, Bonnaroo (Manchester, Tenn.) and Coachella (Indio, Calif.), as well as Memphis in May and Little Rock's Riverfest. The band has played with music icons such as the Black Crowes and Cheap Trick, as well as a veritable who's who of modern bands, such as The Black Keys, The Drive-by Truckers, The Hold Steady and The White Stripes.

The band is part of the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. The festival will give Nichols an opportunity to visit with his brothers Matthew, a Southwestern University alumnus and Austin attorney, and Jeff, a filmmaker who used some of Lucero's music in Shotgun Stories, his first feature film.

"Both of my little brothers have excellent taste in music," Nichols said. "But I think they were both surprised to actually like my band as much as they did."

No one is more surprised by the band's success and longevity than Nichols.

"In the back of my head, I knew I really wanted to do this but I never thought I'd make a living at it," Nichols said. "It's insane ... We just had our 13-year anniversary."

Not only did the self-employed professional musician not take any music classes as a student, he didn't darken the door of the Business Department either.

"I never took any economics or business courses, but I wish I would have," said Nichols, who now has two limited liability corporations (Lucero, the band itself, and Liberty & Lament, the band's record label) and one sole proprietorship (Empty Road Music, the publishing business).

"Even though we appear to have this gypsy lifestyle, when it comes down to it, we're small business owners in Memphis, Tennessee," Nichols said. "Heaven forbid ... I never thought we'd do anything that legitimate."

Nichols was a history major at Hendrix and credits some of his early excitement about history to Hendrix alumnus James A. "Charlie" Brown '69, who was Nichols' history teacher at Little Rock Central High School.

His faculty adviser at Hendrix was Dr. David Larson, and he enjoyed European and Russian history classes. He still recalls one of his essays from his senior comprehensive exams focusing on the origins of World War I.

Until three or four years ago, his mother kept waiting for him to apply his degree and be a history teacher, Nichols said. But his parents understand that he is following his own path, he added.

"My folks get it, and they are really supportive," Nichols said. "But they are very happy I have a degree from Hendrix."

His experience as a history major has informed his work as a musician, he said.

"I always looked at history as storytelling," explained Nichols. "I always pictured using my history background as a source of stories."

As a traveling musician, he continues to enjoy history and storytelling.

"That's one of the nice parts of being on the road ... reading in the van," he said.

Nichols is currently reading the second of Shelby Foote's three-volume history of the Civil War. Each of the books is about 1,200 pages each, he said.

"It's very impressive," said Nichols, who took Civil War history with former Hendrix professor Dr. Mark Schantz.

Nichols is also a fan of the writer Cormac McCarthy.

"I've read all is his Westerns," he said, citing McCarthy's Border trilogy, The Road and No Country for Old Men.

"Blood Meridian was my favorite," he said. "Someone gave the book to me, and I've read it three or four times."

In addition to Lucero's seven-disc catalog, Nichols wrote and recorded The Last Pale Light in the West, a solo album of songs inspired by his favorite McCarthy novel.

The solo album is a somber cycle of songs including The Kid, Toadvine, and The Judge based on characters from the book. Unlike the road-worn and weary rock songs he writes mostly in first person for Lucero, the solo album allowed Nichols the opportunity to write in a more narrative voice.

The album's stark instrumentation consists mostly of Nichols' acoustic guitar, alongside keyboards and steel guitar, and evokes the austere imagery readers experience reading McCarthy's work.

"It was a fun experiment," he said of the project.

Nichols would like to do more solo albums in the future, but Lucero is his first priority.

"Right now, everything I'm writing is just going into Lucero," he said.

The band's most recent album is 1372 Overton Park. The album's title celebrates the Memphis loft that was the band's longtime home base. Located upstairs from a former drug store, the band lived and rehearsed there for 10 years because "it was cheap," Nichols said. The space also enjoys another connection in Memphis musical history. Elvis Presley rented it to use as his personal karate dojo.

The new album features an expanded sound for the band courtesy of veteran Memphis musicians Rick Steff (Hank Williams Jr., Dexy's Midnight Runners, Pete Townsend and Afghan Whigs) on keyboards and saxophonist Jim Spake (Al Green, John Hiatt, Solomon Burke and Cat Power).

"That they'd even give us the time of day is really cool," said Nichols of the opportunity to work with the legendary Memphis musicians.

One of the songs on the new album, The Devil & Maggie Chascarillo, is based on Love & Rockets, a comic book by The Hernandez Brothers, another favorite of Nichols, which features "excellent storytelling and artwork."

Lucero tours nationally this fall with punk legends Social Distortion and will then record an album of new material.

"It's a constant cycle of record, tour, record, tour," he said.

Nichols' life on the road with Lucero is chronicled in the 2005 DVD Dreaming in America.

As far as his business plan for the next five to 10 years goes, he sees Lucero "doing the same thing hopefully...touring and recording albums."

Instead of being a professor lecturing to students in the classroom, Nichols sings songs he's written to fans who follow the band's music and flock to hear them at outdoor festivals and in smoke-filled bars. He's quite content with the how things have turned out so far.

"I haven't used my degree in any official way, but I appreciate my college experience every day," he said. "I'm doing pretty much exactly what I want to with my life right now and making a small living at the same time...I guess I can't really argue with that."

For more information on Lucero, visit www.luceromusic.com.

Commercial & Community

Across a newly redesigned Harkrider streetscape — featuring four lanes, two roundabouts, and a median — sits Market Square, the commercial center of The Village at Hendrix.

Market Square includes an open green space that is already being used for community events, including the 2010 Conway Symphony Designer House, a local farmers' market, arts programs, outdoor movies and musical performances. For more information on Village events, visit www.hendrix.edu/village.

The open lawn off Market Square is framed by two multi-story mixed-use buildings with upper-floor loft apartments, which house 130 Hendrix students, as well as new commercial tenants, Panera Bread and Za-Za Fine Salad & Wood Oven Pizza Co. (owned and operated by John Beachboard '01).

Village Books — the new Hendrix College bookstore — opened in Market Square in late July. The new 4,900-sq.-ft. location easily offers twice as much space as the former bookstore location inside Hulen Hall. In addition to course textbooks, Village Books has a trade and reference section, new release and children's books, as well as sale books and school spirit items. There is also a coffee and tea bar and seating for students and customers from the community to relax.

One instantly recognizable fixture of Village Books is assistant manager Barbara Jensen, who has worked for Hendrix since 1981. DeeDee Allen is the manager and Clare Walter '10, is the evening manager.

Village Books is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Residential

The Village is for more than students and diners. Conway residents old and new — including Hendrix alumnus Dr. David Baker '84 — are making their home in the Village. Three homes now have full-time residents; and two spec homes are complete (with two more awaiting construction this fall). Four homes that have been sold are currently under construction; and two are sold and are awaiting construction to begin. For more information on property in the Village, contact Beth Tyler, Director of Sales and Marketing, at 501-730-5048 or e-mail tyler@hendrix.edu.

Economic & Environmental Development

Southwestern Energy Co. will complete a new regional headquarters (housing up to 500 employees) on a 12-acre site adjacent to The Village by the end of the year. The corporate office location will be connected to The Village by an environmental watershed project which will reclaim, redirect, and widen Gold Creek, as well as purify and recycle water from the site. In addition to its environmental benefits, the watershed will serve as an outdoor classroom and will offer unique hands-on learning opportunities for Hendrix students interested in biology, botany, chemistry, and environmental studies. With 12.7 miles of walking trails, boardwalks, and foot bridges, the watershed will provide additional recreational opportunities for Village residents, Southwestern Energy employees, and the Hendrix community.

Her great-grandmother, Florence Hamilton Matthews, who earned an A.B. degree in 1910, was the first. Mrs. Matthews' daughter, Mary Estelle, was a 1948 graduate and so was Mary's husband, John W. Spivey Jr. 

Five Spivey children attended Hendrix. John W. Spivey III is a member of the Class of 1974, as is his wife Cathy McLendon Spivey. Thomas M. Spivey graduated in 1975, James R. Spivey in 1976, and Susan Spivey Freydl in 1979.

Paige's father, David W. Spivey, is a member of the Class of 1987 and her mother, Ronda Edmonson Spivey, graduated in 1989.

Four of Paige's cousins graduated from Hendrix: Mary Beth Spivey Tabor '00, Margaret Spivey Chicka '02, Matthew Spivey '05, and Clair Spivey '07.

Paige told us about these relatives when she applied for admission, but after doing our own research we discovered that Florence Hamilton Matthews' son, J. Thomas Matthews Jr., also attended Hendrix, graduating in 1940. In addition, we found that a niece and nephew of John Spivey Jr. attended Hendrix: Helen Spivey Baber Dunn '68 and Harold Baber '64. Two of Helen Dunn's cousins are also Hendrix alumnae: Patsy Hull '50 and Greer Grace '75; and Harold Barber's son, Jonathan Baber, graduated in 2001.

If we had more time to search, maybe we could even find a connection between Paige and one of the 76 other new Hendrix students with legacy ties to the College. Welcome, one and all, to your new Hendrix family!

Jack grew up in North Little Rock and graduated from Hendrix with a B.A. in history and political science. In 1975, he received a master of arts degree in teaching from Vanderbilt University and began teaching seventh- and eighth-grade American History in Nashville, Tenn. He currently serves as Senior Development Officer at Hendrix.

Jack is married to Sarah Weir Frost '72. They have two children, Allen Frost who is a graduate student at Stanford University and Kate Frost Walker, a teacher in Rogers. Jack enjoys reading and traveling. He is currently enjoying studying art history and combined this interest with his travels during a recent trip to Italy and France. Jack and Sarah just welcomed their first grandchild.

Life as a Student

As a student, Jack participated in the choir, madrigals, theatre, Leonard Brenske's cafeteria scrap room crew, Young Democrats and Hardin Hall's Animal Alley intramural squad.

In 1970, the choir took a five-week trip to Europe. Jack had dreamed all his life of going to Europe. He says, "It was everything and more." The group sang in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and also visited Paris. They spent three weeks in Vienna, where they performed at a symposium with three other American choirs. The groups performed separately and also practiced together to perform Mendelssohn's Elijah in The Mozart Concerthaus. One of the more interesting performances of the trip took place in Interlaken, Switzerland. The group was prepared to present a traditional college repertoire, including religious and spiritual songs, but on this particular occasion when the curtain opened, their stage began to move them forward toward a casino audience!

Life as an Employee

Jack first served the college in a professional capacity from 1976 until 1988 in the Office of Admission. He then worked for the investment firm now known as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and briefly for First Commercial Investments in Little Rock. In 1995, he returned to the Office of Admission. He served there for 14 years before leaving his position as Senior Associate Director of Admission and Director of International Recruitment to join the development staff in August 2009. Altogether, Jack has served Hendrix College for 27 years.

Initially, he says what he enjoyed most about working at Hendrix was pitching the College to prospective students, then seeing those students enroll and flourish at the College. "Today, working at Hendrix means working with a different constituency, but the charge I get still stems from helping the College to advance a mission I so wholeheartedly believe in," he says. "Seeing my alma mater get the recognition she so richly deserves means a lot to me."

According to one high school counselor, Jack will do anything to get Hendrix a little extra publicity. The night before a visit to a high school in Northwest Arkansas, Jack was robbed at his hotel. He arrived at the school the next morning to applause from the student body and a copy of the local paper which read "Hendrix Employee Robbed at Local Inn." It may not have been intentional, but Jack drew attention to Hendrix that day and he continues to help put the College in the spotlight through his dedicated service.

If Carolyn Laux Eastham’s life were a meal, then she started with dessert.

While most of her generation settled into careers, with an eye toward eventual retirement and the opportunity to travel, Carolyn quickly began living in far-flung countries and experiencing fascinating cultures, from Katmandu to the Congo, after graduating from Hendrix in 1972.

Her adventure began when she met Alan Eastham at Hendrix. She was a senior, and he was a junior.

She chose Hendrix "because it was smaller." She attended Sacred Heart, a Catholic school in Morrilton, where she grew up. There were 28 students in her high school class, she said.

"I felt like I’d be better in a smaller school," said Carolyn. "And my mother, for some reason, was big on Hendrix."

Alan graduated from Hendrix in 1973 with a degree in philosophy and returned briefly to his hometown of Dumas to work for his father’s radio station. He took the Foreign Service exam and enrolled in law school at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The couple married in 1974. During Al’s first semester, he was offered a position as a junior officer in the Foreign Service.

"Al told them, ‘Let me finish this semester,’ and off we went to Washington," Carolyn recalled. He later completed law school in Georgetown, while stationed in Washington, D.C.

Alan’s first overseas appointment was in Katmandu, Nepal, where the couple lived for three years. During that period, Carolyn, who was an English major, taught English as a Second Language (ESL).

The Easthams celebrated their 36-year anniversary in August, just as Alan was beginning a new role as Senior Fellow for International Relations and International Programs at Hendrix.

Though his title reads Senior Fellow, in many ways, he considers himself a freshman faculty member.

"That’s exactly what I am," he said. "It’s not appropriate for me to have an academic title. [But] I’m sort of waived in on life experience, I suppose."

That life experience includes Foreign Service assignments in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, France and Washington, D.C. He became involved in African affairs in 1989 when he was assigned to the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, which was followed by a similar assignment in Zaire. As Special Negotiator for Conflict Diamonds, he negotiated the Kimberley Process Agreement regulating the global trade in rough diamonds. From 2005 to 2008, Eastham served as Ambassador to the Republic of Malawi. From 2008 until his retirement this year, he was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Congo.

This fall, Alan is teaching two courses in the Politics Department, U.S. Foreign Policy and Comparative Politics – Africa. In the spring, he will teach a topics course on south Asia.

In addition to his course load, he will work closely with the Office of International Programs.

"I think I can add value by assisting students who would like to study or do research overseas, by reviewing project proposals for feasibility and practicality," he said, adding that he also hopes to be able to offer career advice for students who may want to work in U.S. agencies, the Foreign Service, or other agencies with an international presence.

Study abroad opportunities for Hendrix students have come along way since Eastham was a student in the early 1970s. At that time, he said, Hendrix offered one program in Graz, Austria, which was mainly for German majors.

"Compared to the vast richness of what is available now, that’s a terrific change," he said.

Alan is very appreciative of the role that Hendrix has played in his career.

"Though I can’t attribute a specific thing to Hendrix, I learned some skills that were very important to my Foreign Service career here," he said.

"A U.S. Embassy is like a small village. In some ways, it’s like dorm life," said Alan, who lived in Martin Hall for two years. "You have to get along with colleagues and peers."

"I learned how to learn and learned a framework for how the world operates," he said.

"I developed the ability to do the work assigned, to get the job done and see it through. I can’t tell you how important that is.

"And if you have a good liberal arts education, then law school is no problem," Alan said.

Carolyn thinks the transition to Hendrix is a perfect fit for her husband.

"He’s always enjoyed working with young people and mentoring the younger officers," she said. "New officers don’t usually get that, and he was really good at it. I knew he’d like dealing with students after seeing him with those young officers."

Carolyn is beginning a new role too. She now works for the Girl Scouts in North Little Rock. Fall is a busy season focused on recruiting new scouts in the schools, she said.

"All my friends are retiring," said Carolyn. "So I’m kind of doing it backwards."

During their life in the Foreign Service, Carolyn was active in the communities where they were stationed, usually some form of volunteer service to help meet local needs.

She was also busy raising children and helping them adjust to a new culture every three years. The Easthams have two sons. Mark is a senior at Elon University in North Carolina, and Michael is a junior at James Madison University in Virginia.

It was an interesting way to grow up, and the family’s life has left a lasting impression on their sons.

"From the time Michael was born in 1989 in Nairobi, Kenya, until 1999, we moved from one post to another," said Al. "He didn’t really live in the U.S."

"They love to travel," Carolyn said. "My older son says he can’t imagine staying in one place."

During Al’s appointment as U.S. Ambassador in Malawi, Carolyn took her sons to Kilimanjaro. She watched as the boys got to the summit.

"That was thrilling," she said.

"They were kind of sorry to see this life come to an end," she said. "Now it’s on their dime if they want to move around."

"They got a dose of the U.S., too," she said, noting their time in Washington. "And they know about Arkansas, too. As kids, they came home (to Morrilton) every year."

During one post, families were not permitted, so Carolyn and her sons lived briefly in Morrilton with her family. And while Al was stationed in Islamabad, Pakistan, families were evacuated, so she and her sons returned once again to Morrilton.

The Easthams have kept up with Hendrix through the years. Their closest connection is Carolyn’s sister, Ann Laux Turney ’75. Ann worked for Hendrix from 1984 until 2005 and is now Director of Development for the College of Pharmacy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Ann and her husband David live in Conway.

Hendrix presented Alan with the Odyssey Medal for Global Awareness, which is awarded to alumni who immerse themselves in cultures in other countries or distinct regions within this country through service, study, or research. The medal was presented during commencement and afterward, he gave the commencement address for the Class of 2007.

Carolyn has stayed in touch with several Hendrix friends, including a close friend and former roommate, Susie Roll Daniel ’72, and Grace Ellen Rice ’71.

With her mother in Morrilton and her sister in Conway, Carolyn said she is "glad to be close to home."

"We’re just happy to be back in Arkansas," she said. The couple now lives in Pulaski County. "There really is no better place to be ... it has everything."

"I want to see this country and travel in the U.S.," she said. Seeing Eureka Springs and hiking Pinnacle Mountain are at the top of the list, along with visiting national parks in the West and touring California.

"Every three years, we’ve made a new start," she said. "Maybe in three years, we’ll get the itch, but I don’t think so. After that many years, I think it’s time to do something else."

Fred Ablondi, associate professor of philosophy, served as Vice-President of the North American Spinoza Society. He also published "Epistemic Vagueness?" in Think 8, "Millar on Slavery" in the Journal of Scottish Philosophy, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Lowe" in The Red Sox and Philosophy, and "James Beattie" in International Society for Scottish Philosophy.

Jon Arms, professor of Spanish, compiled and published Lecturas suplementarias: Español 120, University Readers.

David Bailin, adjunct instructor of art, exhibited work in the West Coast Drawings: Drawings VIII exhibit at the Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Wash., and exhibited work in the Ten Year Celebration: Solo Exhibition Artists Retrospective exhibit at The Visual Arts Center of the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, S.D. He was also represented by Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Culver City, Calif., and Erdreich White Fine Arts in Boston, Mass.

Jay Barth, M.E. & Ima Graves Peace Professor of Politics, published "Arkansas: Still Swingin’ in 2004," which appeared in the American Review of Politics and was reprinted in Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government; "Arkansas: More Signs of Momentum for Republicanism in Post-`Big Three’ Arkansas" in the American Review of Political Science and was reprinted in Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government; "The Media, the Medium, and Malaise: Assessing the Effects of Campaign Media Exposure with Panel Data" Mass Communication and Society (with L. Marvin Overby); and "Arkansas: He’s Not One of (Most of Us) " in A Paler Shade of Red: The 2008 Presidential Election in the South (with Janine Parry and Todd Shields). He has also presented "Rules of the Game: An Advocate’s Guide to the Arkansas Tax and Budget System" at the 2009 Low Income Advocates Leadership & Community Development Conference in Little Rock and "The Local Story: The Graduation Challenge for the LRSD" at the Little Rock School District Greater Graduation Summit.

Keith Berry, professor of economics and business, published "Sub-Optimal Generation Portfolio Variance With Rate of Return Regulation" in Technology and Investment.

Eric Binnie, professor of theatre arts, served as editor of ExChange, the Journal of Alexander Technique International.

Jim Bruce, professor emeritus of sociology, served as Parliamentarian of the Arkansas Sociological and Anthropological Association.

Carl Burch, associate professor of computer science, served as Nifty Assignments Chair at the Conference of the Consortium for Computing Sciences, Mid-South Region, where he presented "Object-Oriented Space Physics – A Nifty Assignment" and "Django, a Web Framework Using Python – Tutorial Presentation." He also presented "Python for Programmers" at the Python Arkansas Conference.

Chris Campolo, associate professor of philosophy, presented "Deep disagreement in a multicultural world" at the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario.

Stella Capek, professor of sociology, presented "Caught Up In The Mix" at the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) meetings in Victoria, British Columbia and "Notes On A Sustainable World: Some Lessons from Environmental Sociology" to the Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society at the University of Arkansas. She co-organized and presided for a Thematic Session on the New Politics of Community titled "Environmental Justice and Immigrant/Refugee Communities" at the American Sociological Association annual meetings in San Francisco, Calif. Additionally, she served as advisor to the Endometriosis Association. She also performed as a dancer and reader in the dance piece "Listening to Self—Other—and the Earth" for the 3rd Annual Breast Cancer Benefit Dance.

Andres Caro, assistant professor of chemistry, received the Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Award ($44,869 for January 2009-January 2011) for his research on reactive oxygen species and CYP2E1-dependent oxidation of mitochondrial DNA in liver cells. He also received $611,861 from National Institute of Health’s IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence for 2010-2015. He served as Assistant Professor of Research Service at the Little Rock Campus of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Hope Coulter, adjunct English faculty, was honored as a past winner of the Porter Prize at the Literary Fund’s 25th Anniversary Gala in Little Rock. She also addressed a 4th-grade Writer’s Workshop at Booker Arts Magnet Elementary School in Little Rock.

Bland Crowder, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Professor Emeritus of English, American Literature and the Humanities, published "’inapprehensiveness’ Wrongly Apprehended" in The Journal of Browning Studies.

Jenn Dearolf, associate professor of biology, is conducting research on "Effects of prenatal steroid treatment on guinea pig ventilatory muscles" funded by $554,244 (2006-2010) from the National Institutes of Health, Idea Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence. She was selected to Project Kaleidoscope’s Faculty of the 21st Century (F21) group, reviewed Marine Mammal Science, and served as secretary for the Division of Developmental and Cell Biology of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

Andrea Duina, assistant professor of biology, received additional funding for his research "Analysis of the role of histone H3 in transcription elongation." He previously received funding from the NSF RUI program for 2006-2010, which has now been extended for 2011-2013, for $473,089. He co-organized the 17th Annual Southeastern Regional Yeast Meeting at the Clinton Presidential Center and served as adjunct Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UAMS. He also reviewed two grant applications for the National Science Foundation, Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Genes and Genome Systems Cluster.

Bob Dunn, professor of physics, is working on group research on "Noninvasive Prospecting for Lunar Ores and Minerals," which is funded by $114,358 over three years (2007-2010) from NASA EPSCoR. He is also working on joint research on "Geophysical Tools for Exploring the Moon and Mars" funded by the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium. He received the NASA EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Development Award in the amount of $11,940 for his research "Hurricane and Volcano Infrasound/Seismic Emissions." He also served as a Senior Fellow in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Robert Entzminger, Provost, Dean of the College and Professor of English, served as chair of the Associated Colleges of the South Council of Deans for 2009-2011.

Karen Fannin, assistant professor of music, served as Music Director of the Little Rock Wind Symphony. She also published "The Battle Pavane by Tielman Susato" in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA Publications). She presented "The Art of Pacing: In Preparation, Rehearsal, and Performance" at the Arkansas Bandmasters Association Conference. She conducted a faculty performance of Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat for the Arkansas Governors School. She also guest conducted Northwest High School Honor Band in Tacoma, Wash.; ASBOA Region VII Honor Band in Conway; and the ASBOA Region III Honor Band in Hot Springs. Additionally, she taught a clinic at the Northwest Wind Conductors Symposium in Tacoma, Wash.

Gabriel Ferrer, associate professor of computer science, published "Encoding Robotic Sensor States for Q-Learning Using the Self-Organizing Map" in the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges. He served as the regional board chair for the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, Mid-South Region and chair of a review panel for the NSF-STEP program. He is also co-conducting research funded by $20,000 from the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium on "Development of Algorithms to Mitigate the Effects of Lunar Dust on Robot Exploration" and "Development of Algorithms for Cooperating Multirobotic Systems" funded by a 3-year renewable $15,000/year grant from the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.

Ansley Fleming, adjunct music faculty, was a guest organist for a concert by the University of Arkansas at Monticello Chamber Choir in Little Rock. He also presented a guest piano recital at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

Nancy Fleming, professor of music, selected, prepared and accompanied eight students for the Collegiate Honor Choir at the biennial conference of the Southwest Division of the American Choral Directors Association in Denver, Colo.

Peter Gess, adjunct instructor of politics, presented "Presidential Scholars Program: International Educational Initiatives from Rwanda’s Vision 2020" with Gilbert Ndayambaje at the NAFSA Region III Conference in Dallas, Texas. He received $438,300 from The Council for American Overseas Research Centers’ Critical Languages Program for the China Summer Language Institute and $1,000,000 from the Clinton Foundation for the Rwanda Scholars Program.

Melissa Gill, visiting assistant professor of art, presented an exhibition entitled "Already Enlightened: New Works on Paper by Melissa Gill" at the Trieschmann Fine Arts Gallery. Her work was also included in a juried group show of the Mid-America Print Council Members Exhibition at the Elzay Gallery, Ohio Northern University.

Anne Goldberg, assistant professor of anthropology, published "Another Side of Costa Rica: Two Arkansans Share Their Story of the Women of San Luis" in Arkansas Life (with photography by Maxine Payne).

Tom Goodwin, Elbert L. Fausett Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Julia Mobley Odyssey Professor, received the 2010 CUR Fellow award for $25,000. He has published "Male and female developmental differences in chemosensory investigations by African elephants (Loxodonta africana) approaching waterholes" in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (with Christen Merte and Bruce Schulte); "The elephants of Addo: An undergraduate research adventure" in Journal of the Elephant Managers Association (with L.J. Broederdorf, Jordana Meyer, Elizabeth Freeman and Bruce Schulte); "Monitoring African elephant chemical communication and hormone activity in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa" in the Journal of the Elephant Managers Association (with Jordana Meyer, Elizabeth Freeman and Bruce Schulte); "The Garden of Green Organic Chemistry at Hendrix College" in Changing the Course of Chemistry: Green Chemistry Education; "Prospecting for mammalian chemical signals via solventless extraction techniques: an elephantine task" in ChemoSense (with Bruce Schulte); "Greener Solutions for the Organic Chemistry Teaching Lab: Exploring the Advantages of Alternative Reaction Media" in the Journal of Chemical Education (with Lallie McKenzie, Lauren Huffman, James Hutchison, Courtney Rogers and Gary Spessard); and "Sexual dimorphism in the performance of chemosensory investigatory behaviours by African elephants (Loxodonta africana)" in Behaviour (with Helen Loizi., L.E.L. Rasmussen, Anna Whitehouse and Bruce Schulte).

Karen Griebling, professor of music, served as President of ARVIOLAS (Arkansas Chapter of the Viola Society). She has also been working on a CD devoted entirely to original compositions. It will be produced by Vienna Modern Masters.

Liz Gron, professor of chemistry, published "Green analytical chemistry: Application and education" in Green Chemistry Education: Changing the Course of Chemistry and "Breathing dry cleaning" in Chemistry for Changing Times. She served as chair of the conference committee for the 13th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Annual Conference in College Park, Md., and co-organizer of EcoFest in Conway. She also served as the coordinator of the Thanksgiving Turkey Basket Project at St. Peter’s Food Pantry in Conway and as the faculty sponsor of "Ridin’ Dirty with Science," a science outreach with the Boys and Girls Club of Faulkner County. She received an ACS Student Chapter - National Meeting Travel Grant and has been working on research on "Educating Green Citizens and Scientists for a Sustainable Future" funded by $199,000 from the National Science Foundation –DUE-CCLI-Phase I.

Joyce Hardin, Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Assistant Professor of Biology, served as President of the Arkansas Academy of Science and as a member of the Tree Board for the City of Conway.

Jane Harris, professor of religious studies, spoke on "Faith and Word" at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock; "Elaine Pagels’s Adam, Eve, and the Serpent" to a Forum Class at First United Methodist Church in Conway; and "The Deuteronomistic History" at the Faithbuilders Sunday School Class at First United Methodist Church in Conway. She was also the Keynote Speaker at the Women’s History Month Celebration at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark. She presented a teaching workshop to the Associated College of the South at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

Courtney Hatch, assistant professor of chemistry, received the Corporation for Science Advancement’s Cottrell College Science Award for her research "Heterogeneous processing of mineral aerosol by reactive gases in the Earth’s atmosphere." The award is for $45,000 (2010-2012). She also received $168,700 from the NSF Atmospheric Chemistry Program for her research "Collaborative Research: Laboratory and theoretical studies of mineral aerosol heterogeneous interactions with mixtures of atmospheric gases at relevant temperatures and humidities" (2009-2012). She also attended Atmospheric Science Collaborations and Enriching Networks (ASCENT) in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and published "Water uptake on humic and fulvic acids: Aerosol and thin film measurements" in Atmospheric Environment (with Kelly Gierlus, James Zahardis, Jennifer Schuttlefield, and Vicki Grassian). She presented the lecture "The impacts of atmospheric mineral dust aerosol: A link between land, air and oceans" at the University of Central Arkansas Department of Chemistry Seminar Series and "Impacts of mineral dust aerosol heterogeneous chemistry on ocean bioproductivity" at the Fall 2009 American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, Calif.

J. Brett Hill, assistant professor of anthropology, published "What Difference Does Environmental Degradation Make? Change and its Significance in Transjordan" in The Archaeology of Environmental Change: Socionatural Legacies of Degradation and Resilience. He also co-edited (with Christopher T. Fisher and Gary M. Feinman) The Archaeology of Environmental Change: Socionatural Legacies of Degradation and Resilience. He also co-presented "Archaeoclimatology and Ancient Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics" to the American Association of Geographers – Section for the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems in Washington, DC.; "If You Flake It, They Will Come: Obsidian Circulation and Postclassic Occupation in the Mule Creek Region" to the Society for American Archaeology in St. Louis, Mo.; "The Structure and Dynamics of Social Networks in the Prehispanic Southwest" to the National Science Foundation at the Human and Social Dynamics conference in Arlington, Va.

Alice Hines, C. Louis and Charlotte Cabe Distinguished Professor of English, received an ACS Faculty Renewal Grant for $11,805.

Ty Jaeger, Hendrix-Murphy Writer-in-Residence, published "Scissors, Paste, & the Dead," "Aloha Girls," "Transparency & Desire," "The Christian Motorcyclist Kills My Dog" and "The All Wet Romance" in The Exquisite Corpse Annual. His story collection Our Love Stories Are Ghost Stories was a finalist for the 2009 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction (University of Georgia Press) and a semi-finalist for the 2009 St. Lawrence Book Award (Black Lawrence Press).

James Jennings, Cynthia Cook Sandefur Odyssey Professor of Education and History, published "'Level Five Culture' in High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools" in Teaching Children of Poverty.

Randy Kopper, professor of chemistry and natural sciences area chair, is currently conducting research on "Reduction of Peanut Anaphylaxis by Treatment with Activated Charcoal" funded by $73,098 (2007-2009) from the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

Jeff Kosiorek, visiting assistant professor of history, reviewed The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Environment, which appeared in Environmental History. He received the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati Fellowship from the Massachusetts Historical Society for summer research and was selected as an alternate for a research fellow position at the David Library of the Revolution. He also served as a referee for the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.

John Krebs, professor of music and humanities area chair, performed at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, Thailand (with Karen Griebling, Hendrix and Jackie Lamar, UCA). He also performed at the North American Saxophone Alliance at the University of Georgia. He serves as treasurer for the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association.

Lisa Leitz, assistant professor of sociology, co-organized and presided over the workshop "The Effects of the Iraq War on the U.S. Military and Peace-Making" at the American Sociological Association annual meetings in San Francisco, Calif. She also published "Women and War" in The International Encyclopedia of Peace and co-published "From Infanticide to Activism: The Transformation of Emotions and Identity in Self-Help Movements" in Social Movements and the Transformation of U.S. Health Care. She has appeared on BBC One, CNN American Morning, and Flashpoints Pacifica Radio KPFA. She was selected to participate in the Periclean Faculty Leadership Program, for which she receives $4000 (+$1000 travel stipend). She also lectured on "Oppositional Identities: The Military Peace Movement’s Challenge to Pro-Iraq War Frames of Patriotism and ‘Support the Troops’" at the Young Scholars in Social Movements Conference, University of Notre Dame.

Matthew Lopas, associate professor of art, exhibited his work "Panoramic Interiors" at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas, Texas. He was also represented by Greg Thompson Fine Art in North Little Rock and Ober Gallery in Kent, Conn. And, he was interviewed on WRR 101.1, Dallas NPR, on "Art Matters" with Quinn Matthews.

Erik Maakestad, associate professor of art, had his works included in "Exploring The Works of Arkansas Sculptors," a juried exhibition at The Arkansas Studies Institute in Little Rock. He was also represented by Lovely Fine Arts in Naperville, Ill.

Tim Maxwell, professor of psychology, served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Annual Editions: Psychology (McGraw-Hill/Dushkin).

Jay McDaniel, Willis T. Holmes Distinguished Professor of Religion and Nancy and Craig Wood Odyssey Professor, was invited to teach a five-day course on Buddhism and Christianity at the Vancouver School of Theology. He also lectured on "Whitehead and Education" and "Process Philosophy and Engaged Education" to graduate students at Harbin Normal University; "Process Philosophy and Its Contemporary Relevance" at Beijing International Culture Studies University; "Process Philosophy and Engaged Education at Hendrix College in Arkansas" at Tianjin Normal University; "Whitehead’s Philosophy and Its Contemporary Relevance" at Peking University; "Whitehead’s Philosophy and its Contemporary Relevance" at Beijing Normal University; and "Process Philosophy and Postmodern Parenting" at the IBM Office in Shanghai, China.

Ralph McKenna, professor of psychology, served as a reviewer for A History of Psychology: Diversity, critical thinking, and social applications.

Kristi McKim, assistant professor of English and film studies, presented "Cinephilia as Sensual Film History in The Dreamers" at the Southern Illinois University Department of Cinema and Photography and "Ephemeral Style: Intimate Scale and Subjectivity in Doris Dörrie’s Cherry Blossoms" at the 2009 World Picture Conference at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla. She also reviewed Ingmar Bergman’s The Magic Lantern, which appeared in Film International.

Rod Miller, associate professor of art, presented "Perelandra: The Synoptic Lewis" at the Perelandra Project Colloquium, St. Stephen’s house in Oxford, England.

Amanda Moore, director of the library, received a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council for the Mills Collection Project. She was selected to participate in the Frye Leadership Institute at Emory University. She also served as Public Relations Committee Chair for the Arkansas Library Association and President and Past President of ARKLink: A Consortium of Arkansas’ 47 Academic Libraries.

Matt Moran, Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Associate Professor of Biology, served as sub-editor for Annals of the Entomological Society of America. He also lectured on "The Biodiversity of Costa Rica: A Conservation Success Story" at Sam Houston University.

Britt Anne Murphy, associate librarian, served as Associate Editor of Arkansas Libraries. She is also an Executive Board Member of the Arkansas Library Association.

Rick Murray, associate professor of biology, co-published The role of foxg1 in the development of neural stem cells of the olfactory epithelium. He also co-presented "Neurogenin1 in the developing dorsal root ganglion in the mouse" and "Mash1 dependent progenitors in the developing mouse nervous system" to the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience and "Dorsal root ganglion-specific promoter elements of the mouse neurogenin1 gene" to the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, Ill. In 2005, he received a five-year $668,489 grant for his research "Molecular regulation of nociceptive neuron development" and recently received $24,976 for his research "Neural Fate Determination in the Mouse Dorsal Root Ganglion." Both projects have been funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Idea Network for Biomedical Research Excellence. He is an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences at UAMS.

Ann Muse, associate professor of theatre arts, volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club in Lehi Reservation, Scottsdale, Ariz. She also served as the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Respondent to Private Lives at ASU—Beebe.

Maxine Payne, associate professor of art, served as chair of the Professional Practices Committee for the College Art Association. She also exhibited a photo installation at Cornell College.

Jenn Penner, assistant professor of psychology, presented "The Effects of Site Provisioning on Cache Pilfering Rates in Eastern Gray Squirrels" at the Animal Behavior Society Annual Meeting in Pirenópolis, Brazil. She also served as associate editor for the Journal of Psychological Inquiry and hosted the 26th Annual Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students at Hendrix (with Leslie Templeton).

Jennifer Peszka, associate professor of psychology, had research referenced in Time magazine’s December 2009 edition. She also co- presented "The Effect of Console/Computer Game Play on Sleepiness and Sleep Hygiene" and "Chronotype, Sleep Hygiene, and Academic Performance in High School and College" at the 23rd Annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (SLEEP) in Seattle, Wash. She published "Online Academic Integrity" in Teaching of Psychology (with David Mastin & Deborah Lilly).

Aleksandra Pfau, assistant professor of history, published "Protecting or Restraining? Madness as a Disability in Late Medieval France" in Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations. She presented "Distinguishing Physiological Illness from Supernatural Phenomena in Late Medieval France" at the Texas Medieval Association Conference at the University of Texas in Austin. She also served as an expert commentator in "Human Rights, Royal Rights and the Mentally Disabled in Late Medieval England" presented at the Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference. She received a grant to attend "Disease in the Middle Ages," a NEH Summer Seminar for University and College Teachers at Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine in London, England.

Rebecca Resinski, associate professor of classics, published "Revising Pandora (and Rewriting Eve) in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wonder Book" in Asterisks and Obelisks: Classical Receptions in Children’s Literature.

Mary Richardson, instructor of speech, was elected Vice President of the Arkansas Communication and Theater Arts Association.

Brigitte Rogers, visiting assistant professor of dance, served as Assistant Choreographer for The Producers with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre.

Lyle Rupert, professor of economics and business, served as secretary of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Governor’s Schools. He also lectured on "Arkansas Governor’s School" to the Faulkner County Retired Teachers Association and conducted choir, hand bells and chamber orchestra in Kee/Carr’s "Repeat the Sounding Joy."

John Sanders, professor of religion, published "Theological Muscle-Flexing: How Human Embodiment Shapes Discourse About God" in Creation Made Free: Open Theology Engaging Science. He also presented "Can Classical Theism Support Creativity, Adventure, and non Conformity? A Reply to Process Theists" and "Divine Relationality and Theodicy in The Shack" to the American Academy of Religion in Montreal; "Something Old, Something New: Reflections on Evangelical Scholarship in Light of the Open Theism Controversy" to the Society of Evangelical Scholars in Montreal; and "What an Omniscient God Does Not Know" at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis. And, he lectured at the Theta Phi Fall Forum at Asbury Seminary.

Lawrence Schmidt, professor of philosophy, was invited to lecture at Heilongjiang University in Harbin, China. He also presented "Critique: the Heart of Hermeneutics" at Jilin University in Changchun, China, and "Gadamer, Hermeneutics, and Tradition" at Shandong University in Jinan, China.

Andrew Scott, assistant professor of classics, was selected to participate in the 2009 American Numismatic Society’s Eric P. Newman Graduate Seminar in Numismatics in New York.

Allison Shutt, associate professor of history, chaired the first African Studies Association conference in New Orleans, La., where she co-organized a series of panels titled "Theatres of Class and Conflict in Zimbabwe" and presented "Insult Laws and Contentious Authority in Zimbabwe." She also presented "Debating Manners and Politics in Federation-era Southern Rhodesia" at the Northeastern Workshop in Southern Africa (NEWSA) in Burlington, Vt., and the "Last Lecture" at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Conway.

Deb Skok, associate professor of history, reviewed "New Women of the Old Faith: Gender and American Catholicism in the Progressive Era," by Kathleen Sprows Cummings, in the American Historical Review.

J. Aaron Simmons, assistant professor of philosophy, published "Teaching Plato with Emoticons" in the APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy (with Scott F. Aikin); "Revisiting Gender Inclusive God-Talk: A New, Wesleyan Argument" in Philosophy and Theology (with Mason Marshall); "Vision Without Image: A Levinasian Topology" in Southwest Philosophy Review; "Moments of Intense Presence: An Interview with David Wood" in the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory (with David Wood); "From Necessity to Hope: A Continental Perspective on Eschatology Without Telos" in Heythrop Journal (with Nathan R. Kerr); and "Continuing to Look for God in France: On the Relationship Between Phenomenology and Theology" in Words of Life: New Theological Turns in French Phenomenology. He also reviewed Before the Voice of Reason: Echoes of Responsibility in Merleau-Ponty’s Ecology and Levinas’s Ethics by David Michael Kleinberg-Levin. He presented the lecture "Heavenly Minded and Earthly Good: Evangelical Christianity and Environmental Ethics" at Central Methodist University; "Environmentalism and Evangelical Politics" at the University of Central Arkansas; "Social Justice in an Environmental Age" at Rhodes College; "Navigating the Postmodern World: A Discussion of Kierkegaard and Levinas: Ethics, Politics, and Religion" at the Faulkner County Public Library; "Fecundity, Fidelity, and Expectation: Reflections on Philosophy and Fatherhood" to the Arkansas Philosophical Association; "Reading Levinas and Derrida After Audi: An Argument for the Viability of Foundationalism in New Phenomenology" and "So Now What: A Commentary on Carlson’s Rule-Circularity and the Justification of Deduction" at the MidSouth Philosophy Conference in Memphis, Tenn.; "Levinasian Otherism and Modest Foundationalism" to the North Texas Philosophical Association; and "Between Walzer and Levinas: Political Viability as a Regulative Constraint on Environmental Philosophy" and "Thoughts on Kierkegaard and Authenticity: A Commentary" at the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in New York, N.Y. He also served as the Humanities Advisory Editor for CultureFrame and a referee for Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and Routledge Press.

Chris Spatz, professor emeritus of psychology, published Basic Statistics: Tales of Distributions, 10th edition and Instructors Manual with Test Bank for Basic Statistics: Tales of Distributions, 10th edition. He also published "Hendrix College – In the Beginning" in Occasional Papers, a publication of the United Methodist Church of Arkansas Historical Society. He co-presented "Statistics: What Students Know on Day 1 (And Their Grades Later)" at the Southeast Teaching of Psychology conference in Kennesaw, Ga.

Damon Spayde, assistant professor of physics, published "Strange Quark Contributions to Parity-Violating Asymmetries in the Backward Angle G0 Electron Scattering Experiment" in Physical Review Letters.

Tom Stanley, Bill and Connie Bowen Odyssey Professor of Economics and Business, published "Publication Selection Bias in Minimum-Wage Research? A Meta-Regression Analysis" in the British Journal of Industrial Relations (with Hristos Doucouliagos); "Efficiency Wages, Productivity and Simultaneity: A Meta-Regression Analysis" in the Journal of Labor Research (with Eric Krassoi-Peach); "Could It Be Better to Discard 90% of the Data? A Statistical Paradox" in The American Statistician (with Jarrell, S. B. and Hristos Doucouliagos); "Picture This: A Simple Graph that Reveals Much Ado about Research" in the Journal of Economic Surveys (with Doucouliagos, Hristos); and "Meta-regression models of economics and medical research" in Evidence-Based Decisions and Economics. He also presented "Are Recreation Values Systematically Underestimated? Getting Beyond Publication Selection Bias" at a DARE Seminar at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., and "Introduction to Meta-Analysis: Short Course" to the Central Arkansas Statistical Association. He co-organized the Meta-Analysis of Economics Research (MAER-Net) Workshop and Colloquium at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., where he also presented "Is Health Care a Luxury? Regions, Aggregation, Publication Bias and the Winner’s Curse" (with Ellie Wheeler, Hendrix College, and Joan Costa-Font, LSE) and served as instructor at the EPA-funded Training Workshop On Meta-Analysis. He was invited to seminars at the Economics Departments of Deakin University, Melbourne University and La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand. He is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Survey, serves on the Editorial Board of Economics Research International, and has been a visiting professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, London School of Economics, and visiting Fellow at Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge. He has received $400,000 from the EPA STAR program for his ongoing project "Meta-Regression Analysis of Recreation and Valuation and Demand Elasticities: Identifying and Correcting Publication Selection Bias to Improve Benefit Transfer."

Dorian Stuber, assistant professor of English, served on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature.

David Sutherland, Associate Provost and professor of mathematics, lectured and presided over the induction of new members at the Pi Mu Epsilon chapter at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., and Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. He also presided over student undergraduate research presentations, Pi Mu Epsilon awards ceremony and lectured at the Mathematical Association of America’s MathFest 2009 in Portland, Ore., part of his duties as president of the national council of Pi Mu Epsilon honorary mathematics society.

Marianne Tettlebaum, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies, received an ACS Faculty Renewal Grant for $8,000.

Todd Tinsley, assistant professor of physics, co-published "Muon decay in a linearly polarized laser field" in Physical Review D. He, along with a student, received $2,500 to research "Neutrino production of an electron-positron pair as it travels through magnetic field." He also presented the lecture "Hacking into supernovae with a desktop computer" at Reed College in Portland, Ore., and "Sports Science and Medicine" at the Science Café in Little Rock.

Alex Vernon, associate professor of English, published "Spirit of Summer" in Soirée. He also reviewed The Gun and the Pen: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and the Fiction of Mobilization by Keith Gandal, which was featured in The Hemingway Review. He served as Contributing Editor of WLA: War, Literature, & the Arts and was appointed to a three-year term on the MacArthur Military History Museum Commission by the Little Rock Mayor and Board of Directors.

Carol West, professor of English, received the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, funded by an $87,805 grant from the U.S. Department of Education and supplemented by $3,500 from the Africa Network’s Luce Foundation grant, to support five weeks of curricular development activities in Senegal and The Gambia for fifteen participants. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Africa Network.

Daniel Whelan, assistant professor of politics and international relations, published "The Reality of Western Support for Economic and Social Rights: A Reply to Susan Kang" in Human Rights Quarterly (with Jack Donnelly) and Indivisible Human Rights: A History. He also served as Senior Editor of Human Rights & Human Welfare.

Robert Williamson, assistant professor of religious studies, lectured on "The Book of Joshua" at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock. He also presented a series of lectures on "The Book of Genesis: Creation Stories" at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock and a lecture series on "Wisdom Literature" at First Presbyterian Church in Conway.

Ann Willyard, assistant professor of biology, received an Arkansas Academy of Science Undergraduate Research Award for $500. She reviewed grant applications for the National Science Foundation and Austrian Science Fund and manuscripts for New Forests journal. She also lectured on "Integrating phylogenetics and population genetics: examples from the hard pines" at Cornell University.

Ann Wright, associate professor of physics, attended a "Women in Robotics & Engineering" workshop at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Fla. See http://www2.hendrix.edu/astronomy/ksc/ksctrip.html for photos from her visit to the Space Center.

Leslie Zorwick, assistant professor of psychology, presented "Working relationships in legal settings: The role of status, warmth, and competence" to the Southwestern Psychological Association in Dallas, Texas. She also served as an expert witness in Spurlock et al. v Fox et al. (U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee). The case was a NAACP-backed lawsuit against a 2009 Metro Nashville school re-zoning plan. She was a Conference Submissions Reviewer in the Personality/Social Area for the Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting.

In addition to the new faculty, Hendrix is also pleased to welcome the new associate director for the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language. Shin Yu Pai, who began work in early August, was most recently assistant curator for acquisitions for the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos.

New Tenure-Track Faculty

Christopher Camfield
Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, 2008
B.S., University of Cincinnati, 2002

Victoria Evans
Instructor of Kinesiology
D.P.H., Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, UAMS, 2011 (anticipated)
M.P.H., Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, UAMS, 2005
B.S., University of Central Arkansas, 2002

Carmen L. Hardin
Instructor of Politics
Ph.D., University of Arkansas, 2011 (anticipated)
J.D., William H. Bowen School of Law, UALR, 1999
B.A., Hendrix College, 1996

Dionne Bennett Jackson
Assistant Professor of Education
Ed.D., Baylor University, 2010
M.S., University of Central Arkansas, 1999
B.A., Hendrix College, 1996

Christopher Marvin
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin—Madison, 2008
B.S., Ball State University, 2002

Sabbatical Replacements

Cheri Prough DeVol
Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Dance
M.F.A., University of Texas at Austin, 1993
B.A., Hendrix College, 1990

Mark DeVol
Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Dance
B.F.A., Theatre, Kent State University, 1996

Other New Faculty:

Alan Eastham
Senior Fellow in International Relations and International Programs
J.D., Georgetown University School of Law, 1982
B.A., Hendrix College, 1973

Diane Henson
Visiting Instructor of Kinesiology
M.S.E., University of Central Arkansas, 1978
B.S., University of Central Arksansas, 1977

Lingchen Kong
Visiting Scholar from East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai
Department of Economics and Business
Ph.D., Remin University of China, 2003
M.S., Tianjin University, 1995
B.S., Beijing Wuzi University, 1987

James Lang
Visiting Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Ph.D., Penn State University, 2010
M.S., University of Iowa, 2002
B.S., University of Iowa, 1999

Cory Ledoux
Visiting Instructor of English
ABD, Rice University
M.A., University of Tulsa, 2003
B.A., Hendrix College, 2000

Amrita Puri
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2008
B.S., B.A., University of New Orleans, 1993

Songhe Wang
Visiting Exchange Faculty from Heilongjiang University in Harbin, China
Ph.D., Shanghai International Studies University, 2008
M.A., Heilongjiang University, 1998
B.A., Heilongjiang University, 1988

Ann York
Visiting Instructor of Education M.S.E, University of Central Arkansas, 1986
B.S.E, University of Central Arkansas, 1971
 

• Redesigned the curriculum and moved from a three-term academic calendar to a semester calendar.
• Introduced Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, an innovative component of the curriculum that combines critical thought with action.
• Become nationally recognized as a leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. In August, U.S. News & World Report listed Hendrix as the nation’s No. 1 “up-and-coming” liberal arts college for the second consecutive year.
• Raised more than $99 million toward our $100 million goal and expect to complete A Commitment to National Leadership: The Hendrix Campaign by Dec. 31, 2010.
• Enrolled 1,469 students for the fall semester, setting a new record and surpassing the Trustees’ enrollment goal of 1,300. In 2001, our enrollment was about 1,000.
• Increased our full-time faculty to maintain a 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio, adding new positions in art, biology, chemistry, classics, computer science, film studies, history, international relations, mathematics, philosophy, politics, psychology, public health, religion and Spanish. More than 40% of our faculty has been hired in the last six years.
• Added new majors in allied health, American studies, biochemistry/molecular biology, chemical physics, classics, environmental studies, and kinesiology, and a master’s degree program in accounting.
• Added new facilities including all new buildings for the science and art programs, a new home for the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language, the Wellness and Athletics Center and adjacent playing fields, new student residences houses and apartments, and the Student Life and Technology Center, which opened in January and is the first LEED Gold-certified building on an Arkansas college campus.
• Added the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics and Calling and the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture, the first of its kind at a United Methodist college.
• Developed a large part of Phase I of the Village at Hendrix, a neighborhood that will influence the footprint of the College for the next 100 years.

Each of the items on this list enriches the educational experience of Hendrix students. None of these achievements would be possible without the support of alumni, parents, friends and the United Methodist Church.

Your generous support has allowed us to conduct a successful campaign in the middle of an economic downturn. We are grateful for your gifts and inspired by your confidence in Hendrix and your commitment to our mission.

We recognize your contributions in the Honor Roll of Donors, which begins on Page 39. Please review this list and join me in thanking those whose generosity has made Hendrix’ success possible. If you are among our loyal donors, I thank you for your long-term support. If your name has not yet been added to the list,

I encourage you to give to Hendrix and its mission to change the lives of those who can change the world.

J. Timothy Cloyd, Ph.D.
President 

Meghan Kerin '13Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning encourages students to see their undergraduate education as one stop on a lifelong journey of self-discovery.

Since Hendrix Odyssey was launched in 2005, the College has awarded more than $1.45 million in competitive grants to support hands-on learning projects that help students explore their academic interests and pursue their passions.

Hendrix Magazine is proud to highlight just a few examples of talented graduates whose musical journeys began at Hendrix. Each one exemplifies the value of engaged learning and the liberal arts in preparing students to lead successful professional careers and live fulfilled personal lives.

For Ben Nichols '96, Hendrix Odyssey didn't formally exist when he was a student. Yet he is seeing the world from the concert stage at Austin City Limits Music Festival, Bonnaroo, and Coachella. For Justin Warren '09, a member of the first class to graduate under the Odyssey Program, the journey is just beginning.

The entrepreneurial and artistic spirit of these musical alumni is alive and well with Hendrix students today like Meghan Kerin '13.

Meghan, a sophomore pre-med major from Russellville, plays electric guitar and sings in Poisonwood, a "melodic" metal band.

This summer, she completed an Odyssey project, earning credit in the Professional and Leadership Development project category for organizing and promoting a 10-day concert tour. Hendrix Theatre Professor and rock guitarist Danny Grace '77 was her faculty adviser on the project.

"It went really smoothly, which surprised me," she said of the tour.

Much of the band's initial exposure came from the Internet, she said. The group sold much of their music through iTunes, as well as in person at local shows.

"That's one reason we could afford to tour," she said of the music sales.

Meghan also promoted the band on YouTube.com. Like a modern day Joan Jett, she has been performing covers of metal songs on electric guitar since she was 16 under the name "Meghan the Metal Queen." She has had more than 3 million views.

On tour, Poisonwood played shows in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, Texas, as well as Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach, Fla. The six band members traveled in an SUV, pulling an equipment trailer, and stayed in hotels along the way.

After expenses (including paying for merchandise the band will continue to sell), the group cleared about $500. Not exactly Metallica-level millions, but Meghan is grateful for the learning experience and the opportunity to perform.

"I was surprised by how much promotion it really requires," she said. "And I realize now how important it is to make connections with venues and make a good impression. That was the biggest lesson."
It was also a very musically rewarding experience for the band, she said.

"At our Wednesday show in Houston, we made a transition as a band. I felt like we really connected for the first time on stage," she said. "We gave the best show we've ever given ... we were like a force."
To earn Odyssey credit, the project required 100 hours of work.

"That wasn't difficult," she said. One of the most difficult logistical challenges of the tour was identifying a place to play on an off-night between bigger markets like Austin and Houston. "It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to do that."

For her next Odyssey project, Meghan is considering something in the Artistic Creativity category, possibly a solo instrumental "neoclassical meets metal” guitar project. She also wants to volunteer at a hospital to support her pre-med major.

"Pre-med is the main reason I came to Hendrix," she said, but music will always have a place in her life.

"Music is not the most stable career, but I do love it and always want to keep it in my life."

Dr. Peszka discusses initial results of a study on the effects of playing console and computer games on the sleep habits of young adults.

(You will need to install Microsoft Silverlight to view the video)

Editor’s note: This article grew out of Professor Chappell’s talk delivered on April 19, 1999, as a part of the “Legends of Hendrix” program, a series of lectures sponsored by the Hendrix Student Senate. It was originally published in the Summer/Fall 1999 edition of Hendrix Magazine.

Whenever alumni who attended Hendrix during the early 1960s encounter one another by chance or get together on social occasions, almost invariably the conversation eventually centers on one or more of the following questions:  “Were you there the night of the train derailment?”  “Did you help steal the beer from the smashed boxcar?”  ”How much beer was taken, and what happened to it after that night?”  “Did anyone from Millar Hall get arrested or find himself in big trouble with Dean Meriwether?”  During the 36 years since the occurrence of the most famous railroad wreck in Hendrix history, countless stories, fables, prevarications, myths, legends, hyperbolic excursions into memory, and other assorted narratives have been passed back and forth among alumni and kept alive for future generations of Hendrix students. Perhaps the time has arrived to attempt to reconstruct what actually occurred on April 26, 1963, on the railroad tracks running from northwest to southeast directly in front of Millar Hall on the western edge of the Hendrix campus.

Not one word in print or a single photograph of this train wreck appears in any 1963 issue of The Profile or in the 1963 edition of The Troubadour. However, Dr. James Lester includes the following two tantalizing sentences in his 1984 definitive volume Hendrix College: A Centennial History :  “Legend also surrounded the derailing of a freight train that included a carload of beer in front of Millar Hall in April, 1963. Despite repeated assurances from railroad and college officials that Hendrix students did not remove any intoxicants from the wreck, campus mythology always contended otherwise” (225). Fortunately for posterity, The Log Cabin Democrat, Conway’s hometown newspaper, covered the derailment extensively in several editions and also supplied information that was picked up and included on their front pages by Arkansas’s two statewide dailies, The Arkansas Gazette and The Arkansas Democrat.  In addition to these valuable sources, several eyewitnesses and participants also provided crucial facts used in the preparation of this article, and the help of these members of the Hendrix family is gratefully acknowledged: Robert W. Meriwether '49, Emeritus Professor of Education, Political Science, and American History, and the original Hendrix Dean of Students; Albert M. Raymond, Pittman Professor of Biology Emeritus, former Associate Dean of the College, and Hendrix’s foremost authority on railroads; and several anonymous former residents of Millar Hall who are not certain that the statute of limitations on theft from interstate commerce has expired. Mac Murphy ’97, reporter and photographer for The Log Cabin Democrat, graciously searched his newspaper’s archives and then expertly created the photographs of the Log Cabin’s pages that accompany this article.

Late on Thursday night, April 25, 1963, Hendrix students in residence on campus or in nearby apartments were busily studying or preparing assignments for the next day’s classes, staring at television sets, talking on the telephone, participating in bull sessions, or engaging in other nocturnal pursuits. A few people blessed with 7:40-a.m. courses or with early-morning jobs (such as working in the dining hall) had already gone to bed. In those benighted days of gender inequality, all of the residents of Galloway and Raney Halls had already signed in and were locked into their cozy dormitories for the night. As Thursday ended and Friday began, a few chronic insomniacs wandered the two floors of Millar Hall looking for a card game, a conversation, or another excuse to stay up longer and justify to themselves the sweet temptation of sleeping until lunchtime the next day.

At 12:55 a.m. a Missouri Pacific freight train consisting of 141 cars and pulled by a four-unit locomotive engine banged and clanged along the tracks approximately 200 feet from the front door of Millar on its journey from Coffeyville, Kansas, to Little Rock. On a car near the middle of the train a journal burned off (a journal is that portion of the rotating axle which turns in a bearing), and a wheel dropped from the car, causing the car to leave the tracks, with other cars also being wrenched left and right at odd angles, some of them smashing into other cars.

The derailed cars, tossed to both the east and the west sides of the track, tore up more than 300 feet of track between the Independence Street and the Mill Street crossings, closing both of these crossings for more than seven hours. A few of the cars left the tracks farther north and closer to Millar Hall, blocking the Clifton Street crossing and forcing residents of Millar the next day to crawl over the couplings between stalled cars in order to walk across Washington Avenue to the main Hendrix campus. A total of 23 cars derailed, with 20 of them carrying cargo of some sort: plywood, steel pipe, flour, animal feed, and cases containing 12-ounce bottles of Miller High Life Beer.

Some of the derailed cars turned over, while others landed on their sides and twisted into grotesque shapes. Some cars came to rest parallel to the tracks, but others wound up horizontal to them. Two stationary cars (not ones connected to the train) that were sitting on a siding at the Conway Grain Company near the Mill Street crossing were ripped open by hurtling derailed cars. Both of the stationary cars spilled their loads of soybeans onto the surrounding terrain. The engineers in the lead locomotive managed to bring the train to a stop near Saint Joseph Catholic Church at the southern edge of the downtown Conway business district. Railroad officials estimated that before the wreck the Missouri Pacific train measured approximately one-and-a-half miles in length.

The tremendous cacophony of the derailment immediately attracted to the tracks those residents of Millar who were still awake, as well as assorted night owls from Martin and Couch Halls on the main campus. Various denizens of Millar who by nearly 1 a.m. snored raspily while happily dreaming of the liberal arts and sciences were abruptly jolted from their beds by the sounds of clashing metals, screeching brakes, incessant warning bells, and persistent sirens. One alumnus of Delta Alpha Millar Nu ( the mock fraternity invented and populated exclusively by proud residents of Millar Hall) reports that the ceaseless honkings of several stuck automobile horns on a freight carrier awakened him. A milling group of male students from all of the dormitories and from apartments within close proximity to the campus soon was excitedly examining the derailed cars and conversing in wonderment about the most exciting event to occur near Millar Hall since the spring of 1962, when Mansour Beheshti, an international student from Iran, had slaughtered a goat in a bathtub on the north end of the second floor of Millar, cooked the goat’s carcass slowly through the night over an open pit in the Hall’s backyard, presided at a Saturday afternoon picnic attended by residents of Millar and other members of the Hendrix community, and thus initiated the hallowed Hendrix springtime tradition of the Goat Roast.

As the students strained their eyes in the dim light of a few streetlamps, trying to make sense of the chaotic scene spread before them, one enterprising sophomore clambered onto a boxcar tilted partially on its side, pulled vigorously upward on an ajar door, and shouted, “Look here, guys! BEER! FREE BEER!” Within a few seconds the sophomore was handing contraband cases of brew out through the small space afforded by the twisted doorway to a hastily formed line of eager fellow Hendrix students, many of them stalwart residents of Millar Hall who were aided by delegates from other sectors of the campus community. One participant calls this impromptu social organization a “bucket brigade,” and its energetic crew managed hurriedly to relieve the boxcar of the burden of several cases of beer--no one seems to remember exactly how many, with most estimates ranging between six and twelve. Welcome to Miller (Millar) time!

Fear of the imminent arrival at the tracks of the Conway police or Missouri Pacific railroad detectives, apprehension that College officials would soon appear, and a realization--”Ah ha!”--by the man at the end of the line that he held in his arms a FREE collection of twenty-four bottles of intoxicating amber malt beverage all combined to cause each owner of a load of beer booty to beat a hasty retreat in the darkened direction of Millar Hall. The looting sophomore at the boxcar’s door turned with a case in hand and found to his surprise that he no longer enjoyed the convivial companionship of his erstwhile accomplices in spontaneous crime. Feeling quite conspicuous in his new solitude, this principal perpetrator leaped down from his perch and also disappeared northward into the night.

Women and men who attended Hendrix before the liberalization of the social rules that took place starting in the late 1960’s will clearly recall the strict rule dictating the absolute prohibition of the consumption of alcoholic beverages by Hendrix students--with the penalty usually being suspension from school for a prescribed period of time or even expulsion. Certainly a select few brave or foolhardy Hendrix males and females would sneak a drink or two on occasion, but anyone who sipped the nectar from the fruit of the vine, chugalugged the finest product of the brewer’s art, or succumbed to the temptations of the demon rum did so in full knowledge that he or she was taking a serious risk regarding continued official connection to Hendrix College. While the temptation to pilfer the displayed cases of beer from the wrecked train was too powerful for many prowlers to resist, all of the beer buccaneers had enough good sense to avoid quaffing any of their loot on the spot. Instead they hauled the cases to the backyard of Millar Hall and hid them deeply in the thick hedges lining the western border of the dormitory’s property.

At approximately 1:30 a.m. the telephone rang at the Conway home of Robert Meriwether, Dean of Students at Hendrix. After Mr. Meriwether answered with a groggy “Hello?”, the following conversation ensued:

 “Dean Meriwether, this is Officer [Blank] of the Conway Police Department. There has been a train wreck in front of Millar Hall, and you’d better come on over here.”

“Have any Hendrix students been injured?”

“No.”

“Were Hendrix students responsible for the wreck?”

“No.”

“Has any Hendrix property been damaged?”

“No.”

“Is there any danger of fire or explosion?”

“Well, no.”

“May I then ask why you are calling me, please?”

“Because some of your boys from Millar Hall have broken into a boxcar and stolen some beer.”

As Dean Meriwether dressed before driving the short distance to the site of the derailment, he thought to himself, “I certainly don’t want to have to expel 53 Millar men.” Arriving at the tracks, he met the Hendrix night watchman and several lingering students, but of course no beer was in sight. Meriwether told the students that he and the night watchman would be going to a nearby all-night cafe for a cup of coffee and that they would return to Millar in about an hour’s time to make certain that all was quiet on the western front of the Hendrix campus. Their eventual patrol of the halls of the dormitory revealed only total peace and stability and no displays of Miller High Life, so the Dean returned home reassured that no beer-soaked bacchanalian blowout would transpire in Millar Hall during what remained of that late-April night.

Early on Friday morning, April 26, the merry band of Hendrix brigands loaded the purloined cases of beer into automobile trunks and drove to the remote northern shores of Beaverfork Lake, the Conway city reservoir that also served as a popular nocturnal romantic destination for Hendrix couples in those wistful days preceding visitation hours in the residence halls by members of the opposite gender. Shielded by thick stands of trees clumped close to the water’s edge, the brew bandits either dug deep holes and buried their contraband or tied thick ropes to wooden crates and lowered bottles of beer into the water, by the latter strategy employing an ecologically sound method of chilling their beverages. Meanwhile, back at the tracks, a railroad crew that eventually grew to 40 laborers busily worked at the massive job of clearing the area of wrecked cars and tracks, using cranes, bulldozers, and all kinds of heavy trucks as well as muscle power. The crew built a detour around the destroyed sections of track, and the first train used the alternative route at 6 p.m. on Friday.

The time has arrived for a true confession. If gentle readers will indulge the author of this article as he shifts into the first person, self-consciousness will become a theme for only a brief few sentences. In April, 1963, I was pleased to exist as a junior English major at Hendrix and to be completing my third year of residence among the membership of Delta Alpha Millar Nu. The two windows of the room that Simon Bookout and I shared on the second floor of Millar faced eastward across the front yard and toward the railroad tracks. During the tumult, clamor, and moiling frenzy of the Great Train Wreck of ’63, both Simon and I--SLEPT SOUNDLY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE EPISODE! And to this very day we are both EMBARRASSED TO THE POINT OF MORTIFICATION!

When my alarm clock chirped at its customary 6:30 on Friday morning, I stumbled to the window (wondering why I was still hearing bells even though I knew that I had pounded the alarm button on my clock), raised the windowshade, and stared in open-mouthed awe at railroad cars stacked atop one another while strewn all over the landscape, as emergency personnel, railroad workers, and gaggles of gawkers swarmed the scene like agitated bees. My shouts awakened my roomie from one of his legendary bouts of sound slumber, and together we ran out into the hallway and grabbed the first Millarite whom we encountered, babbling pleas for an explanation. One of our next-door neighbors responded, “You idiots! Did you really sleep through the wreck? And didn’t you get any of the beer?” Our humiliated answers, which persist to this day, were these: “Yes, we never woke up”; and “Did you say BEER?”

During the next several days, as the railroad crew cleared the tracks and hauled away the ruined cars, Simon and I had plenty of opportunities to survey the damage and to talk with the preening Millar pirates who carried out the Great Beer Heist, but because we snoozed away throughout the night we missed out forever on the chance to participate in this sterling chapter of Hendrix history. On most mornings Simon worked, as he liked to say, “on the scrap line in the chow hall,” and I, simpleton extraordinaire, had blithely volunteered for the thrill of attending a first-period class six days per week.  As a result, my roomie and I usually hit the sack around midnight, and we always locked our door because we did not want to endure any of the typical Millar night-stalker pranks, such as having dead rats tossed onto our beds while we slept; being inundated by wastebaskets full of used Kleenex, cigarette butts, orange peels, and rancid water; or suffering a bombardment of tennis balls soaked in lighter fluid and set afire. Also, we had become accustomed to the nightly din in the hallways, including the occasional roar of a motorcycle that one particular classmate enjoyed steering down the second floor corridor at his customary 2 a.m. In retrospect, I am not surprised that Simon and I could sleep through the Armageddon of a massive railroad derailment. However, even after the passage of more than three and one-half decades, whenever I realize what fun I missed, I shake my head ruefully and sigh.

As best I can determine, this article represents the first attempt since 1963 to piece together a narrative of the major events of that epochal post-midnight event. And by now every reader must acknowledge that I, one-half of the Millar Hall winning team in the Rip Van Winkle contest, may legitimately serve at best as a tangential witness to the Great Train Wreck. Fortunately, contemporary electronic technology makes possible the gathering of information from alumni who may have served as members of the infamous bucket brigade or who may have walked along the tracks that fabled night and observed memorable actions, legal or otherwise. Still more alumni may have talked to some of the beery bandits and be able to flesh out the story with colorful anecdotes. Anyone who would be kind enough to furnish further information about the Great Train Wreck of 1963 may post a comment by clicking on the comment box at the end of this story. You will then have an opportunity to post your memories on the web site for the world to see.

Others with stories to tell may want to write via the postal system to me here at Hendrix (please check this magazine’s masthead for the mailing address). Warning: any communication may find its way into print in a future edition of Hendrix. Whether anyone chooses to add to the historical record by e-mail or by regular letter, I promise that anonymity will be preserved, if the writer so desires. (Do some of you members of the Hendrix Bar Association know the period of time that must elapse before a spontaneous beer burglar may stop feeling like a fugitive?)

I will especially appreciate assistance with these questions:

1. A major party occurred inside and outside Millar Hall sometime in the few days following the derailment. The requisitioned Miller High Life served as the festival’s principal liquid refreshment. I remember the party clearly, mostly because my good friend the Rat led one of his legendary faith-healing revivals, a religious rite that was sonorously accompanied by the terrific guitar picking and singing of the immortal Benjamine M. Everyone who attended had a grand old time until some local Conway neighbors complained about the level of noise, and the gathering eventually broke up. Did this full-tilt boogie occur on Saturday night, April 27, or the next weekend? Logic would suggest that the new owners of the Miller beer would not want to wait seven or eight days to enjoy the pleasures of their bounty, but a squiggle of memory tells me that the later date may be correct. Can anyone recall?
2. Several people who were at the scene report the presence of a boxcar loaded with cases of bourbon, with the wrecked car already being protected by policemen while the beer car was bereft of security forces. Can anyone fill in details on this part of the event? Did anyone from Millar Hall attempt to boost any of this much more expensive and potent booze?

Railroads have always been a fact of life at Hendrix. The tracks at the western boundary of the campus have existed longer than has the College, and all alumni will remember the sounds of the train whistles and crossing bells that drowned out a few moments of a concert in Reves Recital Hall, a poetry reading in Staples Auditorium, or a performance of a play in CabeTheatre. During the first hours of April 26, 1963, the tracks in front of Millar Hall became the epicenter of collegiate activity, and the Great Train Wreck has become an indelible part of this academy’s collective consciousness. For many years to come ’60’s alumni will likely continue to ask “Were you there when the train derailed? Did you get away with any of the beer?”

Responses clear up some mysteries

Publication of this article drew numerous responses, some of which were published in the Winter 2000 edition of Hendrix Magazine. The date of the party was confirmed as Saturday, April 27, 1963. Photos supplied by Bob Holden '65 showed a boxcar not quite full of Schiltz beer, not Miller High Life. Several other people admitted to sleeping through the train wreck. No one could (or would) verify the existence of a boxcar full of bottles of bourbon.

When you attended Hendrix College were you a Lark or an Owl?

Chances are your grades were affected by your sleeping habits, according to research presented by Jennifer Peszka, an associate professor of psychology at Hendrix, during last year's annual Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting. Peszka is becoming one of the nation's foremost experts on sleep study research, especially research associated with college students and young adults. Her research has recently been featured by Time magazine and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, along with numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the world.

Peszka earned her bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University in 1994 and her master's and doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has been at Hendrix since 1999.

In her research, Peszka refers to early-to-bed and early-to-rise students as larks, while those late-night studiers are owls. The new data she presented last year suggest a student's sleep schedule had a lot to do with his or her grade point average – specifically, night-owls have lower GPAs than fellow students who prefer to go to bed earlier. While that isn't a huge surprise, Peszka's new research goes further, quantifying the impact of erratic or inadequate sleep on grades.

According to Time, Peszka asked a group of 89 incoming Hendrix College freshmen ages 17 to 20 to fill out a questionnaire about their sleep preferences prior to arriving on campus. Regardless of how much they actually slept, Peszka asked them whether they considered themselves owls, larks or, in the case of those who were neither very late or very early sleepers, robins. Students also answered questions about their sleep "hygiene" — factors that contribute to quality of sleep, such as adhering to a regular bedtime, waking up at the same time every day, or exercising or drinking caffeine before trying to sleep. One year, Peszka asked the same students to fill out another similar questionnaire to determine whether their sleep schedules were associated with GPA.

The ultimate conclusions were clear. The owls averaged a 2.84 GPA at the end of their freshman year, while larks and robins both averaged 3.18. Peszka also compared the students' high school GPAs with their college scores, and found that owls had lost an entire GPA point once entering college — larks and robins also saw their grades drop (a common occurrence as students transition from high school to university), but not as much.

The study did not delve into the details of why owls may perform worse in school, but Peszka told Time it may boil down to "an owl living a lark's schedule." Students with late bedtimes still end up taking early morning classes, which means they often end up feeling sleepier and less alert during the day. In Peszka's study, night owls slept 41 minutes less each night than the other students, but were still attending early classes, during which they reported sleepiness and inability to concentrate, which led to lower scores at exam time.

Peszka and two other researchers, including her husband, David Mastin, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, are continuing their research, with the study expected to be finalized later this year. Additionally, she also recently presented a study related to the effect of console and computer game play on sleep hygiene.

The redesigned magazine you hold in your hand is a direct result of your input.

You told us you were most interested in alumni activities and accomplishments, profiles of alumni and faculty, and historical features. You said that life in the residence halls was an important part of your Hendrix experience and that you wanted to know what it was like for today’s students. You mentioned that you would like to read articles written by other alumni with diverse viewpoints and unique voices.

You also told us that your time at Hendrix was fun and that the magazine didn’t capture that feeling of fun and excitement you remembered.

More than 150 of you shared specific suggestions for stories or new recurring features. All of your ideas and suggestions were reviewed and a number of them are reflected in this edition.

Among the ideas you suggested that you’ll find in this edition:

• An old photo of a spot on campus, paired with a photo of the same spot today.
• Stories about residence hall life and traditions
• A look back at the 1984 basketball team
• Stories written by Hendrix alumni
• A student-taken photo that captures a little of the fun of campus life

We shared the survey results with the Alumni Board of Governors, and the board’s Communications Committee provided helpful feedback on our redesign plans.

The most obvious changes are a fresh new design, new typography and a new size. This edition of the magazine is slightly wider than previous issues and has more pages. The typeface used throughout the publication is FF Meta, which has both a serif and a sans-serif version, along with numerous other variations. Photos are larger and stories are a bit shorter. We’ve included more alumni profiles and tried, as we select our stories, to be more conscious of the varying interests of Hendrix alumni, who are some of the most diverse and eclectic people on the globe.

Expect to find more of your ideas and suggestions in future editions. The magazine will continue to be a work in progress, evolving with each edition. We hope we can count on your continued feedback to help us create the kind of magazine that you want to read and share with others.

Please respond to future surveys with your thoughts and e-mail or call with your comments on this edition.

In future editions, we hope to fill this space with alumni-written essays that either reflect on your time at Hendrix or discuss how the Hendrix experience influenced the course of your life. Submissions (electronic preferred) for the Fall edition should be received by the editor no later than Sept. 1, 2010. We look forward to sharing your writing with your fellow alumni.

We also encourage you to check out Hendrix Magazine on the Web at www.hendrix.edu/hendrixmagazine. You’ll find "Web extras," including longer versions of some magazine stories and other materials that enhance what you’ve seen in the print version. We intend to make further enhancements and upgrades to the Web version as we move forward.

Thank you for your involvement in Hendrix and for the time you spend reading Hendrix Magazine. Keep talking to us about what you want. We’re listening!

Helen S. Plotkin, Editor
plotkin@hendrix.edu

Hendrix College often hears from alumni, staff, friends, and faculty, such as Dr. Moffatt, who have named Hendrix College as a beneficiary in their estate. These commitments play a vital role in the mission of the college. If you would like to have an impact on the college today and make a designation in your estate through an IRA, insurance policy or bequest, please provide the language below for your attorney:

"I hereby give, devise, and bequeath to Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, (the sum of $___) or (____% of my estate) or (specific items or property) or (the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate). This gift may be used to further the educational objectives of Hendrix College in such a manner as the Trustees of the College direct."

In addition to your attorney, please notify the Hendrix College Advancement Office of your intentions so that we might be able to honor you and your commitment to Hendrix. Thank you for your interest in leaving a legacy that will support the experience of generations of students at Hendrix.

You may also wish to further designate your gift for a particular purpose or program. We invite you to contact us to learn more about the benefits as an estate gift donor. Please contact the Advancement Office at 501.450.1223 if you would like further information.

By Rob O’Connor ’95
Director of Foundation Relations

Hendrix is in the homestretch of the largest comprehensive campaign in the history of the college. With the support of alumni and friends, we have received more than $97 million in gifts and pledges (as of April 25, 2010) toward our $100 million campaign goal.

Two priorities remaining in our campaign are increasing support for the Annual Fund and meeting a prestigious challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation of Troy, Mich., to complete the Student Life and Technology Center (SLTC).

The Hendrix Annual Fund (which includes the Alumni Loyalty Fund and Parent Fund) provides much-needed student scholarship and financial assistance, as well as critical academic and student life resources. With 1,463 students on campus this year, the Hendrix Annual Fund has never been more important.

The 2009-2010 Annual Fund goal is $1.9 million. Currently, we have raised $1.36 million. To meet our Annual Fund goal by May 31, 2010, we must do two important things:

• We need 20 new President’s Club members and 25 Young President’s Club members to meet our goal by May 31. The college is looking for a total of 70 new President’s Club members ($1,000/year) and 50 new Young President’s Club members ($500/year for alumni who graduated in the past 15 years).  
• We need to increase overall alumni participation, regardless of the dollar amount. While Hendrix competes with some of the country’s leading liberal arts colleges, the percentage of our alumni who give annually falls far short of our peers (e.g. 30 percent for Hendrix versus approximately 40 percent at Rhodes College, etc.). Currently, alumni participation in the Annual Fund is at 25 percent toward our goal of 32 percent for this fiscal year. 

The Kresge Challenge provides an extraordinary opportunity to complete the fundraising for the SLTC. Hendrix has raised more than $25 million toward the $26 million goal. To successfully meet the challenge, we must secure the remaining $995,000 in gifts and pledges for the SLTC by June 2010. Naming opportunities still exist for gifts and pledges at the $25,000+ level.

Thank you for helping to make a difference in the lives of our students and faculty with your gift.

Hendrix Alumni Loyalty Fund
Leigh Lassiter-Counts ’01
501.450.1357
annualfund@hendrix.edu
www.hendrix.edu/giving

Hendrix Kresge Challenge
Michael V. Hutchison
877.208.8777
501.450.4574
Hutchison@hendrix.edu

Both my sister and I remember the trip, but neither of us can remember just when it occurred.  The date is not really important--it was sometime around 1950.  My father and mother, and my sister and I were on a family summer vacation.  Wherever else we went on that trip, the place which is relevant was our stop in Calico Rock.  At that time, Dad was the pastor of the First Methodist Church in Little Rock.  He and my mother were returning to the place where Dad had served his first “charge.”  They still knew some of the people in the town and took the opportunity of our trip to stop for a visit–the first since they left some twenty years before.

Calico Rock is a small town in north central Arkansas, south of Mountain Home and northwest of Batesville.  Before we arrived, my father told my sister and me that the people in this town and in the surrounding areas had a special characteristic.  They did not ask anything about another person’s personal life.  They would not ask us where we had been or where we were going, what we had done or what we were going to do.  My sister and I were cautioned that we ourselves were not to ask any personal questions of anyone in town during our stay.  And, indeed, other than one question asked by the teenage daughter of one of the families with whom we stayed, no one in Calico Rock asked us anything about our personal activities.

After we left Calico Rock for wherever else we were headed, Dad told the story of his and my mother’s arrival in this town in November of 1931, and this story provided an illustration as no other of the practice of the locals to mind their own business and not to meddle in the affairs of others.

My father had grown up on a farm in eastern Arkansas for which his father was the “manager.”  Dad’s mother died when he was fourteen, and he chose to leave home when he was sixteen without completing school.  He lived a meager and rough life for a number of years–riding the rails to work in the wheat fields of Kansas, then returning to work as a janitor in a bank in Helena.  Thereafter, he became a cotton buyer for a firm in Helena run by two wealthy men who were partners in the business in the town.  It was then, and under those circumstances, that he, very much alone in life, attended a revival at a camp meeting and got “The Call,” deciding that he wanted to become a preacher. 

My father was fortunate to receive the patronage of these two men who took an interest in him and his goals.  Dad was able to enroll in the Academy affiliated with Hendrix College in Conway.  He finished his high school in one and a half years and college in three and a half years, going on to earn his B.D. degree from the Divinity School of Duke University.  During his time in graduate school, he met and married my mother, who lived in Helena.  After divinity school, Dad was accepted into the North Arkansas Conference of the Methodist Church “on trial.”  He was appointed to serve his first pastorate at the Methodist Church in Calico Rock.

When it came time for my father and mother to travel to his new post, Dad went to the train station in Helena to purchase tickets for the trip to Calico Rock.  The station-master in Helena was a man who knew my father from his days as a cotton buyer for the firm in town.  This man explained to my father that he and my mother would travel from Helena, changing trains once or twice until reaching Newport, where they would board the White River Division of the Missouri Pacific for the onward journey to Calico Rock.  The man went on to explain that the train from Newport did not stop in Calico Rock, so they would have to go past that town, to Cotter, where they would have to spend the night and take the “local” out the next day back down to Calico Rock.  Having said that, the man thought for a moment and then said to my father, “Oh, there’s no need for that.  You’ve given this railroad a lot of business over the years.  I’ll just wire St. Louis and have them stop the train for you in Calico Rock.”

My father accepted this offer as a professional courtesy and thought nothing of it.  Dad wired the church officials in Calico Rock giving then the date and time of his arrival.  After he and my mother boarded the train in Newport, the conductor, when he came to them, looked at their tickets and repeated the original comments–the train did not stop in Calico Rock; they would have to go on to Cotter, spend the night, and take the local out the next day.  My father said nothing, knowing that the conductor would get his instructions later during the trip.  And, after a while, as he had predicted, the conductor returned, verifying that they were the folks for Calico Rock.  He then said that he had received orders to stop the train in Calico Rock and told them when the train would arrive there.

When my parents got off the train in Calico Rock, they noted that perhaps a hundred or more people were sitting and standing around the station, and up the sides of the surrounding hills.  My mother remarked, “They sure turn out to meet the new preacher.”  Members of the church were on hand to greet them and walk with them to the parsonage.  And thus went my parents’ arrival in Calico Rock.  Or so it seemed!

A good many weeks after this day, my father was sitting on the porch of the parsonage, as was his practice after supper.  A member of the church walked by and accepted my father’s invitation to come up, sit, and talk.  After some rather general conversation about nothing in particular, the man became silent for a while.  He seemed to be struggling with a major decision.  After a moment, he queried if he could ask my father “a personal question.”  My father, having no idea what was on the man’s mind, responded that he would answer the question if he could.  The man still hemmed and hawed, struggling to get the question out.  Finally, having found the needed resolve, he blurted out, “How in the Hell d’you stop that train?!”

As it turned out, in the history of the town the train on which my parents were traveling had never stopped in Calico Rock.  When my father’s telegram arrived, and its contents became known, the town divided into two camps–those who believed that the train would stop and those who believed that it would not.  Wagers were made.  And thus it was that, at the appointed time, the town-folk did indeed turn out, not so much to greet the new pastor as rather to see what power he held over the Missouri Pacific Railroad!  Later, my mother remembered that, as they were walking from the station into town, she had overheard one of the men say to another, “Well, that’s a Coke you owe me.”

© 2009 James M. Walton

Aubrey G. Walton (Hendrix Class of 1928) served pastorates in Calico Rock, Siloam Springs, Eureka Springs, Searcy, Texarkana (Arkansas), and, for sixteen years, was the senior pastor of the First Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.  In 1960, he was elected a Bishop and thereafter served the Louisiana Area of the Methodist Church until he retired in 1972.

James M. Walton (Hendrix Class of 1960) is a retired attorney living in Illinois.

Chicago, the summer of 1940 and the Democrat's National Convention was in town. The big question: With President Franklin Roosevelt finishing his second term who would replace him as the party's standard bearer? Under his leadership the country was just emerging from the devastating depression and drought of the '30s. Add to this our growing concern for Europe reeling under Adolph Hitler's rampaging Nazi troops and the selection of a candidate was truly no small matter.

As a graduate student in political science at the University of Chicago, and final exams but a few days away, I resisted the agonizing urge to attend the Convention's opening activities. The nominating session was, however, a must – whatever the cost.

My registered address was Arkansas and the state's delegation was headquartered at the Stevens Hotel. It was my hope that this would be my key to the Convention. The day of the nomination I took an early train into the city. The hotel floor assigned to the delegation was packed and a whirl of activity. A receptionist gave me the name of the delegation's Secretary who was handling arrangements and indicated the crowded corridor leading to his office. With this mob the likelihood of getting to him was minimal, but I was determined.

The door to the Secretary's suite was barricaded by a most formidable person who challenged everyone seeking entrance, and virtually no one was making it past him. This called for a desperate strategy. By now I had worked my way forward and there was but one person ahead of me and he was trying to convince the "keeper of the portal" that his business warranted admission. It was now or never. Taking a deep breath I stepped forward and, in the most official and commanding voice I could muster, said, "Gentlemen, I have a most pressing appointment with the Secretary. Will you please let me by?" "Oh, excuse me," was his reply as he stepped aside, moving the frustrated person with him and, in the same motion, opened the door. As it closed behind me I took a moment to get my breath, collect my thoughts and compose myself.

The Secretary was now readily accessible and most gracious when I explained my situation. He gave me a note to a Mr. Andy Frain whose firm was handling internal traffic at the Coliseum, the Convention site. Suffice it to say, I lost no time getting to him. The note did the trick for he gave me a badge and credentials for an Assistant Sergeant at Arms, and assigned me to a VIP section, up a broad staircase and just above the main floor. Frain also said I would be assisted by two uniformed Chicago police, and that I should be on station by 5:30 p.m. This struck me as a bit heavy on control, and early too, for as I recalled, the "call to order" was 8:00 p.m. But, who was I to question a professional? I was in and that was the important thing.

By 7 p.m. the section was filled which again I thought strange inasmuch as it was a reserved area, with admission by special passes. Even more strange, ticket holders continued to come, in numbers well beyond the reserve capacity. One individual, with no credentials at all, tried to talk his way in. Finally, in frustration, he exploded, "Do you know who I am?" When I told him I had not the foggiest idea, he announced, "I am One-eye Connoly." This rang a bell for One- eye was a notorious international gate-crasher whose antics were covered by the media. He didn't make it into my little reserve, although I later saw him on the main floor. Subsequently it was learned that the flood of VIP ticket holders was due to the Kelly-Nash machine (the Democrat organization that ran Chicago) having gotten the printers' plates for the tickets, ran off duplicates which were given to local favorites and told to "be there early," ahead of the legitimate holders who, understandably, came later. Needless to say, there were quite a number of irate VIPs, more than a few of whom were a bit vocal in their displeasure. But it was a situation that could not be unraveled and I was glad the "men in blue" were there.

Ultimately things quieted and, as my real objective was to be in the arena for the nominations, my "companions at arms" suggested that since there was nothing further to be done at that position, I might as well go down to the floor. Thanking the two of "Chicago's finest," I joined the milling mob on the ground level. Checking the area I was immediately convinced my beribboned Assistant Sergeant at Arms badge would not get me through those tightly monitored doors.

Even though the preliminaries had already begun, there was a stream of people going in and coming from the main hall. The Stevens Hotel ruse came to mind as the only alternative – be aggressively creative. The oppressive heat of the summer night in Chicago was intensified by the huge crowd inside the Coliseum, giving me an idea. At a nearby refreshment stand I bought two large iced drinks and made my way to the nearest arena entrance where sweating monitors were busily checking for correct credentials. As I approached the door I raised the large cups to about shoulder height somewhat, but not totally, obscuring my badge and pushed by the checker, exclaiming, "I've got to get these to the Arkansas delegation." He nodded and I was in.

About twenty five feet inside I stopped to figure where I might have a good position from which to watch the proceedings. I was sipping one of the drinks when a young man beside me asked, "What are you doing with that other one?" I replied, "It has served its purpose and you may have it." Declining his offer to pay for it, I moved to the center of the front row, directly in front of the stage and podium. I positioned myself, half sitting and half leaning on the front of the box of Indiana Senator Frederick Van Nuys and his family (with his permission, of course). I had a ring-side seat for all the action.

When the time finally came for the nomination of Presidential candidates, the place erupted as the loudspeakers boomed over and over, "We want Roosevelt." The chant, coupled with stamping feet, was taken up by the packed galleries. It was no contest and F.D.R. was on his way to a third term -the first President to break the two term tradition set by George Washington, one hundred and forty three years earlier. It was later revealed that the pandemonium was triggered by the "machine" having taken over the Coliseum's sound system. Since the system's control center was located deep in the Coliseum's basement and the voice identified as that of Thomas Garry, Superintendent of Sewers, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, a not particularly Democrat oriented local paper, termed the incident "the voice from the sewer," a phrase still used when referring to the convention. The demonstration went on and on and on.

The streetcar got me to the station just in time to catch the last hourly train to the University and a long walk to my room. It was about 2:30 a.m. with a final exam but a few hours away. I can't say what my performance was, but following the exam I told the professor what I had done, He must have been truly understanding, and in view of what had happened at the Convention, maybe a bit envious for whatever my performance, he gave me an acceptable grade and the event was a great conversation piece.

Addendum

The 1940 convention was notable because FDR's successful election in the fall to a third term provided the seed for the subsequent movement for and the adoption of the 22nd amendment to the Constitution, barring any further three- term presidents.

Passage of the amendment was delayed until 1951 for, in addition to the normally slow amending process, the nation had become deeply involved in the war to crush Hitler. With Roosevelt's major role in the conduct of that conflict, the country opted to follow Abraham Lincoln who, in 1864, finding himself involved in a similar wartime situation observed, "I may not be the best man, but it is not best to change horses while crossing a stream."

In 1944 with the war very much a reality, FDR was given a fourth term.. He died but a few months after inauguration, passing his mantle to Vice-President Harry S. Truman.

In retrospect, on that hot July evening in 1940 I had truly "rubbed elbows with history."

Joe White’s desk is a well-used round kitchen table, a stark difference from the polished furniture in other suites of his downtown Little Rock high-rise building. On this particular day, three take-out coffee cups sit on top of his desk in varying states of empty, and one unmistakably empty beer can lays on its side.

A 2004 Hendrix College graduate with a degree in biology, Joe is the top – and only – sales and marketing agent for Capsearch, an innovative company developed by fellow Hendrix alumni Katie Bodenhamer ’01 and Matt Price ’03. Three of Capsearch’s four-person team, the Hendrix trio incidentally weren’t close friends while at Hendrix, but they have now invested their time, money and energy in a company that started small but shows significant signs of prospering into a profitable nationwide political search corporation.

Their office is undoubtedly Hendrixesque – their conference table is of the foosball variety, and Joe is able to locate his dusty framed diploma with relative ease – leaning atop a built-in bookcase in his office. Gathering together in one office, Matt brings in an old metal lawn chair more fitting for a front porch, similar to the ones outside Martin Hall.

Specifically, Capsearch is a Web-based research utility providing lobbyists, legislators, educational institutions, businesses, and associations with real-time information and analysis on changes in state legislative and governmental activities. According to its Web site, Capsearch uses innovative technologies combined with an experienced staff to provide the most comprehensive service in the market. "Our analysts have the detailed knowledge that gives you the competitive edge," the site advertises. "Our technology provides you the most options to disseminate your message wherever it needs to go."

Pressed for a layman’s description of their business, however, Matt describes Capsearch as "Bloomberg for legislative data." Katie’s description is even clearer for members of their Millennial generation: "If Google and Facebook had a baby, and that baby had a knack for government data, that baby would be Capsearch."

Their service is much like Katie describes – a search engine of specific legislative bills, committee reports and agendas, along with a social media element that allows users to comment on posts, create personal coalition groups, and share information electronically. Each member of the Arkansas General Assembly receives a complimentary account, and users can interact directly within the service through a mechanism called "Chatter." It is especially useful to political observers when multiple meetings are occurring at the capitol – users can attend a committee hearing in one room while tracking a bill’s progress from a meeting across the hall through their computer, iPhone, or PDA device. Users can also create lists of topic-specific bills to utilize in more formal reports. Most lobbyists in Arkansas are clients; fitting, since Capsearch is the first step toward full-fledged digital lobbying.

A jump off the cliff moment

Matt and Katie’s resumes both traverse from Hendrix College to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and back to the Capitol in Little Rock, where both were working for Gov. Mike Beebe in 2008. Somewhere along that path, Matt envisioned Capsearch, noticing there was no real-time provider for legislators, lobbyists, and others interested in the fast-paced political world to track legislative activities. Information at the Capitol would sometimes take days to be reported, and businesses interested in legislative developments and outcomes were hiring two or three extra employees to simply track bills and activity throughout the legislative session. There are often more than 2,500 bills introduced into a three-month session of the legislature.

The two ultimately had a jump off the cliff moment, left the governor’s office to create Capsearch in September of 2008, and worked to have their product up and running for the Arkansas General Assembly’s regular session in 2009. What prompted the change from a steady paycheck to a risky self-started business?

"I guess you can call me a contrarian," Matt said. "Even since my Hendrix days, I’ve always wanted to have my own company like this, and to ultimately make lots of money. But I thought about owning my own company about like winning the lottery – it was nice to think about, but I never saw it as a reality. Starting this company was a measured risk that has really been a lot of fun."

"It really took a lot for us to do it," Katie added. "We really had good gigs at the time. But it came down to the fact that I wanted a challenge. This is probably something that Matt has always wanted to do, but I never really saw myself doing something like this.

"I don’t know why I did it some days," she continued. "I’m glad I did it, and at the time I saw it as an exciting opportunity. It was definitely a risk that paid off."

They worked to sell their new product, as their first clients, including lobbyists, the University of Arkansas System, the Municipal League, and the Association of Arkansas Counties grew from 50 initially to 100 throughout the first session. Now more than 250 people utilize Capsearch’s services. They added Karl Hills, a technical officer who has worked to make the product more user-friendly.

Following the legislative session, Matt and Katie regrouped and analyzed their business, from their client growth to the services provided. They decided to hire another employee, and Joe came on board to direct marketing and client growth efforts, leaving a job in financial services. Matt and Joe were old acquaintances from their high school football playing days at Little Rock Catholic High School, and remained acquaintances through college.

Joe’s decision to join this alumni entrepreneurial crusade was perhaps a little more personal.

"There’s no way I could live with myself if Matt went off and did something great and I wasn’t a part of it," he said. "Nothing would piss me off more."

Katie and Matt credit Joe’s enthusiasm for the growth of Capsearch throughout the U.S., relying on him to attract new users as the system develops in other states. Using the Arkansas model, Capsearch has developed similar programs that are being used in California, Alabama and Illinois. The company plans to expand to all 50 states by next year.

Ultimately, they say their Hendrix backgrounds give their business a base to work from: common friends, shared experiences, unique perspectives on government and the world. They are business professionals who didn’t take business courses while in college, but yet credit their college experiences for preparing themselves to be successful.

"I think it gives us a base to work from," Matt said. "We’ve hired Hendrix students as part-time workers – we know what to expect from Hendrix graduates. It’s kind of weird how these things just happened, but we owe a lot to Hendrix."

They insist their company’s growth and success won’t change them – Joe doesn’t plan on trading in his eclectic desk, blue jeans will remain the typical office dress code, and the occasional beer can isn’t frowned upon by the bosses. But they do anticipate one major change – "Perhaps we’ll get a better foosball table," Joe said.

Learn more about CapSearch at www.capsearch.com.

What those 1984-85 Hendrix Warriors accomplished is obscured by a different culture, a different basketball era,
a modest record, a first-round exit and conferences, affiliations and facilities long past.

During one of the heydays of the late Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference, Hendrix was the dominant team of the late 1970s-1980s. The 1984-85 Warriors won the school’s fourth AIC championship in six years.

But that team was the only team in Hendrix history to qualify for the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City, a popular, hotly contested tournament in those days because many of the teams now in NCAA Division II were still in the NAIA at the time.

The recurring wrench in the Hendrix machine had been the NAIA District 17 tournament, which brought together all the AIC teams plus the independents for a single-elimination tournament (at Little Rock’s Barton Coliseum in those days) to determine the NAIA representative.

The AIC was extremely balanced in those days. Most of the time, the teams would beat up on each other during the regular season so much, it was difficult for any team to achieve a national ranking that would lead to a favorable seed in the national tournament. Very, very few teams won both the regular-season title and the District 17 title, which usually required three victories during a long weekend. The AIC was so competitive from top to bottom that come tournament time, the re-energized teams formed a many-pronged gauntlet that could rip the regular-season champion (and major target) apart. The AIC championship was an albatross for most teams going into the district tourney.

Those 1984-85 Warriors were not a talent team, but they were a balanced team inside and out, had a collection of outstanding athletes and played ferocious defense. They played together nicely, helping define synergy, a popular word in the era to define chemistry and togetherness.

The Warriors defeated Arkansas Tech in a tightly contested title game to finally earn the NAIA spot denied their predecessors, many of whom had more marquee players.

They went to Kansas City, played like they had stage fright and lost to a pretty good Georgia Southwestern team in the first game.

Those NAIA days are now a distant memory to the Warriors, who are in a different world in NCAA Division III. The AIC, characterized by intense, in-state rivalries, is no more. Barton Coliseum is basically a rodeo arena, little used except around State Fair time. The NAIA tournament is far out of the national spotlight. Grove Gymnasium, the cracker box the Warriors played in, is long gone. From its rubble grew the ultra-modern $26 million Student Life and Technology Center, the newest building on a growing campus. The 1984-85 Warriors assembled in the new Grove, which is contained in the modern Wellness and Athletics Center.

During a halftime ceremony Friday (Jan. 16), the former players walked onto Cliff Garrison Court, named in honor of their coach, who received a rousing ovation.

The smiles, the handshakes and the hugs indicated the team still has a special bond. You could hear it in the conversation Friday night around food and scrapbooks at a reception.

It’s also interesting and insightful the wide variety of professions the Warriors have settled into now.

Conway’s Nick Lasker is a middle school principal in Lantana, Texas. Terry Bradshaw is in management at Wurth Industries in Conway. Dr. Bill Rollefson is a physician at Arkansas Heart Hospital. Mark Cothren works at Acxiom. Anthony Greene is a vice president for a claims consulting company in Kansas City. Dwayne Gardner works in management for Walmart in Palestine, Texas, and also pastors a church. Wyndell Hunt works in management at an insurance company in Mission City, Texas. Tony Petty works in pharmaceutical sales in McKinney, Texas. Rodney Reese works in the trucking industry in Beebe. Lloyd Jackson works for Conway Public Schools. Robert Wright is director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Faulkner County. Mark Hamby, a former Central Baptist College star and athletic director, coaches at Magnet Cove. Jeff Johnson is in business in northeast Arkansas.

Albert Ussery, a manager on the team, manages a Pizza Hut in Little Rock. Statistician Larry Graddy, who developed the first computerized stat program in Arkansas, is an attorney in Conway and president of the Warrior Booster Club. Assistant coach Randy Deaton is athletic director in Stuttgart. Assistant coach Jim Holland coaches seventh-grade basketball and teaches physical education at Bob Courtway Middle School. Garrison is retired but still teaches a coaching course at Hendrix.

But here’s what’s really impressive about this group. The Hendrix roster that year contained 15 players. Twelve of them returned for Friday’s ceremony. Hamby couldn’t attend because of a medical situation with his mother but came to Conway on Saturday for the second day of the reunion. Johnson had a business commitment Friday but also joined his former teammates Saturday. One player, David Hertberg, had no current address and did not attend.

That’s 14 of 15 players, a manager and all coaches who returned for the reunion.

The Warriors were 21-11 in 1984-85.

But 25 years later, it probably recorded its greatest, and most cherished, statistic.

---

David McCollum is a sports columnist for the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Ark. This article was published in the January 18, 2010 edition of the Log Cabin Democrat and is reprinted by permission.

The $26 million building, the biggest capital project in the history of the College, opened in January when the students returned for the start of the spring semester.

A series of events were planned to introduce the Student Life and Technology Center (SLTC) to the campus and community. Events included an open house for the campus and another for the Conway community, plus a special meal prepared and served by Dining Services to celebrate the new kitchen and dining hall.

During the first week of classes, the Nannie Worsham Student Performance Hall was christened with four nights of performances and activities that drew more than 400 students to each event.

Shortly after the building opened, the Hendrix Board of Trustees and the Hendrix Alumni Association Board of Governors met in the SLTC and saw first-hand how students are enjoying the new space. The first off-campus group to use the facility was the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board which conducted its quarterly meeting in the SLTC at the end of January.

Students, faculty and staff were eager to check out the new building as the spring semester began. Now, it has become part of the daily routine and a convenient place for students to take advantage of services and programs on their way to the dining room for a meal or the post office to pick up their mail. That’s exactly what the building planners hoped would happen, according to Dr. Karla Carney-Hall, vice president for Student Affairs.

"The SLTC combines campus resources like Residence Life, Career Services, Academic Advising, Disability Services, Tutoring, and Multicultural and International Student Services to create a one-stop student service area for our growing student body," Dr. Carney-Hall said. "The SLTC represents our commitment to strong community, student-centeredness, engaged learning, and the future."

What's Inside

The SLTC includes the Oathout Technology Center designed for interactive group work, offices and work space for student organizations, programming areas for the Hendrix community, a café, game room, and post office on the first floor of the building. The second floor houses the new dining hall, kitchen, servery, and small dining rooms.

The Oathout Technology Center (OTC) is a vibrant, open computer center for both work and play. It includes computer workstations with space for several individuals to work together. The stations are configured in various ways from soft, comfortable seating with large flat panel displays mounted on the wall to more traditional computer-type desks with widescreen monitors. The software available includes creative suites for making presentations and videos. The workstations can also be used for electronic gaming.

The OTC also contains a small seminar-type classroom that houses the latest technology available in the Hendrix College classroom so students can practice presentations. The final component to the OTC is a video conference room, which can be used for multiple purposes, but is equipped with technology primarily for video conferences.

The college’s radio station, student newspaper offices, yearbook, and other student-related organizations are adjacent to the OTC. The area includes dedicated space for the Student Senate and for the Social Committee, including a work area and meeting space. In addition, conference rooms, seminar rooms and offices are scattered throughout the building.

The blend of high-tech with the warmth and character of a traditional campus center is a hit with students, according to Chance McDermott ’10, outgoing president of the Student Senate. Integrating technology into a public space is one way to keep social media from replacing face-to-face interaction, he said.

"I like being here, and everyone I’ve talked to does, too. The game room is packed with folks playing pool, air-hockey, and, my favorite, table tennis," McDermott said. "There are always students occupying the lounge and hanging out in the chairs in the back hallways."

Gathering student organizations together in the SLTC is also improving communication and collaboration, he said.

"The student organizations have spacious, yet integrated offices that allow us to communicate like neighbors," McDermott said. "I can’t tell you how important this will be for the smooth functioning of the major groups like Social and Media committees."

Many alumni have fond memories of good friends and fun times in Hulen Hall. McDermott believes today’s students are forming similar memories.

"I can already tell that the SLTC will be creating new friendships and strengthening old ones for a long time to come," he said.

Ubiquitous Technology

The SLTC is a different kind of student life center because of the level of technology that is distributed throughout the building. Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd said this integration of technology with activities of daily life reflects a cultural shift that has occurred over the past decade.

"We have a new generation of students for whom technology is ubiquitous. It has become part of the culture. It is how they play; it is part of their social network; part of their hobbies, their church and spiritual life. Technology is where connections are made," President Cloyd said.

"When Starbucks introduced WiFi it really hit me," President Cloyd continued. "What people really wanted was to take their laptop to the coffee shop and play games, drink their coffee and talk with friends. It was a place to see and be seen and the technology was just always there."

President Cloyd said that the need for a new student center was evident when he first joined the Hendrix staff in the mid-1990s as Vice President for Development. If, as planned at one time, a new student center had been built in the last decade, it would have been a radically different building, he said.

"Since 1996, there has been a revolution in technology," he said. "In 1996, the average cell phone weighed six pounds. We had bag phones and those huge ones with the battery in the trunk."

"The whole digital revolution created a democratization of technology. We used to have ‘keepers’ of technology. You had to check it out, take special care with it because it was so precious," President Cloyd continued. "We had people who knew how to use technology and those who didn’t. We still have people who really know how to use the technology, but almost everyone can at some level. My parents, who are in their eighties, have their laptop and send e-mail."

"Access to technology is access to knowledge. So, the digital revolution has democratized knowledge as well as technology. If knowledge is power and knowledge is democratized, then power is distributed everywhere," President Cloyd said. "People can create things today with a computer that only a few people with special equipment and experience could create a decade ago. That’s why I wanted the digital editing suite in the Oathout Technology Center. I wanted our students to have the power to create their own video projects – and post them on YouTube."

origin of the idea

Hendrix is the only institution in Arkansas to combine a student center with a technology center and one of the few in the nation. As planning for the building began, representatives of the College sought out other institutions where cutting-edge technology centers were housed in informal spaces.

"A group of Trustees went with me and others to visit Emory and Georgia Tech and Rollins College where they have technology centers. We hired the people who worked on the Cox Center at Emory to help us think through how to set up the Student Life and Technology Center," President Cloyd said. "We couldn’t select the new technology until right at the last minute because things are changing so fast. So, we built the infrastructure and planned the types of things we wanted, waiting until the very last minute to purchase the hardware and software … and I’m sure that some of the things we purchased a few months ago are already out of date."

More than a Living Room

"The SLTC is not just a living room. It is comfortable like a living room, but it is also a globalized space because of the technology," President Cloyd said.

He envisions a future where Hendrix students in the SLTC could participate in classes taught by professors at Heilongjiang University, our sister campus in China, using the video conference center.

• Or, students in Dr. Jay McDaniel’s World Religions course could talk with a "virtual" classroom visitor about the practice of Buddhism in China.
• Or, business students could connect through technology to work on joint projects with students in other countries, learning to work across cultural, distance, and language barriers in the same ways that business professionals do every day.

President Cloyd is talking with other presidents in the Associated Colleges of the South (a consortium of 16 of the best liberal arts colleges in the South, including Hendrix) about ways to use technology to collaborate to provide courses that wouldn’t be economically feasible for one institution to offer alone.

"We can do so much by combining resources … even hiring faculty together and cross-listing courses," President Cloyd said. "The technology offers the opportunity of connecting face-to-face with another human being and learning from them – no matter where they are."

A Commitment to the Future

Like most of the buildings at Hendrix, the Student Life and Technology Center has been funded by donations from alumni, parents and friends of the College, along with support from foundations and corporations. Funding the SLTC is one of the priorities of A Commitment to National Leadership: The Hendrix Campaign, the College’s $100 million fund-raising drive. The $26 million building is the largest component of the campaign, which ends in December 2010. Hendrix is currently working to raise the remaining funding for the SLTC by June 2010 to qualify for the $750,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation of Troy, Mich.

For more information about the campaign and the Kresge Challenge, turn to Page 47 or contact the Office of Advancement at 501.450.1223.

Hulen traditions live on in new cafeteria

The shiny surfaces and open layout of the new cafeteria have brought a modern flare to mealtimes at Hendrix. In addition to the Homestyle line and the grill, a "World’s Fare" station now offers traditional cuisine from around the world, and a fiery brick oven cooks up six varieties of pizza each day. But below the bells and whistles of the new cafeteria, the traditions from Hulen live on.

• The cafeteria ladies still sing and clap as they present each student with a cake on his or her birthday. And the acoustics of the new dining room make the traditional birthday song ("Happy happy birthday, we’re really glad you came...") sound even louder.
• Students rush to alert one another if a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies is ready at the dessert station.
• The cafeteria continues to celebrate traditional theme lunches like Robert Burns Day, Rock & Roll Day and Outback Day.
• Diners can choose from six flavors of ice cream and a table full of toppings every Thursday at the sundae bar.
• Long lines form at the Homestyle station on Fridays at lunchtime, as folks wait anxiously for their chicken strips and macaroni and cheese.
• Students, professors and community members gather for roast beef and breaded shrimp at Sunday brunch.
• The staff is proud of how it responds to student requests. They continue to invite new recipes in the "Recipes from Home" box, and old suggestions like Ritzy Chicken have become Hendrix classics.
• Students still celebrate if they find one of the rare, glitter-covered Disco Trays, which are said to bring good luck.

First ‘green’ building

The Student Life and Technology Center was constructed with environmentally friendly features with the goal of becoming the College’s first LEED-certified building. At press time, Hendrix had completed the documentation and application process and was expecting notification at any time of its LEED status.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the recognizable industry standard for sustainability. The U.S. Green Building Council program offers several levels of certification ranging from basic-level certification to platinum-level which represents the ultimate in environmental sustainability.

The College accrued points in five green design categories: sustainable site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

Constructing the new SLTC as the College’s first green building is a natural outgrowth of the Hendrix community’s deep commitment to sustainability and respect for the environment. Much of the College’s building in recent years has been undertaken with respect for the impact of the construction on the environment, although this is the first time that Hendrix has applied for LEED certification.

A sustainable Odyssey

As an Odyssey project in the Special Project category, four Hendrix students designed and implemented an educational project to help the Hendrix community understand sustainability and the "green" aspects of the Student Life and Technology Center. The students prepared educational material that was used to create a Web site, video and brochure about the building’s green aspects.

Dr. Karla Carney-Hall, vice president for Student Affairs, and Dr. Joyce Hardin, professor of biology, were advisers for the student team, which included Taylor Kidd, Catherine Lilly, Lauren Ricci, and Alex Schroeller.

Designing and building a LEED-certified building requires careful planning, balancing philosophical commitment with the need to contain costs. Green features of the SLTC include:

• Efficient fixtures such as sensor faucets, dual-flush toilets, and more sanitary waterless urinals will reduce Hendrix’s water consumption by more than 140,000 gallons, a reduction of almost 60 percent.
• Drought-tolerant vegetation planted around the SLTC and a highly efficient drip irrigation system for watering and landscape maintenance.
• A high efficiency filtration system and individual thermal and lighting controls to improve the health and well-being of occupants and visitors.
• Using roofing material with a high solar reflectance index, a measure of the roof’s ability to reflect the light of the sun off the building, instead of absorbing it.
• Diverting more than 75 percent of the total construction waste from landfills, including being the first in Arkansas to reuse ground gypsum wallboard (drywall) waste. The SLTC’s drywall waste became topsoil fill in the landscaping of The Village at Hendrix.
• Building on an already developed site to reduce the building’s impact on the local environment.
• Promoting use of alternative transportation by including easy access to bike racks and showering and changing facilities in the building and by designating specific parking spaces near the building for alternatively fueled cars.

For more information about the green features of the SLTC visit www.hendrix.edu/LEED.

What does a group of aging baby boomer alumni do when they want to pay tribute to one of their beloved professors who is about to retire? Why they set up a Facebook group and start messaging like crazy!

When we heard that Dr. Chappell would be delivering his "last lecture" at Alumni Weekend 2010, two fellow English majors and I, from the class of 1986, decided that we would share our memories of Dr. Chappell. This was not that unusual because, on occasion, we e-mail each other short essays on some topic or another for no other reason than we enjoy reminiscing about our college days and also still enjoy crafting a piece of writing. We exchanged our memories and then it hit us. What if we gave these tributes to Dr. Chappell? What if we encouraged some of our fellow alumni to do the same? We would find a way to compile notes of congratulations and appreciation and present them to Dr. Chappell on Alumni Weekend.

And just like that, the Facebook group "Cheers to Chuck Chappell" was born. In a short time, the group grew to more than 150 members. But we still wanted to contact all the former English majors. With help from Pamela Owen ’82 in the Alumni and Constituent Relations office, that task was accomplished. Then the notes, e-mails, Facebook postings, and pictures started pouring in.

The tributes came from former Hendrix students of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and ’00s. They came from many different states, from Canada and New Zealand. They came from numerous alumni-turned-professors, teachers, executives, stay-at-home moms, editors, and even a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Dr. Chappell’s students had done well in the years since Hendrix, and they wanted to thank him for his inspiration. They also wanted to thank him for his devotion to his students, his scholarship and his friendship.

Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Blackmon ’86 said of Dr. Chappell’s devotion to literature, "I came to share in and be inspired by that awe, and it helped me see that there was a value and viability in a life of letters." And Lindsey Smith ’94, now an English professor at Oklahoma State University, wrote: "To this day, I use notes from your class as I prepare my own lecture notes! I so much appreciate all you have done for me as I have made my own way in academia."

 Mel White ’74 credits Dr. Chappell with a great deal as well. "Chuck is responsible in a big way for getting me started on my writing career. When I applied for my first journalism job at the Arkansas Democrat in 1974 I had nothing to show the managing editor, Jerry McConnell, except a paper (on Moby Dick) that I had written at Hendrix. Chuck had given me an A+ for it and had written some nicely encouraging comments. Jerry gave me the job, and I’ve always thought that the paper had a lot to do with it. Chuck’s comments gave me a boost in confidence, as well, and the discussions about literature in his classes helped me understand what I did and didn’t like about writing."

Of course, no student of Dr. Chappell’s could ever forget his quick wit. "I cannot imagine English literature or Hendrix College without your constant jokes and puns and your infectious laugh," wrote Charter Morris ’00.

While his humor is unforgettable to his former students, his kindness is what defines him for most of us. Nearly every letter, e-mail or posting contained some remembrance of Dr. Chappell, the gentleman. "You were always the trusted, level-headed man we all knew would do the right thing, in your kind and gentle way," Ann Laux Turney ’75 noted.

Elizabeth Farris Bumpers ’97 wrote, "Long after I graduated from Hendrix, Dr. C and I voted at the same place for the 2004 presidential election. I was pregnant and very sick, and he found a chair for me to sit in during the wait, and moved it for me whenever the line moved! What a gentleman!!!"

Jenny Noble Anderson ’02 called Dr. Chappell, "unfailingly enthusiastic and so wonderfully approachable... People like you made freshmen like me feel less homesick." Could there be any higher compliment paid to a professor? Cory Ledoux ’00 echoed the sentiment, "He was always extremely generous with his time and energy, not to mention the unfailing kindness of his disposition. In fact, in my own teaching experience, I have tried to model interactions with my students as much as possible on memories of working with Dr. Chappell."

Certainly, when any of us think of Dr. Chappell, we instantly think of William Faulkner, too. Leave it to Werner Trieschmann ’86 to find a certain irony there. "Dr. Chappell always struck me as the most genial and genuinely nice professors on campus, which was odd considering how much he loved the degenerate, drunken yet admittedly genius writing of William Faulkner," Trieschmann noted. Many alumni had fond memories of the trips to Oxford, Miss. Andrea Edwards, ’86 wrote, "What a privilege to journey with you to Yoknapatawpha County--you and Mr. Faulkner made quite a pair. And how could I forget the really important things you taught me, like where to find the best catfish in Oxford..."

Another favorite memory often mentioned was Dr. Chappell’s legendary postcard collecton from former students with the words, "This is where were honeymonning at. Your friend, ( Mrs.) Vernon Waldrip." Waldrip was a character in Faulkner’s story, "Old Man." Binky Martin ’86 wrote, "I’m not sure how large his collection of postcards has gotten. But I do know that my postcard is one of his favorites: a postcard from the Arkansas School for the Blind with the line written in Braille. He mentions it every time I see him, and that makes me happy."

Putting a scrapbook together and reminiscing via Facebook has given many of us the chance to thank our beloved professor. I feel especially privileged to have been the person to collect these notes, memories and good wishes. I got to see the common theme running throughout and it is this: You inspired us Dr. Chappell! You inspired us with your outstanding teaching, your devotion to your students, and your uncommon kindness.

And so we toast to Dr. Chappell, in the words of Melissa High Simpson ’94, "May you revel in your retirement, knowing that you have taught well, mentored well, and befriended well."

Your friends,
The many (Mrs.) Vernon Waldrips out there,
(your former students and forever fans).

By Helen S. Plotkin
Editor

"Teaching is a calling, I believe. Teaching Hendrix students is a privilege."

That is how Dr. Charles M. Chappell ’64, Professor of English, describes his 41-year career at Hendrix. Since word spread that Dr. Chappell is retiring when the academic year ends in May, students have been packing his classes for the privilege of saying they studied with a true Hendrix legend.

When Dr. Chappell carries the Hendrix mace for the last time at commencement on May 15 and changes his title to Professor Emeritus, he’ll be taking with him a treasure trove of institutional memories, the best wishes of his colleagues and the hearts of hundreds of Hendrix students who have learned from him over the past four decades.

So, how is Dr. Chappell getting ready for the transition from full-time professor to professor emeritus? What are his retirement plans? How did he wind up at Hendrix in the first place? Dr. Chappell answered these questions and more in an interview with Hendrix Magazine. As you might expect in any discussion with a master teacher, we learned a few things. For example:

Chuck Chappell was born at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where his father was stationed during World War II. His dad was a psychiatrist, who was a resident at the famed Menniger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., after the war. His mother was a mathematician who worked at the Smithsonian Institution and was a teacher. His dad, one of Arkansas’ first board-certified psychiatrists, practiced at Fort Roots in North Little Rock and helped develop the program in psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He grew up in Little Rock and attended First United Methodist Church where Winston Faulkner ’48 was his youth director.

After graduating from Hendrix with honors in English, he earned a master’s degree and then a Ph.D. in English from Emory University. He was a teaching assistant at Emory and an instructor in English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute before joining the Hendrix faculty in 1969. He is married to Carol Weygandt Chappell ’70 and is the father of Christopher Paul Chappell, Timothy Brooks Chappell ’98, and Michael Charles Chappell ’03. His book, Detective Dupin Reads
William Faulkner: Solutions to Six Yoknapatawpha Mysteries, was published in 1997.

Question: You have been part of the Hendrix family since your freshman year in 1960. So why did you pick Hendrix? What drew you to Hendrix as a student?

Answer: I grew up knowing about Hendrix because of my Methodist connections. Many of the wonderful people at First Methodist had come to Hendrix.

I was at Central High as a sophomore in 1957. I mostly didn’t know what was going on. The schools closed in ’58-’59, so I did correspondence work in the 11th grade and my parents moved to Memphis where I finished high school.

My older brother missed his senior year because of the schools closing. Hendrix accepted him – and several other students in the same situation – without him having graduated from high school. I came to visit my brother and the people were so friendly here that I decided this is where I wanted to be.

My parents were disillusioned with what was happening in Arkansas. When I told them that I wanted to go to Hendrix, they didn’t say I couldn’t, but they asked "Do you really want to go back to Arkansas?" So, my dad came and talked with (President) Marshall Steel and with (Dean of Students) Bob Meriwether. I couldn’t believe he did that, but as a parent now I understand why. When he got home, he told me I could come to Hendrix. He said ‘they have the right values and the right approach to academics.’ "

I came to Hendrix in 1960 and roomed with John Roberts, a friend of mine. Then I roomed with Bill Tidmore. Simon Bookout and I roomed together for close to three years. We were living in Millar during the Great Train Wreck. (Read the Great Train Wreck story) I lived in Martin Room 316 with Simon and Greg Williams. It was in Dead End. My son Tim lived in the same room in Martin for a time.

Q. What’s a favorite memory from your student days?

A. I went to all the ballgames when I was a student here; many of us did. Of course, basketball was all there was after football was dropped in my first year. I went to the last game in Axley Gymnasium and the first game in Grove Gym as a student. So did Larry and Hilda Hancock Malpica, both ’64, and Maribeth Woodfin Garrison ’64. So, I made a point of going to the last Grove game and the first game in the Wellness and Athletics Center, as did the others. Of course, Maribeth was there since (Coach) Cliff (Garrison) was being honored.

Q. What’s your favorite spot on campus?

A. My office! I have this great view. I can look out over the central part of campus. It’s beautiful in the spring and fall. I walk around campus all the time. I love the fish pond, the gazebo, the Pecan Court. That’s the essence of Hendrix to me.

Q. When did you first decide to become a teacher?

A. As a student, I was very fortunate to take a course with Helon (Sanders Smith) Yates. She was an excellent teacher and took a personal interest in her students.

My professors suggested I might be a teacher during my freshman year. I took courses with Walter Moffatt ’32 and Paul Faris and Helen Hughes. I decided to become an English major in my freshman year. I didn’t know I’d get a chance to teach at Hendrix.

Q. How did that happen – your coming back to Hendrix to teach English?

A. I’d finished the classwork for my Ph.D. at Emory and was teaching at Virginia Tech, when I got a letter from Walter Moffatt saying they would have a position in English and asking if I’d like to apply. Boy, did I!

The school had changed when I came back as a teacher. It had grown to about 1,000 students and changed to the 3-3 system.

I joined my mentors. I had studied with them and now they became my colleagues. Then they retired and we replaced them with dedicated, talented people like the ones they replaced.

Q. Many alumni memories were created on the Faulkner pilgrimages you led to Oxford, Miss. Tell me a little about how that all started.

A. The first one was in 1983, the first year I taught the Faulkner course. I’ve taken 14 student groups and one alumni group to visit Rowan Oak, Faulkner’s home. The Hendrix-Murphy Programs in Literature and Language have sponsored the trips.

Col. James M. Faulkner (William Faulkner’s nephew) was our host at Rowan Oak. He also visited Hendrix several times to talk about his uncle and share a slide show. He made his first visit in 1977 and his last trip in 2001. We developed a friendship and in 1997, for Faulkner’s 100th birthday, he came here, when he had a choice of places to visit.

On Faulkner’s actual 100th birthday we read aloud The Sound and the Fury. It was an all-day event. We started at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. Students, faculty, staff took turns reading. It was exhilarating.

Q. Tell me about the postcards

A. I got married on June 21, 1969, in Ohio, where Carol is from, and we drove to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, for our honeymoon. I was to start teaching at Hendrix that fall.

William Faulkner wrote a book called The Wild Palms. It’s a counterpoint – one of Faulkner’s experiments. There are two separate stories that don’t intertwine except for a coincidental place. One called Old Man is set during the flood of 1927. The Tall Convict – we don’t know his name – is sent in a rowboat to rescue some people. All he wants to do is get back to prison where there are no women. Near the end of the story, you find out why. He was arrested for robbing a train to impress a woman. When she gets married, she sends him a postcard from a Birmingham hotel. It’s a picture of the hotel with an X marked over one of the rooms. The message says

"This is where were honeymonning at. – (Mrs.) Vernon Waldrip."

I’d taught that work and knew the story. So, on our honeymoon I sent postcards to the people here in the English Department and others. I wrote the same message on the back and signed them Mrs. Vernon Waldrip.

Years later, I told a class here in Southern Literature course about it and I started to get postcards. I’ve gotten hundreds of them over the years. Some of them are creative variations. Some of them were quite funny. It’s a way of keeping contact with students so I’ve kept doing it.

Q. What are your retirement plans?

A. For more than a dozen years, I’ve taught at Life Quest for older adults. I teach a literature course for four Wednesdays in July, two hours at a time. They also have fall, spring and winter classes. I’ll be doing that this summer and will also teach some other time during the year. So, I’ll still do some teaching … but I won’t have papers to grade. I do love to teach, but I won’t mind not grading papers.

Carol and I will travel more. Two of our three sons live in the San Francisco area. So, I’ll go see them – and the grandchildren. I’ll do some reading; I might do some writing.

We have a house in Heber Springs that Carol has planned. She just loves it there, and so do I. So, we’ll spend more time there. It is powered by solar energy. One of our sons works in that field and helped us get it all set up. I plan to stay busy and active, but to set my own schedule. I asked Bob Meriwether ’49 when he retired what the best part of retirement was and he said being able to set his own schedule. I’m looking forward to that.

Q. Why are you retiring now?

A. We have outstanding young faculty in our department who are experienced teachers. I feel good about the department. I feel it is as strong as it has ever been. It is a modern and future-looking department.

I feel good about retiring now because I think the department is in a good place and that I’m leaving what was entrusted to me in good hands.

I feel so blessed and so lucky. I’ve been fortunate to be able to be here all this time and to have these opportunities. Not many people get to work in their ideal job as long as I have.

Odyssey Endowment honors Chappell

Chuck Chappell’s Last Lecture during Alumni Weekend ’10 ended with a surprise announcement.

Former classmates, family and friends worked behind the scenes to establish the Dr. Charles M. Chappell Odyssey Endowment in honor of the retiring English professor and member of the Class of ’64. The group collected more than 50 gifts totaling $54,235. The Chappell Odyssey Endowment will provide financial support for students and faculty members to pursue Odyssey experiences related to the study of English. The funds generated by the endowment will be awarded competitively through the Odyssey Program, with preference being given to English majors.

Simon D. Bookout ’64 (right) and Robert D. Cabe ’63 co-chaired the Chappell Odyssey Endowment Committee. Other members include W. Christopher Barrier ’64, Jack L. Blackshear ’64, W. Dent Gitchel ’63, Cyril Hollingsworth, Diane Haynie Lyons ’65, Ark Monroe ’64, Hilda Hancock Malpica ’64, and Michael V. Hutchison, associate vice president for Development at Hendrix.

To learn more about how you can contribute to the Chappell Endowment, please contact the Office of Advancement at 501.450.1223 or malpica@hendrix.edu.

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View the video of Chuck Chappell's Last Lecture from Alumni Weekend 2010.

By Katie Rice '10
Staff Writer

For students living in Hendrix’s six traditional residence halls, each spring brings up a difficult question: Should I stay or should I go? Incoming freshmen are required to live in one of the res halls, but upperclassmen can choose from a cornucopia of other housing options, including theme houses and a variety of apartment complexes.

After a year or two of dorm life, many students can’t wait to have their own bathrooms and kitchens. But leaving the effortless camaraderie of group living isn’t easy. Particularly in the apartments, it takes some effort to strike a balance between independence and isolation.

"I like Raney a lot because it’s just one hallway and so you get to know everyone really easily," said Michaelene Miller, a freshman from Little Rock. "There aren’t a lot of places to hide in Raney, and it’s the smallest dorm, so everyone gets to know each other."

Miller and her roommate, freshman Mauren Kennedy of Bentonville, live together on the third floor of Raney. Located next door to the library, Raney has the reputation of being a cloister for the studious "Raney nuns." But what Miller appreciates most is the hall’s central location, which keeps her engaged in campus life.

For next year they have their eyes on the presidential suite – the largest room in Raney, which is annually bestowed upon the new Raney Hall president. Kennedy is about to begin campaigning, but even if she isn’t elected the roommates plan to stay in one of the residence halls.

"As a freshman and sophomore I feel like I should be in the center of campus so I can grab all the opportunities that are available. It’s easier to do that living on campus," she said. "We’ll move into an apartment junior or senior year for sure, because by that time you have your friends and you know what you want to do and you have your basic schedule down."

Few sophomores live in Hendrix apartments, since that space is in high demand by upperclassmen.

"We got lucky," explained Jen Baker '12, who lives in The Corner apartments with her roommate Olivia Harrington '12. The two became best friends when they lived down the hall from each other in Couch Hall last year. They relish the privacy of having their own bedrooms and bathrooms, and they say it’s actually easier to be social in an apartment.

"In an apartment you can have a couple of friends over and it’s not a big deal," Baker said. "You don’t have to worry about your neighbors."

She and Harrington make an effort to invite friends over. They host weekly "family dinners" with their friends, and they have a guestbook and a bathroom guestbook that they ask visitors to sign. They’ve even transformed one of their closets into a teensy third bedroom for friends who want to stay overnight.

Both Baker and Harrington make an effort to hang out on campus, so they still feel like part of the Hendrix community.

"When it’s nice outside we’ll hang out in the pecan court or in the Murphy house after classes, and we study in the library and hang out in the student life center a decent amount of time," Baker recounted. "I don’t feel distant from campus or anything; I still feel like I’m involved."

The only downside of their move to The Corner at the intersection of Mill and Front streets was trying to furnish the apartment. Baker and Harrington had to bring furniture from their homes in St. Louis and New Orleans, respectively.

"It’s going to be a big hassle to move out at the end of the year, since both of us are studying abroad next semester," Baker said. "But we both think it’s worth it. With being abroad, we’re not sure where we’ll live when we come back. But we’d like to keep living in [The Hendrix Corner]. We like it a lot."

J.J. is originally from Bentonville, Ark., and attended Hendrix, graduating in 1996 with a B.A. in Spanish. After leaving Hendrix, she attended Boston University School of Theology where she received a Master of Divinity degree. She began her professional work at Hendrix in 2002. She currently serves as Associate Director of the Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics, and Calling and as the Assistant Chaplain for the College.

When J.J. is not working, she enjoys Jazzercise and watching "Lost." She also enjoys going on dates with her husband, Kaleb Barrett, to Mike’s Place in Conway or Lily’s Dim Sum in Little Rock, and playing Star Wars with her 4-year-old son, Jack.

Life as a Student

As a student, J.J. participated in the choir and served as secretary during her junior year. The Candlelight Carol service and spring choir tours are some of her fondest memories. One moment that is frozen in her memory is being thrown into the fountain on her 21st birthday — in January!

During the first two trimesters of her senior year, she studied abroad in Madrid, Spain. In addition to building proficiency in the Spanish language, J.J. believes that her experience abroad positively affected her life. She says of the experience, "Living in another country taught me about my own culture, honed self-discipline, self-reliance, and independence in traveling, and gave me insight into what it means to be ‘different.’ Without my study abroad experience, I would not have been prepared to take on the duties in my current vocation."

Life as an Employee

J.J. was originally hired by the college as the Program Coordinator for the Hendrix-Lilly Vocations Initiative. Although she performed chaplaincy functions in this job, it was not until 2004 that she was given the Assistant Chaplain title. Then in 2008, with the generous gift of Bob & Nadine Miller, the Hendrix-Lilly program became the Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics, and Calling and J.J. was named Associate Director.

In addition to many other job duties, J.J preaches at chapel and co-administers the sacrament of Holy Communion during weekly services. She also leads other religious programs on campus, mentors students who are interested in ministry, leads vocation workshops for interns in non-profit and religious organizations, and leads at least one mission trip per year. Outside of the duties her job demands of her, she has also taken on teaching the first-year Explorations seminar for the past four years.

Although she is a fairly recent graduate, J.J. has seen many changes at the college since her time as a student. The college is no longer on a trimester system, and she has personally enjoyed watching the Odyssey program take shape. "It has been exciting to see what ignites student passions and how they are given the chance to ‘try out’ these passions in the world," she says.

J.J. says, "I think the Hendrix community truly wants to make a difference in the world and I find that kind of energy contagious." Perhaps that is why she has chosen to make her home at Hendrix.

David Bailin, adjunct instructor of art, exhibited work in the West Coast Drawings: Drawings VIII exhibit at the Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Wash., and exhibited work in the Ten Year Celebration: Solo Exhibition Artists Retrospective exhibit at The Visual Arts Center of the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Jay Barth, M.E. & Ima Graves Peace Professor of Politics, published "Arkansas: Still Swingin’ in 2004," which appeared in the American Review of Politics and was reprinted in Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government; "Arkansas: More Signs of Momentum for Republicanism in Post-`Big Three’ Arkansas" in the American Review of Political Science and was reprinted in Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government; "The Media, the Medium, and Malaise: Assessing the Effects of Campaign Media Exposure with Panel Data" Mass Communication and Society (with L. Marvin Overby); and "Arkansas: He’s Not One of (Most of Us") in A Paler Shade of Red: The 2008 Presidential Election in the South (with Janine Parry and Todd Shields).

Carl Burch, associate professor of computer science, served as Nifty Assignments Chair at the Conference of the Consortium for Computing Sciences, Mid-South Region, 2010.

Chris Campolo, associate professor of philosophy, presented "Deep disagreement in a multicultural world," at the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario.

Stella M. Capek, professor of sociology, presented "Caught Up In The Mix" at the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) meetings in Victoria, British Columbia; and co-organized and presided for a Thematic Session on the New Politics of Community titled "Environmental Justice and Immigrant/Refugee Communities" at the American Sociological Association annual meetings in San Francisco, Calif. Additionally, she served as advisor to the Endometriosis Association.

Andres Caro, assistant professor of chemistry, received the Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Award ($44,869 for January 2009-January 2011) for his research on reactive oxygen species and CYP2E1-dependent oxidation of mitochondrial DNA in liver cells. He also served as Assistant Professor of Research Service at the Little Rock Campus of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Andrea Duina, assistant professor of biology, received additional funding for his research "Analysis of the role of histone H3 in transcription elongation." He previously received funding from the NSF RUI program for 2006-2010, which has now been extended for 2011-2013, for $473,089.

Karen Fannin, assistant professor of music, served as Music Director of the Little Rock Wind Symphony. She also published "The Battle Pavane by Tielman Susato" in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA Publications).

Peter Gess, adjunct instructor of politics, presented "Presidential Scholars Program: International Educational Initiatives from Rwanda’s Vision 2020," with Gilbert Ndayambaje at the NAFSA Region III Conference in Dallas, Texas.

Tom Goodwin, Elbert L. Fausett Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Julia Mobley Odyssey Professor, published "Male and female developmental differences in chemosensory investigations by African elephants (Loxodonta africana) approaching waterholes" in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (with Christen Merte and Bruce Schulte); "The elephants of Addo: An undergraduate research adventure" in Journal of the Elepant Managers Association (Broederdorf, L.J., Meyer, J.M., Freeman, E.W., &Bruce Schulte); "Monitoring African elephant chemical communication and hormone activity in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa" in the Journal of the Elephant Managers Association (with Jordana Meyer, Elizabeth Freeman, and Bruce Schulte); "The Garden of Green Organic Chemistry at Hendrix College" in Changing the Course of Chemistry: Green Chemistry Education (American Chemical Society); "Prospecting for mammalian chemical signals via solventless extraction techniques: an elephantine task" in ChemoSense (with Bruce Schulte); "Greener Solutions for the Organic Chemistry Teaching Lab: Exploring the Advantages of Alternative Reaction Media" in the Journal of Chemical Education (with Lallie McKenzie, Lauren Huffman, James Hutchison, Courtney Rogers & Gary Spessard); and "Sexual dimorphism in the performance of chemosensory investigatory behaviours by African elephants (Loxodonta africana)" in Behaviour (with Helen Loizi., L.E.L. Rasmussen, Anna Whitehouse & Bruce Schulte).

Karen Griebling, professor of music, served as President of ARVIOLAS (Arkansas Chapter of the Viola Society).

Joyce Hardin, Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Assistant Professor of Biology, served as President of the Arkansas Academy of Science and as a member of the Tree Board for the City of Conway.

Courtney Hatch, assistant professor of chemistry, received the Corporation for Science Advancement, Cottrell College Science Award for her research "Heterogeneous processing of mineral aerosol by reactive gases in the Earth’s atmosphere." The award is for $45,000, 2010-2012. She also attended Atmospheric Science Collaborations and Enriching Networks (ASCENT) in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and published "Water uptake on humic and fulvic acids: Aerosol and thin film measurements" in Atmospheric Environment (with Kelly Gierlus, James Zahardis, Jennifer Schuttlefield, and Vicki Grassian).

J. Brett Hill, assistant professor of anthropology, published "What Difference Does Environmental Degradation Make? Change and its Significance in Transjordan" in The Archaeology of Environmental Change: Socionatural Legacies of Degradation and Resilience (University of Arizona Press, Tucson). He also co-edited (with Christopher T. Fisher and Gary M. Feinman) The Archaeology of Environmental Change: Socionatural Legacies of Degradation and Resilience (University of Arizona Press).

Jeff Kosiorek, visiting assistant professor of history, reviewed The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Environment, which appeared in Environmental History.

John Krebs, professor of music and humanities area chair, (with Karen Griebling, Hendrix and Jackie Lamar, UCA) performed at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, Thailand.

Lisa Leitz, assistant professor of sociology, co-organized and presided, "The Effects of the Iraq War on the U.S. Military and Peace-Making," Peace, War, & Social Conflict Paper Session, American Sociological Association annual meetings in San Francisco, Calif.

Matthew Lopas, associate professor of art, exhibited his work "Panoramic Interiors" at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas, Texas.

Tim Maxwell, professor of psychology, served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Annual Editions: Psychology (McGraw-Hill/Dushkin).

J. J. Mayo, associate professor of kinesiology, served on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Undergraduate Kinesiology Research.

Jay McDaniel, Willis T. Holmes Distinguished Professor of Religion and Nancy and Craig Wood Odyssey Professor, was invited to teach a five-day course on Buddhism and Christianity at the Vancouver School of Theology.

Kristi McKim, assistant professor of film studies, presented "Cinephilia as Sensual Film History in The Dreamers" at the Southern Illinois University Department of Cinema and Photography and "Ephemeral Style: Intimate Scale and Subjectivity in Doris Dörrie’s Cherry Blossoms" at the 2009 World Picture Conference at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla. She also reviewed Ingmar Bergman’s The Magic Lantern, which appeared in Film International.

Rod Miller, associate professor or art, presented "Perelandra: The Synoptic Lewis." at the Perelandra Project Colloquium, St. Stephen’s house in Oxford, England.

Jenn Penner, assistant professor of psychology, presented "The Effects of Site Provisioning on Cache Pilfering Rates in Eastern Gray Squirrels" at the Animal Behavior Society Annual Meeting in Pirenópolis, Brazil.

Jennifer Peszka, associate professor of psychology, had research referenced in Time magazine, December 2009 edition. She also co- presented "The Effect of Console/Computer Game Play on Sleepiness and Sleep Hygiene" at the 23^rd Annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (SLEEP) in Seattle, Wash.; and co- presented "Chronotype, Sleep Hygiene, and Academic Performance in High School and College" at the 23^rd Annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (SLEEP) in Seattle, Wash., and published "Online Academic Integrity" in Teaching of Psychology (with David Mastin & Deborah Lilly).

Sasha Pfau, assistant professor of history, presented "Distinguishing Physiological Illness from Supernatural Phenomena in Late Medieval France," at the Texas Medieval Association Conference at the University of Texas in Austin.

Rebecca Resinski, associate professor of classics, published "Revising Pandora (and Rewriting Eve) in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wonder Book," in Asterisks and Obelisks: Classical Receptions in Children’s Literature.

Brigitte Rogers, visiting assistant professor of dance, served as Assistant Choreographer for The Producers with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre.

John Sanders, professor of religion, published "Theological Muscle-Flexing: How Human Embodiment Shapes Discourse About God" in Creation Made Free: Open Theology Engaging Science (Pickwick Publications). He also presented "Can Classical Theism Support Creativity, Adventure, and non Conformity? A Reply to Process Theists." and "Divine Relationality and Theodicy in The Shack." to the American Academy of Religion in Montreal; and "Something Old, Something New: Reflections on Evangelical Scholarship in Light of the Open Theism Controversy," to the Society of Evangelical Scholars in Montreal. And, he lectured at the Theta Phi Fall Forum at Asbury Seminary.

Lawrence Schmidt, professor of philosophy, was invited to lecture at Heilongjiang University in Harbin, China.

Andrew Scott, assistant professor of classics, selected to participate in the 2009 American Numismatic Society’s Eric P. Newman Graduate Seminar in Numismatics in New York.

Allison Shutt, associate professor of history, chaired the first African Studies Association conference in New Orleans, La., where she co-organized a series of panels titled "Theatres of Class and Conflict in Zimbabwe." and presented "Insult Laws and Contentious Authority in Zimbabwe."

J. Aaron Simmons, assistant professor of philosophy, published "Teaching Plato with Emoticons" in the APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy (with Scott F. Aikin); "Revisiting Gender Inclusive God-Talk: A New, Wesleyan Argument" in Philosophy and Theology (with Mason Marshall); "Vision Without Image: A Levinasian Topology" in Southwest Philosophy Review; "Moments of Intense Presence: An Interview with David Wood" in the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory (with David Wood); "From Necessity to Hope: A Continental Perspective on Eschatology Without Telos" in Heythrop Journal (with Nathan R. Kerr); and "Continuing to Look for God in France: On the Relationship Between Phenomenology and Theology," in Words of Life: New Theological Turns in French Phenomenology (Fordham University Press). He also presented the lecture "Heavenly Minded and Earthly Good: Evangelical Christianity and Environmental Ethics" at Central Methodist University.

Damon Spayde, assistant professor of physics, published "Strange Quark Contributions to Parity-Violating Asymmetries in the Backward Angle G0 Electron Scattering Experiment" in Physical Review Letters.

Tom Stanley, Bill and Connie Bowen Odyssey Professor of Economics and Business, published "Publication Selection Bias in Minimum-Wage Research? A Meta-Regression Analysis" in the British Journal of Industrial Relations (with Hristos Doucouliagos) and "Efficiency Wages, Productivity and Simultaneity: A Meta-Regression Analysis" in the Journal of Labor Research (with Eric Krassoi-Peach). He also presented "Are Recreation Values Systematically Underestimated? Getting Beyond Publication Selection Bias." at a DARE Seminar at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo.

David Sutherland, professor of biology, lectured and presided over the induction of new members at the Pi Mu Epsilon chapter at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., and Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. He also presided over student undergraduate research presentations, Pi Mu Epsilon awards ceremony and lectured at the Mathematical Association of America’s MathFest 2009 in Portland, Ore., part of his duties as president of the national council of Pi Mu Epsilon honorary mathematics society.

Alex Vernon, associate professor of English, published "Spirit of Summer" in Soirée. He also reviewed The Gun and the Pen: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and the Fiction of Mobilization by Keith Gandal., which was featured in The Hemingway Review.

Carol West, professor of English, received the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, funded by a $87,805 grant from the U.S. Department of Education and supplemented by $3,500 from the Africa Network’s Luce Foundation grant, to support five weeks of curricular development activities in Senegal and The Gambia for fifteen participants.

Daniel Whelan, assistant professor of politics and international relations, published "The Reality of Western Support for Economic and Social Rights: A Reply to Susan Kang" in Human Rights Quarterly (with Jack Donnelly).

Ann Wright, associate professor of physics, attended "Women in Robotics & Engineering" workshop at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Fla.
See http://www2.hendrix.edu/astronomy/ksc/ksctrip.html for photos

Dr. Thomas E. Goodwin will add another national award to his long list of honors this summer. In June, Dr. Goodwin will receive the CUR Fellows Award, which recognizes excellence in undergraduate research. The Award will be presented at the 2010 Biennial Conference of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

Dr. Goodwin is the Elbert L. Fausett Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Julia Mobley Odyssey Professor at Hendrix, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1978.

The CUR Fellows Awards are presented to CUR members who have developed nationally respected research programs involving undergraduate students. Two CUR Fellows were selected this year. Dr. Gilles Einstein, Professor of Psychology at Furman University, is the other honoree.

Dr. Goodwin said he is most pleased that, as a CUR Fellow, he will receive a CUR Student Research Fellowship to support continued involvement in undergraduate research for a deserving Hendrix student.

Nancy Hensel, Executive Officer of CUR, said, "CUR Fellows is an award that recognizes significant contributions to student development and learning as well as the quest for new knowledge through research. CUR is pleased to honor Dr. Einstein and Dr. Goodwin with our highest award. They are both examples of the commitment and dedication of CUR members to excellent teaching and scholarship."

Dr. Goodwin received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Ouachita Baptist University in 1969 and a Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville in 1974. After postdoctoral appointments at Rice and Texas A&M, and a short stint in chemical industry, he came to Hendrix with a strong belief in the value of involving undergraduate students in meaningful research projects.

Dr. Goodwin sums up his philosophy this way: "Science is taught by doing science; the scientific method is inculcated by practicing it in the laboratory and the field."

His hands-on approach to teaching science has brought recognition to Dr. Goodwin and Hendrix, but most importantly, has created a climate where students learn and excel. A former undergraduate student wrote: "To put it succinctly, excluding my parents, Dr. Goodwin has been the most important influence in my career."

Dr. Goodwin’s area of expertise is synthetic organic chemistry, and for many years that was his primary research focus at Hendrix. In 1993, he was the Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Heterocyclic Compounds.

He later developed a specific research interest in chemical communication among elephants which led to a National Science Foundation-funded collaboration with a behavioral biologist and a biochemist. This research has expanded to include collaborations with biologists to study chemical communication by other mammals, including maned wolves and several lemur species.

Undergraduate students have benefited enormously from these collaborations. Because his research on chemical communication in endangered species occurs at the interface between chemistry and biology, Dr. Goodwin’s students learn to think about chemistry as part of their natural world in a truly interdisciplinary manner.

In addition to a continuing interest in mammalian chemical signaling and synthetic organic chemistry, Dr. Goodwin and his students have been involved for several years in the development of environmentally benign ("green") experiments for the introductory organic chemistry laboratory

Dr. Goodwin has mentored the research work of approximately 120 undergraduate students over the course of 32 years. During his career, he has been recognized for his exceptional teaching practices, including being named the Carnegie/CASE U.S. Professor of the Year for Baccalaureate Colleges in 2003, the only national award recognizing excellence in teaching at the college level.

"Dr. Goodwin is one of Hendrix’s most distinguished faculty members," said Hendrix Provost Robert L. Entzminger. "Not only is his teaching and mentoring legendary among Hendrix students, he was a national pioneer in demonstrating the value of undergraduate research programs, and his leadership and example were crucial in developing Hendrix’s Odyssey Program, which emphasizes hands-on learning experiences as a central component of undergraduate education."

For one thing, we’ve kept our focus through the worst economy since the Great Depression. Our attention has not wavered from our students and the quality of their educational experience. We felt the impact of the stock market plummet in our operating budget and called on our faculty and staff to work smarter, harder and more creatively to stretch our budget to meet our needs – and they have. We called on our alumni and friends to support Hendrix with their gifts, even as they, too, felt the impact of the bad economy – and they did.

We committed the institution to moving forward even in tough times. We knew we could not hunker down and wait for things to get better before pressing on toward our goal of establishing Hendrix as a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education – and we haven’t. We are moving steadily toward our goal in our $100 million campaign, which is set to end in December 2010. (See Calling Hendrix Alumni: We're in the Homestretch!). We opened the new Student Life and Technology Center in January, the last major capital project in our campaign. We hope to complete raising the $26 million needed to pay for the building by the end of the current fiscal year on May 31, 2010 – and with your help we will.

The new SLTC has already become what we envisioned: the vibrant center of student life on the Hendrix campus and a catalyst for creativity and innovation for students and faculty. One example of creative use of the technology available in this new building is the College’s first Red Brick Film Festival. Using inexpensive Flip cameras checked out from the SLTC, Hendrix students produced 3-minute films and submitted them for review. The award-winners debuted during the film festival at the end of April. Visit our Web site for the list of winners and more information. This year’s festival was a pilot for what we hope will be an annual event and just one of many ways the SLTC supports the dynamic learning environment at Hendrix. (For more information about the SLTC, see Technology and Student Life Tied Together in New Center.)

Hendrix is becoming known nationally for its innovative approach to higher education. Last fall, U.S. News & World Report listed us as the No. 1 “Up-and-Coming” liberal arts college in America based on our record of innovation in the classroom and in our buildings and facilities. We count that recognition as proof that our efforts to cultivate a spirit of innovation on campus are having an impact. We promise to do more. Stay tuned.

J. Timothy Cloyd, Ph.D.
President

Dr. Karen Griebling, Music Department Chair and Professor of Music, recently received an enthusiastic review from the International Alliance for Women in Music in their bi-annual journal for her CD titled Wildfire! Dr. Griebling is praised for infusing “her music with a rare authenticity and accessibility seldom captured in music with the twentieth-century methods…” This CD is a collection of Dr. Griebling’s compositions over the years and features musicians such as the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Cross Town Trio, and more. The tracks are heavily influenced by the southwestern United States, and all but one were recorded in concert. The review states that in one track, This Dancing Ground of Sky (1993), “Griebling presents fleeting instances that characterize the brutal, yet vital, terrain of the southwestern United States and its effect on the human spirit and on all of its inhabitants.”

Dr. Griebling has taught music at Hendrix since the fall of 1987. She is professor of composition, theory, counterpoint, orchestration, and viola and conductor of the Hendrix Chamber Orchestra. She is also a violist with the Arkansas Symphony and the Pinnacle Players, a conductorless chamber orchestra based in Little Rock, Arkansas.

By MARK SCOTT
Director of Media Relations 

Pierre Urisanga watched carefully as the student in front of him at the Hulen Cafeteria strategically put together a hamburger. The meat and cheese go inside the bun? And lettuce and tomatoes, too? Such a novel concept, he had to try one for himself, and with the first bite he became infatuated with the popular college cuisine.

A memorable first experience eating at Hendrix, it wasn’t long before he branched out and found his true fast-food love: The Big Mac. “That’s the best,” the Rwandan student responds when asked about his favorite American food.

Pierre’s first year at Hendrix was dotted with variety of firsts – his first baseball game, his first ice storm, his first trip to the beach – and a challenging course load that perhaps weighs more heavily on him than the typical Hendrix student. Pierre will use his degree to rebuild his country.

One of 20 students from Rwanda now attending Hendrix, Pierre is part of the Rwandan Presidential Scholars Program, a partnership that began in 2007 between Hendrix College and Rwandan President Paul Kagame as an effort to provide American college educations to future leaders of the central African country. An educated workforce, from doctors to engineers to research scientists, is needed in the central African country ravaged by a bloody genocide in 1994.

A Hendrix-led higher education consortium with Rwanda was the brainchild of David Knight ‘71, the chief legal council at Stephens Inc. and a member of the Hendrix College Board of Trustees. Knight worked with Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd to begin Hendrix’s relationship with Rwanda, and both men have been instrumental in recruiting new colleges to the consortium during the past two years.

Beginning at Hendrix College in 2007 with four Rwandan students, the program’s consortium grew in 2008 to include the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Harding University in Searcy, Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia and Wofford College (S.C.). This year, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Lyon College in Batesville, Southwestern University (Texas), Birmingham Southern (Alabama) and Sewanee: The University of the South (Tennessee) joined the consortium.

In all, 81 students are now earning college degrees through the innovative program.

Rebuilding Rwanda

In addition to the loss of more than a million lives, one of the most devastating consequences of the genocide in Rwanda was the near-total destruction of the country’s government and private sector infrastructure.  Almost all of the senior government officials, educators and business leaders were killed or driven out of the country by the perpetrators of the genocide.  And while the Rwandan government has been successful in establishing a politically stable and secure environment over the last decade, the process of identifying, recruiting and training new leaders has proven to be an understandably slow and laborious process.  This program is a key response to this critical need, and its importance to the future development of the country is evidenced by the government’s major, long-term investment in this program.

The Rwandan government has initially chosen math, physics, chemistry and biology as the areas of primary focus for the program.  Pools of scholarship candidates are established based on national high school test scores, and representatives of the consortium colleges then travel to Rwanda each spring to interview prospective students. It’s an intriguing and thorough process, as students are selected based on their ability to succeed in such a rigorous educational pursuit.

Pierre and other Rwandan students were initially surprised by the breadth and depth of the liberal arts curriculum at Hendrix. In Rwanda, physics students only study physics; but here, students are exposed to electives and other educational requirements that expand their knowledge. Pierre chose to take a public speaking course during the college’s Maymester program, which he said enlightened him to a different communications dynamic. He put his newly-enhanced communications skills to quick work, interning in the college’s Office of Communications and Marketing and participating in feature interviews conducted by a National Public Radio affiliate and a Little Rock newspaper. He also volunteered to work with the college’s Alumni Office for the annual Hendrix Night at the Travelers event, which exposed him to his first professional baseball game. 

Campus Life

Peter Gess, Hendrix’s director of international programs and the facilitator of the Rwandan Presidential Scholars Program, knows what it’s like to be a stranger in a foreign country. As a Peace Corps volunteer just out of college, Gess flew to Poland for an assignment and initially stayed with a family that couldn’t speak English. Gess’s inability to speak Polish made communication quite interesting.

Through Gess’s leadership, the consortium has provided an intensive English summer program for the Rwandan students to help them enhance language skills and better prepare them for their classroom experiences. The program has allowed these students to “hit the ground running,” Gess said, which made for a much smoother transition to college life. This past summer, students also participated in the three-day Rwandan Presidential Scholars Program Academy, focusing on civic involvement and concluding with a tour and luncheon at the Clinton Presidential Library. Linda Poindexter Chesterfield ’69, the first African-American graduate of Hendrix, was the keynote speaker.

The Rwandans’ adaptation to the U.S. has been incredible, both socially and academically.  Given no preferential treatment in the classroom, the Rwandan students completed the spring semester with an average GPA of 3.67 – above the 3.49 average of non-Rwandan Hendrix students. Six of the 29 participants last year had perfect grades, and two were recognized with special academic awards during the college’s annual Honors Day festivities.  

The Rwandan students are also branching out socially. One student is working as a residential assistant in Hardin Hall, another does volunteer work at a local hospital. Pierre is active in a church youth group and was participated in an annual summer youth beach trip in Florida. The group as a whole organized a Genocide Remembrance Week on campus in the spring, including a candlelight vigil in the Hulen Sunporch and a documentary about the Rwandan genocide.

It would be easy to write the program off as a charitable effort to a developing country, but that wouldn’t be accurate.

“There is a service motivation to provide assistance to Rwanda, but we really think of this as a two-way bridge,” Gess said. “As we help them, they help us. They bring us their stories, views and examples of life in general to our campus, and that is a tremendous benefit to the diversity of Hendrix. It’s great to have students from California and Massachusetts, but it’s also great to have students from Rwanda and from around the world. They truly make life richer here at Hendrix.”

Arthur Thomason ’97 was presented a Silver Snoopy in October from Astronaut Robert Behnken and the STS-123 Crew that worked on the March 2008 Space Shuttle Mission. The award was given for his outstanding support of the U.S. space programs in his position as extra-vehicular activity — space walk — task manager for the crew.

Thomason is an engineer for Barrios at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. His job involves training and support for astronauts for space shuttle and space station missions.

Thomason was directly responsible for the development of all EVA procedures used during the first five EVA missions scheduled and executed at the International Space Station. He was critical in the re-planning associated with the addition of the mission's fifth EVA late in the training flow and the development of a plan to get the crew members trained for the tile repair simulation in time for its execution during the mission.

Thomason earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Hendrix College and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M before taking a position with Barrios and NASA in 2002.

By Helen Plotkin
Editor

The Class of 2009 has earned a spot in Hendrix history as the first class for which Odyssey participation was a graduation requirement.

Students who entered in fall 2005 knew they would be part of a new program focusing on engaged learning, but the details were a bit sketchy. Many of them had already chosen Hendrix for other reasons.

“I was pretty sold on the college, so the talk of Odyssey was only a bonus for me at the time,” Jordan Kennedy ’09 said. “I was intrigued, but I had no idea how much it would impact my time in college before I got there.”

For many 2009 graduates, Odyssey defined their Hendrix experience – and that’s no accident. In 2003 when Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd challenged the faculty to create what became the Hendrix Odyssey he asked that it “be universal (required of all) and defining of the Hendrix experience.”

Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning has clearly met both goals.

“The Odyssey program is as cool as you want to make it,” said Justin Warren ’09. “It’s like a very efficient machine: the amount of work and imagination that you put into it is directly proportional to the amount of cool that you get out of it.”

Mallory Bader ’09 agreed. “The first thing that I explain to people when I tell them where I went to college is the Odyssey program,” she said.

 So, what is Odyssey?

 “Odyssey grew from the active learning environment that has long been cultivated at Hendrix,” President Cloyd said. “It has become the unifying ethic for how we approach liberal arts and sciences education.”

Your Hendrix Odyssey requires that all students complete at least three experiential learning projects chosen from six categories: artistic creativity, global awareness, professional and leadership development, service to the world, undergraduate research and special projects. Hendrix graduates receive an Odyssey transcript in addition to their academic transcript.

Students and faculty are eligible to apply for grant funding to support their Odyssey projects. More than $1 million in funding as been awarded since Odyssey began in 2005. At the end of the 2008-09 academic year nearly 5,000 Odyssey credits had been recorded and 240 projects involving 604 students and 83 faculty had shared $1.18 million in grant funding.

Dr. Mark Schantz, the first Odyssey director (who left Hendrix at the end of the spring semester to become provost of Birmingham Southern University in Birmingham, Ala.), said the Odyssey Program has “succeeded wildly. The evidence of success is in the projects that faculty and students develop and the incredible creativity of the students.”

Dr. Nancy Fleming, the current Odyssey director, said the way Odyssey functions as an umbrella to draw many facets of the Hendrix experience together is unique.

“Odyssey draws on so many different kinds of experiences and recognizes the value of them,” Dr. Fleming said. “It pulls together the components of a well-rounded education. It speaks to our motto of ‘unto the whole person.’ ”

In a relatively short period of time, Odyssey has grown from an intriguing concept to an integral part of the Hendrix experience.

“Odyssey is not an add-on. It’s not an extra little something we’ve added to our curriculum. It’s who we are,” President Cloyd emphasized.

 How has Odyssey changed Hendrix?

The idea of Odyssey has done more than transform the lives of individual students. It has also refined the way Hendrix thinks about itself and its mission.

 “Odyssey has made Hendrix better at being Hendrix,” said Dr. Robert E. Entzminger, Provost and Dean of the College.

“We have always had students and faculty who are creative and who work well together outside the classroom,” Provost Entzminger said. “The funding and the program have made it possible for more of our faculty and students to realize their dreams.”

Several Hendrix administrators identified Odyssey as a primary reason for the recent expansion of international programs and dramatic growth in the number of Hendrix students traveling abroad.

 “Odyssey has been a catalyst behind our impressive growth in international study and service projects,” President Cloyd said.

Another benefit of the Hendrix Odyssey has been a significant impact on the College’s ability to recruit students from across the country.

“Odyssey has put us on the radar screen in a way we really hadn’t been before,” Provost Entzminger said. “Without Odyssey we would not have as many students from as many places.”

Although he believed the Odyssey concept would be well received, Dr. Entzminger said he and others were surprised by the level of success.

“There is no way we could have seen that we would grow 40 percent in four years, that we’d be able to recruit as far as we have, or that our national visibility would be where it is now,” he said.

For example, Hendrix was recently listed in as the nation’s top “up-and-coming” liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report. Innovation and a constant push to improve were the key criteria for inclusion on the list.

 So what is next for Your Hendrix Odyssey?

Hendrix is now widely seen as a model for engaged liberal arts and sciences education. As other institutions work to copy the College’s success, Hendrix must keep improving Odyssey  to maintain its leadership position. President Cloyd has responded by once again asking Hendrix faculty members to be creative and bold in their thinking as they develop Odyssey 2.0. The faculty has responded with an array of proposals with the potential to enrich the Odyssey concept as they are developed and unveiled.

Dr. Entzminger sums up the goal for Odyssey’s future: “We are looking to make it even more robust and more integral to the whole educational experience.”

 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

Luke Erickson – Chesterfield, Mo.

Chemical Physics

 One of Luke Erickson’s Odyssey projects set him on his career path; another revealed his passion. Both might help him stave off climate change.

 As a chemical physics major, Erickson participated in undergraduate research with Dr. David Hales, professor of chemistry. The two explored the use of sulfur compounds as a short-term means of slowing global warming, testing the hypothesis of Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen.

 Erickson said the research gave him important lab experience, which will be useful to him this fall when he begins graduate studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado. Erickson hopes to do his Ph.D. research at the National Renewable Energy Lab. He sees research as his career path, if not his calling.

 “While I’ll pay the bills for awhile doing renewable energy research, I’m confident that the best way to mitigate the twin challenges that will define my generation – climate change and peak oil – is by growing our own food and supporting small, local agriculture,” he said.

 During his sophomore year, after volunteering at a community garden for a summer, Erickson decided to start a Hendrix community garden.

 “I loved the garden on every level,” he said. “Of my experiences at Hendrix, I am most proud of starting the community garden and watching it grow. It was extremely important to me to be able to eat some totally local food in an age when most of our food has traveled 1,500 miles to get to our plates, and in classes I was studying the terrible climatological effects of that system.”

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Mallory Bader – Memphis, Tenn.

Environmental Studies, Sociology/Anthropology

 For 12 days, Mallory Bader ran around England with some of the country’s best and wackiest cross country runners. As a longtime runner, Bader had a deep interest in exploring the country where cross country running originated as a sport. And as a sociology/anthropology major, she appreciated the unique culture of each running club she accompanied.

 “The trip allowed me to pursue an interest that could not have been explored within the classroom setting, as well as practice my cultural anthropological skills of interviewing and participant observation,” she said.

 Bader ran with three different Hash Harriers clubs in London. Portrayed as “a drinking club with a running problem,” the Hash Harriers appeal to a young crowd by starting and ending their group runs at a pub or bar. Bader also observed the annual relay race of the Thames Hares and Hounds, the oldest cross country running club in the world.

 While abroad, Bader carried a small notebook to jot down her observations and record interviews. She drew strongly on the skills she learned in her Ethnographic Methods class, but the trip was more than an academic exercise for her.

 “I’ll remember the trip forever in the sense that, being a competitive runner for so long, I was kind of burned out on it,” she said. “But then I saw 60- and 70-year-olds running with the Hash Harriers, just running because they enjoy it. It was nice to see that running can still be fun and it’s something that people can do for their entire lives.”

ARTISTIC CREATIVITY

Justin Warren – Little Rock

Theatre Arts

 Billed as “the play Shakespeare would write if he were from Arkansas,” Burn Out Macbeth: A Southern Gothic Tale was actually written by seven Hendrix students and their theatre arts professor, Ann Muse. They wrote and produced the play in three weeks and performed it on a seven-by-seven foot stage – in Scotland, at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 “For the first time, I was involved with the theatrical process from the very beginning,” said Justin Warren ’09. “This experience was unique in that our professors came in with merely an idea, and really gave us the freedom to take it in the direction that felt right to us.”

 The group ended up with a hillbilly version of the classic Macbeth: a bloody comedy set in the Ozark Mountains. After weeks of eight-hour practices, they packed up their costumes and props and flew to Edinburgh. That year the Fringe Festival, the world’s largest arts festival, attracted nearly 20,000 performers in 2,088 shows from 46 countries.

 Despite the tough competition, the Hendrix actors attracted a sizeable audience. The average attendance for a Fringe performance is seven people, but Burn Out Macbeth routinely received five times as many attendees. On the final night, they performed to a sold-out audience.

 “This project taught me how to be a performer on a grass-roots level, which strips away all of the glamour of being an actor in a traditional theatre with lights, a huge stage, and stage crews for assistance,” he said. “It ultimately made us much greater performers.”

 PROFESSIONAL AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Alex Graddy-Reed - Los Angeles, Calif.

Comparative Public Policy

 As chair of Campus Kitty, Alex Graddy-Reed helped the organization celebrate its 60^th birthday in style, by raising more than $62,000 for local charities. It was an astronomical achievement for the Hendrix organization, which sponsors a week of fundraising events each spring. The 2008 total, which itself had been a record-breaker for the club, was $42,025.

 “There’s no doubt this was the best thing I did at Hendrix,” Graddy-Reed said. “It was an amazing time when I was constantly busy planning and executing events all while staying focused on why we were trying to raise all this money.”

 By her senior year, Graddy-Reed was already an experienced fundraiser. She had spent the previous summer as an intern with the advancement office of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, planning events and working with high-level donors.

 Both the internship and the Campus Kitty chairmanship gave Graddy-Reed valuable job skills, and she earned a Professional and Leadership Development credit for each experience. The experiences also led to a career path: she plans to work in fundraising for several years, and then attend graduate school.

 “Both opportunities prepared me for this career and gave me a set of skills that most people don’t gain until entering the work force,” she said. “The Odyssey program gave me the opportunity to explore development work in different settings, which cemented my desire to work in the field after graduation.”

GLOBAL AWARENESS

Joe Muller – St. Louis, Mo.

International Relations

 Joe Muller’s path to law school passed through three continents. In 2007, Muller leapt at the opportunity to travel to Rwanda with a group of Hendrix students, faculty and administrators. The following year, he and Mary Flanigan ’09 received Odyssey funding for a service trip to Guatemala. This fall, he begins work on his law degree at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

 “My Odyssey proposals helped prepare me for the law school application process,” Muller said. “My experiences abroad have encouraged my interest in law in general, and international law in particular.”

 In Rwanda, Muller met with government officials like Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He and the other Hendrix students were able to ask questions about policy issues and governing in Rwanda. They also toured health clinics and microfinance projects, and stopped to see a Gacaca Court in action.

 “The Gacaca Courts are one of the remedies that Rwandans have developed to deal with overflowing prisons from the 1994 genocide,” he said. “The courts are many people’s only judicial remedy for crimes committed during the Genocide, and as foreigners we were really fortunate to see how they actually worked.”

 Muller also confronted injustice in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, where he volunteered at a shelter for women and children. He was awed by the resilience and tenacity of the children there.

 “I think my Odyssey trips have been an integral part of my experience at Hendrix,” he said. “My Odyssey experiences have been some of the most defining and memorable experiences that I’ve had in my undergraduate career.”

SERVICE TO THE WORLD

Jordan Kennedy – Bogalusa, La.

Studio Art, Art History minor

 Jordan Kennedy spent the spring break of her junior year on an island in the Bahamas, but not at a resort. She and other Hendrix students on a Hendrix-Lilly mission trip worked side-by-side with residents to repair homes destroyed by a hurricane. While re-shingling rooftops and mixing cement, she realigned her priorities in life.

 “The experience secured within me my desire to spend my life in service to others,” Kennedy said. “I believe you can’t fully get a grasp of who you are until you are granted the opportunity to completely abandon yourself and fully serve another individual.”

 Kennedy was granted two such opportunities during her time at Hendrix, thanks to the Hendrix-Lilly program (now called the Hendrix-Miller Center). A few months after her trip to the Bahamas, Kennedy received a Lilly Service Fellowship to travel to Ghana for seven weeks. She spent six weeks as a civil servant in the small village of Etordome, where she assisted with community development and taught at a secondary school.

 During her free time she organized a formal photo shoot for the community, particularly the schoolchildren, who had never seen photographs of themselves. An Odyssey grant funded the production of her senior art show, an on-campus exhibition of the photographs she took in Ghana.

 “I am particularly passionate about telling the stories of those who would otherwise not be heard,” Kennedy said. “It is my hope that my camera can be the microphone through which than can have freedom and comfort to speak.”

Jamie Fotioo, Admission Counselor and Enrollment Communications Manager, coordinated the interviews and Katie Rice ’10, student writer, drafted the text for this story.

By MARK SCOTT
Director of Media Relations

On the night of Iowa’s Democratic presidential caucuses, Hendrix College professor Jay Barth personally witnessed the intriguing electoral procedure at a small precinct called “Des Moines 9.” As delegates were being counted, the final holdout that night was an   older African-American woman who initially supported Christopher Dodd but found herself undecided during a subsequent round of balloting. 

The room was separated with Clinton supporters in one area, Obama supporters in another and Edwards supporters in another. As she stood up to walk to where she would caucus, the 60 Obama supporters started chanting, “O-bam-a! O-bam-a!” They all clapped excitedly as she joined them – and ultimately thousands of others who awarded the state to the future president.

“In some ways, this little precinct summed it all up: the enthusiastic support for Obama from a Bobby Kennedyesque coalition of voters, the homogeneity and passivity of the Clinton supporters, and the interest in the process of rank-and-file voters that led 236,000 of them to turn out,” Barth wrote at that time on the Arkansas Times blog where he posted regularly throughout his time in Iowa.

In Iowa a year ago Barth witnessed the emergence of thousands of “new” voters – people who had never voted before but were motivated by Obama to do so. It was also in Iowa that Barth was introduced to the future president and his connection with voters, an observation that only grew stronger for him throughout the historic presidential election.

“It was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done,” Barth said of his Iowa experience, lofty words for a man whose political experiences are vast. “There was a deep understanding or desire for change in the electorate there. Barack Obama had emphatic support that was very visible in Iowa. I came away from there seeing his strength as a candidate and the amazing connection he had with the voters there.”

Barth acknowledges that Obama won his vote there in Iowa. He remained officially neutral, however, due to his leadership position on the Pulaski County Democratic Committee.

For Barth, the M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of Politics at Hendrix, such neutrality comes easily, however. While political scientists can fall into one of two extremes, he explains – either detaching from real politics and losing insight or completely engaging in partisan politics and losing objectivity – Barth has chosen a spot in between as his teaching philosophy. Despite his activity in the Democratic Party, many of his students – past and present – come out of his classroom without a hint of his partisanship. That is not accidental.

“There’s a time to be an activist and express your beliefs, and there’s a time to be more analytical,” Barth said. “I’m hesitant to ask students to get involved in something I’m involved in. I’m there to help provide opportunities to students rather than to be a cheerleader.”

It’s his role as the college’s Director of Civic Engagement Projects where his support of student opportunity regularly comes out. Students seeking opportunities and internships in public service can utilize his political expertise and have done so, participating in various political internships and activities throughout the country.

“There are all sorts of ways to be engaged, and I like to show students that public service can be a noble and honorable profession,” Barth said. “I certainly try to create as many opportunities as possible for students to find their calling in public service. That’s my primary responsibility – as a resource.”

A four-time recipient of Hendrix’s student-selected Faculty Appreciation Award and a noted expert in southern politics, Barth has an educational career beyond the classroom that combines a wide-ranging research agenda, an ongoing role as a public analyst on the politics of Arkansas and the South, and an active involvement in several advocacy groups. At Hendrix, Barth has taught nearly two dozen classroom courses ranging from American Political Thought to Gender, Sexuality, and American Politics to a two-course American Constitutional Law sequence. His courses increasingly link more traditional classroom content to pertinent real-world political practice.

Barth attended Hendrix College, graduating magna cum laude in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies. He received a master’s degree in 1989 and a doctorate degree in 1994 in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The focus of his graduate work was on the changing politics of the South. His post-graduate school training has included an NEH Summer Institute at Harvard University on “Teaching the Southern Civil Rights Movement” and The Ohio State University’s Summer Institute in Political Psychology. For 2000-01, Barth received the Steiger Congressional Fellowship from the American Political Science Foundation and served on the staff of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, working on education and civil rights policy.

The media seek him out as a political expert – he has been quoted in dozens of newspapers throughout the U.S. both before and after the election. Even locally, more than 200 Hendrix alumni turned out to hear his opinion in Little Rock and quiz him about election issues days before the November election.

Barth’s love for politics was developed well before he stepped foot on Hendrix’s campus as an undergraduate. His grandparents, heavily active in Democratic Party politics in Saline County, took him to various campaign events when he was a child. He grew up in Arkansas during the political primes of Clinton, Pryor and Bumpers, admiring their ideals of public service.

He entered Hendrix in 1983, finding a much different political atmosphere from today’s left-leaning student body. His college days were smack dab in the middle of the Reagan Era, and he recalls that the student mock vote on campus went heavily for Reagan in the 1984 election. He and his fellow Mondale Young Democrats were clearly outnumbered, he said.

In November 2008, Obama won Hendrix’s on-campus voting precinct with 83 percent of the vote. But more than the margin, it was the energy on campus that most impressed Barth. Hendrix College was not immune to the passionate political firestorm from new and young voters, he noted. More than 600 people turned out to the college’s election-night watch party, and on-campus pre-election forums were standing-room-only in The Burrow.

“I think 2008 should be celebrated as the revitalization of democracy because people genuinely supported the person who they felt closest to,” Barth said. “I’ve never seen students as engaged as they were in this election. You always have the Young Democrat-types involved, but this went much further. The type of student who normally doesn’t feel a calling to get involved in the political process really did this year. ”

Hendrix attracts largest incoming class in its history
Enrollment climbs above 1,300

By JAMIE FOTIOO
Enrollment Communications Manager

Hendrix College was full of energy and excitement as it welcomed a record-breaking 447 new students to its campus this August.

“You are making history today, as you are the largest class to enroll at Hendrix in the history of the College,” Karen Foust, vice president for enrollment, said during the opening convocation for new students on Aug. 19. “The Hendrix community is excited to welcome you to this wonderful place that you will call home for the next four years.”

The class of 2012, consisting of 433 first-year students and 14 transfer students, also represents one of the most geographically diverse classes to join the Hendrix community. Making the relatively short drive to Conway on Move-In Day were 178 Arkansas students. The rest of their new classmates traveled farther distances from 32 different states—from Maine to Washington—and eight countries, including Bangladesh, China, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. In all, 60 percent of Hendrix’s new students arrived from places other than Arkansas.

Hendrix’s newest class brought with it an outstanding academic profile. More than 75 percent of new students scored 26 or higher on the ACT, with more than a third scoring 30 or higher. In addition to Hendrix, members of the new class were accepted to other nationally ranked institutions such as Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.; Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.; Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa; Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.; and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

When choosing among colleges and universities each with an equally impressive list of academic and post-graduate statistics, many students selected Hendrix based on factors unique to the College.

“I spent a lot of time debating between Swarthmore College [in Swarthmore, Pa.], Johns Hopkins University [in Baltimore], University of Chicago and Millsaps College [in Jackson, Miss.], each a renowned institution and full of qualified students and teachers,” said Sarah Thompson, a freshman from Picayune, Miss. “In the end, I found a spirit and honest excitement on the Hendrix campus that couldn’t be encapsulated by ACT/SAT scores or graduate-school acceptance rates. Teachers and students were sincerely friendly, the opportunities available through the Odyssey program floored me, and the financial aid was phenomenal.”

In high school, Thompson founded Girls Excelling in Mathematics and Science (G.E.M.S.), a program that engages fifth- and sixth-grade girls in monthly experiments that aim to prevent the erosion of interest in mathematics and science that girls often experience during this transitional period in their lives. Currently trying to organize a G.E.M.S. chapter in Conway, she ultimately hopes to secure Odyssey funding to help establish chapters throughout Arkansas and her home state of Mississippi.

Expanding G.E.M.S. is only one of numerous projects Thompson plans to complete during her Hendrix Odyssey. A pre-med student who’s interested in studying chemical physics and bioethics, she also aspires to study abroad at the Regenerative Medicine Institute and the Centre of Bioethical Research and Analysis at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

“It is rare to find a college that not only encourages participation, but provides enormous financial support for these kinds of [Odyssey] experiences,” Thompson said. “And the opportunities available aren’t simply limited to a handful of prescribed programs—any passion can be explored and expanded.”

Freshman Adam Stewart of San Diego, Calif., was also impressed by Hendrix’s Odyssey program.

“The Odyssey program was one of the biggest factors that led me to choose Hendrix,” he said. “It provides so many opportunities for cultural immersion and academic growth, and Hendrix makes it unbelievably easy to participate in these opportunities.”

Interested in African aid and awareness activities, Stewart led the Invisible Children club at his high school. Invisible Children is a San Diego-based non-profit organization with the mission to improve the quality of life for the war-affected children of Uganda by providing access to quality education, enhanced learning environments, and innovative economic opportunities for the African community.

Stewart, who plans to create his own African Development major, intends to further pursue his passions through the Odyssey program. He hopes to study abroad at the University of Ghana, conducting in-field research on rural development, and is currently working on obtaining a summer internship at Justice Africa in London. A talented double bass player, Stewart is also already an active member of the Hendrix Chamber Orchestra and Hendrix Quartet.

“It amazes me that I have the ability to design my own major, study abroad in Africa, travel with the Hendrix Orchestra, and conduct my own research, all at the undergraduate level,” he said. “I cannot imagine doing all of this at any other college.”

The class of 2012 joins three returning classes to create the largest enrollment in the College’s history, with 1,342 undergraduate students enrolled.

May Hope McClurkin Moose ’28 grew up in Conway on the campus of Hendrix College where her father was the Business Manager. She graduated Hendrix, with honors, at age 19 and taught two years in Almyra. She and Charles Reid Moose, whom she met at Hendrix, married in 1930.

She returned to the classroom in 1955, teaching Latin and English (although her college major was Chemistry and Biology). In 1963 she was named Arkansas’ “Teacher of the Year.” Her last several years of formal teaching were as a freshman English professor at the University of Central Arkansas.

“Mother was notorious for her teaching skills and her insistence on oral and written correctness,” her son, Rev. David Nelson Moose ’63 recalls, “When she found errors in my church newsletters, she would circle them in red ink, returning them to me - in love, of course! And more than one Morrilton pastor has stopped in the middle of a sermon to look at her for a nod of approval on the grammar just used.”

Miss May Hope was a consistent supporter of the College and attended events on campus regularly. She was widowed in 1984 but maintained her independence and community service until three years ago.

“Even when she could not even feed herself, her mind remained sharp and, up until last month, could still converse with friends and family and quote, by memory, the entire Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales … in Old English!” David Moose says.

May Hope Moose died in her home in Morrilton on May 12. Her 100^th birthday would have been next November 20. “She will be greatly missed, ,” David Moose says, “Through her, God has blessed us with more and for longer than we expected or deserved!”

Dan Rizzie, Nature Morte (for D.S.), 2003-4

Dan Rizzie ’73 opened his show at the Spanierman Modern in New York on Oct. 16. The one-man show, Dan Rizzie, is an exhibition of Rizzie’s recent mixed media work. A catalogue accompanying the exhibition includes an essay by Robert Hughes, the art critic for Time Magazine and the author of numerous books on art, along with 12 full-page color illustrations. Rizzie received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Hendrix Alumni Association in 2005.

Dr. David Whillock ’76 of Grapevine, Texas, has been appointed dean of the College of Communication at Texas Christian University.

Whillock, who has been at the college since 1991, began his career there as an assistant professor and coordinator of the graduate program in the radio, television, and film (RTVF) department. He also has served as an associate professor and curator of the Tandy Film Library for RTVF; chair and associate professor for RTVF; and interim dean of the College of Communication. In addition, Whillock served as the director of assessment for the College and coordinated the College’s graduate programs and policies, faculty, financial aid, curriculum and operating budget.

“ ‘Learning a language is a lot like life.’ Those were the first words Hal Allen said to us as we entered German 100,” Kell recalls. “‘You have to be open to possibility, open to change, and to experiencing new things.’ We learned how to “dump our heads” (a tool I still use) and visualize words in German.”

Kell, a German major, sees his career as an extension of the Hendrix experience that he shared with his wife Emily Collins ’00. “Part of my journey at Hendrix was indeed spent conjugating verbs and wrapping my head around dependent clauses,” Kell says. “But another part, a more important part, was spent expanding my own idea of myself and what I wanted from life.”

“One of my motivations to start Verge Wine Cellars was the need to produce something natural and organic and then introduce it to people in a creative and evocative way,” Kell says. “Part of evaluating a wine is being open to how it will taste.”

“That openness also means being conscious that the wine comes from a particular place in the world, has been touched by many hands, has been a part of an idea and has traveled quite a journey to get to your glass,” Kell relates. “My journey began at Hendrix und gott sei dank dass ich Deutch gelernt.”*

The new winery’s first release is a 2006 Syrah from Dry Creek Valley. The inaugural vintage of Verge Syrah, harvested from the mountainous edge of Dry Creek Valley, had an initial production of 350 cases, only available via the company’s mailing list and in select Bay Area restaurants.

For more information, visit www.vergewine.com, created by alumna Janette Balleza ’00.

*rough translation: and thank god that I learned German

Hall previously served as NACDL's secretary, treasurer, second and first vice president and president-elect, as well as a member of the organization’s Board of Directors from 1989-1995 and 1997-2003. In addition, he was chair of the NACDL Ethics Advisory Committee from 1990-2005. Hall is a past president of the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, an NACDL affiliate.

Hall has tried approximately 250 jury trials, handled over 200 appeals, argued twice in the U.S. Supreme Court, and defended a military officer accused of war crimes in an international tribunal in Sierra Leone. He is a frequent speaker and expert witness on criminal defense ethics.

Since 1979, Hall has worked in private practice at his own firm, the Law Offices of John Wesley Hall, Jr., P.A. He is a member of the bars of Arkansas, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, the District of Columbia, and the International Criminal Court where he also is the only American lawyer elected by the list of counsel to the ICC’s Disciplinary Appeals Tribunal.

Last year, Maddie Earnest ’91 left the not-for-profit world to start a small grocery store called Local Harvest Grocery focusing on locally grown and produced foods. Local Harvest was named the best gourmet grocery in St Louis in the 2008 Sauce Magazine Readers' Poll.

The store focuses on organic and sustainably produced groceries, including dry goods, perishables, frozen and non-food items, with a goal of having 50 percent of their products from within 150 miles of the St. Louis area. Her nearby restaurant was recently rented to host a VIP event by leading Hollywood environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. because of the local produce and green ethos she employs.

While in dental school, Dr. Gilmore received honors for his leadership and academics. In addition, Dr. Gilmore also received an Academic Dental Careers Fellowship sponsored by the American Dental Education Association and was the recipient of the Summer Dental Student Research Award provided by the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

Before enrolling in dental school at age 37, Dr. Gilmore spent 15 years in education including serving as a French and theater arts teacher, an assistant director of Admission at Hendrix College, and a vice principal. Dr. Gilmore holds a master of education degree in education administration from the University of Texas at Arlington, earned in 2001. Dr. Gilmore credits the liberal arts education that he received at Hendrix for allowing him to navigate through such diverse professions.

Dr. Gilmore says he's not done yet and urges current and future Hendrix students to “whole-heartedly embrace every facet that the richness of a Hendrix education has to offer.”

Thelma Fish with her son-in-law Joe Guenter '60, granddaughter Alicia Burson ’91 and great-granddaughter Natasha Riding.

As a young teenager, Thelma Fish was looking forward to attending Hendrix. Her father had put away money for her education in a safe place: the local bank. Then came 1929 and the Great Depression. The bank closed, the money disappeared, and her plans for a Hendrix degree vanished almost overnight. She did manage to attend Hendrix for one summer and was proud to receive a Hendrix Medallion when she was inducted into the Half Century Club a few years ago. Even though she didn’t graduate from the College, Mrs. Fish’s Hendrix connections run deep and strong.

Thelma got her degree from another college near home then earned a master’s degree. She became a missionary to Japan before World War II forced her out. She then came back to the U.S. where she married Methodist minister Charles Giessen ’30.

Thelma’s brother Dudley Fish also married a Hendrix graduate, Louise Lambert ’50. Her nieces Susan ’85 and Martha ’77 are also Hendrix graduates. Martha married Scott Christie ’79, and their children who attended or are attending Hendrix include Tom ’06, John ’09 and Sarah ’11.

Some years later, her daughter, Helen, had Dr. Lee Morgan ’49 as her English professor, another Hendrix connection. Helen married Joe Martin Guenter ’60, great-nephew of Captain W.W. Martin, an early benefactor of the College for whom Martin Hall is named. Joe Guenter’s aunt, Ruth Martin Marshall ’41, and uncle, Don Martin ’31, were also Hendrix grads as well as Don’s son, Larry ’63 and his wife Sybil ’62.

Thelma’s two oldest granddaughters, Laura and Alicia Burson both ’91 also attended Hendrix. Only time will tell if Thelma Fish’s great-granddaughters Devon and Natasha take her family’s Hendrix tradition to the next generation.

Thelma Fish with her son-in-law Joe Guenter '60, granddaughter Laura Burson ’91 and great-granddaughter Devon Fernandes.

Tell us about your Hendrix Connections

Is attending Hendrix a family tradition? We’d like to know the details. Send your information to alumni@hendrix.edu and look for an invitation for your family to attend our Legacy Luncheon during Family Weekend ’09.

Feathers & Findings, an artist's book by Nancy Dunaway ’69 of Hot Springs, was included in a new book, 500 Handmade Books, released July 1, 2008, from Lark Books.

Nancy Dunaway has been making artist's books since she saw her first exhibition of them in a show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. in the early ’90s. She says, "I was thrilled and honored to be included in Lark's book. I am excited even more now after having seen the book, by the amazing work by so many book artists I admire and am inspired by. It is a beautiful book I think anyone who appreciates art will enjoy."

Nancy graduated from Hendrix with a bachelor of arts degree in studio art, and taught art in grades 6-12 for 13 years before returning to school at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga., and receiving her master of fine arts degree in illustration in 1991. She retired in December of 2007 from Henderson State University where she had served as professor of art and chairperson of the art department since 1994.

Nancy also works in collage and mixed media and constructs altars and shrines. Her work is currently on exhibition at the Artchurch in Hot Springs, and she is represented by the Heights Gallery in Little Rock. She teaches workshops in book arts, journaling and mixed media at different venues around the country.

Dr. Dabbs Woodfin ’62

The Foundation works to preserve the 150-acre Newlin Mills Park in Glen Mills, Pa. The park includes a working 1704 grist mill, several historical buildings, and walking trails. A visit to the park offers visitors insights into the vanished life of the rural eighteenth century.

In honor of his retirement, the board of trustees named an early 19^th century granary located in the park The H. Dabbs Woodfin, Jr. Library and Archive.

For more information about the CD, please contact Dr. Fleming at fleming@hendrix.edu. To order one or more copies, please mail a check made out to Hendrix College to Dr. Fleming at the following address:

Dr. Charles “Bo” Brewer ’54 accepted the 2008 Raymond D. Fowler Award at the American Psychological Association’s 2008 Annual Convention in Boston in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the APA and psychology.

Nearly every nook of psychology education today bears his stamp, fellow educators say. Brewer has participated in almost every important conference concerning undergraduate education in psychology during the last 30 years, including a keynote address at the International Conference on Education in Psychology held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2002.

He edited the Div. 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) journal Teaching of Psychology for 12 years, was the 1979-81 president of the Council of Undergraduate Psychology Departments and has served on the APA’s Board of Educational Affairs, Council of Representatives and Board of Directors.

Brewer is the coeditor of many books and the psychology editor for Encyclopaedia Britannica. He has published numerous book chapters, articles, and reviews and is an editorial consultant for 15 publishers of psychology textbooks.

Dr. Brewer has been an inspiration to the more than 200 former students who have gone on to get doctorates in psychology, a staggering number for a professor who only teaches undergraduates.

A book titled The Teaching of Psychology: Essays in Honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer, edited by Stephen F. Davis and William Buskist, was published in 2002. Brewer received the American Psychological Foundation’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1989, which was later renamed the Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award as a tribute to his eminent contribution to education in psychology, indicating that, “Charles Brewer epitomizes what this award stands for.”

Brewer established the Charles L. Brewer Endowed Fund at Hendrix College in 2002 in memory of Dr. John P. Anderson, former psychology professor at Hendrix, and in honor of his wife Marjorie Suhs Brewer and daughter Stephanie Brewer Foley. Dr. Brewer also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Hendrix in 2004.

Becky Revoal ’07 takes 10-month ‘orientation trip’ with AmeriCorps

By RAE HAMAKER '10

Becky Revoal ’07 has chosen to dedicate the past ten months to national, team-based service work, through AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC).

“When I graduated I felt sort of like the wind had been knocked out of me,” Revoal explains. “Hendrix had been all of life for me for quite a while, and I wasn't really sure what my next step would be like. I was sad to leave the classroom/out of classroom/Pecan Grove discussions, and experiences like orientation.”

The program gives members the opportunity to gain skills in many different areas including construction, education, unmet human needs, environmental work, leadership, and supervision.

“I joined Americorps NCCC without really knowing what to expect and what I got was one long, ridiculous, and wonderful orientation trip,” Revoal says.

During her time at Hendrix, Revoal was already interested in humanitarian problems. As a junior, she received Odyssey funding for a semester-long trip to Australia to learn more about disappearing Aboriginal culture. When asked about her future plans, the music major then said, “A big chunk of me is a performer, so a part of me just wants to do that all the time. A big part of me is also an activist. I wish I could be there, with Aboriginal people or whoever the downtrodden folk are, just learning and soaking in their culture.” It’s no surprise at Hendrix that her interest in helping others has shaped her plans after graduation.

Revoal’s team completed a total of four projects. On their first project, the team acted as supervisors of volunteers with the St. Bernard Project assisting with the rebuilding of homes in the lower 9^th Ward of New Orleans. They then traveled to North Hollywood, Calif., where they served alongside teachers at Larchmont Charter School. The team’s third project was in Mobile, Ala., where they assisted Habitat for Humanity and focused on Hurricanes Katrina and Irvine relief efforts.

“It has been the most gratifying experience of my life,” says Revoal. “My view and outlook on life and the world in which I live are a direct reflection of the service I have completed.”

The team’s most recent project took place in Pass Christian, Miss., where they rebuilt homes with The Grey Hut, a non-profit organization that connects homeowners who are working to rebuild after the hurricane with volunteers who can provide skilled labor at no charge. Pass Christian was one of the areas hit the hardest by Hurricane Katrina.

“My Hendrix experience has helped me to survive the tough times and appreciate the good. I am currently in training for another 10 months as a Team Leader managing 12 individuals as we journey toward making the country and ourselves better,” Revoal says.

Theatre major plays leading role in business and civic affairs

By HELEN PLOTKIN
Editor

Elizabeth Small has played many roles since graduating from Hendrix in 1981 with a degree in theatre arts. Most of her roles haven’t been on the stage, but they have won her rave reviews and kept her and the company that she leads in the spotlight.

Since 1998, Elizabeth has been the President and CEO of PDC Companies, a real estate development, property management and construction company in Little Rock. The company is certified as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE). Elizabeth was the first employee hired by PDC and spent 14 years working her way to the top.

How do you make the jump from the college theatre stage to the board room? Elizabeth says it takes “being in the right place at the right time, having the drive, being able to see possibilities and feeling that things are limitless.”

“I’ve always believed that if someone else can do it, I can do it too,” she said. “You create or find the expertise you need … and you listen – a lot.”

Elizabeth credits her belief in herself and her commitment to her alma mater to her earliest role model – her mother.

“Mother was an influence for me. She never limited me. And I saw her love for her alma mater. She loved Millsaps (college in Jackson, Miss.). She gave her time and her concern and she believed in her school,” Elizabeth said. “It’s the same thing I feel for Hendrix.”

Elizabeth said she is intrigued by the Odyssey Program, the new component of the College’s curriculum that ties together critical thought and action.

“We each have our own Odyssey and we can keep having them,” she said, noting that the Odyssey experience was one of the best parts of attending Hendrix for her daughter, Cary ’08. “Odyssey is one reason we want to support the College – we really believe in what they’re doing,” she added.

Elizabeth said her Hendrix experience prepared her for success as a business leader.

“Theatre allowed me to use all my creativity all the time. The experience influenced my life and still does,” she said. “There are so many aspects in life where theatre comes into play.” The study of theatre, she explained, involves learning about good writing, understanding human emotions and motives, working with teams of actors and technicians, and developing organizational, communications and management skills necessary to direct a play or lead the technical team. Many of these skills translate directly to the world of business.

Two Hendrix professors had a profound effect on Elizabeth’s life: Dr. Rosemary Henenberg, Willis H. Holmes Distinguished Professor Emerita of Theatre Arts, who she describes as her first mentor, and the late Dr. Tom Clark, professor of biology, who inspired in her a lifelong love of botany – and left her with the ability to identify most of the plants on the Hendrix campus.

“She was such a friend to me as well as a teacher,” Elizabeth said of Dr. Henenberg. “She made me think beyond what I saw in front of me. Her love of Chekhov was a huge influence of those of us who had done nothing but musicals before coming to Hendrix. Her deep understanding of the authors added so much to her teaching. You learned from her and you didn’t even realize it at the time.”

Elizabeth said she had a hard time choosing a major; she enjoyed all the classes she took. She fully embraces the idea of a broad-based liberal arts education as the foundation for a well-lived life.

“I think the theatre arts degree is the best degree there is,” Elizabeth said. “I would recommend it for anyone who is thinking of going into business. I also think everyone should take a business course. It is good preparation for whatever you chose to do in life.”

Elizabeth took her own advice about taking business courses, when she enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

“It was the first time that I studied and put into the context the things that I had taught myself over the years,” she said. A 2000 graduate of the MBA program, Elizabeth received the Distinguished Alumna Award from the UALR College of Business in October 2008.

Today she supervises more than 100 employees who have developed and manage 63 apartment complexes, operate a commercial real estate office in Hot Springs, develop unimproved land and housing in Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky and manage PDC Construction Inc., the company’s construction arm.

The company’s construction arm gave Elizabeth another chance to reconnect with Hendrix. PDC Construction Inc. was the general contractor on The Hendrix Corner, a student apartment complex at the corner of Front and Mill streets that opened for the Fall 2008 semester.

Elizabeth has maintained a close relationship with Hendrix since her graduation, serving on the Alumni Board of Governors, including a term as chair of the board. She has also stayed involved with the theatre department, including participating in staged readings of winning plays in the annual playwriting competition sponsored by the Hendrix-Murphy Programs in Literature and Language. She frequently attends events and lectures on campus and is actively involved with the Parents Council.

In the past 18 months, she has played an active role in civic leadership, serving as president of the Rotary Club of Little Rock, the largest chapter in the state, and as chairman of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. The two positions overlapped for the first six months of 2008.

“This has been the most exciting year of my life. I’ve volunteered for the chamber for a long time. Being chair this year has been a privilege. Leading the Rotary Club of Little Rock was also a highlight,” Elizabeth said. “It has just been marvelous. I wish everyone could have both of those experiences.”

So, what role will Elizabeth step into next? The options are limitless, but service is on her mind.

“I’m thinking of joining Peace Corps when I retire,” Elizabeth said. One thing is sure, she’ll keep active and stay involved. “I have to keep up with Mom and my sister, who is a Methodist minister in Memphis. Those two women are what I have to live up to.”

The Hendrix faculty is experiencing a changing of the guard. A cohort of faculty who came to Hendrix in 1970s is beginning to retire at the same time that the College is hiring additional faculty to meet the demands of growing enrollment. The Hendrix Board of Trustees has set an enrollment goal of 1,300 by 2013 and mandated that the College maintain a 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio.

To meet those goals and ensure that Hendrix can continue to boast of having a faculty that is among the nation’s best, Dr. Robert L. Entzminger, provost and dean of the College, invests a great deal of time and effort in recruiting faculty.

Over the last two years, Dr. Entzminger has overseen the hiring of 35 new faculty members. Eighteen new faculty joined the Hendrix ranks during the 2007-08 academic year, including eight in tenure-track positions. So far, the College has hired 17 new faculty for the 2008-09 year, eight of them in tenure-track positions.

Faculty are the heart of a liberal arts college dedicated to undergraduate education. As the College’s chief academic officer identifying top scholars who are right for Hendrix is a top priority for Provost Entzminger.

“I need to be confident that the person understands the kind of institution that Hendrix is and is willing to make a commitment to high-quality liberal arts education,” Dr. Entzminger said. “More than that, I want to find people who will bring something else to the table -- an interest in interdisciplinary work or a talent or specialty that will allow us to develop a new area of study that will bring real value for our students.”

The right faculty member for Hendrix is also someone who loves teaching and who puts students first.

“The faculty at Hendrix are unusually dedicated to their students,” Dr. Entzminger said.

Finding that right person involves faculty, staff and students from across campus. The search committee usually involves faculty members from inside and outside the hiring department. The Committee on Faculty, the provost and associate provosts, and the president are also part of the process. It is a time-consuming process, but a vital one, Dr. Entzminger said.

“The search process has helped us get great candidates,” he said. “In a tenure-track search, we just don’t let anybody settle. If it’s not the right person, we won’t offer them the position. Sometimes that means we have to close a search and then start it all over again until we can find someone who is right for Hendrix.”

Sometimes the right person can be found close to home

“Over the last two years, we have added four alumni to the faculty,” Dr. Entzminger said. “That speaks well of the education they received at Hendrix and of the esteem in which they hold this institution. They ‘get’ what we do here and are eager to return and help sustain that tradition.”

The new professors joining the Hendrix faculty in tenure-track positions this fall, include 2000 Hendrix graduate Courtney Mashburn Hatch as assistant professor of chemistry and 2002 graduate Megan Leonard as assistant professor of economics and business, Ph.D. from Texas A&M University

Other new tenure-track faculty for the 2008-09 year include:

• William Hacker, assistant professor of English, Ph.D. from Cornell University
• Brett Hill, assistant professor of sociology/anthropology, Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
• Kristi McKim, assistant professor of English/film studies, Ph.D. from Emory University.
• Aleksandra Pfau, assistant professor of history, A.B.D., University of Michigan.
• Andrew Scott, assistant professor of foreign languages, A.B.D., Rutgers University.
• Bobby Williamson, assistant professor of religion, A.B.D., Emory University. 

Examining the data by discipline, put Hendrix in the No. 1 position of percentage of graduates earning a Ph.D. in psychology - above Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and Vassar. The College was eighth in chemistry; ninth in education, and 24^th in English and literature.

Analysis of the study showed that liberal arts colleges, overall, graduate a high percentage of students who earn doctoral degrees.

Learn more about recent Hendrix graduates, Dr. Lindsey C. Smith ’98 and Dr. Karen L. Steelman ’98, who earned Ph.D. degrees and returned to the classroom to teach others in our other blog entries.

Five long-time Hendrix faculty who are either retiring at the end of the spring semester or are currently in phased retirement recently took the time to answer a set of probing questions asked by student writer Katie Rice ’10. Here are their answers to her questions and your opportunity to add your comments and memories about these Hendrix faculty legends.

Dr. Keith Berry
Dr. A. Bland Crowder
Dr. Garrett McAinsh
Dr. Richard Rolleigh
Dr. Warfield Teague 

Dr. Karen Steelman ’98

“I started out as a history major.  I have always been passionate about history and archaeology, but I love science as well.  The faculty at Hendrix encouraged me to find areas of study that encompassed all of these interests,” Steelman said.  “One day Dr. Liz Gron handed me a book that she had ordered for the library.  It contained research papers on different aspects of archaeological chemistry.  I read the whole thing and was hooked.”

Her newly discovered interest also led to Steelman’s successful application for a Watson Fellowship. Winning the national award gave her the opportunity to travel the world for a year after graduation, studying “Conservation & Museum Display” in Great Britian, Australia and Costa Rica.

Steelman connects her later success in graduate studies to the variety of skills that a liberal arts education at Hendrix gave her.

“At Hendrix, I learned the value of life-long learning.  And, because of my liberal arts education, I was much more well-rounded than other students entering graduate school in chemistry,” she said. “Hendrix gave me a solid grounding in science, but also taught me how to be a better writer and researcher -- skills that are very important in a scientific career.”

Karen Steelman is a perfect example of the importance of interdisciplinary studies and the role a liberal arts institution like Hendrix can play in students’ lives. She now has a job that allows her to pursue all of her interests. “My favorite part of archaeological chemistry research is being able to explain chemistry to archaeologists and explain archaeology to chemists,” Steelman said.

Dr. Lindsey C. Smith ’98

She credits the academic atmosphere at Hendrix with helping her prepare for her career in academe.  

“The arc of my career has been rigorous, challenging, pressure-filled, though not overly competitive. That’s the way Hendrix was – and I think getting started early really helps,” she said.

Smith took the Hendrix idea of a supportive community and an open exchange of ideas with her into her graduate studies and professional career.

“I remember studying a lot – talking with my friends about ideas, working on papers together. My friends took ideas seriously,” she said. “We had a community of ideas and that’s the way it should be among faculty in a department. You need that fluid, rejuvenating community to nurture ideas and keep learning.”

Along with the Hendrix idea of community, Smith also took along the memories of the professors who served as role models for her.

“The professors here are rigorous and we – my fellow students and I – wanted to impress them and to be like them,” Smith said. “The experiences I had at Hendrix helped me see what a difference it made to approach teaching with professionalism – to present myself as a professional. That put me ahead of others in graduate school.”

Most of all, after completing her undergraduate studies at Hendrix, Smith had the confidence that she could succeed in her field.

“You do have to have confidence in yourself to go after a doctorate. The attention from professors in a small department helps give you that confidence. I feel like they actually care about what I’m doing,” Smith said.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. The purpose of the Foundation is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.

321 scholarships were awarded to undergraduate sophomores and juniors for the 2008-2009 academic year. Zalocusky was one of four in Arkansas to receive the award – and the only private college student to be named a Goldwater Scholar.

Hendrix students Adam Jacobs, Bethany Edwards and Luke Erickson, also juniors, received Honorable Mention as Goldwater Scholars.

The grant awards were the largest awarded in Odyssey Program’s thee-year history. In total, Hendrix has awarded more than $1 million to support student and faculty projects since the Odyssey Program was launched in 2005.

The Hendrix Odyssey Program requires Hendrix students to complete three Odyssey experiences during their undergraduate career in areas selected from six categories: Artistic creativity, global awareness, professional and leadership development, service to the world, undergraduate research and special projects. Students and faculty define what course of study they’d like to experience, and award decisions are ultimately made by the college’s Committee on Experiential Learning.

This summer, Hendrix students Lauren Bartshe and Julie Champlin will travel to Germany and Poland to visit concentration camps primarily used to house and kill prisoners during World War II. At each site, they will record the camp’s current state and eventually pair each image with writings by Holocaust survivors, American soldiers and prison guards. The images and writings will be used in a book they will design and produce.

Hendrix student Aditya Oza will travel to India where he will experience the country’s filmmaking industry behind the scenes as an assistant to the production crew for a movie scheduled to begin filming in June. The popular film industry based in Mumbai, India – often referred to as “Bollywood” – produces approximately 40 percent more films each year than its American counterpart and grosses more than $100 million a year at the U.S. box office alone.

Closer to home, Hendrix students Ben Samuelson, James Depper and Emily Nichols will continue the development of the Hendrix Community Garden, a produce garden adjacent to campus that was originally created as an Odyssey project in 2005. The garden has seen several harvests of significant amounts of produce, and the new phase will create additional plots and enrich soil with mulch and fertilizer.

“Our society is structured in a way that demands instant gratification, but gardening is a patient activity in which steady working and waiting make results more deeply satisfying,” Samuelson said.

In all, students will travel to numerous countries around the globe this summer -- from Little Rock to Kansas to Australia to the Republic of Georgia.

For more information about this summer’s Odyssey Projects and other projects funded since 2005, visit www.hendrix.edu/Odyssey.

Jennifer Tate ’08, an English major from Germantown, Tenn., will receive up to $50,000 to fund a year of graduate study as an American Graduate Fellow. To receive the grant, she must be admitted to one of 23 prestigious institutions in the United States, Great Britain or Ireland. The grant is renewable for a second year.

She plans to earn a Ph.D. in English Literature at Washington University in St. Louis.

In addition to her English studies at Hendrix, Jennifer pursued her interest in music and singing. She was among the members of the Hendrix College Choir who performed at Carnegie Hall in May 2007.

Other institutions whose students were among the 12 finalists for the fellowships are Wellesley, Kenyon, Furman and the University of Richmond.

The award is sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges, an association of independent colleges and universities (including Hendrix) working together to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance private higher education’s contributions to society.

The American Graduate Fellowships are funded by a generous grant from the Wichita Falls Area Community Foundation in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The “Think Pink” campaign, an initiative through the National Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, encourages women’s collegiate basketball coaches to wear pink during games during a specified week to create awareness for breast cancer and encourage support of cancer research programs. Referees throughout the country joined forces with the WBCA this year, volunteering to utilize pink whistles through the “Calling for a Cure” program.

Hendrix coach Chris Hitchcock wore a pink dress shirt and assistant coach Amber Gean wore a pink shirt under a suit jacket. All three officials for the game utilized the special pink whistles.

“It’s a great opportunity to show support for a great cause,” Hitchcock said. “Amber and I are both active members of the WBCA and wanted to show our support for the ‘Think Pink’ program. It was an especially nice tribute with the referees participating this year.”

Hendrix alumna and filmmaker Sheri Bylander ’85 presented her documentary Homestretch, a film that tells the story of progressive politicians and prisons in New York, Oregon and Kentucky that have established prison programs to care for former racehorses. Instead of being sent to slaughterhouses or ending careers in punishing two-bit racing circuits, these poor-earning and end-of-career racehorses are instead sent to prison-owned farms where end-of-term prisoners earn the privilege of caring for the animals.

Bylander’s film also delves into the effects of human incarceration and ultimately shows how the peaceful surroundings of the prison farms help both the inmates and horses to let go of the past and discover new sides of themselves.

The film’s tagline is: “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” It is due to be released publicly later this year.

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Jesus Camp, also highlighted the conference. Their film follows a group of young children to Pastor Becky Fischer’s "Kids on Fire" summer camp, where kids are taught to become dedicated Christians in God’s army and are schooled to take back America for Christ. The film is a first-ever look into a camp that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America’s political future.

Ewing and Grady then led a discussion and answered questions following the film. Additionally, a panel discussion about the film titled “Jesus Camp and the Vocation of Faith Communities” included Hendrix professors Aaron Simmons (philosophy), Rod Miller (art) and Elizabeth Bridges (German), and University of Central Arkansas professor Lori Isom (chemistry).

Noted author and Asia/North America business expert Dr. Charles Lee talks with guests during a reception in his honor March 19.  Arthur W. “Bub” Epley ’63 (right), a member of the Hendrix Board of Trustees, arranged the visit which included classroom visits, a noon-time public forum and dinner at the President’s home with local business leaders. Dr. Lee is the author of the book Cowboys and Dragons: Shattering Cultural Myths to Advance Chinese/American Business.

Dr. Carney-Hall, currently the Dean of Students at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in student affairs administration and research, a master’s degree from Florida State University in higher education administration and a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University. She has previously worked in student affairs at Miami (Ohio) University and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

“Karla made a positive impression from the moment she stepped on our campus, and our students will benefit greatly with her in this position,” Cloyd said. “We are excited about the wealth of experience and the passion she will bring to Hendrix College.”

As Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Carney-Hall will be responsible for overseeing all elements of student life on Hendrix’s campus, including student activities, residence life, student organizations, counseling services, athletics, career services, student disciplinary issues, and health services.

“I’m tremendously excited to be working with Hendrix students, the faculty and staff, and being a part of the momentum that has been created at Hendrix,” Dr. Carney-Hall said. “I’m looking forward to this opportunity. I am committed to building relationships and understanding the Hendrix culture as critical first steps in my new role.”

Dr. Carney-Hall is married to Eric Hall, and they have a family dog, Oreo. She will replace Dr. Joyce Hardin, professor of biology, who has served in the position since 2002. Dr. Hardin, who says she misses her students, requested to return to the classroom last year, which initiated a national search for a new vice president.

The Walker Odyssey Fellowships were established in 2006 to encourage Hendrix students to apply for Watson Fellowships, a national award that funds a year of study outside the United States. Hendrix is the only college in Arkansas that is eligible to nominate its students to be Watson Fellows. Hendrix students who apply for Watson grants but are not successful become eligible for Walker Odyssey Fellowships to fund their proposed projects on a limited basis.

Walker Fellows spend a portion of the year after they graduate on their journeys under guidelines and expectations similar to those of Watson Fellows.  When they return, Walker Fellows are invited to campus to present the results of their projects.

During an assembly at Ida Burns Elementary School, Hines read from the book Gooney Bird and the Room Mother by Lois Lowry and had students locate words they didn't know and look them up. Hines told Log Cabin Democrat education reporter Jessica Bauer the dictionary project is an important one for her club to undertake because of its many benefits.

"I can't imagine what would happen to a group of students who do not have their own dictionaries throughout the course of their education," Hines was quoted as saying, "because a dictionary is certainly a book that can open up such a world of learning."

Hines told Bauer one of the best things to watch is students writing their names in the dictionary and seeing how proud they are to own one.

Harper, an evolutionary biologist, studied mimicry whereby non-poisonous snakes take on the colorful characteristics of poisonous snakes in attempt to avoid predators that typically don’t harm poisonous snakes. His research focused on non-venomous scarlet king snakes that closely resemble highly venomous eastern coral snakes – both possess brightly colored rings of red, yellow and black encircling the body. Predators avoid such tri-colored ring patterns, possibly without previous experience, but Harper found the non-poisonous mimics were more likely to be attractive to predators because they reside outside an area where the poisonous snakes they mimic reside.

Harper’s results provide an evolutionary explanation for why the mimics he studied often occur in areas outside of where the poisonous snakes they mimic are located.

A snake enthusiast – Harper’s pet snake Ed, a costal plains milk snake, resides in his Hendrix College office – Harper said his research has already caught the attention of several of his undergraduate students who plan to continue the research.

David Bailin, adjunct professor of art, exhibited his work at a one person show titled “Confessions of A Conformist,” at the Koplin Del Rio Gallery at Culver City, Calif., from June through July.

Dr. Jay Barth, associate professor of politics, published “Mobilizing the Seldom Voter: Campaign Contact and Effects in High-Profile Elections” in Political Behavior Vol. 30, pp. 97-113 with Janine Parry, E. Terrence Jones, and Martha Kropf.                              

Dr. Eric Binnie, professor of theatre arts, published an essay titled “Getting Richard Down: The Descent into the Base Court of Richard II: Reflections on a Lesson Plan for a Shakespeare, Theater, or Research Methods Class,” in Staging Shakespeare: Essays in Honor of Alan C. Dessen edited by Lena Cowen Orlin and Miranda Johnson-Haddad (University of Delaware Press).

Dr. Stella Capek, professor of sociology, traveled to India as part of a sociology delegation through the organization People To People in November 2007.

Hope Coulter, adjunct professor of English, was named runner-up for the Matt Clark Prize given by New Delta Review for her poem "Speed." Her poem "Giving Music" was runner-up in Spoon River Poetry Review's 2007 Editor's Prize contest.

Dr. Ashby Bland Crowder, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Professor of English, American Literature, and the Humanities, is the editor of Far From Home: Selected Letters of William Humphrey (Louisiana State University Press).

Dr. Bob Dunn, professor of physics, received a grant of $114,358 over three years from NASA EPSCoR for "Noninvasive Prospecting for Lunar Ores and Minerals,” with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Dr. Tom Goodwin, Elbert L. Fausett Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, was chair of a plenary session at the International Congress on Heterocyclic Chemistry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and presented a talk on mammalian chemical signaling research in elephants, two species of lemur, polar bears, and maned wolves in July 2007. He also made research presentations at the Australian National University, the University of Queensland, the Auckland Zoo, and the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Australia.

Danny Grace, professor of theatre arts, and his band The Rockin’ Guys released their album Performance Art Miscreants in September 2007.

Dr. Karen Griebling, professor of music, released a CD titled Alan Hovhaness: Music for Horn, Voice and Strings on Centaur Label in September. She was conductor, viola soloist and producer.

Dr. Liz Gron, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Warfield Teague, Willis H. Holmes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, received $149,640 in funding from the National Science Foundation  for “Educating Green Citizens and Scientists for a Sustainable Future.”

Dr. J. Brett Hill, visiting assistant professor of anthropology, published an article titled “Zuñi in the Puebloan and Southwestern Worlds,” with David R. Wilcox and David A. Gregory in Zuni Origins: Toward a New Synthesis of Southwestern Archaeology, edited by D.A. Gregory and D.R. Wilcox (University of Arizona Press).

Dr. Alice Hines, C. Louis and Charlotte Cabe Distinguished Professor of English, participated in a Conway Morning Rotary Club dictionary distribution project at Ida Burns Elementary School in March. Hines read from the book Gooney Bird and the Room Mother by Lois Lowry and encouraged children to look up words they didn’t know in their new dictionaries.

Dr. James Jennings, associate professor of education and history, was named a National PTA Fellow and given $5,000 to research student achievement and parent involvement and achievement gaps in American education.

Dr. Erik Maakestad, associate professor of art, exhibited his work at a group show titled “A Sense of Place,” in  Memphis, Tenn., hosted by the Crittenden  County Arts Council and Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects.

Dr. Kim Maslin-Wicks, associate professor of politics, published an article titled “Forsaking Transformational Leadership: Roscoe Conkling, The great Senator from New York,” in Leadership Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 463-76.

Dr. Rod Miller, associate professor of art, presented "The Religion of Modernism and the Problem of Beauty" at the Association for Cultural Exchange Conference at Trinity Hall College in Cambridge.

Dr. Karen Oxner, assistant professor of economics and business, published an article titled “Internal Auditors in the Energy Industry” with Thomas Oxner in Oil, Gas, and Energy Quarterly Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 397-413.

Dr. Jennifer Peszka, associate professor of psychology, presented “Does One Week of Sleep Extension Impact Eating Behavior in Healthy Young Adults?” with J. Harsh and D. Mastin at the 21st Annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (SLEEP) in Minneapolis, Minn.

Dr. John Sanders, visiting professor of religion, published “An Introduction to Open Theism,” in Reformed Review, Vol. 60, No. 2.  He also presented the opening paper titled “The History and Current Status of Open Theism” at the seminar on “Open Theology and Science” held in Boston June 17-July 7, 2007.

Dr. Lawrence Schmidt, professor of philosophy, gave a National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar on “Pragmatism: A Living Tradition,” directed by Russell B. Goodman of the University of New Mexico from June 18 through July 20, 2007.

Dr. Aaron Simmons, assistant professor of philosophy, and John Simmons presented “Joy and Desire in Post modernity,” at the C.S. Lewis Foundation Southeastern Regional Conference.

Dr. Damon Spayde, assistant professor of physics, collaborated with D. S. Armstrong and a group of scientists on “Transverse Beam Spin Asymmetries in Forward-Angle Elastic Electron-Proton Scattering” published in Physical Review Letters 99, 092301 (2007).

Dr. Tom Stanley, professor of economics and business, published “Meta-Regression Methods for Detecting and Estimating Empirical Effect in the Presence of Publication Selection,” in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, available online at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/obes/0/0. He also co-organized the Aarhus Colloquium of Meta-Analysis in Economics in Sønderborg, Denmark, in September 2007.

Dr. John Toth, associate professor of sociology, presented “Community in a liminal landscape,”  at The American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in New York.

Dr. Alex Vernon, associate professor of English, published “Fiction from the First Gulf War” in EnterText 6.2, winter 2006-2007.

By HELEN PLOTKIN, Editor

The Hendrix faculty is experiencing a changing of the guard. A cohort of faculty who came to Hendrix in 1970s is beginning to retire at the same time that the College is hiring additional faculty to meet the demands of growing enrollment. The Hendrix Board of Trustees has set of an enrollment goal of 1,300 by 2013 and mandated that the College maintain a 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio.

To meet those goals and ensure that Hendrix can continue to boast of having a faculty that is among the nation’s best, Dr. Robert L. Entzminger, provost and dean of the College, invests a great deal of time in effort in recruiting faculty.

Over the last two years, Dr. Entzminger has overseen the hiring of 35 new faculty members. Eighteen new faculty joined the Hendrix ranks during the 2007-08 academic year, including eight in tenure-track positions. So far, the College has hired 17 new faculty for the 2008-09 year, eight of them in tenure-track positions.

Faculty are the heart of a liberal arts college dedicated to undergraduate education. As the College’s chief academic officer identifying top scholars who are right for Hendrix is a top priority for Provost Entzminger.

“I need to be confident that the person understands the kind of institution that Hendrix is and is willing to make a commitment to high-quality liberal arts education,” Dr. Entzminger said. “More than that, I want to find people who will bring something else to the table -- an interest in interdisciplinary work or a talent or specialty that will allow us to develop a new area of study that will bring real value for our students.”

The right faculty member for Hendrix is also someone who loves teaching and who puts students first.

“The faculty at Hendrix are unusually dedicated to their students,” Dr. Entzminger said.

Finding that right person involves faculty, staff and students from across campus. The search committee usually involves faculty members from inside and outside the hiring department. The Committee on Faculty, the provost and associate provosts, and the president are also part of the process. It is a time-consuming process, but a vital one, Dr. Entzminger said.

“The search process has helped us get great candidates,” he said. “In a tenure-track search, we just don’t let anybody settle. If it’s not the right person, we won’t offer them the position. Sometimes that means we have to close a search and then start it all over again until we can find someone who is right for Hendrix.”

Sometimes the right person can be found close to home.

“Over the last two years, we have added four alumni to the faculty,” Dr. Entzminger said. “That speaks well of the education they received at Hendrix and of the esteem with which they hold this institution. They ‘get’ what we do here and are eager to return and help sustain that tradition.”

The new professors joining the Hendrix faculty in tenure-track positions this fall, include 2000 Hendrix graduate Courtney Mashburn Hatch as assistant professor of chemistry. She earned a Ph.D. at the University Colorado. Other new tenure-track faculty for the 2008-09 year include:

• William Hacker, assistant professor of English, Ph.D. from Cornell University
• Brett Hill, assistant professor of sociology/anthropology, Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
• Megan Leonard, assistant professor of economics and business, Ph.D. from Texas A&M University
• Kristi McKim, assistant professor of English/film studies, Ph.D. from Emory University.
• Aleksandra Pfau, assistant professor of history, A.B.D., University of Michigan.
• Andrew Scott, assistant professor of foreign languages, A.B.D., Rutgers University.
• Bobby Williamson, assistant professor of religion, A.B.D., Emory University. 

Non-tenure track faculty are often hired to fill in while full-time faculty are on sabbatical or leave. Others are hired to fill short-term needs.

“The one-to-three year contracts are designed to address enrollment stress,” Dr. Entzminger said. “Some will convert to tenure-track positions as soon as we are confident that there is a continuing need for the positions.”

Professor of Chemistry Tom Goodwin has been named to the Julia Mobley Odyssey Professorship.  Goodwin, the 2003 Carnegie U. S. Professor of the Year for Baccalaureate Institutions, will involve Hendrix students, as well as local high school students and science faculty, in pursuing research on chemical communication among mammals.

Professor Joyce Hardin, Associate Professor Matt Moran, and Assistant Professor George Harper, all of the Biology Department, will jointly hold the Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Professorship, developing research and internship opportunities for Hendrix students in partnership with the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation and the Nature Conservancy.

Professor of Politics and International Relations Ian King is the recipient of the Morriss and Ann Henry Odyssey Professorship.  He will pursue his research interest in Latin American politics, culminating in a study trip to Latin America with several Hendrix students.

Professor of Religion Jay McDaniel has been named to the Nancy and Craig Wood Odyssey Professorship, combining his interest in sustainability with research, service, and internship opportunities for students in partnership with Heifer International.

Professor of Economics Tom Stanley has been named to the Bill and Connie Bowen Odyssey Professorship.  Stanley’s project will involve students in international research projects in economics, will fund their participation in international conferences, and will allow them to be involved in the hosting of an international colloquium at Hendrix in 2010.

Each Odyssey Professorship is backed by a $500,000 endowment. A $3 million challenge grant from R. Madison and Suzanne Nodini Murphy, both ’80, and the Murphy Foundation was the catalyst that ignited the Odyssey Professorship program. Their grant matches gifts of $250,000 dollar for dollar to establish the first 12 professorships.

The award recognizes faculty members who exemplify excellence in teaching, civility and concern for students and colleagues, commitment to value-centered education, and service to students, the institution and the community.

In addition to a certificate of appreciation, she was presented a $500 cash award.

Dr. West, who joined the Hendrix faculty in 1977, earned a bachelor’s degree at Franconia College, a master of arts degree, a master of philosophy degree and a doctorate at Yale University.

She has a particular interest in Africa and has led several trips there. Last summer she and Dr. Allison Shutt, associate professor of history, led 10 students from their “African Film” and “History of Southern Africa” classes to South Africa to experience the country’s literature, writers, films, history and geography first-hand. 

She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arkansas Humanities Council, and Fulbright-Hays funding to present summer workshops in Africa for Arkansas teachers.

The three new Distinguished Professors, who will be formally installed during a convocation on Sept. 18, include Dr. Jay Barth, Dr. Ian King and Dr. Jay McDaniel.

Jay Barth ’87 has been named the M. E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of Politics.  An associate professor of politics, Barth received a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a specialization in Southern politics in the 20^th century.  He was a recipient in 2000-2001 of the Steiger Congressional Fellowship awarded by the American Political Science Association, and in 1998 was presented the American Political Science Foundation and Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Outstanding Teaching in Political Science.  He has received the Faculty Appreciation Award, presented by the Senior Class of Hendrix College, four times, and in 2007 was named the Arkansas Teacher of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation.  Among his extensive publications is Arkansas Politics and Government:  Do the People Rule? (2^nd edition 2005, U. of Nebraska Press), co-authored with the late Diane D. Blair of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.  He joined the Hendrix faculty in 1994.  Barth succeeds Professor of English Bland Crowder, who entered phased retirement in 2007, as the holder of the Peace Professorship.

The new Harold and Lucy Cabe Distinguished Professor of Politics and International Relations is Ian King. King received his B.A. from the University of Hull (England) and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, joining the Hendrix faculty in 1985 and has served twice as department chair.  A Fulbright-Hays Fellow to Egypt in 1997, he is the author of four books, most recently The Political Theory of Darwinism:  Zoon Politikon and the Evolutionary Case for Social Democracy (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008).  He received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1989 and the Exemplary Teachers Award from the Council on Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church in 1989.  The previous holder of the Cabe Professorship was Professor of History Garrett McAinsh, who is retiring at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year.

Jay McDaniel, who holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, is the new Willis T. Holmes Professor of Religion.  A member of the Hendrix faculty since 1979, McDaniel is currently chair of the Department of Religion and Director of the Steel Center for the Study of Religion and Philosophy.  With a specialty in Process or Whiteheadian thought, McDaniel has authored or edited eight books, including With Roots and Wings:  Christianity in an Age of Ecology and Dialogue, Living from the Center:  Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism, and Gandhi’s Hope:  Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace.  He has been instrumental in establishing an exchange program between Hendrix and Heilongjiang University in Harbin, China. As holder of the Holmes Professorship, McDaniel succeeds Professor of Chemistry Warfield Teague, who is retiring at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year.

These three join three continuing holders of distinguished professorships at Hendrix:  Dr. Tom Goodwin, Elbert E. Fausett Distinguished Professor of Chemistry; Dr. Bruce Haggard, Virginia A. McCormick Pittman Distinguished Professor of Biology; and Dr. Alice Hines, C. Louis and Charlotte Cabe Professor of English. 

A. Sadly, yes.

Five long-time Hendrix faculty who are either retiring at the end of the spring semester or are currently in phased retirement recently took the time to answer a set of probing questions asked by student writer Katie Rice ’10.

Here are a few of their responses to her questions, along with photos of the professors in their favorite spots on campus. You’ll find more questions and answers in the online version of Hendrix magazine at www.hendrix.edu/hendrixmagazine, where you’ll have an opportunity to share your memories of Professors Berry, Crowder, McAinsh, Rolleigh and Teague.

Dr. Richard Rolleigh ’67, professor of physics, has been a member of the Hendrix faculty since 1974. 

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I have many plans.  I own four acres in the country, so there’s a lot of landscaping for me to do.  I also plan to travel with my wife; we have already planned an African safari.

Aside from that, I’ll be conducting research that I couldn’t do while I was at Hendrix.  I really only need myself and a good library to research general relativity and the theory of gravitation and quantum field theory: the standard model.  Those projects weren’t amenable to undergraduate research, so I put them off.

I’ll also be a physics consultant for weapons development at UT Austin, working on smart missiles, for example. I investigate the physical theory behind their ideas, to see if the application is physically feasible.  They deal with all the grant proposals and paperwork, and I do the physics.  It’s very liberating.

Q. Describe the most memorable moment of your time at Hendrix?

A. I can’t choose a particular one, but nearly all have occurred in the classroom, or with a small group of students working in the physics study room.  Physics is like art or music: the way you learn relies on having quick access to an expert, to critique you or help you when you’re stumped.  In many of those instances, students have given me a new idea or a new insight.

Q. What is something that others would be surprised to find out about you?

A. I coached youth soccer for 20 years and really enjoyed it.

Q. What is your favorite place on campus and why?

A. The physics study room, because that’s where most of my memorable moments have happened, and where new ideas originated.  The soccer field is also a favorite, because I started the women’s soccer team here in 1985 and coached it for several years.

Dr. Keith Berry ’73, professor of economics and business, a member of the Hendrix faculty since 1989.

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I’m taking a phased retirement, so I’ll spend more of my time consulting for the Arkansas Public Service Commission about the regulation of utilities.

Q. Describe the most memorable moment of your time at Hendrix?

A. The campus is so enjoyable in spring.  It’s very comfortable.  I enjoy walking around campus in April and early May.

Q. What is something that others would be surprised to find out about you?

A. My favorite type of literature is science fiction.  I read one or two sci-fi books each week.  My favorite author is Robert Heinlein, who wrote Stranger in a Strange Land.

Q. What is your favorite place on campus and why?

A. I enjoy the turtle pond area by the gazebo.  When I was a student it had lots of landscaping and vegetation, and it’s still a very nice place to walk.

Q. Why did you choose to teach at Hendrix?

A. I went to school here, and I felt comfortable with the small college, liberal arts atmosphere.  The intellectual quality is high, so I don’t have to worry about offering remedial work.  I also appreciated the opportunities for meeting students outside of class.  For example, I led a group of students on the third Odyssey to China last summer.

Dr. A. Bland Crowder, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Emeritus Professor of English, has been a member of the Hendrix faculty since 1974. 

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I’m in the midst of a phased retirement; I teach during the spring semesters.  Last fall I tried to fix up my old house I’ve been neglecting, refinishing my front door and creating a new flower bed in the front.  I did manual labor for three or four hours each day, and then read on my front porch for the rest of the day. Next fall, I’ll be visiting my hometown of Richmond, Va.  I’m also considering writing a biography of William Styron, who was a writer for the Newport News who died this year.

Q. Describe the most memorable moment of your time at Hendrix?

A. In one of my classes, we read a Robert Browning play called Pippa Passes.  Browning misused a word, thinking it referred to a nun’s headgear, rather than an intimate anatomical part.  That’s how innocent the Victorians were.  We later read a Browning poem called “Count Gismond,” and we were discussing critical views of the poem.  One critic considered the poem very sexual, and my student Emily Parker blurted out, “That’s ridiculous!  Browning doesn’t even know what a _____ is!”  We laughed for almost fifteen minutes.

Q. What is something that others would be surprised to find out about you?

A. I’m a card-carrying member of the A.C.L.U.

Q. What is your favorite place on campus and why?

A. I can tell you my least favorite place is the brick patio, where we used to hold graduation while it was 100 degrees in the sun.  We were sitting there in our hot, black robes, with no shade at all.  My favorite place, though, is the Wallyball court.

Dr. Garrett McAinsh, Harold and Lucy Cabe Distinguished Professor of History, has been a member of the Hendrix faculty since 1970.

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I’ll be doing volunteer work at the Butler Center, and other places.  I’ve found a second career lecturing on cruise ships, talking about the history of the places we’re about to visit.  It’s not a paid position, but the trips are free for myself and my wife.  My retired life will be “academic lite” – I don’t have plans to write a book or anything.

Q. Describe the most memorable moment of your time at Hendrix?

A. I’ll always remember my time as the head of the Social Sciences, in the late ’80s.  It was my opportunity to really contribute to the life of the College.

Q. What is something that others would be surprised to find out about you?

A. What you see is what you get, I’m afraid.  But my biggest disappointment about myself is that I really tried to learn French and just couldn’t get it.

Q. What is your favorite place on campus and why?

A. I love the Wallyball court in the Mabee Center, because I love Wallyball.

Dr. Warfield Teague, Willis H. Holmes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has been a member of the Hendrix faculty since 1970.

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I have two grandchildren and family in Missouri and Delaware.  I plan on travelling to see them with my wife and dogs.  Other than that, fishing and golf.  I’ll be working part time, two weeks a month, as a consultant for the Office of Education at NASA in D.C.  I’ll run the university research grants program.

Q. Describe the most memorable moment of your time at Hendrix?

A. When I was in college, I was invited to a ballgame in Little Rock by a friend who went to Hendrix.  He assured me that most Hendrix students went home for the weekend, and that there would be an extra bed available.  It turned out that everyone else on campus must have brought a friend that weekend, because I ended up sleeping on couch cushions on the pool table in Martin.

Q. What is something that others would be surprised to find out about you?

A. I like to think I’m fairly up-front, but people might be surprised by my domestic skills.  I use biscuits as the coin of the realm.  I bake them in the teacher’s lounge of MC Reynolds and give them as presents to butter people up.  I also know how to sew.  When my daughter was younger, I made her jeans in every color.  I could clear the table off after dinner, get out the sewing machine, and she’d have a new pair to wear the next day.

Q. What is your favorite place on campus and why?

A. It’s the lab, because of the work I do with students.  Especially the Advanced Technology and Experimental Chemistry lab.  The students come up with the most interesting research initiatives.  It’s very fun.

Students, faculty, staff and alumni packed The Burrow March 18 for the project launch of the Student Life and Technology Center. Dr. Joyce Hardin played an Oprah-style emcee for the event with her special guests: President J. Timothy Cloyd, Trustee Dan Peregrin ’80, Dr. Mark Schantz, professor of history and director of the Odyssey Program; B.J. Fogelman ’09, Student Senate president-elect, and Dr. Aubrey Hough ’66, speaking on behalf of Hendrix alumni. Congressman Vic Snyder even made an impromptu appearance during the event. 

The Student Life and Technology Center is under construction on the former site of Grove Gymnasium, and is expected to open in Spring 2010.

The Center will include a state of the art “Educational Technology Center” designed for interactive group work, offices and work space for student organizations, programming areas for the Hendrix community, a café, game and recreation space, and a post office on the first floor of the building. The second floor will house a new dining hall, kitchen, servery, and small dining rooms, as well as offices for Student Affairs and the Odyssey Program.

The Educational Technology Center or ETC will be a vibrant, open computer center for both work and play.  The plan includes computer workstations with space for several individuals to work together.  The stations will be configured in various ways from soft, comfortable seating with large flat panel displays mounted on the wall to more traditional desktop computers with widescreen monitors.  The software available will include creative suites for creating presentations and videos, and the workstations can also be used for electronic gaming. 

Technology will also be distributed throughout the building, so that small groups of students may gather for work or games in various locations on both floors.

The ETC will include a small seminar room housing the latest technology in a classroom designed so that students can create and practice presentations. The ETC Video conference room will be equipped with technology for video conferencing that will be used to link Hendrix faculty and students with their counterparts around the globe.

In addition, conference rooms and seminar rooms will be scattered throughout the building. Offices will be located on both floors and will include spaces for Academic Support Services, Career Services, Religious Life, and more.

Click here to see photos or listen to a podcast of the event.

This year’s inductees included:

Everett Eason ’33 was a standout athlete in football and basketball.  He received All-State honors in basketball during the 1930 and ’32 seasons before earning All-State honors at end in football during the 1932 and ’33 seasons.  The Emery native was captain of the football team in 1933 and was a member of a Warrior basketball team that lost just seven games during his four-year career (1929-33).  After graduating, he played semi-pro basketball for Myers Bakery before pursuing a career in education.

Phil Guthrie ’57 came to Hendrix in 1953 and was a four-year letterman in basketball.  The Marshall native led the Warriors in scoring as a sophomore and junior and was named to the All-AIC First Team in 1956 and Second Team in 1955 and ’57. 

Ernie Martin ’60 was a four-sport athlete at Hendrix.  He lettered four years in basketball, three years in track and field, two years in football and two years in tennis.  Martin received All-AIC Honorable Mention as a center on the basketball team and as an end on the football team during his senior year.  He was also named to the All-AIC Second Team in basketball as a junior.  He led the Warriors in rebounding during his last two seasons.  As a senior member of the Hendrix tennis team, Martin won the AIC Doubles Championship to help lead the Warriors to a Men’s Tennis Championship. 

Carl Babcock ’61 was a three-year letterman and served as team captain of the last football team fielded by Hendrix in 1960.  The Paragould native also lettered in track and field three times and won the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference Championships in the 880-yard run once and finished second twice.

Babcock began his coaching career at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1963.  On April 12, 1973, in his second year as head track and field coach at North Texas State University, Babcock was killed in an automobile accident, ending what would have been a legendary coaching and teaching career.

In his memory, the Carl Babcock Award for Leadership in Athletics is awarded annually by the Hendrix Athletic Advisory Committee to the varsity athlete who has exemplified the ideals of clean and vigorous competition, the pursuit of excellence and dedication to physical health and well-being.  One of this year’s inductees, Katie Levins Freeman, was the recipient of this award in 1995.

Jerry J. Jeffries ’61 was a four-sport athlete at Hendrix.  He lettered three years in tennis, two years in track and field and basketball, and one year in football.  The Fort Smith native earned the AIC singles championship twice and doubles championship once.  Jeffries helped the Warriors to their first AIC Track and Field Championship in 15 years by placing second in the high and low hurdles event in 1959.  As a basketball player, Jeffries led the team in scoring his senior year.

Katie Levins Freeman ’95 was a four-year letterman in track and field and received All-SCAC honors in 1993, ’94 and ’95.  The North Little Rock native was named the Hendrix NCAA Division III Woman of the Year as a senior and holds Hendrix records in the high jump, 100-meter dash and 100-meter high hurdles.  Freeman was also a member of the Warrior Cheer Squad for three years.

The Hendrix Sports Hall of Honor was created by the Hendrix College Booster Club in 1994 to preserve the history of the college’s great athletes, coaches, fans, friends and supporters. Memorabilia highlighting the achievements of Hall of Honor members are displayed in the Hall of Honor room overlooking the atrium of the new Wellness and Athletics Center. For more information about the Sports Hall of Honor, contact the Hendrix College Athletics Department, (501) 450-1391 or visit www.hendrixwarriors.com.

Intermixed within three days of basketball action, Hendrix and the SCAC collected hundreds of pounds of canned food for the First United Methodist Church Food Pantry in Conway. Canned food was collected from fans in lieu of an admission charge.

The women’s team lost a heartbreaking, overtime game to Oglethorpe in the opening round, and the men narrowly fell to eventual tournament champions Millsaps in the semifinals, but the mood at the WAC wasn’t all gloomy.  Both teams will return all of their players next season – including some of the conference’s top performers – and Hendrix will again host the SCAC tournament in February of ’09.                                                                                                                   

Hendrix College junior Andrew King from Granbury, Texas (Jesuit College Preparatory), was selected to the SCAC’s first team as voted by conference coaches. Sophomore Christina Byler of Little Rock (Pulaski Academy) was selected by women’s coaches as the Newcomer of the Year in the conference and to the SCAC’s second team.

Sophomore guard Cal Rose of Blytheville was an honorable mention selection and was voted to the SCAC All-Tournament team following the conference tournament. Samantha Clark of Little Rock (Lutheran High School) was also selected as an honorable mention.

King led the SCAC in both scoring (18.6 ppg) and rebounding (10.8 rpg) becoming just the third player in SCAC history to accomplish the feat and first since Oglethorpe’s Russ Churchwell in 2003-04. King cracked the league’s top 10 list for career rebounds during the SCAC Tournament. A two-time SCAC Player-of-the-Week selection this season, King is the first Hendrix men’s player to earn back-to-back All-SCAC First Team honors since Jason Rhodes (1994-95 and 1995-96).

Rose was the 13^th highest scorer in the league with 13.6 points per game. He was the third-best free throw shooter in the conference based on percentage (83.9 percent) and finished third in three-point field goals made per game at 2.6.

“Andrew and Cal were both instrumental in the success of our team this year, and we’re looking forward to what we can accomplish next year with our entire team returning,” Hendrix Coach Dan Priest said. “Andrew was unstoppable at times inside for us and Cal always seemed to come up with a clutch three-pointer when we needed it. The awards they received represent a total team effort, however – Andrew and Cal would be the first to acknowledge that they would not have received these honors without the hard work of their teammates.”

Byler, a sophomore academically but a first-year player on the court, led all SCAC newcomers in both scoring (19.1 points per game) and rebounding (7.0 rebounds per game) during the regular season, and her scoring average was tops for the entire conference. It marks the first time a first-year player has led the league in scoring since Jennifer Warren averaged 22.9 points a game for Trinity in 1994-95. She also leads the league in free throw percentage (88.0 percent) and her 168 made free throws is already the third-most free throws made in a single SCAC season.

“Christina had a tremendously successful first season as a Hendrix Warrior,” Hendrix women’s Coach Chris Hitchcock said. “We are proud of her accomplishments on the floor and hope that her continued work will help our team toward more success.  Her offensive capabilities and her strong work ethic will make her one of the best players in the nation as her career at Hendrix continues.”

Clark, a junior, started all 26 of Hendrix’s games this season, averaging a team-high 33.3 minutes and collecting nearly 10 points per game.  

“Samantha’s honor is well deserved,” Hitchcock said. “She worked hard to improve her game in the off-season last summer and it certainly paid off as she consistently gave us great effort and positive contributions.  Sam is not the most talented basketball player but her athleticism and determination along with her desire to improve and win shined on the court during the season.  Sam is a model student-athlete and we are proud that she is representing Hendrix.”

The honorees include:

2008 Distinguished Alumnus Award
Allen D. McGee ‘62 

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hendrix college, McGee went on to work in the healthcare industry. He is a co-founder of the Radiology Corporation of America (RCOA) where he has been chief executive officer since 1998 and chairman since January 20, 2006. Before joining RCOA as CEO, McGee was chief executive officer and co-founder of Dialysis Centers of America, the largest dialysis treatment company in Chicago. He also served as senior vice president responsible for marketing, sales and business development at Damon Corporation, a clinical laboratory services company that was acquired by Corning in 1993.

His 39 years in the health care industry also include the positions of senior executive vice president of Specialty Laboratories in Los Angeles, vice president of marketing at International Clinical Laboratories (acquired by SmithKline) and national marketing director of American Biomedical Corporation (acquired by National Health Laboratories).

McGee is a member of the Science Advisory Board at Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Science where he is a member of the finance committee. McGee serves on the Board of Directors of Hendrix College. In addition, Mr. McGee is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at General Electric’s Medical Imaging Division.

2008 Humanitarian Award
Walter J. Levy ‘43 

A native of Ortelsburg Germany, Levy moved to Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) when he was ten. Six years later, his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Fort Smith. He received his bachelor’s degree in philosophic studies: education, psychology, philosophy, and religion, from Hendrix. He then went on to the University of Chicago for a master’s degree in education and to do graduate studies in social work and psychology at Wayne State University and the University of Minnesota. He got a master of social work degree from Washington University’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

Levy began his career as a Forrest City high school teacher and spent two years as a public assistance social worker in Detroit, Mich. He went on to work for ten years in vocational services with an emphasis on World War II veterans, the handicapped, and holocaust survivors in St. Louis, Mo., and Minneapolis, Minn. He spent 20 years in community organization with the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston and the Council of Jewish Federations. He spent 1978 through 2000 in independent social work practice with an emphasis on the psychosocial problems of aging, illness and widowhood. His lifetime of work earned him the distinction of being named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Work.

2008 James E. Major Service Award
Loyd Ryan

Ryan is a graduate of Conway High School and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Central Arkansas. He worked at the Arkansas Democrat and as city, editor, general assignment reporter, sports editor, and managing editor at the Log Cabin Democrat.

Ryan began work at Hendrix in 1990 and has served as director of business affairs, associate vice president for business affairs and director of facilities at the College. During that span, Ryan played key roles in the building and planning of Bailey Library, Acxiom Hall, Reynolds Life Sciences, new student residence houses, the Art Facility, the Wellness and Athletics Center, new track/lacrosse, soccer, baseball and softball fields, and the Murphy Building.

Aside from making the physical plant run smoothly, Loyd is also very involved in the Hendrix community and often serves as a representative for the college in the Conway community.

2008 Outstanding Young Alumna Award
Dr. Amanda Moore McBride ‘93 

McBride hails from Batesville, Arkansas, where she graduated from Batesville High School in 1989. She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Hendrix then went on to earn her M.S.W. and doctorate. at Washington University in 1995 and 2003 respectively. 

McBride is an assistant professor in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. She is also director of Washington University’s Richard A. Gephardt Institute for Public Service, where she is responsible for promoting community service and service-learning across campus, and research director of the School of Social Work’s Center for Social Development, where she leads research on civic engagement and service. McBrideteaches graduate service-learning courses on social justice, community practice, and program evaluation.
Professor McBride was lead editor of a 2004 special issue of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, entitled “Toward a Global Research Agenda on Civic Service,” a 2005 issue of Voluntary Action, entitled “International Service in the Context of Globalization,” a 2007 book with ME Sharpe, entitled Civic Service Worldwide: Impacts and Inquiry, and a forthcoming special issue of the International Journal of Social Welfare, entitled “Youth Service in Comparative Perspective.” Professor McBride also directs an international civic service research fellows program funded by the Ford Foundation, which currently supports 20 fellows with research spanning 32 countries.

Her opinion is regularly sought by congressional leaders, international organizations, and think tanks worldwide. In 2007, she gave testimony at a congressional briefing on international service legislation, and served on an expert panel addressing civic engagement and inclusion convened by the United Nations. Mcbridehas been an active volunteer in the St. Louis community through the United Way of Greater St. Louis, where she also worked as a research associate from 1995 to 1998.

She proudly lives in a century year old home with her husband, Mark McBride, and son, Liam. 

2008 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award
Kenneth A. Gunderman ‘93 

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in economics from Hendrix, Gunderman earned a master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale University School of Management. Since then, he has held various positions in the financial industry rising to Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers Inc. – Global Communications Group in New York City.

Currently, he is Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Investment Banking for Stephens Inc., which has more than 70 investment bankers and six offices across the United States and London. Stephens is privately held and is one of the largest and oldest investment banks off Wall Street. Gunderson and his wife Stephanie Anderson Gunderman ’93 live in Little Rock.

Hendrix College’s five newest Odyssey Medalists took time to thank former professors, classmates, family members and others as they accepted their awards during the annual Founders’ Day convocation on Feb. 8.

Walter O. Pryor ’87 received the Odyssey Medal for Professional and Leadership Development. He is a principal with the government relations and public affairs firm The Podesta Group. He was the legislative director for U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, worked for the National Association of Attorneys General, and held other prestigious positions with the U.S. Department of Justice.

"To whatever degree my own Odyssey inspires or gives foundation to my own children, to students here at Hendrix, to any fellow human being, please consider it as partial repayment for what has been given to me,” Pryor said. “In honoring me you honor yourselves and all that is so wonderful about Hendrix College.”

Dr. Jack L. Blackshear Jr. ’64 of Little Rock was the recipient of the Odyssey Medal for Service to the World.  A physician with the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, Dr. Blackshear was honored for the numerous mission trips he has led to Honduras. He has taken more than 100 medical students with him over the years to help serve those without regular access to physicians.

“Of all the things that you have taught me- the Christian ideas and service to other people, to always hold the high standards that your faculty has always portrayed- I’ve always remembered that and I always will.“

Kenneth R. Nixon ’65 was awarded the Odyssey Medal for Special Projects. Nixon was lauded for his development of a distance care giving system that enables informal care to be provided to elderly family members over the Internet, allowing older adults to stay independent in their homes longer. The system, which has been featured by NBC’s Today Show and in major news publications throughout the world, was originally created by Nixon and his two brothers Vic ’62 and Wade ’81 so their mother, who had Alzheimer’s, could remain independent on their family farm in Lavaca. Nixon used the technology to create Caregiver Technologies, Inc.

“We were just doing what we knew how to do,” Nixon told the audience. “Now we’re in the business of changing people’s lives for the better.”

Bracken P. Darrell ’85 received the Odyssey Medal for Global Awareness. Since graduating from Hendrix, Darrell has held leadership positions in a variety of multi-national companies including Proctor & Gamble, General Electric and Gillette. As the current president of Braun, Darrell leads a $1.6 billion small appliance company based in Frankfurt, Germany. Eighty-five percent of the company’s sales are outside of North America.

“At a liberal arts college like Hendrix you get a diversity of interests, and part of the outcome of diversity of interests is a diversity of friends.” Darrell said. “I’m very blessed with a mind and a heart that will always be filled with Hendrix.”

Natalie Canerday ’85 was awarded the Odyssey Medal for Artistic Creativity. Since earning a degree in theatre at Hendrix, Canerday has given stand-out performances in a number of films, including One False Move, Sling Blade, and October Sky. She and others in Billy Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade were collectively nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in the Motion Picture.

“I want to commend Hendrix on having such an incredible, inspiring faculty,” she said. “Any time I’m on a stage – any time I’m wearing make-up and pantyhose – Dr. Henenberg [my Hendrix drama professor] is with me.”

Throughout her life Mrs. Buthman was an active member of the community. She was involved in Hendrix Dames, First United Methodist Church, Chapter CA of PEO and Jr. Shakespeare Club.

In an article in the Log Cabin Democrat about her 100th birthday, Mrs. Buthman recalled Conway back in the “good old days.” She said that young people in her day complained about the lack of things to do, just as they do today and that the face of Conway hasn’t changed as much as one might think. "Our county was dry then, like it is now. But folks went to Morgan for their whiskey like they do now," she said, illustrating her point.

In the same article Mrs. Buthman recalled meeting her husband during her junior year at Hendrix: "On campus he looked like another student," she said of the young professor.

Mrs. Buthman graduated magna cum laude from Hendrix College in 1924 and taught high school for several years before marrying Dr. Buthman. "When he looked my way one day, we started dating and decided to get married when summer came. We took our marriage vows on Aug. 23, 1928. I resigned my job as a public school teacher and became Erma Guice Buthman, housewife," Mrs. Buthman told the Log Cabin Democrat reporter. Professor Buthman taught history at Hendrix until he died in 1979.

In spite of increasing difficulty getting around, Mrs. Buthman continued to be heavily involved in the Hendrix community during her final years. “Mrs. Buthman faithfully attended all alumni events on campus in recent years whenever she could,” said Pamela Owen, associate vice president for Alumni Relations.

Especially memorable was Mrs. Buthman’s presence at the Half Century Club Luncheon where she was recognized as the most senior alumna for over 15 years.

“Everyone at the luncheons enjoyed honoring her and sharing his or her fond memories of Dr. and Mrs. Buthman.” Owen said, “She will be greatly missed.”

On her 100th birthday the Log Cabin Democrat described her as being “lighthearted as ever and attuned to the times. She is amiable and conversant and sharp as a tack.” Mrs. Buthman will be remembered by those whose lives she has touched as an avid conversationalist whose quick wit and kindness made her a joy to be around.

Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church, Conway or to the Buthman Scholarship or Lectureship Memorials at Hendrix College.

When Mark Jacob graduated from Hendrix College in 1976, he had two job prospects: a sports writer at a Pine Bluff newspaper or a manager at a local Taco Bell.  The latter paid better, but after much hand-wringing Jacob took the writing job.

Now an editor at the Chicago Tribune, he wonders how he ever considered a career other than journalism.  He returned to his alma mater in March to discuss the Tribune’s coverage of Barack Obama, who is a hometown hero to most Chicagoans.

His talk, titled “Covering a Sensation: Chicago Journalists and Barack Obama” referenced the unique responsibilities a candidate’s hometown news outlets have during a presidential election year.  Specifically, how do mainstream news reporters avoid rooting for the “home team” when it’s the biggest story in town? “It’s difficult to describe how well liked this man was, and still is, in Chicago,” Jacob said in his speech.

In his 2004 bid to be a U.S. senator for Illinois, Obama won 70 percent of the vote – an accomplishment Obama himself attributed in part to “spooky good luck.” When the race began, Obama had been little more than a “little-known state senator with a funny name, running after 9/11,” Jacob said.  He was running in a crowded field: six other Democrats and eight Republicans.  Moreover, seven of those other candidates were millionaires.

Obama became a sensation when he won, which complicated the press coverage of the politician, Jacob said.

“It was dangerous, then, because our customers felt it wasn’t necessary to question too hard,” he explained. “No one wants to find anything bad about the guy.”

With Obama back in the spotlight, the Tribune and other Chicago papers are facing the same problems.  Jacob, who serves as the Foreign/National News Editor and helps direct the newspaper’s coverage of the election, has to keep a vigilant eye for fairness.

Steps to ensure fairness include tallying the number of times each candidate is referenced or pictured, as well as the number of times each is mentioned in the lede of a story. To avoid accusations of bias, journalists are also forbidden from displaying political bumper stickers or yard signs.

“We have a saying, ‘No cheering in the press box,’” Jacob said. “Ideally your coworkers shouldn’t know who you vote for.”
He also focused on the role of the hometown newspaper as the one most able to fully vet a candidate. For example, the Tribune wrote about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial pastor, a year ago.

In that way, the career interests of journalists line up with the goals of democracy, Jacob said.

“Everyone wants to get the scoop no one else has,” he said. “No one is going to get a free pass.”

Jacob was brought to Hendrix as part of the Hendrix Alumni Doing Democracy program. During his two days on campus, he also visited classes and spoke with students at an informal coffee hour and luncheon.

Spatz is the author of Basic Statistics: Tales of Distributions, now in its ninth edition, and is a co-author of Research Methods in Psychology: Ideas, Techniques, and Reports, which was published recently by McGraw-Hill. Spatz was also a section editor for the John Wiley publication, Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science.

Vietnamese college courses have historically been largely lecture-based with the professor rarely questioned by students. This new method focuses on problem-solving techniques and in-class discussion, allowing students to find the answers while the professors serve as guides. This program hopes to give students the skills to stay on top of advances in the medical field and to creatively solve problems. The visit was part of a multi-year project conducted by Pathfinder International in collaboration with UCSF’s Bixby Center for Reproductive Health Research & Policy.

Dr. Sawaya was awarded the Odyssey Medal for research in 2004.

By RAE HAMAKER ’10

Returning to Hendrix 11 years after she graduated, Jessica Pettitt ’96 came bearing a message of change. She emphasized that change begins with the individual and flows outward, tweaking an idea from Gandhi to help explain her personal philosophy to current Hendrix students – “Be the Change You Want to Be.”

Pettitt was the featured speaker of a Hendrix Alumni Doing Democracy (HADD) program titled “The State of Our Nation” that took place in November. She began the program by describing her call to do social justice work, explaining her disagreement with what she called “drive-by diversity training,” which she saw as a feel-good approach that failed to affect any real change. “Social Justice, on the other hand, is recognition of differences over the long term and affecting change individually within ourselves,” she said.

Pettitt, a sociology major at Hendrix, said her major allowed her to receive an academic sense of how people interact but that social justice work was what helped her to really understand those interactions.

“You need to be uncomfortable to change,” Pettitt told the room of students, further emphasizing the individual’s role in changing the world by encouraging her audience to change themselves. This, she said, would slowly change things within their realm of influence. Even small changes count, she told the group.

As part of her message of change and activism, Pettitt also spoke of “adultism” and the silencing or subordination of the voice of young people as one of the biggest obstacles students face today. Additionally, she described a pressure on the “Millennials” to fix and change things, saying that older generations blamed the current one for not doing enough to fix things and for being apathetic. Pettitt, however, asserted that apathy doesn’t just happen but is reinforced by previous generations.

Pettitt said that young people do have a voice and something important to contribute to the world and that if you want something to change you have to work to cause change on an individual basis, to truly “Be the Change You Want to Be.”

Sam R. Adkisson of Missouri City, Texas, retired from the University of Texas Dental Branch in Houston having been on the faculty for 29 years. He has won the McGovern Teaching Award four times and has been in dental practice for 56 years.

’48

Marge Gilliam Garrett and Dr. A.G. Garrett ’49 of Fleetwood, N.C., now have three great-granddaughters. Dr Garrett is still happily teaching chemistry at Appalachia State University at the age of 81.

’60

Dr. F. Gladwin Connell of Little Rock has been appointed by Governor Mike Beebe to a four-year term on the Arkansas State Board of Nursing.

’62

David D. Colvert appeared in the movie Harsh Times with Christian Bale and Eva Longoria. He “even had lines.”

Caroline Crenshaw Strubbe of Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., retired in 2003 after teaching elementary school for 38 years in the Brevard County “Space Coast” school system.

’63

Fr. Bob Allen retired as the twelfth rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in El Dorado after sixteen and a half years in that position.

Dent Gitchel of Little Rock is teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Memphis School of Law, then plans to return home to try to resume retirement.

George Wayne Upton Jr. of Washington, D.C., gave 10 Little Rock Central High School yearbooks to the NAACP Washington Bureau on Oct. 1, 2007. One was for the school year 1957-58. His father, Wayne Upton, was on the Little Rock School Board from March 1957 to Nov. 12, 1958. Upton has been an active member of the NAACP since April 1977.

’68

Dr. Mary Louise Corbitt of Little Rock, co-founder and neurologist at Arkansas Headache Clinic, was named one of Arkansas’ Best Doctors in 2007.  Mary Louise reports visiting with Dr. Mary Ann Williams Morris ’68 (her roommate during medical school) in North Carolina over the summer and enjoying her five wonderful grandchildren, who call her May May.

David Newbold was appointed the information commons manager of the biomedical library at the University of California at San Diego.

Dr. Joe D. Waldrum of Little Rock received the Outstanding Leader Award from the International Association of Programs of Agricultural Leadership at the association’s annual meeting in Miami in October. Joe is professor of leadership and development for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. He is the director of LeadAR, a two-year statewide adult leadership development program. In July he completed 31 years with the extension service.

’70

Kim Sudderth Ford of Memphis, Tenn., has been appointed chair of the OrbisPictus Award Committee. The OrbisPictus Award is given each year to the most outstanding non-fiction book published for children and is sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. She is the first middle-school librarian to be named chair of the committee.

’71

Gary L. Ingram of Ft. Worth, Texas, was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2008. He was named to the list in the field of labor and employment law.

’72

James F. Barnett Jr. of Natchez, Miss., published a book titled The Natchez Indians: A History to 1735 printed by University Press of Mississippi. In the book, Barnett uses archaeological data along with accounts of explorers, missionaries and colonists to investigate the Natchez Indians’ plight during a time of European encroachment and change. Barnett is the director of the Division of Historic Properties, Mississippi Department of Archives and History and has published articles in The Journal of Mississippi History, Mississippi Archaeology, The Southern Quarterly, and other journals.

James O. Cox of Greenwood was appointed the Sebastian County Circuit Judge by Gov. Mike Beebe in February 2007.

Debra Roberts of North Little Rock passed the 9th Architecture Registration Exam in October 2007 and became a licensed architect. See Marriages.

Dr. Robert B. White of Paragould was elected to fellowship in the American College of Physicians.

’73

Dr. Samuel Welch of Little Rock was promoted to associate professor of otolaryngology (head and neck surgery) at the University of Arkansas School for Medical Sciences. He is also the assistant chief of the surgical service of Central Arkansas Veteran’s Healthcare System.

’75

Patti Shields Cox of Greenwood is a development director at the Fulbright College at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

Walker Dale Garrett, a partner in the Bassett Law Firm in Fayetteville, has become a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an honor bestowed on less than one percent of attorneys.

’76

Mike Mathes of Conway is president of the National Bank of Arkansas.

Beverly Mitchell of Columbia, Tenn., is an associate professor of English at Columbia State Community College where she is the director of the honors program. She is active in local and college theatre; she recently directed Sophocles' Antigone and will direct The Taming of the Shrew in the spring.

’82

Michele Belmont Halsell of Fayetteville recently accepted the managing director position for the Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas.

’84

Joe Thompson of Little Rock was appointed surgeon general by Gov. Mike Beebe and now serves on the governor’s cabinet providing development and guidance of health policy for the state. He continues to work as associate professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.

’85

Scott Schallhorn of Little Rock was named “Mid-South Super Lawyer” in real estate for 2007. Candidates were evaluated by a panel of their peers in their primary area of practice. Only 5 percent of the total lawyers in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi were selected for inclusion. Scott is vice president and general counsel at Hendrix.

Michelle Staggs of Little Rock is employed as an advanced practice nurse with Dr. Christopher John of Southwest Pulmonary Associates, specializing in pulmonary, critical care, and internal medicine.

’86

Martha Carolyn Ellis of San Diego, Calif., was named chief financial officer of Sysview Technology in November 2007.

’88

Kelly Haggard Olson of Suwanee, Ga., is working as operations manager of the Gwinnett Philharmonic.

’90

David Hawkins is senior pastor at Greenwood United Methodist Church and conference chair of ministerial assessment for the Arkansas Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. He is an instructor for the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and will teach an extension course at Hendrix in 2008.

’91

Duke Marr of New York accepted the position of vice-president of e-commerce product management with 1-800-FLOWERS.com

’93

Elise Allee Hoffine is a project coordinator for the department of psychiatry's division of health services research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Alyson Low joined the Fayetteville Public Library as a youth librarian in March 2007. She develops the juvenile nonfiction collection and creates programming for toddlers through teens. She will begin work on a master's degree in library science in 2008.

Robert Thompson of Paragould serves in the Arkansas State Senate representing District II, which includes Greene, Clay and Lawrence counties as well as part of Craighead County.

’94

Brad Spear of Columbia, Md., is a consultant at Energetics Incorporated in Washington, D.C., and specializes in studies and partnership building activities to assist federal and state clients in the research, development, technology transfer, and commercialization of advanced energy technologies and speeding the movement of technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

'95

Eric Dyer began a new job as a staff editor on the national copy desk at The New York Times in early October 2007 after nine years as a reporter and editor at the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C. He and his partner now live in Peekskill, N.Y., about an hour north of New York City. Dyer was editor of Hendrix’s The Profile 1993-94 and 1994-95.

’96

Josh Holt recently moved from Austin, Texas, to New Orleans, La., where he is teaching high school social studies at Edna Karr High School.

’97

Sarah King of Fayetteville earned a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2007 and now works as director of community programs at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.

’98

Erin R. Gibbs of Van Buren is in the Peace Corps in Macedonia doing small business development work. She is due back in December 2009.

Jean-Marie Findley Williams of Ponchatoula, La., completed her first year as program manager for the Hammond office of Louisiana MENTOR, a therapeutic foster care agency for youth involved in the juvenile justice system and individuals of all ages with developmental disabilities.

’99

Kevin Brannon of Jersey City, N.J., is working towards a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York.

Seth and Melanie Oubre Harder live in Conway with their three daughters. Seth is a software engineer at Cognitive Data in Little Rock.

’00

Tanya Breedlove is now the assistant controller at Altivity Packaging, LLC, moving from corporate accounting back into cost accounting.

Kelle Franklin of St. Louis, Mo., is executive director for the St. Louis affiliate of Kids Enjoy Exercise Now (KEEN), a national nonprofit organization that provides recreational sports programs for youth with developmental and physical disabilities.

Colin Gorman is a certified public accountant in Little Rock and recently started a financial services firm.

Ashley Pryor Meins of Maize, Kan., is employed with Bombardier Aerospace as a relocation specialist. See Marriages and New Children.

Chrystal D. White of Camden recently obtained her service coordination certification and is currently employed as a service coordinator/case manager at Ouachita Child Enrichment Center Annex (OCECA) in Camden. OCECA serves developmentally delayed and typically developing 3-5-year-old children.

’01

Dr. Scott Koenig and Dr. Laura Musolf Koenig ’02 of Hot Springs opened their own veterinary hospital, Animal Family Practice, in Bryant in October 2007.

Heidi Novotny accepted a position as a librarian with the City of San Antonio in September 2007. She is in charge of collection development and programming for young adults at the Las Palmas Branch Library.

Mary Beth Woodson received her master degree in film studies from the University of Kansas after completing her thesis about the presentation of history and creation of memory in recent Irish cinema. She is working toward a doctorate in film studies at the University of Kansas.

’02

Tanya Corbin Holmes of Memphis, Tenn., began working as an in-house employment attorney with AutoZone, Inc., at corporate headquarters in September 2007.

Juliana K. Leding completed her doctorate in experimental psychology in May and is now an assistant professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. See Marriages.

’03

Katherine Sims Roberts was promoted to controller of Integrated Security Systems, Inc., in Carrollton, Texas, including their Intelli-Site and DoorTek subsidiaries.

’04

Erin Rowe of Siloam Springs will soon move to the island of Sifnos, Greece, to consult as a travel agent for Aegean Thesaurus. Post-Hendrix, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer on the island of Dominica, a fine art consultant for Lahaina Galleries on Maui, and an advertising account executive for Saatchi & Saatchi X. She will continue to write for Parker County Today magazine of Texas and working on her first book, an untitled collection of travel memoirs.

’06

Paul Gregory and Lori Ann Holt Gregory ’07 moved to China on Jan. 17, 2008, where Paul will work at Elim Western Cafe as business manager and Lori Ann will teach English.

’07

Clair Spivey is attending the University of Tennessee Dental College where she enrolled in August 2007.
 

Carson and Grayson, 1-year-old twin boys, of Lori Yancey Lee ’85 and her husband Jeff.

Miles James, first son, to Tanya Corbin Holmes ’02 and her husband Rodrick, June 11, 2007.

Abigayle Lynn, first daughter, to Robyn Ambler-Wertz ’01 and her husband Barry, March 30, 2007.

Correction: Unfortunately, these babies were mislabeled in the previous issue. We apologize for the mistake.

Maren Elizabeth Stewart-Tanner, first child, to Tracie Stewart '89 and her husband Brian Tanner, Feb. 9, 2006.

Ruthie Grace, daughter of Lari Daily Moix ’95 and her husband Michael.

Correction: Trevor Westyn is the second son, fourth child, to Mary Elizabeth Farrah Jones ’89 and her husband Terry, Sept. 12, 2006.

Betty Cleaver Davis '46
David S. LeVine ’47
Mattie Mae Ball Rice '47
Vallette Longstreth Thomas '48
Charlene Toll Jeffcoat '49
Alfred Thompson Kelley, Jr. '49
R. Eric Wade '49
Louise Lambert Fish Church '50
Danny B. Daniel '50
Patrick Sims Honeycutt '50
Thomas C. Sain '50
Nolan L. Simmons '50
William Leslie Yates '50
Mary Lou Brinker Stahl '51
Marilyn Louise Bandy Williams '51
John Clarence Trice '52
Eugene Shaneyfelt '53
Melvin Bottorff '57
Ben Hogan '58
Leonard R. Ellis '62
Beverly Burroughs Huddleston '63
Richard Simpson Vaughan '65
Jan Elaine Gordon Mendoza ’71
Don Armstrong '75
Jennifer Davis Ford '90
Richard Wayne Smith '98

Cyril Wolak
Army Specialized Training Program 1943-44

Faculty/Staff
Johnny Koster
Director of Grounds

David Curry
Wellness and Athletics Center

The leadership of the campaign cabinet, chaired by R. Madison and Suzanne Nodini Murphy, both ’80, and Dan ’80 and Jennifer Jacuzzi Peregrin ’81, has been critical to the current success of the campaign, as has the support of the Hendrix Trustees.

For the rest of 2008, efforts will focus on raising the remaining funds necessary to complete the Student Life and Technology Center. This goal must be reached by the end of the year to qualify for a $1.5 million challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation.

Your support for the Hendrix Campaign will guarantee our success in establishing Hendrix as a national leader for engaged learning in the liberal arts.  For more information about how you can be part of the future of Hendrix, contact the Office of Advancement at 501-450-1223 or 877-208-8777, or visit www.hendrix.edu/giving.

The grant marks the continuation of a long-standing relationship between the Mabee Foundation and Hendrix College, beginning in 1972 when Hendrix received $300,000 from the foundation to help construct the Wilbur D. Mills Center for Social Sciences. Since then, The Mabee Foundation has contributed more than $5 million to five additional building projects at Hendrix, including a $2 million grant in 2004 to help fund the college’s recently-constructed $23 million Wellness and Athletics Center.

“For more than 25 years, the Mabee Foundation has played a vital role in the development of facilities at Hendrix College that enhance the academic and co-curricular programs, and student life on our campus,” Hendrix president J. Timothy Cloyd said. “Their gifts have helped Hendrix develop into a national leader in the engaged liberal arts.”

The new 80,000 square-foot Student Life and Technology Center will be constructed on the former site of Hendrix’s Grove Gymnasium, adjacent to Harkrider Avenue on the east side of the college’s campus. President Cloyd said the new facility will be “designed to reflect our students’ keen enthusiasm for engaging in active learning and life experiences outside of class.” 

The Mabee Foundation, a Delaware non-profit corporation, was formed in 1948 by Mr. John E. Mabee and his wife, Lottie E. Mabee, with its office in Tulsa, Okla.  As stated in its charter, the purposes of the foundation are to aid Christian religious organizations, charitable organizations, institutions of higher learning, hospitals and other organizations of a general charitable nature.

I hope that you will give serious consideration to contributing to the Alumni Loyalty Fund.  It is a great way to show your appreciation to this school, which means so much to so many of us.  Your contributions can do a lot to support Hendrix’s academic programs and students, and help to show foundations and other prospective donors the depth of your commitment to the College. Even a small amount, as a one-time gift or given over a matter of months through bank or credit card draft, can make a difference.  Please make your gift by May 31 to help Hendrix. On behalf of all of us that benefit from alumni gifts, thank you.

- Dr. Garrett L. McAinsh
  Harold and Lucy Cabe
  Distinguished Professor of History

This spring, the Walker Foundation awarded a $2 million challenge grant to support the College’s efforts to endow the Hendrix Odyssey Program in perpetuity.

Recent funds created in response to the Walker Odyssey Challenge include:

• The Carol Downs Sharp and Bob Sharp Endowed Scholarship Fund established by the couple for students with demonstrated academic ability and financial need.

• The Oran J. Vaughan Endowed Scholarship Fund established by James W. Bost in memory Oran J. Vaughan for students with an interest or major in history.

• The G.L. Bahner Odyssey Endowment established by LeRoy and Frances Hendricks with matching funds from IBM in honor of Mr. Gustavus L. Bahner and the Hendricks family.

• The Dr. Darren and Julia McGuire Odyssey Endowment for students with an interest in the medical or health sciences.

• The Telos Endowed Scholarship Fund established with a gift from the Arkansas Community Foundation, Inc. for seniors graduating from high school in Arkansas.

• The Al and Beverlyn Eckert Odyssey Endowment to benefit students’ experiential opportunities to enhance their understanding of environmental studies.

To find out more about how you can help meet the Walker Challenge, contact the Office of Advancement at 501-450-1223.

A surprise for the teacher

Dr. Richard Rolleigh ’67 reacts to the news that Dr. R. Edward Hendrick ’68 has given a generous gift to establish the Richard Rolleigh Odyssey Endowment Fund for Undergraduate Research at Hendrix. Dr. Rolleigh, who is retiring after teaching physics at Hendrix for 34 years, has just concluded his Last Lecture during Alumni Weekend. The drawing in the background is part of his illustration of the theory of relativity.

The Gills, members of First United Methodist Church of Little Rock, were instrumental in starting the workshop in 1984. Since then, more than 380 ministers – including more than 60 percent of the current active United Methodist clergy in Arkansas – have attended. Their recent $50,000 donation has created the John and Marjem Gill Annual Preaching Workshop and Lectures Endowment, which will allow the two-day workshop to become a permanent, annual resource for Methodist ministers and Hendrix students alike.

The endowment will provide resources to bring to campus each year a national leading preacher or professor with expertise in homiletics. The workshop leader will present a lecture that is open to the public, lead a workshop for clergy, and, when appropriate, preach in the chapel, meet with pre-theological students, and visit classes of Hendrix students.

"I have been very blessed during my time at Hendrix to have an opportunity to work with John and Marjem on bringing some of the best preachers to Hendrix College,” Clark said. “Their love for the United Methodist Church is seen in so many ways.  Their gracious gift will continue to provide an excellent workshop for Arkansas preachers and current Hendrix students."

Twenty-five clergy from the United Methodist Church of Arkansas will be invited to attend, free of charge, each year. Additional ministers may also choose to participate for a small fee. All interested Hendrix College students are also welcome to the Gill Preaching Workshop, which will be a tremendous resource for them in their own vocational discernment, Clark said.

While on campus for the workshop, participants will engage in activities and discussions that will translate directly into improved sermons and preaching skills. The workshop also will serve to reinforce the historic relationship that exists between Hendrix College and local United Methodist churches in Arkansas, Clark said.

Former leaders include Tom Long, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Gene Lowry. Walter Brueggemann, a preacher and Old Testament scholar, will lead the 2008-09 workshop.

During his 29 years as a member of the Hendrix faculty, Dr. Moffatt had a strong presence in the Hendrix community. Current Hendrix professor Chuck Chappell said of his former professor “He was dapper ... and always a gentleman. He’d tip his hat, say 'hello' when he met you.”

In the classroom, Dr. Moffatt was tough but well-liked. As professor of English, chair of the English Department and Area Head for the Humanities, Dr. Moffatt helped the college become the nationally recognized institution it is today and strengthened the English department.

After retiring to his childhood home in Monticello in 1977, Dr. Moffat remained involved in the life of the College and with Hendrix alumni. He continued his strong love of music and traveling, supporting local music programs and leading tours all around the globe for 25 years.
With his broad interests and strong commitment to excellence, Dr. Moffatt lived the Hendrix motto of “unto the whole person.”

“He personified the ‘Hendrix way’,” Dr. Chappell said.  “He was a giant in the history of Hendrix, in my opinion. He was an inspiring teacher. Beloved would be a good word to describe him.”

With his gift to the new Students Life and Technology Center, the impact of his long and well-lived life will be felt by generations of Hendrix students who did not have the privilege of calling him “Professor.”

The 160-page book, Gandhi’s Hope: Learning from World Religions as a Path to Peace, is published by Orbis Press and is available at most bookstores and at Amazon.com for $15.          

“Whether we are Christians or Jews, Muslims or Hindus, Buddhists or Sikh, we face five serious challenges,” said McDaniel, author of several books on religion and ecology. “These challenges are to live compassionately, to live self-critically, to live simply, to live ecologically and to welcome religious diversity.”  

Gandhi’s Hope treats all of the challenges, but is aimed specifically at helping spiritually interested readers respond to the last challenge of welcoming religious diversity. Guided by a form of philosophy called process philosophy, McDaniel shows how people from different religions can cultivate a culture of peace by learning from the various world religions, even as they remain rooted in their own.       

“Each religion contains truth relevant to a flourishing of life,” McDaniel said, “while no religion contains all the truth, which is always more than any individuals or communities experience.” In this sense, McDaniel said, the book follows Gandhi who believed that the heart of religion lies in seeking truth in companionship with others, not in claiming to have all the truth.   

McDaniel, who holds a doctorate degree from Claremont School of Theology, said the book emerged out of his 20 years of teaching world religions at Hendrix.                  

The professor hopes that the book is helpful to individual readers and also to groups of readers who are engaged in a study of the religions in the context of a college classroom or a community of faith.     

A member of the First United Methodist Church in Conway and an oblate at Mount Saint Benedict Monastery in Erie, Pa., McDaniel is involved in inter-religious dialogue, especially Christian-Buddhist dialogue. His other books have included With Roots and Wings: Christianity in an Age of Ecology and Dialogue; Living from the Center; Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism; Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life; and Earth, Sky, Gods, and Mortals: Developing an Ecological Spirituality.         

 A loyal supporter of Hendrix College since 1950, Mrs. Shivley is known for the engaging
spirit of her philanthropy. She looks at her donations to Hendrix as an investment in the future – a point she made again on May 17 when she accepted the Stanley S. Kresge Award at a banquet in her honor on the Hendrix campus.

The Kresge Award is given annually by the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation. The Foundation established the award in 1987 to honor “a United Methodist who embodies two important characteristics of the late Staley S. Kresge: dedicated membership in The United Methodist Church and unselfish support of United Methodist Higher Education.”

President J. Timothy Cloyd nominated Mrs. Shivley for the honor, noting that “She has supported her alma mater with not just her financial gifts, but also with her enthusiasm and joyful presence. She has used her gifts to help build a culture of philanthropy at Hendrix.”

About 100 of her admirers gathered in Hulen Ballroom for the tribute to Mrs. Shivley. Dr. Thomas Sidney Yow III, president and CEO of the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation, traveled to Hendrix to present the award. The award includes a medallion, a framed certificate and a $10,000 gift to the College’s endowment to establish a scholarship in Mrs. Shivley’s honor.

“I knew we’d made the right decision,” Dr. Yow said, “when we signed the scholarship agreement and Mrs. Shivley said, ‘That’s one more we can help.’

Her belief in the life-changing power of a liberal arts education is what drives Mrs. Shivley’s philanthropy. She sees her gifts not only changing the lives of those individuals who receive scholarships and grants with the dollars she has given, but also benefiting all those who come in contact with future Hendrix graduates. This ripple effect multiplies the impact of every gift.

Over the years, she and her late husband Charles have given Hendrix more than $1 million, most of it in the form of challenge grants encouraging others to join her in giving. Most recently, she has established the Lucile Esmon Shivley Fund for Global Service in support of the Odyssey program. Her gift will provide funding for student projects that incorporate service learning into international travel or study aboard experiences.

In addition to her support of Hendrix. Mrs. Shivley has been a lifelong Methodist. At 93, she still occasionally teaches Sunday School at Highland Valley United Methodist Church in Little Rock, where she has been a member for nearly 20 years, and volunteers at Camp Aldersgate, a United Methodist campus near Little Rock. Her pastor, Dr. Kurt Boggan, gave the invocation at the Kresge Award banquet.

Other speakers included Bishop Charles N. Crutchfield, bishop of the Arkansas Area of the United Methodist Church; Mitchell Boone ’07, a Rockwall, Texas, a United Methodist Youth Fellowship Scholar and student pastor of Springfield United Methodist Church; Kelly Simon ’97 of Little Rock who responded to Mrs. Shivley’s most recent challenge grant to increase membership in the Young President’s Club; and President Cloyd. Rock Jones ’80, executive vice president for Advancement, was master of ceremonies for the evening.

Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd detailed the plans at a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of the future Wellness and Athletics Center, which is on the north corner of Harkrider and Siebenmorgen streets.

The center and the athletic fields will span the length of Siebenmorgen from Harkrider almost to I-40.  Kirchner Architecture of Little Rock is project architect, and SportsPLAN Studio of Kansas City, Mo., is facility designer.

“The focus of all fitness and athletic programs at Hendrix, as well as other liberal arts colleges, is to cultivate the student as a whole person,” said Cloyd.  “This state-of-the-art center will offer students and the campus community more space and better facilities for their total development.”

Cloyd said he is grateful to those who have already provided financial support for the Wellness and Athletics Center, including the Mabee Foundation which issued a $2 million challenge grant last November for the project.

Hendrix Board of Trustees Chair R. Madison Murphy ’80 said the center is an investment in the future for the college. “Hendrix has already claimed a national leadership position in higher education, and the new Wellness and Athletics Center marks a further commitment by the college to enhancing the value of academics and campus life for our students.”

The Wellness and Athletics Center will include a competition gymnasium for basketball and volleyball; a recreational gymnasium with two full courts for intramural programs; an aquatic center for competitive and recreational swimming and diving; a fitness center; an exercise studio; a kinesiology lab and classrooms; a rock-climbing wall; locker rooms, and staff offices.

The center will be built on the property currently occupied by the soccer field, which is being relocated east of the center off Siebenmorgen Street. Construction of the soccer field has begun and will be completed in time for this fall’s soccer season.

The Wellness and Athletics Center, which will replace Grove Gymnasium built in 1961 when student enrollment was about half of what it is today, will be positioned facing the campus on the center line to Hendrix’s main campus entrance on Harkrider Street. The property site for the center will need to be raised about six feet to align with the campus entrance.

The college currently has 17 athletic teams that include men’s and women’s programs.  More than 20 percent of Hendrix students participate in non-scholarship NCAA Division III sports, and more than 60 percent of the students participate in one or more intramural sports programs.

It comes as no big surprise that Jay Barth ’87 includes Hendrix students in the acknowledgments of his latest book, Arkansas Politics and Government.

A winner of four different Hendrix senior classes’ Faculty Appreciation Award, the politics professor is a master at weaving students into all aspects of his work.

“I cannot thank enough the students at Hendrix College who have brought such joy to my professional and personal life through their enthusiasm for the study of politics and for their deep civility and kindness to me,” writes Dr. Barth. “The academic skill of the students with whom I have had the opportunity to work in my life as a professor is evidenced by the fact that several works written by them are cited in this book.”

Arkansas Politics and Government is the second edition of a book written by the late Diane D. Blair, a prominent professor of political science at the University of Arkansas who died of cancer in 2000 soon after beginning the revision. The newest edition, co-authored by Barth and released in April, discusses the shifts in Arkansas politics and government.

Barth also credits Grant Cox ’02 with providing important research assistance on the book, which is available most Arkansas bookstores, the Hendrix bookstore and from the publisher, University of Nebraska Press, www.nebraskapress.unl.edu.

Numerous book signings, including a reception on June 13 in the Georgetown home of Jonathan Rhodes ’98, the Hendrix alumni representative for Washington, D.C., have connected Dr. Barth with Hendrix alumni, colleagues and friends and have given him a platform to talk about his passion, Arkansas and Southern politics.

The book’s publication has also attracted media attention to Barth and Hendrix, including the cover article of the May 22 High Profile section in The Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Barth used the book as a textbook this past semester for an Arkansas Politics Seminar. In addition to the class work, the 15 seminar students got practical experience working at a variety of political and governmental jobs, including the attorney general’s office, the American Civil Liberties Union, Arkansas Advocates and the Democratic House.

“A lot of political scientists tell themselves they shouldn’t get involved outside the academic arena because it threatens their objectivity,” said Barth in the High Profile article. “I think I’ve been able to achieve engagement in things I care about without losing my objectivity. What I hope to show my students is that you learn a lot from being in the public arena, but that you also have the responsibility to maintain that objective distance.”

The newest edition builds on Blair’s work which highlighted both the decades of failure by Arkansas’ government to live up to the state’s motto of Regnat Populus (“The People Rule”) and the positive trends of democracy. The book chronicles the development over the past 15 years – the two-term U.S. presidency of native son Bill Clinton, the retirement of players who defined the state’s politics in the nation’s most extreme legislative term limits, the complete overhaul of the state’s court system and the declaration that the state’s public education system was unconstitutionally inadequate and inequitable.

Barth, a central Arkansas native and a leading analyst, author and academic authority on the politics of Arkansas and the South, is a magna cum laude Hendrix graduate in American studies. He received a master’s degree in 1989 and a doctorate degree in 1994 in political science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

His public affairs interest led him to a 1989 internship for Clinton in the governor’s office and to paid work in Clinton’s 1990 gubernatorial campaign. In 1992, he was a precinct captain in Orange County, N.C., for Clinton’s first White House race.

Barth has been a member of the Hendrix faculty since 1994 and is a member of the Inaugural Faculty of the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service. He chairs the Hendrix Odyssey Task Force which has helped developed the new curricular program, Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning.

He currently serves on the board of directors for the National Council on Community and Justice and is a national board representative for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ten students from Hendrix are forging new territory while on a study tour this summer in East Asia.This is the first time Hendrix has sponsored a student tour to East Asia, and it is the first time American students have studied at Heilongjiang University in Harbin, an industrial city that has historical ties to former Eastern Bloc nations.

The entourage left Little Rock July 3 for a 15-day tour known as "The China Odyssey." Hendrix Professor Jay McDaniel is leading the tour, which begins in Beijing. For their first four days, students will tour the Great Wall and visit the Forbidden City, a Taoist temple and a Buddhist monastery.  They will also meet with students from Beijing Normal University, which is a teaching college. 

From Beijing, they will take an overnight train ride to Harbin where they will stay in apartments provided by Heilongjiang University.  Hendrix and Chinese students will participate in a four-day morning course, "Process Thought and Chinese Thought in an Age of Globalization," which Dr. McDaniel will teach at the university.  In class, students will study and discuss process thought, higher education and globalization.  Dr. McDaniel expects 200 Chinese students to participate in the class, which will use four common texts, each of which is in English and Chinese.

During the rest of their 10-day stay in Harbin, students will visit with religious and cultural leaders, learn about sports and music in China, meet with local entrepreneurs, and take a two-day tour of Inner Mongolia. Their Harbin hosts will be Professor Li, a faculty member at Heilongjian and editor of the well-known journal Qui Shi (Seeking Truth), and Guo Sheng Tie, one of Li's assistants.

The trip is sponsored by the Steel Center for the Study of Religion and Philosophy and the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Hendrix.

Student participants include three Arkansans, Zach Beal of Conway, Emily Morgan of Cabot, and Josh Wilson of El Dorado; four Texans, Mitchell Boone of Rockwall, Ingrid Geisler of Dallas, Katie Howard of Denton and Laura McKain of Pleasanton; Robin Bischol of Bloomfield, Mo.; Dana DeMilt of Bartlett, Tenn.; and Elise Stangle of Athens, Ga.

The China Odyssey is the brainchild of McDaniel, who has taught world religions for the past 20 years at Hendrix and is a process theologian. Last year, he was invited to Harbin to participate in a conference on Process Thought and Cultural Thought in China. McDaniel gave a public lecture on ecology and process thought and met the president of the Heilongjan University. The seed was planted for the summer tour.

The China Odyssey title refers to the fact that China, the oldest living civilization, is on a journey or odyssey into the future, which now involves an intensive dialogue with the West. It also refers to the journey the students are taking.

McDaniel said the study tour is an important experience for Hendrix students because China is becoming a key player in world history and in world economy.

"Increasingly we realize that China, the world's oldest and most enduring civilization, is ascending to the position of a world power. The 21^st century will be, in many ways, the China century," he said. "I am taking students from Hendrix to see the future."

Still, the primary purpose for the trip involves friendships, the professor said. "Our aim is to make friends and meet people," he said. "Most importantly, we want to take students to meet other students, to see how they think, and to return with possibilities for continued interchange vis-à-vis discussions that transpire with help from the Internet.  Meanwhile, each student also has much to learn in terms of personal interests."

Ingrid Geisler, a Hendrix biology major who plans to become a veterinarian, said she hopes to explore traditional Chinese medicine while on the trip, along with learning about the culture and religion.

"I am particularly interested in Taoism and Taoist healing," she said. "Continuing my study of the Chinese language will also be an important part of being in China."

Hendrix senior Emily Morgan said she is interested in learning about what it's like to be a college student in China and how that is different from America. "And I would love to visit a zoo!" she said.

Hendrix students have created a Web site for The China Odyssey www.chinaodyssey.org with more details about the tour, including a full course description, a profile of each student, a page published in Chinese for Chinese-speaking friends in China and other parts of the world and a forum for discussion.

Julie doesn't seem to have wasted any time during her four years at Hendrix. The Conway native recently received Odyssey Program funding to work with physics professor Robert Dunn on a ring laser gyroscope that measures the earth's rotation as a way of gathering information about geophysical effects such as polar motion and seismic waves.

Julie has been experimenting with the ring laser in the basement of Acxiom Hall at Hendrix, as well as making seismic wave measurements using the largest ring laser in the world, which is located between Conway and Greenbrier.

"The best way to learn physics is by doing physics," said Dunn. "And original research is the most exciting way to do it."

"I learned about optics, geology, engineering, and I even dug a ditch or two," Julie said of her Odyssey experience. She also recently traveled to Los Angeles to present a paper on her research at the annual American Physical Society conference.

Julie has also made significant strides in her athletic career. She holds all the Hendrix track records from 1500-5k, the 4x400, and the XC 5k and 6k record. She was an All American in both the 3000 meter steeplechase in 2005 and in cross country this past fall. At the 2005 South/Southeast Region she was honored as the Female Athlete of the Year.

"Julie is a terrific example of a student-athlete who has really applied herself both academically and athletically, and succeeded marvelously in both areas," said Hendrix Athletic Director Danny Powell. "She has a tremendous work ethic, enjoys what she does and competes fiercely." He added, "It has been a true privilege to watch her develop over four years as a student and as an athlete, and I have all the confidence in the world that she'll keep doing great things after she leaves Hendrix."

Julie's main focus in track now is the steeplechase. Having already run the best time by a Division III athlete last year, she now wants to take the national record.

"I never would have dreamed that I would have had the success in running that I have had here," Julie said. "I think I have learned that sometimes you have to redefine the image you have of yourself as an athlete to see what you are truly capable of."

Julie has also had to redefine herself as a student. "Four years ago I would never have thought that I would end up majoring in physics," she said. "Somehow, I learned to find a sense of satisfaction on working on one problem for five hours and finally figuring out what I did wrong in the second step. It's neat to know the principles behind how everything works!"

Julie spends her time balancing equally impressive careers in both track and physics. She begins every morning with some stretches and a "light run" of 40 to 60 minutes. She then spends nearly seven hours in class, studying or working in the physics lab as a teacher's assistant. From there she goes to a three-hour team practice and finishes the night with five hours of studying in the math lab.

"Sure, I've run somewhere around 4,000 miles in the past 12 months," Julie said. "But all the hard work in the world won't get you anywhere without the people that you lean on when things get hard."

Despite her numerous accomplishments, Julie is quick to praise her friends and teammates. Though she easily won the South/Southeast Regional Championship, for her the best part of the race was having her teammate, Laura Broederdorf, qualify for nationals with her.

She is also surprisingly humble. "In a lot of ways, I think I've just gotten lucky," she said. "I'm lucky to have a great coach, great teammates, and a supportive athletic department ... I feel pretty blessed to be part of the Hendrix community."

Connie Jia Yue is a graduate of Central High School in Little Rock

Experience shapes every individual.  It is the most effective way to gain knowledge.  Even at my relative young age, I have obtained knowledge that I could never gain from the written word alone.  There is not just one experience that has created the diversity I take to college.  My single-most formative experience has been extensive travel to very different places.

When asked where I come from, I simply say, "China."  After all, I look Asian and my parents are native Chinese.  Although this is the truth, the answer is somehow inadequate.  In fact, I have been shaped, literally, by travels beyond China.  Most Asians think I appear to be a Japanese girl, which is an oddity because Asians can distinguish among Orientals.  However, as a young child, I lived in Hokkaido, where I was dramatically influenced by the culture.  Anime and Manga, typical Japanese Art, inspired me to draw and design, which have became my passions.

Japan and anime influenced my earliest years, but I returned to China during junior high, spending two years at a boarding school.  At first, speaking Chinese was a challenge.  Incomprehensible words and gestures swirled around me, followed by embarrassing laughter.  To compensate for my language problem, I sank into piles of textbooks.  Soon, I was able to speak and write Chinese fluently.  In the process, the "Japanese girl" was absorbing Chinese traits.

Fate had even greater plans for me when my family moved to Stockholm, Sweden.  The beauty of the drastic differences between the Occidental and Oriental worlds fascinated me, and I could not get enough of the openness of Europe and the Europeans.  For one thing, my life in Sweden introduced me to a new passion - sports.  There were swimming, skiing and soccer.  I did not become a pro-athlete, but I definitely reached pro-amateur status.  For another thing, traveling around Europe, I met a host of new friends.

The destiny of this Oriental-European gal was not finished.  Three years ago, I came to America.  Influenced strongly by a new community, I was able to think like an American.  I went public with my drawings, which were no longer hidden in sketchbooks.  My artwork was in demand!  Much of my work has been permanently hung in classrooms, competition halls, and even on club T-shirts.  Best of all, the more people liked my work, the more confidence I gained, and the better my work became.

Where am I from? I am form Japan, China, Sweden and America.  I am the global society's poster child, multi-cultures to the extreme, representing diversity at its best.  Flexibility in accepting new environments and cultures is the natural for me.  Possessing an open mind, I've gained international values from four cultures and four languages.  My travel experience prepared me for the global society awaiting me.  I'm artistic, diligent, and vigorous.  Confident and articulate, I meet no strangers.  I come from worldwide destinations, and the path to my next formative stage clearly points to Hendrix College!

Corey Jones of Jonesboro, Ark. is a graduate of the Arkansas School of Math and Science.

Life.  It's made of everything from the dew on the hay in your uncle's yard to those truck rides in the hills on holidays to see the cousins.  It has to include the noise of family gatherings and the soft humidity of the scents from ham and turkey and biscuit-made dumplings.  It's filled with the heys and yays and darns that fly around every quiet morning and rumbling lively conversation and blazing argument.  It is nothing without the golden autumns with some colored leaves in dense populations everywhere that the wind touches and many that it hasn't.  It is full of muddy driveways after the damp sweet inhale of a summer rain.  It's everything from the dusty pickup with the broken air conditioner that you drove at seven to the hotrod your dad handed off to his brother a couple months ago.  The smoke from the believers and the dry lukewarm of the outside all swirling in the spring breeze while the air is still free of the clouds from burnt fields.  It is the nights of the lulling drone of countless insects and frogs stabbing a bit before drawing out the assurance, as well as the calm twitters and caws of hawks and jays and morning birds aplenty.  Life is somewhere in that.  Somewhere under the snow on the steps of that old trailer is the life, the feeling, the meaning.  The meaning is somewhere inside, at the center of it all…

Board Chair Madison Murphy announces the Trustees' decision at a news conference. 

Ground-breaking for the first of five possible neighborhoods is expected to begin in spring 2007. The first neighborhood will include the following elements:

• 68 single family detached houses
• 23 townhouses and live/work homes
• 75 apartments
• 69,683 square-feet of retail/office space

The Board selected Traditional Neighborhood Development Partners, LLC, of Durham, N.C., as project developers. The company specializes in the creation of compact, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods that feature excellent architecture and high-quality buildings. Among TND Partners’ projects is Trinity Heights, an award-winning project adjacent to Duke University’s East Campus, which has become one of Durham’s most popular neighborhoods.

Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd said The Village at Hendrix will be the first fully developed neighborhood in Arkansas to adopt New Urbanist principles that promote the revival of traditional neighborhoods.

Cloyd anticipates that The Village at Hendrix will be developed in five phases over the next 10 years. The goal of commercial offerings will be to enhance the community by adding amenities and services such as a corner grocery, a coffeehouse, a bookstore and an ice cream shop, a charter school and a hotel.

For more details about The Village at Hendrix and other new projects and programs, visit our Hendrix on the move site.

A.C. Millar had a determined look about him even at age 3.

Editor’s note: A.C. Millar was president of Hendrix College from 1887 to 1902 and again, from 1910 to 1913. He was president when Central Collegiate Institute was renamed Hendrix College in 1889 and when the College moved from Altus to Conway in 1890.

About the Author

President's Gallery

WEB EXTRA:
Memories of Alexander Copeland Millar, My Grandfather 
by George D. Millar, Jr. '49

I first encountered my great-grandfather in a series of albums that sat on a slanted shelf in my parents’ living room.  The books traced the history of the Millar clan from eighteenth-century Ireland to twentieth-century America, but at the heart of every volume was the family patriarch, A. C. Millar. I pored over those musty books, spellbound and envious. Who was this bearded man? Why were people willing to do whatever he said, even when he was little more than a pimply teenager?  And more to the point, how could I ever compete with someone who became president of a college when he was only 25?
 
When I graduated from Hendrix at the age of 21, I compared my achievements with A. C.’s and found them paltry. To an English major with no idea what to do next, A. C. Millar’s charisma and precocity seemed almost as daunting as the fact that Carson McCullers published The Heart is a Lonely Hunter when she was only 23.

There was a lot I didn’t know back then—the books that still sit on my parents’ living room shelf tell only part of the story. Sometime in the late sixties, my grandfather and my great uncle divided the family papers between A. C.’s three grandchildren.  Aunt Boots, Elizabeth Millar Rush, who lives in Los Altos Hills, Calif., got one part of the collection. My father, Paul Harwood Millar Jr., got another. And their cousin, George Dana Millar Jr., who lives in Conway, got the rest.  Together, these letters and diaries reveal the evolution of Hendrix College and how it fits into the history of higher education in America.  
 

About Alex

Slang, and How it is Slung

Missouri and the ministry

Alex arrives in Altus

The move to Conway

The first hard winter

The loss of George

Alex's departure and return

Tomorrow’s business leaders must be equipped to operate effectively in a global society. Competing in a global marketplace requires language skills and cultural dexterity.

To prepare our graduates to compete globally, Hendrix is enhancing offerings in International Business, International Relations, and Global Studies. We are also providing opportunities for students to experience other cultures and other ways of thinking.

International education makes you good at conceptually reading cross-cultural maps and solving puzzles. These are important skills in a global environment.

The eight students who travel to China this summer with economics and business professors Dr. Keith Berry ’73 and Stephen Kerr ’76 will be developing such skills as they study the impact of Chinese culture on business and entrepreneurship practices. Guided by Shane Nunn ’87, a successful businessman in China, they will visit corporations, factories and markets in Beijing, Shanghai, and elsewhere. During the trip, they will evaluate the feasibility of China-related business plans they are developing now, comparing their business assumptions with the reality they encounter in China.

International travel and service projects, study abroad and cross-cultural experiences all fit neatly under the umbrella of Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, the component of the Hendrix curriculum that gives students transcript recognition for completing experiential learning projects. With the Odyssey Program as catalyst, interest in international education is expanding on the Hendrix campus.

Experiencing cultures different from our own is important beyond its impact on business success.

Cross-cultural experiences jar you out of complacency; forcing you to think in different patterns and to be more aware of things that you take for granted – everything from the way you shop to what is polite or impolite. These experiences make you think about your values. If you are never immersed in that “sea of otherness” you experience in another culture then you begin to believe that the world that we create culturally is the way the world is absolutely. By giving students chances to be immersed in other cultures, we help them to create full lives for themselves and to fulfill their own personal odysseys.

International study is also important because our world needs leaders who can reach across cultural divides to solve problems that affect all of us.

Right now, our greatest humanitarian and security challenges are in Africa, where 25 million AIDS orphans are living today. African nations don’t have the resources to deal with this pandemic. We can’t allow conditions to deteriorate and create more failed states like Somalia and Afghanistan, where the government can’t provide security and violence spirals.

Addressing this global problem begins with understanding the cultural and economic forces that brought us to this point.

Three groups of Hendrix students and faculty will be traveling and learning on the African continent this summer. With funding from the Hendrix-Lilly Vocations Initiative, Dr. Anne Goldberg is leading a group of students who will volunteer at an orphanage for AIDS babies in Tanzania. Dr. Carol West and Dr. Allison Shutt are leading another group of students to South Africa, to visit sites they’ve learned about in African history, literature and film classes, and to develop an understanding of the culture and people.

At the end of June, 11 students will travel to Rwanda with me, Provost Robert Entzminger and Dr. Daniel Whelan. We are being lead by David Knight ’73, a member of the Board of Trustees. We will learn how a nation recovering from genocide that claimed more than 1 million lives is rebuilding itself through a process of reconciliation and forgiveness. The students are reading The Bishop of Rwanda by Bishop John Rucyahana in preparation for the trip, which will include a visit to his Sonrise Academy, where Hutu and Tutsi orphans live together. Bishop John will visit Hendrix on April 11 to lead a chapel service on reconciliation and forgiveness; giving students who can’t travel to Africa a chance to expand their worldview.

Every opportunity to connect with other cultures is a chance to build trust and create understanding, which are vital to our success as human beings and to our survival as a species.

Odyssey grants help make international travel and study possible for our students and faculty. Call the Office of Advancement (501-450-1223) to learn more about how your gift to fund the Odyssey Program can help build bridges between cultures. 

By Ashby Bland Crowder

When my wife Lynn and I arrived in Poland in early September of 2005, it was almost as warm as Arkansas—and the days much longer. But how things changed in the next few months. Poland’s latitude substantially dispenses with daylight by mid-December; at 3:30 in the afternoon (so-called) it was as dark as the inside of a cow. It is hard to say when full-daylight emerged in the winter morning because the ubiquitous coal-burning stoves set a haze that made the whole day crepuscular. Once June came round, there was almost no darkness. It did not get quite all the way dark at night, and by 4 a.m. the sun, blazing in one’s curtainless bedroom window, urged one’s face to the ruelle in the hope of just one more hour’s sleep. Winter was very much better for sleeping. Time in Poland is as out of joint as Hamlet says it was in Denmark.

For about fifty percent of my year in Poland I was, in effect, deaf, dumb, and illiterate. The Polish language to me was a cacophany of meaningless noises, I was unable to say words that people could understand, and everywhere I saw signs, newspapers, schedules, and menus that I could not read. I did not advance much beyond “dzien dobry” (hello) and “do widzenia” (good bye) in the extremely difficult Polish language.

You might think this a terrible fix to find myself in, but not so. I rather entered into a fresh relationship with my surroundings: I became hyper-visually orientated. I became an inveterate gawker at everything--the carved fox coming round the tree on the facade of Leopold Kindermann’s art nouveau villa; the carved statues of mill-workers standing right there with the Greek gods atop Palac Poznanski (which was the residence of the owner of the next-door and now closed weaving and spinning factory, one of the largest in nineteenth-century Lodz); the evening silhouette of the Julian Tuwim park-bench statue and the long shadow it cast down ulica Piotrkowska; and the peeling stucco of the secondary streets, the brick exposed like raw flesh, the city and the people too poor to heal these sick buildings.

Observation of people and other creatures is another aspect of my experience as an illiterate. In Park Staroczieiski one morning in early spring I saw two young women greet each other with the traditional Polish cheek-kisses; then they put their bags down on the park bench and ran off on their morning jog around the park together. In what American city of 850,000, I wondered, would two women leave their belongings unattended on a park bench? As I walked on I cast my eyes back on a gathering of casual teen-agers near the bench, but they seemed no threat to the girls’ belongings.

Read the full account of Dr. Crowder's time in Poland:

Snow transforms the landscape
Except for a few pigeons, communists long gone
The small wounds of poverty
Progress also brings loss
No time to stop for death
Holocaust horrors penetrate language barrier
English creeps into Polish vernacular

Plus, check out Dr. Crowder's Poland Fun Facts.

By ROB O’CONNOR ’95

In January, Dr. Ian King, professor of politics, Dr. Deb Skok, assistant professor of history, and Dr. Alex Vernon, assistant professor of English, traveled to Vietnam, where they spent two weeks investigating opportunities for future collaboration between Hendrix students and faculty and their peers in Vietnam, as well as possibilities for engaged learning experiences in Vietnam for Hendrix students.

During their stay in Vietnam, the Hendrix professors visited with faculty and administrators from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Institute for Educational Research in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), as well as Can Tho University and the Hoa An Biodiversity Application Research Center in Can Tho City.  In the capital city of Hanoi, the group met with representatives of Hanoi University of Education, the Vietnamese Women’s Union, and the College of Social Sciences and the Humanities at Hanoi National University. 

For each of the three Hendrix faculty members, the trip was an opportunity to experience firsthand a country that has been a subject in their courses, including Dr. King’s Asian Politics course, Dr. Skok’s Vietnam and the 60s social history course, and Dr. Vernon’s Vietnam in the Literary Imagination course.

“For a long time, I think we tended to treat Vietnam as a war, not a country, and I am interested in the country,” said Dr. Skok. “For me, that’s what drew me to the country initially.”

“I study war literature, particularly American war literature of the 20th century. And the American war in Vietnam is the war, and the war generation, that most immediately influenced our generation,” said Dr. Vernon. 

Dr. Vernon is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy.  He is the coauthor of The Eyes of Orion: Five Tank Lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War and editor of Arms and the Self: War, the Military, and Autobiographical Writing.  Last Spring, Dr. Vernon published most succinctly bred, a memoir of his childhood, his education at West Point, his service as a tank commander during the first Persian Gulf War, and his perspective as an academic viewing the coming of the second Gulf War. 

“It’s only natural that, the old soldier that I am, I would want to walk the same ground and breathe the same air,” he said.

It is an ideal moment for students and faculty from the West to study in Vietnam, said Dr. Skok.  In 1986, the country instituted a policy called doi moi, or economic restructuring.

Educators are particularly interested in revitalizing the centrally-controlled education system to encourage more creative teaching methods, such as hands-on learning.

“That goes along with their economic restructuring,” Skok explained.  “You need creative thinkers in the economy, and that requires a different pedagogy.”

Most universities in Vietnam are eager to establish relations with foreign universities, and many schools already have established exchange programs for foreign students, Skok said.

Vietnam should appeal to students and faculty with a wide variety of interests, from language and cultural history to service projects and biodiversity issues, Skok said.

“There are tons of opportunities in Vietnam,” she said. 

Dr. Vernon agreed.

“The opportunities for individuals are plentiful … doing service work in orphanages, studying mangrove ecosystems as they recover from the war, exploring one of the Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups, witnessing the economic transformation currently underway, or immersing oneself in a native art form or craft,” he explained.

“Our society warehouses convicts, often in subhuman living conditions. On a parallel track, the world of thoroughbred racing routinely sends over-the-hill horses to the slaughterhouse,” Sheri says.

The film pairs inmates with end-of-career horses and records the changes the inmates experience as a result of this relationship.

Lile said her decision to retire ties to recent milestones reached by the Foundation – surpassing $100 million in assets in its 30th anniversary year, moving to office space in the train station with room for future growth and the achievement of significant sustainability and credibility.

 “It is a great feeling to go out at the top of my game,” she said.  “Also, I’m turning 70 next year and I want to spend more time with my husband, children and grandchildren.” A native of Hope, she and her husband, John ’59, a Little Rock attorney, have four children and five grandchildren.

A native of Charleston, Eason graduated from Hendrix College with distinction in Economics and Business. She uses her law and accounting background to work with donors, professional advisors and affiliate community foundations to build philanthropic funds for the benefit of Arkansas. In 2001, she was named a Hull Fellow and attended the Hull Leadership Program, a program to nurture and inspire the Southeast’s next generation of philanthropic leaders. In 2005, she was selected as one of five Americans to be a Transatlantic Community Foundation Fellow.  

Patterson is currently the president of Ring 308 of the International Brotherhood of Magicians where he performs a free annual Holiday of Lights magic show for White County residents. In his acceptance speech, he used the ATLA president’s gavel as a magic wand to levitate a glass of water as he spoke of the magic of ATLA before toasting the members.

Patterson has many years of experience as a leader of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association. He has served on the board of governors since 2000 and has been a member of the executive committee since 2004, serving as secretary-treasurer and then vice president in 2005.

Patterson is also a member of the American Association for Justice, the Arkansas Bar Association, and is a past president of the White County Bar Association. Patterson has led numerous legal education seminars around the state instructing other lawyers on how to represent injured clients.

A former Arkansas State Golf Champion, Patterson was elected to the Sports Hall of Honor at Hendrix College in 2002. He is married to Cara Walker Patterson '77 and has two daughters, Anna Patterson Strong '04, an analyst with Acxiom Corporation in Conway, and Amy W. Patterson, the director of weekday child ministries at St. James United Methodist Church in Little Rock. His son-in-law, Aaron C. Strong ’03, is a third-year medical student at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Hendrix is charting progress. We’re moving ahead quickly. We’re looking back to note how far we’ve come. We’re looking forward, scanning the horizon and turning our sextant toward the stars to make sure we stay on course.

So, what is the result of all this reconnaissance? How are we doing?

Great! Your college is making progress on every front. The progress we have made so far is impressive and inspiring. Some examples:

• By the time you read this message, I am confident we will have met our original $70 million campaign goal more than a year ahead of schedule. We stand at $69 million today, with more gifts and pledges expected to arrive before the end of the year.
• We have raised our campaign goal to $100 million and extended the end date to 2010.
• We have received two challenge grants that, when met, will generate $12 million in endowed funds to support the Odyssey program and embed it in the Hendrix culture.
• We have built an endowment of more than $10 million to support scholarships and financial aid.
• We opened a new $23 million Wellness and Athletics Center with a dinner and a convocation attended by more than 700 people where former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley was the featured speaker.
• We have awarded close to $1 million in grants to support 1,747 Odyssey projects involving Hendrix students and faculty on campus, throughout the United States and on six continents. Odyssey projects have life-changing impact on students like Lynn Christenson ’09 whose work feeding children at an orphanage in Tanzania helped her discover how she can make a difference in the world.
• We have selected Hendrix alumni to receive honors, among them the 2007-08 Odyssey Medals, which will be presented on Thursday, Feb. 7.
• We have seen close friends of the College honored. On Nov. 14, Lucile Shivley ’32, a long-time supporter of Hendrix, was named 2007 Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year by the Arkansas chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Hendrix nominated Lucile for the well-deserved honor. Her youthful joy in giving is an inspiration to all of us.

We have accomplished much and we have many reasons to celebrate. Yet Hendrix’s odyssey toward national leadership in engaged liberal arts education is just beginning. There is so much more ahead – so many more moments of triumph to savor, so many more challenges to overcome – before this journey ends.

The first challenges on our horizon are housing a growing student population, endowing the Odyssey Program to ensure that this vital component of the College’s curriculum remains a part of our culture and building a new Student Life and Technology Center to meet the needs of Hendrix students now and in the future.

We are addressing the need for housing by beginning construction on townhouses at the intersection of Mills and Front streets (adjacent to the Art buildings) that will provide space for 70 students in the fall of 2008. We are also, with guidance from the campus master plan, evaluating sites for new on-campus housing, and are considering several options for student housing in The Village at Hendrix, the retail and residential neighborhood being developed east of Harkrider.

Keeping Hendrix at the forefront of American higher education is the unifying goal of The Campaign for Hendrix and is at the center of our discussions about the College’s future. To establish and maintain Hendrix as a national leader in engaged liberal arts is the reason we are raising $100 million by 2010. When we reach this goal, we should have the funds to support the Odyssey Program in perpetuity and to construct the kind of Student Life and Technology Center that will meet the needs of Hendrix students in the 21^st century.

We can’t reach our goal without your continued support. I encourage you to become involved with Hendrix and discover how your support can make a difference in the lives of today’s students. I believe we really are changing the lives of those who can change the world.

H.E.L.P.

Hendrix College’s Early Literacy Program – a partnership between Hendrix College and Sallie Cone Elementary School in Conway – was created in 2004 by Dr. Susan Perry as an intervention program at the elementary school, allowing Hendrix students to work with children who need extra help reading or writing. The program began in grades K-2 but quickly expanded into third and forth grades soon after it was first implemented.

The program has continued and remains an interactive learning tool for education students enrolled at Hendrix College. Through HELP, Hendrix students begin working with small groups of children on a weekly basis throughout the spring semester of their sophomore year when they enroll in a course titled “Children's Literature.” During the experience, Hendrix students are expected to incorporate children's literature into all of their weekly lessons which include a variety of instructional techniques, including readers' theatre, interactive reading aloud, storytelling, puppetry, and other innovative lessons. Students continue working in the program during their junior years as they enroll in the upper-level education courses at Hendrix.

As Hendrix students work with their small groups of children, they are coached by the instructor of the course. Lessons are video-taped and critiqued by classmates and instructors on a weekly basis so Hendrix students can improve their teaching techniques, skills, and strategies. Hendrix students guide all of their instruction using a variety of assessments they administer to their children at the beginning and middle of the semester. All assessment information is shared with each child's teacher. 

The program has been so successful it is used as a model by other institution and recently received the Innovation in Teacher Education Award from the Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators (SRATE). 

Above the Line

The Above the Line Project, funded by Hendrix College Odyssey program and designed by Dr. James Jennings, an associate professor of education and history at Hendrix, studied 22 third graders in the Forrest City School District who previously scored “below” or “below basic” on the Arkansas Benchmark Exam, a state-sponsored testing program designed to grade the educational aptitude of public school students. Following three weeks of intensive remedial studies utilizing the Above the Line Project curriculum, a majority of students improved their test scores in a number of subject areas.

The Above the Line Project also aims to use strategies to improve parental attitudes toward education and involvement by providing parental support skills, as measured by pre- and post-attitudinal surveys and periodic implementation surveys. All 20 parents surveyed as a part of the recent Above the Line Project at Forrest City answered “Yes” when asked “If the Above the Line Project could be offered as an after-school program at your school, would you be interested in enrolling your child?”, while only one of the parents said they would not be interested in attending a special monthly class for parents designed to provide parenting skills associated with learning at home.

Feedback from the Forrest City parents was wholly positive.

“During this project it allowed me to really evaluate myself as a parent,” one parent wrote on the anonymous survey. “I thought I was active with my child because I was present with him. But I can see that if I slack off of him any he will slack off also. So it’s my responsibility to make sure that he’s performing at a level where he needs to be by any means necessary.”

Ridin’ Dirty with Science

Science was made fun this past summer for a group of public school students in Conway. A team of Hendrix College students, led by Hendrix associate chemistry professor Dr. Liz Gron, hosted “Ridin’ Dirty with Science,” a free two-day camp for students in grades 4-7. The Hendrix students teamed with the Faulkner County Boys and Girls Club for the project in attempt to foster an interest in science in elementary and middle school students.

The camp included three main lab experiments. The first was “The Invisible: What grows on water fountains, doorknobs, and telephones?” The second experiment was “Caught Dirty Handed: Are your hands clean after washing them?” The final experiment was “Cleaning with Oranges: How to make cleaning products from orange peels and dry ice.”

Faulkner County Boys and Girls Club program director, Marie Abrams, believes this is a great opportunity for the kids to learn. “Most of the children now want to be scientists after ‘Ridin’ Dirty with Science.’”

Camp participants aren’t the only ones who learned from this project. “The Hendrix students organizing this activity learned about translating science to other students, how to organize and manage a large project and how to network with the larger Conway community,” said Gron.

Hendrix trustee David Knight ’71 led 11 Hendrix students, President J. Timothy Cloyd, Provost Robert L. Entzminger and Dr. Daniel Whelan, assistant professor of politics and international relations, on an Odyssey to Rwanda. Through visits to sites such as the Sonrise Academy, where Hutu and Tutsi orphans live in harmony, and meetings with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his ministers, the group learned first-hand how Rwandans are recovering from the genocidal war that almost destroyed their country.

The Republic of Rwanda in east-central Africa is a primarily agrarian country of 9.9 million people, the most densely populated country in Africa. Per capita income is $1,300. * “It is beautiful, friendly and small – about the size of Maryland,” Knight said, as he spoke to a group of Hendrix alumni and friends attending a Rwanda-focused “Hendrix Huddle” in Little Rock in September. Knight said his involvement in Rwanda began about five years ago when friends recruited him to take photos at Sonrise Academy, a boarding school in Rwanda. He had also been involved with a micro-finance operation that opened in Rwanda.
“What I knew before I went to Rwanda was that tremendous progress has been made in rebuilding the country. But, there is still great need,” he said.

Knight explained the three purposes of the journey to Rwanda:
• An educational experience for our group
• Indentifying internship opportunities for the Odyssey program
• Meeting with the Ministry of Education to finalize arrangements for four students to come to Hendrix for four years on full scholarship.

The travelers met all three goals, learning about Rwanda’s history, culture and people and identifying several opportunities for internships, including one working with President Kagame, and completing arrangements for four Rwandan students who are currently enrolled at Hendrix. “Our trip to Rwanda provided us an opportunity to see and understand how the rest of the world lives,” Knight said. “It allowed us to get involved with meaningful projects and let us see what one person can do.”

“It also gave us practical information on dealing with real and complex problems such as AIDS and poverty,” he added. “And it helped us develop a real personal perspective on our values and our role in life. I believe it helped us answer the question: What do you intend to do in the world and when do you expect to get started?”

“I feel fortunate to have been on this Odyssey and to have spent time with our students,” Knight said.
Dr. Whelan said he welcomed the opportunity to learn more about a country that he believes is misunderstood.

“I appreciated, as a scholar, the opportunity to be a student,” Dr. Whelan said. “The students who went with us were all different,” he added. “They had interests in law, medicine, environment, economics, and accounting. Their differences made the journey more interesting.”

For example, Hendrix senior Jacob Williams of Alma was most interested in the opportunity to learn more about microfinance in Rwanda. He was skeptical about the power of small loans to dramatically transform individual lives.
“But, I got to meet these people and see how their lives have been changed by $50,” Jacob said. “I met a sorghum wholesaler who grew her business from a $300 loan. There was a certain look of pride in her eyes – the look of success. That stuck with me,” he said. “I discovered that microfinance is real and it has a chance to do something real in the world.”
President Cloyd said the impact of the 1994 genocide, when more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were slaughtered over 100 days, is seen all over Rwanda.
 
“The U.S. bears responsibility for not intervening when 10,000 a day were dying,” he said.  “We saw first-hand the cost of that non-intervention.”  “But amidst great tragedy, there is hope,” President Cloyd said. “Rwanda has problems, but the Rwandan people also have solutions.”

One solution for the Rwandan people is to help educate their young people. The Rwandan government is committed to improving schools across the nation and to helping young people study abroad and bring their knowledge back to Rwanda. The government is seeking help from colleges like Hendrix to provide higher education for its young people.

*"Rwanda: History, Geography, Government, and Culture." Infoplease.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
25 Nov. 2007 <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107926.html>.

Student participants included Ryan Burwinkle ’10 of Bellaire, Texas; Anna Bush ’10 of Hot Springs; Afton Cooper ’10 of Little Rock; Rachel DeCuir ’09 of Lafayette, La.; Mary Flanigan ’09 of Webster Groves, Mo.; Leah Horton ’09 of Austin, Texas; Amanda Keifer ’10 of Cookeville, Tenn..; Leslie Levy ’09 of Austin, Texas; Joe Muller ‘09 of Chesterfield, Mo.; Rosie Valdez ’10 of Little Rock; Jacob Williams ’08 of Alma; and Kelly Zalocusky ’09 of Belleville, Ill.

Their 14-day stay included visits to:
- Kigali Memorial Centre genocide museum
- Cornerstone Leadership Academy
- Kigali School of Finance and Banking
- Kigali Institute for Science and Technology
- Millenium Village and Access Health Care Project
- Living Water well drilling site
- Kigali International Community School
- Opportunity International micro finance bank
- Opportunity International Trust Bank meeting in Ruhengeri
- Sonrise School
- the local Heifer project
- Shyria Hospital
- Bigogwe refugee community
- Imbabzi Orphanage
- Lake Kivu
- the National Museum
- the National University and Medical School
- Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health Project
- a night performance by Intore, a traditional Rwandan dance troupe
- Parc Nacional de L’Akagera

Garth ’52 and Joann Martin ’55 are making a difference at Hendrix, because they believe Hendrix is making a difference in the world.

The Martins, who met on campus and just celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary, still have an affinity for Hendrix after all these years. They recently used planned giving as a means to contribute to the college’s Wellness and Athletics Center. The gift garnered them naming rights for the Hall of Honor.

For Garth, who played football, basketball and ran track at Hendrix, the Wellness and Athletics Center was a perfect fit. Joann, however, is more interested in the upcoming Student Life and Technology Center, which she believes will be a benefit to the Hendrix community.

The Martins believe planned giving is a win-win situation for everyone involved. “Through charitable gift annuities, we were able to make a gift to Hendrix,” said Garth, who added his motives weren’t completely altruistic. “The gift also provided us with an additional income.”

The couple, who served on the Alumni Board of Directors for six years, still find time in their busy volunteer schedule to visit campus regularly for special events such as Alumni Weekend and the Candlelight Carol Service.  Joann says they don’t collect “things” and instead choose to use what money they have to help others through planned giving.

“Hendrix has made tremendous strides in the last few years,” said Garth. “This means we may make some strides in the world,” Joann added.

The Martins are making a difference. Will you?

For more information about giving to Hendrix, contact the Office of Advancement at 501-450-1223 or visit www.hendrix.edu/giving.