Hendrix Magazine

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 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. 

If the College continues to hire alumni as faculty members, there should be ample choices. Recently available data shows that about 10.6 percent of students graduating from Hendrix between 1995 and 1999 had earned a Ph.D. degree by 2006. Of the 1,469 colleges and universities surveyed, Hendrix ranked 28^th in the percentage of its graduates earning a doctorate within six years of graduation.

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.

Q. Is is time to say farewell?
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 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 is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Central Arkansas. She remembers discovering her passion for archaeological chemistry at Hendrix. The liberal arts’ emphasis on broad-based education at Hendrix revealed an area of interest she didn’t know that she had.

“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 has been an assistant professor of English at Oklahoma State University since earning a doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2006.

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.

Hendrix College junior Kelly Zalocusky was named a Goldwater Scholar by the Board of Trustees of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. Zalocusky, a biology and psychology double-major at Hendrix, was selected from a field of more than 1,100 mathematics, science and engineering students nominated from throughout the country. In the program’s 20-year history, Hendrix has had 19 Scholars.    

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.

A photographic journey through German concentration camps, an internship with a “Bollywood” movie production company in India, a mission to equip Mexican orphanages with computers, and the continued development of the “Hendrix Community Garden” in Conway – Hendrix College awarded grants for 55 such engaged-learning experiences to its students and faculty in April, totaling more than $197,000 through the college’s Odyssey Program.

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.

A Hendrix student is one of two recipients of a prestigious graduate fellowship designed to promote doctoral study in the humanities by talented graduates of small and mid-sized private liberal arts colleges.

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.

Basketball coaches and referees don’t always agree on the court, but the two groups joined forces for a common goal in February at Hendrix College – raising awareness for breast cancer.

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.”

More than 100 students from 35 colleges across the U.S. were represented at Hendrix College’s Vocation and Film Conference in February, an event sponsored by the Hendrix-Lilly Vocations Initiative.

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. Karla C. Carney-Hall has been selected as Hendrix College’s Vice President for Student Affairs. She will begin her position July 1.

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.

Katie Pratt ’08, a graduating senior from Shreveport, La., has been award a Walker Odyssey Fellowship on recommendation of the Honors Committee at Hendrix College. She will receive a grant of $12,500 to fund out-of-country study trip to explore her topic: “Women's Relationship to Food:  Globalization and Changing Eating Habits: China, Fiji, Argentina, Italy.”

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.

Hendrix College English professor Dr. Alice Hines, a member of the Conway Morning Rotary Club, was profiled by the Log Cabin Democrat in March for her work distributing dictionaries to elementary school children in Conway. The project was sponsored by the Conway Morning Rotary Club.

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.

A research letter written by Hendrix assistant biology professor Dr. George R. Harper was published in a February issue of Nature magazine, a prestigious honor for science scholars. Harper wrote the paper with Dr. David W. Pfennig from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Department of Biology.

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.

In addition to their work in the classroom, Hendrix faculty members engage in research and professional activities that expand their expertise and enrich their teaching. Here is a small sample of the professional activities of Hendrix faculty.

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.

New faculty build on a legacy of excellence

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.”

Hendrix College has filled its first five (of a projected 12) Odyssey Professorships, all beginning in the 2008-2009 academic year. Odyssey professorships are held for limited periods, usually one to three years, and support faculty development and faculty-student collaborative projects.  The five inaugural Odyssey professors are:

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.

Dr. Carol West, professor of English, received the 2007-2008 Exemplary Teacher Award in the Division of Higher Education of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

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.

Hendrix College recently appointed three professors to distinguished professorships, replacing long-time faculty members who are retiring.  Distinguished professorships carry an increase in salary as well as access to professional development funds and are typically held until retirement.

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. 

Q. Is is time to say farewell?

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.

Community gathers to celebrate launch of the project

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.

Six new members were inducted into the Hendrix College Sports Hall of Honor during the annual Sports Hall of Honor Banquet on April 11. The banquet was part of Alumni Weekend. The Sports Hall of Honor lists those recognized for their contributions to athletics at Hendrix. This year’s was the 15th class to be inducted into the Hendrix Sports Hall of Honor and brings the total list to 83 inductees. 

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.

It didn’t take long for Hendrix to show off its new Wellness and Athletics Center to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference as it hosted the men and women’s conference basketball tournament Feb. 29-March 2, just months after the facility opened. The WAC drew rave reviews from coaches and administrators in attendance, and provided a home-court spark during the men’s opening-round 67-58 upset victory over Oglethorpe.

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 Hendrix Alumni Association presented awards to five individuals during Alumni Weekend. 

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.”

Erma Guice Buthman ’24, widow of long-time Dean of the College and professor of history Dr. William Curt Buthman, died in Conway on Dec. 11, 2008. She was 103.

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.

By KATIE RICE ’10

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.

William “Bill” Fox ’60 of Decatur, Ga., received the Emory Medal from the Emory Alumni Association for his personal and professional dedication to the university. Fox went to Emory in 1971, where he began his administrative career while pursuing a doctorate in religion and literature. He was well-known on campus for his personal approach, which included memorizing students’ names before he met them so that he could call them by their first name. In 1991, Fox was named vice president for institutional advancement where he took on the role of Emory's top fund-raiser and one of its most prominent ambassadors. In this role, Fox helped raise $2 billion in gifts for the university and assisted the university in becoming the nationally-recognized institution it is today. Since his time at Hendrix, Bill Fox has continued to be a campus leader.

Chris Spatz ’65, professor emeritus of psychology at Hendrix, is the author of “Statistical Techniques and Analysis,” a chapter in a new two-volume reference handbook titled 21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook published by Sage Publications. The chapter, addressed to college students, gives an overview of statistical methods in psychology and identifies recent developments in the field.

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.

Dr. George Sawaya ’85, an associate professor at the University of California at San Francisco, has partnered with medical schools in Vietnam to help improve their medical education curriculum. In June 2007, Dr. Sawaya and his colleague Dr. Jody Steinauer traveled to Vietnam to help Vietnamese professors reform medical curriculum using evidence-based medicine and problem-based learning.

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.”

’47

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.
 

Debra Roberts ’72 to Mike Abele.
Chrissy Thompson ’83 to Vernon D. Akes, Dec. 29, 2007.
Ashley Pryor ’00 to Nathan Meins, Sept. 18, 2004.
Juliana K. Leding ’02 to J. Cable Davenport, July 14, 2007.
Laura White ’04 to Kip Kruger, Dec. 31, 2007.
Claire Cooper '06 to Joseph W. Gagin, Nov. 3, 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.

Connor William, first son, second child, to Stuart Jackson ’89 and Christy Creger Jackson ’90, May 31, 2007.
Avery Rose, first child, to Joanna Crump ’90,  June 19, 2007.
Benjamin Lyle, second son, third child, to T. Lyle Wilson '90 and Toni States Wilson ’91, Jan. 27, 2006.
Justus, third son, fourth child, to Jeff Thurlby ’91 and Sage Vermont Thurlby ’94, Oct. 25, 2007.
Ryan Ashley Mulick, first child, to Kristi Ketz '94 and her husband Patrick Mulick, Nov. 13, 2006.
Parker, first child, to Kellie Morris Tolin ’94, Oct. 20, 2007.
Raeann and Anthony, adopted by Tina Hefter ’95, Nov. 7, 2006.
Harper Sophia, first daughter, second child, to Wendy Reynaud Thorpe ’95 and her husband Robert, May 19, 2007.
Margaret Alyce, first daughter, third child, to Brad Crain ’96 and Jeannette Hysell Crain ’98, Jan. 3, 2008.
Noah Wolfe, first child, to Angelea Drennan ’97 and her husband Billy, Feb. 19, 2008.
Claire Elizabeth, first child, to Dana Patterson O'Brien '98 and her husband Coley.
William Avery, first son, second child, to Sally Simpson Rupert ’98 and her husband Shon, June 19, 2007.
Caleb Basham, first son, and Sydney Mary, first daughter, to Angie Primm Coleman ’99 and her husband John, Jan. 24, 2006 and Nov. 4, 2007, respectively.
Emma Ruth, daughter, to Mary Pat Blanchard Hardman ’99 and John Hardman, Sept. 27, 2007.
Rachel Elizabeth, first daughter, second child, to Susan Todd Krafft ’99, March 2, 2007.
Nora Park, first daughter, second child, to Lisa Meyer Manis and R. Zachary Manis both ’00, June 12, 2007.
Catherine Adele, first child, to Ashley Pryor Meins ’00 and her husband Nathan, Oct. 16, 2007.
Nathaniel Lee, first child, to Ashley Harden Hill ’01 and her husband Brian, Dec. 12, 2007.
Miles James, first son, to Tanya Corbin Holmes ’02 and her husband Rodrick, June 11, 2007.
Spencer John, first child, to Sarah Ludlow McCurry ’03 and her husband Robert, Jan. 3, 2008.

Correction: Trevor Westyn is the second son, fourth child, to Mary Elizabeth Farrah Jones ’89 and her husband Terry, Sept. 12, 2006.

Erma Buthman '24
Mary Hutcheson Howell Fincher '30
Etta Neal Mayhan '31
Dr. Walter Moffatt '32
Milton Crawford '34
Elizabeth Beirn Caplinger ’40
Robert W. Evans '41
Tom Haley '41
John Newton '41
Thomas Neal Rogers '41
Bonnie Lewis Bumpers '43
Robert Gordon Campbell '43
Anne Yingling '45
Hazel Louise Courtney Chesser ’46

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

Hendrix continues to chart progress toward its goal of raising $100 million by 2010, when A Commitment to National Leadership: The Hendrix Campaign is scheduled to end. By mid-April 2008, the College had raised more than $76 million in gifts and pledges toward its overall goal. That amount includes:
• $12.9 million toward construction of a new Student Life and Technology Center.
• $5.75 million toward Odyssey Professorships
• $1 million toward the Odyssey Endowment
• $1.7 million toward the current Annual Fund goal

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.

Hendrix College has been awarded a $1.5 million challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., to help fund the college’s new $22.8 million Student Life and Technology Center, proposed to be one of the most interactive and tech-savvy college facilities in the country. To apply for the $1.5 million grant, Hendrix raised approximately half of the construction cost of the building. To receive the money, the College must raise an additional $11 million by January 1, 2009.

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

Over the past two years, the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation has awarded
$300,000 in grants to Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning.

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.

Thanks to the generosity of John and Marjem Gill of Little Rock, an annual Methodist preaching workshop hosted by Hendrix College will continue in perpetuity, Chaplain Wayne Clark announced recently.

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.

As a professor of English Dr. Walter Moffatt ’32 created a lasting legacy at Hendrix College during his lifetime. When he died on Christmas Day 2007 at the age of 96, he added to that legacy through a generous donation to the College in his will.

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.         

It’s easy to speak in superlatives when talking about Lucile Esmon Shivley ’32.  She makes phrases like contagious enthusiasm, inspiring role model and a joyful giver come to mind.

 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.

Total cost for the new center and for surrounding playing fields will be approximately $18 million. New fields for competitive and intramural sports will be built for sports including baseball, softball, track and field, soccer, tennis, lacrosse and field hockey.

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!

Lauren Rosales from Austin, Texas, is a graduate of Lyndon B. Johnson High School.

 A.J. Prassas is an entering freshman from McKinney High School in McKinney, Texas.

Aliens abducted him. Thrice he ascended heavenward, beckoned forth from earth to meet Jesus Christ. Or so he said; his mind was a jumble of muddled thought and hallucinatory memories, his stories were farfetched, or even outright lies.

On a southern California afternoon I sat on a bench alone, thinking things of little consequence, expecting nothing. I merely reclined and enjoyed solitude. Seagulls circled through the sky as a salty sea breeze dissolved into my breath. This was all - senses dancing with surroundings, my mind a passive player.

Something stirred behind me, breaking my quietude. Walter's voice proclaimed, "Hey, nice day, isn't it!"

I walked over to the outgoing stranger. In the corner of my eye I caught the metallic glint of an object in his hand. He dipped the metallic object, a spoon, into a peanut butter jar. From his cart he pulled another item, bread. "Want a sandwich?"

"Sorry, I just ate." My fears dissipated. All he owned he offered to me as a covenant meal, in the form of a sandwich.

He said I was of peace and the Spirit of God was in me. He even grabbed my wrist and felt "the God electricity" vibrating inside my arms. He again attempted enacting the Sandwich Covenant with me; I was Melchizedek, and he was Abraham. Or something like that. He was awfully generous.

I ate up his stories. Alien conspiracies, angels of mercy, devastating motorcycle crashes, illnesses and injuries, natural disasters, the transforming power of faith - he cooked up an incoherent narrative gumbo for me, leaving me full.

Walter unearthed treasure; from an immaculate folder came technical drawings of various innovative mechanical designs and images of alien spacecraft. Pages of notes accompanied his pictures -  it was evident Walter's mind tried to make sense of his own senses and imagination.

I don't remember how we parted. Maybe aliens abducted Walter again, or Heaven hosted him a fourth time. Though Walter remains an enigma, with familiarity I return to my exchange with him.

Destitution and joy, heartbreak and hope, poverty and generosity - can such incongruities exist in one person? I reflect upon his attributes. I know Walter reflected upon mine. Walter asked questions, made theories, tested ideas; I seek to internalize his system of perception. Searching for truth, living by joy, seeing beauty, passing these on to others - these were the actions reinforced by Walter. Awakened by his witness, I now seek to attain truth, joy, and beauty in every moment.

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…

Brigid Goggin is a graduate of Thomas A. Edison High School in Tulsa, Okla.

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.

At the end of February when Chinese equities dropped nearly nine percent in one day and sparked a sell-off that gave Wall Street its seventh-worse single-day loss ever, it brought home the point that economics is a global game.

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. 

Editor’s Note: Ashby Bland Crowder, M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Professor of English, American Literature, and the Humanities and a member of the Hendrix faculty since 1974, spent the 2005-2006 academic year as a Fulbright Scholar teaching American Literature at the University of Lodz in Poland. 

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.

Dr. Deb Skok, Dr. Ian King and Dr. Alex Vernon traveled through Vietnam for two weeks learning more about student and faculty exchange programs and opportunities for individual study.  Miss Ngoc Nho, second from left in the adjacent photo, was their guide for part of the trip. 

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.