Honors Council Holds Annual Meeting

The SAU Honors College Council and Honors College Committee held their annual meeting on Saturday, January 15, 2011. (Front row, L to R Jane Alexander, Virginia Todd, Deborah Wilson, JuJuan English, Timothy Wise, David Crouse; Back row, L to R Charles Elliott, Dale Dunn, Todd Connelly, Greg Jetton, David Peppers, Calvin Wyrick, Chris Gilliam (missing: Harold Fincher, Sherry Hawkins, Alvin Rucks, Shawn Krosnick, Jan Kiilsgaard)

The SAU Honors Council, a body composed of supporters of the Honors College, held their annual meeting at the D. R. Reynolds Campus and Community Center recently. They heard reports about recent activities and future plans. The meeting was followed by a sumptuous lunch hosted by ARAMARK.

Honors students Chris Harris and Majesta Miles attended as well and gave brief reports on student activities. 

Honors College future plans include:

• Taking students to the upcoming meeting of the Southern Regional Honors Council to be held in Little Rock from March 31 to April 2.
• Recruiting at least 50 new first year students into the Honors College
• Finalizing plans to move the Honors office into larger, more centrally located quarters
• Painting the halls in the Honors Hall to make them look less institutional
• Completing the computerized Honors College Student Information System
• Possibly providing iPad 2 tablets to all first year students and revamping the freshman seminar course to use that device to its full potential

  

New Furniture Installed in Honors Classroom

New tables and chairs grace Honors Hall classroom (photo by L. Hollensworth)

Thanks to SAU, new tables and chairs have been installed in the Honors Hall classroom. The tables came from local Magnolia business Southern Aluminum and were delivered in the early morning rain today. The chairs came from La Harpe's in Little Rock and were picked up a couple of weeks ago.

Special thanks go out to Lilli Hollensworth. She had to unwrap 26 chairs today. She also arranged the room.

A class was held here this afternoon (talk about just in time delivery). Kim Keith's Community Service Learning Experience class (SWK 2053) met this afternoon and will meet here again the next two Thursdays (presumably before hitting the community).

Let's all take special care of our new furniture. We won't be getting any more any time soon.

2010-2011 Enrollment Report

Here are the enrollment figures for the SAU Honors College.

Spring 2011 Enrollment report (as of January 14, 2011):

Full honors: 53— ANTH 5, ENGL 21, PSYC 27

Contracts: 30—BIOL 10, CHEM 4, CSCI 1, ENGL 4, ENGR 1, HIST 3, MATH 1, PSYC 6

Fall 2010 Enrollment report

Full honors: 73—HC 54, ANTH 5*, HIST 14

Contracts: 36—ANTH 5, BIOL 20, CHEM 2, CRJU 1, CSCI 2, ECE 2, HUM 1, PSCI 2, PSYC 3

New Chairs for Honors Hall Classroom

Thirty chairs in the back of Clay's pickup

The view from the back, fortunately I did not need my rearview mirror!

I took a quick trip to Little Rock today to pick up 30 new chairs for the SAU Honors College classroom located in the Honors Hall. Ten new tables are on their way too. But, those will come from Southern Aluminum only a short distance away.

The Honors College picked up the chairs in order to save a $600 delivery charge. We're in the wrong business. David and I stacked the chairs in the Honors Hall classroom this afternoon. It's interesting how varied the job description of honors staff is. Today we ordered four iPads, began admitting new students, set the menu for the upcoming Honors Council meeting, and picked up and stacked chairs. 

Need to pass along our thanks to DM for making the chairs a reality.

Rai, Navendra: Diversity

A  Call  for  Unity  was  a  letter  written  by  eight  clergymen  local  to  Birmingham,  Alabama  and  published  in  the  local  newspaper  about  stopping  the  untimely  and  unwise  demonstrations  performed  by  so  called  (outsiders  referred  to  as  Negroes).  In  this  letter  to  the  demonstrators,  the  eight  white  clergymen  stated  that  the  demonstrations  are  taking  their  peace  away  and  that they  only  lead  to  more  hatred  and  violence.  They  urged  the  Black  community  to  negotiate  with  them  about  the  matter  and  stop  the  demonstrations.  They  also  suggested  that  when  rights  are  not  given,  they  have  to  go  to  court  and  fight  for  them.

Letter  from  Birmingham Jail  was  a  letter  written  by  Martin Luther King  Jr  as a  reply.  In  his  letter  he  talked  about  how  he  and  his  followers  came  to  the  point  of  conducting  non-violent  demonstrations.  He  also  clarified  that  the  Black  community  tried  to  negotiate  many  times  with  the  Whites  but  their  demands  were  repeatedly  denied  or  ignored.  All  they  received  was  the  word  wait.  He  also  mentioned  that  they  have  waited  long  enough  and  that  their  cup  of  patience  was  already  full.  They  no  longer  can  bear  the  difference  in  the  behavior  between  the  Black  and  White,  facilities  provided,  rights  they  were  given,  the  way  they  were  spoken  to.

In  addition,  Martin  Luther  King,  Jr  also  confessed  to  the  Christian  and  Jewish  community  about  his  disappointment  over  the  White  moderates  who  always  preferred  order  instead  of  justice.  The  non-violent  demonstrations  were  performed  to  remove  the  existing  order  and  to  bring  justice  to  the  Black  community.  He  also  mentioned  that  everyone  is  equal  in  the  eye  of  God.  It  is  we  who  see  people  at  different  levels.  So,  the  church  should  not  differentiate  between  Blacks  and  Whites.  In  contrast,  they  were  not  supporting  the  Black  community  and  were  silent.  Moreover,  some  even  refused  to  understand  the  demonstrations.

In  conclusion,  A  Call  for  Unity  and  Letter from  Birmingham  Jail  were  written  by  two  different  communities,  one  supporting  the  racism  another  denying  it.  People  now  are  more  concerned  about  racism  and  try  not  to  be  racist.  However,  in  some  places  racism  still  exists.  We  should  not  support  racism.

Rai, Navendra: President

It  would  be  an  honor  to  be  the  president  of  Southern  Arkansas  University.  If  I  were  given  the  opportunity  to  be  the  president  of  Southern  Arkansas  University,  I  would  make a  few  changes  on  the  physical  and  administrative  aspects  of  the  university.  Let  me  highlight some  of  the  changes  I  would  make.

                  

I  would  like  to  improve  the  quality  of  the  food  this  university  provides  in  the  cafeteria.  As  an  international  student  I  asked  other  international  students  whether  they  like  the  food  that  was  served  in  the  cafeteria  or  not; most  of  them  don’t  like  it.  So  taking  that  into consideration,  I  would  first  investigate  whether  the  staff  working  in  the  cafeteria  know  how  to  cook  or  not.  Then  I  will  try  to  have  a  good  staff  who  can  cook  well.  I  would  also  like  to  increase  the  size  of  the cafeteria.  Since  more  and  more  students  are   joining  this  university  each  year,   the cafeteria  is  quite  small.  Many  students  cannot  find  place  to  sit  between  12pm  and  5pm.

                  

The  bathrooms  in  most  of  the  dormitories  are  not  good.  There  are  only  4  shower  and  2  toilets  per  floor  in  each  of  those  dormitories.  Sometimes  students  don’t  have  much  time  to  wait  for  others  to  complete  their  shower,  and   the  toilet  paper  is  inferior  and  too  small.  I  would  change  it  too.  I  would  plan  to  increase  the  size  of  dormitories  because  the  number  of  the  students  is  increasing.

                  

I  would  like  to  focus  on  The  Honors  College  of  this  university.  I  am  glad  that  I  am  an  honors  student  at  Southern  Arkansas  University.  But  it  seems  like  the  honors  students  don’t  have  many  options.  I  would  like  to  improve  the  Honors  College,  help  honors  students  to  be  creative  in  all  aspects  of  education.  I  would  make  an  honors  courses  for  each  faculty  so  that  students  can  have  more  options.

There  is  no  compulsion  for  Americans  to  attend  college .  They  choose  to  enroll.  In  my  view,  they  have  right  to  join  any  class.  But,  if  they  already know  the  content  of  the  lecture,  they  can  choose  not  to  visit  the  class.  I  would  like  to  change  that  policy  of  dropping  students  if  they  miss  few  classes.  That’s  what  I  would  like  to  do  if  I  were  the  president  of  Southern  Arkansas  University.

Kight, Nicholas: Paglia

Many things that people are told about college are false. Colleges prepare students for their chosen field of expertise, but for nothing else. A student wants to learn how to work on computers? College will teach them how to construct and deconstruct a personal computer within minutes.  However, what happens if we as a civilization suddenly become unable to use electricity for some reason or another? Students who has devoted all of their time and money learning how to fix computers will have nothing left for them. There’s no point in knowing how to fix a computer when no one can use a computer anymore. It’s rare to find someone whose job goal is to do more than type on a computer and fill out paperwork. What ever happened to toiling out in the fields for hours to grow a harvest of crops? Computers have made it so that all that has to be done is press a few buttons to start some machine to harvest your crops for you. No more strenuous than dialing a phone. What happens if we are unable to use electricity? We wouldn’t be able to just press a button to harvest the crops and plant them. Farmers would have to get back outside and tend the fields like their ancestors did. That would be a problem as most of the farmers who know how to tend a field are too old to do so nowadays and the ones who are young enough to do the hard work are so used to technology that they are unable to work without it. We have put too much reliance on technology in recent years, so much that if it were unavailable to us, we would be almost helpless!