Carville’s speech is being presented by Farmers Bank & Trust and proceeds will benefit the SAU Foundation.

“James Carville is an internationally-recognized political consultant, known for his keen wit and astute political analysis,” said Southern Arkansas University President Dr. David Rankin. “It will be a pleasure to have him at SAU as part of this outstanding lecture series.”

The event begins with a private reception from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Farmers Bank & Trust. The dinner and presentation will follow at 7 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center at SAU. Tickets are $100 to attend the dinner and lecture and $200 to attend the dinner and lecture as well as the private reception where you can have a photo taken with Carville.
Bob Burns, chairman and chief executive officer of Farmers Bank & Trust, said the goal of the lecture series is not to support any specific political interest, but to support students who want to attend the University but may have financial difficulties.

“What is really important is that the series helps us make a difference in the lives of a few students,” Burns said. “The more funds we raise, the more students who get to go to college.”

Burns said there are four students who currently benefit from the lecture and the hope is to add two to three more this year.

Those who want to help students this year by participating in the lecture are in for an interesting night.

Carville, along with his wife Mary Matalin, wrote “All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President,” the best-selling political memoir in American history. His second book, “We’re Right, They’re Wrong,” made it to number one on The New York Times Best Seller list and his third, “And The Horse He Rode In On-the People v. Ken Starr.” His latest release is “Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future,” with Paul Begala.

Perhaps a lesser-known fact about Carville is that he was a partner in a restaurant in San Francisco called Hawthorne Lane. Another interesting fact is that he was featured in a documentary called “The War Room” about the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign that was nominated for an Academy Award.

For more information on the event, or to reserve tickets, call the SAU Foundation office at 877-235-7409 or 870-235-4078.

The grant will be used to make improvements to the Southern Arkansas University baseball field, but plans have not yet been finalized. Some of the ideas being considered include a new score board, a new press box, a concession stand, public restrooms and possibly office space for coaches to meet with players and prospective recruits in private.

SAU Foundation Director Jeanie Bismark said she and Josh Kee, associate director of the foundation, received a letter Tuesday that the grant was accepted. The group applied for the grant in February.
On Wednesday morning, the pair, along with Mulerider Baseball Coach Allen Gum, SAU Athletic Director Jay Adcox and SAU President Dr. David Rankin, took part in a conference call thanking the foundation for the gift. They spoke to Debbie Walker, Executive Director of the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation.

“I just wanted to tell you what a huge difference these grants make in the baseball program,” Gum said. “So much of recruitment is driven by the quality of the facilities and we continue to attract better recruits each year with one of the nicest quality baseball fields in (NCAA) Division II baseball.”

The Walker Charitable Foundation first granted SAU a $160,000 matching grant in July 2005 which provided the lights at the baseball field.

Adcox described this year’s gift from the Walker Charitable Foundation as “tremendous” and said the benefits of a top notch baseball facility impact more than just the baseball team.

“This facility is a pride factor for the University and the whole community,” Adcox said.

Rankin said one of the goals for the University is to eventually to host the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Conference tournament which ended this past weekend. The Muleriders’ season ended at the semi-finals of the conference with a loss to Delta State.

The loss was the end of a phenomenal season by SAU (46-12) as they reached the 40-win plateau for the third consecutive year and reached the No. 1 ranking in the country in April for the first time in University history. Southern Arkansas’ 46 victories matches the highest season win total set by the 1987 NAIA World Series team that finished third in the nation.

The special event is being sponsored by the SAU Foundation and proceeds will benefit the foundation and the Kathleen Mallory Lectureship Endowment.

A private reception with Babineaux will be held from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the Magnolia Room of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center. The private reception will be followed by a 7 p.m. dinner and remarks by Babineaux in the Grand Hall of the Reynolds Center.

Ticket prices are $25 for dinner and remarks and $50 for entry into the private reception, to receive a photograph with Babineaux and to attend the dinner with remarks by the athlete.

The mission of the Kathleen Mallory Lecture Series is to honor the contributions of Dr. Mallory, an English professor who has made extraordinary contributions to SAU and to issues of English Curriculum improvement in Arkansas and the United States. Mallory is credited with brining scholars working in the fields of African Diasporic and African American Studies to Southern Arkansas University to share their scholarship with students, faculty, staff and members of the community.

For more information about the event or to purchase tickets, call the SAU Foundation Office at 877-235-7409 or 870-235-4078.

Bismark, who has called Magnolia home since 1961, brings to the position an understanding of customer service from co-owning two businesses with her husband Paul, as well as a working knowledge of education, and the challenges of the field, from working as an English teacher in Columbia County schools.

“As a former school teacher I am interested in education and the University because of my connection with it over the years,” Bismark said. “I also see this position as an opportunity to make a contribution the University. Plus, my husband said I took the job because I can’t resist a challenge.”

Bismark’s ties with SAU run deep and began with spending a couple of weeks each summer with her aunt Floy Childs, and her uncle Orval Childs, who was director of the agriculture department for three decades, and whose name students associate with the Childs Agriculture Building.

Bismark said her immediate goal in her new position is to help grow the Foundation by recruiting people who have an interest in education. One of the often overlooked responsibilities of the University is to impact economic growth, she said.

“Education is important for its own sake, but it is also important that a student’s education makes them more productive in the economy,” Bismark said.

In the long term, she is looking forward to helping bring the “Blue and Gold vision” to life. Dedicated fundraising is one way to support this vision of a quality comprehensive University.

Bismark has a bachelor of arts in English with honors from SAU and a master of arts in English from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

She is a former member of the SAU Foundation Board of Governors, was chairman of the Columbia County Sesquicentennial Celebration, Magnolia-Columbia Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year, 2002 and past president of the Magnolia Junior Charity League.

She and her husband Paul co-owned the Treasure Chest and Olive’s Sporting Goods, both in Magnolia, with her husband Paul. They have one son, Carl, who lives in McNeil, Ark., with his wife Brandy and their two children, Marley, 4, and Will, 1.

Bismark replaces Art Horne who was the executive director of development for the SAU Foundation in Magnolia from 2002-2007. Horne has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Office of Development and Alumni Affairs as executive director of development for UAMS colleges.

The event begins with a social followed by dinner served at 7:15 p.m.

The SAU Foundation will be honoring those who have completed their endowments. This year’s honorees include Ralph and Margaret Weiser, Don and Jessica Adcox, Sharon Lee Miller Eichenberger, Kenneth R. and Vilma Norwood Crain, Alcoa, Margaret Brewer Memorial, Rex and Betty Dodson and Richard E. and Celeste Muse Harton.

The names of those completing their endowments will be honored with their names being added to the Endowment Wall inside the Reynolds Center.

At the end of June 2007, the combined endowments of the University and the University Foundation exceeded $21 million.

The event is by invitation only. For more information, call the SAU Foundation office at 235-4078.

Reagan, a bestselling author and radio talk show in his own right, spoke to a full house September 18 at the Reynolds Center Grand Hall for the Farmers Bank & Trust Distinguished Speaker Series.

The event helped raise $32,000 for the SAU Foundation and also helps fund scholarships for deserving young students who might not be able to pay for college otherwise.

“My dad truly believed in education,” Reagan said. “Who knows if one of these students you are helping will grow up to be president of the United States?”

Reagan said his father’s legacy as president was likely created because he did not strive to create one. But his legacy was truly formed as he built a relationship with the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, witnessed the end of the Cold War with the removal of the Berlin Wall and helped to rebuild America’s economy. But what his son remembers most about his father is his sense of humor. Reagan learned early on that if he was going to understand his father, he would have to learn how to understand parables.

“My dad never told you if you were right or wrong unless you were a Russian,” Reagan said, causing laughter to erupt in the audience.

Of his mother, Jane Wyman who passed away in the week before Reagan’s scheduled appearance at SAU, Reagan said he could not thank her more for the tough love she showed him. When he was fired from his radio talk show to be replaced by Rush Limbaugh in 1992, Reagan called his mother feeling sorry for himself and wondering where his life would take him next.

“She said, ‘Michael, shut up and keep driving,’ ” he said. “And I did and I celebrated my 16 years on radio on September 7 this year.”

Early in his childhood when he wanted a 10-speed Schwinn bike, she told him that he would have to earn money towards the bike by getting a job as a paper boy. Her explanation to him was simple.

“She said that if she gave me everything I wanted then I would grow up to be a 40-year-old child,” he said. “She said, ‘I build men, not boys. I want you to grow up to be a 40-year-old man.’”

Reagan said he ultimately thanks her for her tough love.

Other than the presentation by Reagan, the night was also about recognizing the recipients of the Farmers Bank and Trust scholarships which are generated by the event. This year’s scholarship recipients were Martin Hawron of New Boston, Tx., who is considering majoring in engineering and physics, and Sydney Kilgore of Camden, Ark., who is planning to major in sociology and history. Both of the students were asked to stand and be recognized.

“I think the scholarship is just a reflection on all our hard work, but this event is pretty special, it is flattering,” Kilgore said.

This was the third year for the Farmers Bank & Trust Distinguished Speaker Series. Speakers of the past were Steve Forbes and Oliver North.

Dr. Ngai’s research and publications have explored the development of American immigration policy and demonstrated how past decisions continue to influence the current debates over immigration.

In 2004 Princeton University Press published her Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. This book won numerous awards as a ground-breaking study. It detailed how the identification of those who would be considered “illegal immigrants” emerged over time due to changing labor demands and assumptions about foreign workers.

A review of Impossible Subjects in the Los Angeles Times noted, “Ngai’s undeniable premise–as pertinent today as ever–is that the lawfully regulated part of our immigration system is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Dr. Ngai’s next book, Breaking the Rules: The Making of the Chinese American Middle Class, will be published by Houghton Mifflin. This volume will trace the story of a Chinese immigrant family from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century.

Dr. Ngai taught at Bard College and the University of Chicago before taking her position at Columbia University. She earned her Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. She has been awarded fellowships by the Huntington Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the New York University School of Law.

Dr. Ngai’s presentation at Southern Arkansas University is part of the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecture Program.

Dr. Robert Walz taught history at SAU from 1958 to 1987 and was recognized as a leading scholar of Arkansas history. The Walz Lectureship was established in 1995 with a bequest from the estate of Mrs. Curtistine A. Walz, in honor of her husband’s long service to the university.

The Walz lecture is free and open to the public. A reception for Dr. Ngai will follow in the Reynolds Center.

And this activity is just one of the many which make up Southern Arkansas University’s Family Day Saturday Sept. 15.

The Resident Hall Association 27th Annual Bed Race involves representatives from residence halls and SAU student organizations who put beds on wheels, decorate, and race these beds down Crescent Drive.

“It is a spectacle,” said Brian Berry, dean of students. “It is unique and overall, the day is just a great time early in the semester for all the students to get involved and visit their families. Even thought students may not act like it, they are always happy to see their parents.”

No matter what interests a family, there should be an activity, all of which has a family focus. For members of the Alumni Association, hamburgers will be provided free of charge around 4:30 p.m. during Mulegating along with chips and a drink. Non-alumni members may purchase the meal for $5, said Ceil Bridges, alumni director.

For children, the day will offer activities including face painting, a coloring contest, visiting with a clown, jumping on an inflatable jumper or eating a funnel cake. These activities are an expansion from the Children’s Corners of the past, Bridges said.

There will also be popcorn passed out to the crowd by the SAU Foundation and fireworks will also be displayed before the game, weather permitting, and after the game if SAU is victorious.

FAMILY DAY SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

• 10 a.m. Mulerider Intersquad baseball game at the SAU Baseball Field
• 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information Center booth located beside the SAU Duck Pond
• 1 p.m. 27th Annual Bed Race at Crescent Drive
• 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Organization fair sponsored by Student Activities Board beside the SAU Duck Pond
• 2 p.m. family reception at East Hall lobby
• 3 p.m. 18th Annual Great Greek Canoe Race behind Dolph Camp Hall
• 4 p.m. Mulegating, where dinner will be provided by SAU for students and families on the west side of the Welcome Center behind the SAU track
• 5 p.m. pep rally with SAU cheerleaders and cheerleaders from area schools who were invited to the event during Mulegating at the Welcome Center
• 6 p.m. Mulerider football game begins between Southern Arkansas University vs. University of West Alabama at Wilkins Stadium

“I am always excited about sharing stories about the greatest president of our lifetime who also happens to be my father,” Reagan said. “I look forward to seeing you in September.”

Reagan’s speech is being presented by Farmers Bank & Trust and proceeds will benefit the SAU Foundation.

“It is certainly exciting to have the opportunity to have Michael Reagan at SAU,” said University President Dr. David Rankin. “As the son of one of our most popular presidents, and a nationally known personality in his own right, I believe there will be a great deal of interest in this important event. We are also very grateful for the support of Farmers Bank & Trust, which will allow the proceeds from this event to be directed toward student scholarships.”

The event begins with a private reception from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m., with the dinner and presentation immediately following at 7 p.m. Tickets are $100 to attend the dinner and lecture and $200 to attend the dinner and lecture as well as the private reception where you can have a photo made with Reagan.

According to the Premiere Speakers Bureau, Reagan is one of the most dynamic and sought after public speakers in the public arena today, making more than 30 speaking appearances each year.

Reagan is heard and enjoyed by millions of listeners on his syndicated radio program, “The Michael Reagan Show,” which is carried on 200 plus affiliates in the United States as well as on XM and Sirius Satellite radio. According to his biography, listeners count on him to pierce the veil that shrouds government and distorts the dominant media’s coverage of social and cultural issues.

Perhaps a lesser known fact is that Reagan has also set world records in power-boat racing. His racing raised more than $1.5 million for charities such as the United States Olympic Team, Cystic Fibrosis and Juvenile Diabetes Foundations and the Statue of Liberty Restoration Fund. His efforts were recognized when he became a recipient of the “Victor Award” for outstanding sports and humanitarian achievement.

Reagan serves on the board for The John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation, Notre Dame High School, The Young American’s Foundation, The Santa Barbara Navy League/USS Ronald Reagan Crew Enhancement Program, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center Foundation’s Advisory Board and the Church on the Way in Van Nuys.

Reagan has also authored many successful books including his best-selling autobiography, “On the Outside Looking In,” and “The Common Sense of An Uncommon Man; The Wit, Wisdom and Eternal Optimism of Ronald Reagan.” His latest book “Twice Adopted” is based on his personal story. He and his wife Colleen, have two children and reside in Sherman Oaks, California.

Tickets may be purchased by mailing checks to the SAU Foundation office at P.O. Box 9174, Magnolia, Arkansas, 71754 or calling 877-235-7409.

More than $78,000 was recently accepted from three grant donors. They include the Brown Foundation of Houston ($50,000), the Alcoa Foundation of Magnolia ($25,000) and GenCorp ($3,110). The grants were written by the SAU Foundation with technical expertise provided by Dr. Scott White and Dr. Tim Shroeder, chemistry professors at SAU.

The Brown Foundation of Houston Texas recently gave $50,000 for Science equipment to Southern Arkansas University. Pictured are, from left, Art Horne of the SAU Foundation, George O’Connor, of the Brown Foundation, and Josh Kee of the SAU Foundation. O’Connor is a representative for the Brown Foundation. SAU representatives visited with Mr. O’Connor’s office in Little Rock to thank him for his advice, leadership and advocacy for SAU.

According to Dr. White, the GenCorp funds will offer hands-on laboratory equipment used daily by a large number of students in upper-level chemical analysis courses. The money donated by the Brown and Alcoa foundations will go toward future major spectrometer purchases. All of the equipment purchased with this money is scheduled to be up and running by the 2007 fall semester.

“The equipment purchases we are looking at will be all mobile,” said White. “And at SAU the undergraduate students from the freshmen level to seniors actually get to use sophisticated chemical analysis equipment and technology and gain hands on experience in the laboratory, so when they graduate and go on to pursue a career or do graduate work they
have considerable expertise in the tools and technology required to be successful.”

As SAU has taken a leading role in research of lignite deposits in South Arkansas, the faculty and administration are equally enthusiastic about the expanded opportunities these equipment purchases will mean for the applied research of energy and mineral resources.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to expand our science equipment, which is leading us toward a greater scientific research effort on the part of our faculty,” said SAU President Dr. David Rankin. “This is particularly important in regards to our research relating to natural resource utilization in our region, which is very important in regards to economic development.”

The fact that the equipment is mobile is also important as SAU pushes forward in its campaign for a new Science Center.

“All of our purchases for the science department over the past five years, from the equipment to lab tables and chairs, can be moved into the new Science Center once it is completed,” said Dr. Joe Winstead, SAU Dean of Science and Technology.

The science and technology programs at SAU encompass the five departments of Agriculture, Biology, Math and Computer Science, Nursing, and Physical Sciences and Technology. In addition to a bachelors and associate degree in chemistry and a minor, as well as options in medical technology and associated emphasis in pre-professional medical areas; the Department of Physical Sciences and Technology also supports a Degree in Engineering Physics with tracts in manufacturing and industrial technology. This Department also provides numerous required supporting courses for the other degree programs housed in the College of Science and Technology.

For additional information on the SAU science program, visit http://www.saumag.edu/academics/science_and_technology/ or call (870) 235-4290.