The Distinguished Alumni Dinner, “A Red Carpet Affair,” which takes place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Friday, October 10, in the Grand Hall of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center, will include a red carpet entrance. Of course, the main guests of honor of the night will be the award recipients of this year’s Distinguished Alumni awards. These guests of honor include Cecil Yates who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, Dr. William C. Lindsey, this year’s Distinguished Golden Rider, Gaye Manning this year’s Distinguished Alumni and Stephen Weaver, who will be recognized as the Young Alumni recipient.

“We are going to be highlighting campus stars such as the current Mulerider Idol,” said Alumni Director Ceil Bridges. “It will be just like we are at the Grammy’s or Academy Awards. We really want to place a special emphasis on the Distinguished Alumni recipients. Lat year was extraordinary and we are going to make it better than last year. We have the recipe to do that.”

HOMECOMING AT A GLANCE

Homecoming begins with a 6:30 p.m. pep rally Monday October 6 at the Greek Theatre. These events, which include the announcement of the homecoming king and queen, are coordinated by the Student Government Association.

At 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, the Student Activities Board will sponsor a drive in movie, “Hancock,” in the Reynolds Center parking lot.

Wonder Boy Burgers will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8 in the Mall Area. The burger event will be hosted by Aramark and the SGA.

An invitation only SAU Foundation Honor Societies dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 9. in Grand Hall of the Reynolds Center.

The SGA will lead street painting from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9 on the SAU Farm Road. There will also be a bonfire.

At 4:30 a.m., SAU students and faithful fans will gather together on Friday, Oct. 10 to appear on Channel 7 Daybreak at Reynolds Plaza.

The Rider Golf Tournament will begin at 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 10, at the Magnolia Country Club. The tournament will be a four person scramble and the registration fee is $75 per person. SAU Alumni President Mike Waters is coordinating the event. Call Waters at 901-2208 for more information on the tournament.

The Heartbeat will kickoff at noon on Friday, Oct. 10, in the Senior Walk Mall Area. The event is coordinated by the SGA.

The Foundation Board will have a meeting at 1 p.m., Friday, Oct. 10 at the Reynolds Center. This is coordinated by SGA.

The Distinguished Alumni dinner, “A Red Carpet Affair,” will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Reynolds Center. The event is coordinated by the Alumni Association, SAU Homecoming Royalty and the President’s Ambassadors. Tickets are $17 and can be purchased by calling 235-4079.

A black alumni reception will be held at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, in the Mulerider Center. Back by popular demand is the group “Chemistry,” which has a range that contains anything from gospel to classic Prince hits.

Of course the big day of the week will be Saturday, Oct. 11 with a host of activities planned.

At 8 a.m. on Oct. 11 in the Grand Hall of Reynolds, a Golden Rider Breakfast will be held to honor the class of 1958 that will be celebrating their 50th reunion.

At 10 a.m. the SAU parade begins and proceeds through campus. The parades will line up at 9:30 a.m. in the Assembly of God Church parking lot. This event is coordinated by the SGA.

Also at 10 a.m., Homecoming banners will be displayed at Wilkins Stadium. This is coordinated by SGA.

At 10:30 a.m., floats will be on display at the Reynolds Parking Lot. This is coordinated by the SGA.

Mulegating will be in full force at noon at the Welcome Center. Food and fellowship is available through many organizations and children will enjoy the popular Children’s Corner, which includes inflatable bouncers, cotton candy, and a clown handing out balloons. Enjoy seeing old friends at the different alumni reunions.

1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 11, SAU Pep Rally, Welcome Center coordinated by the SAU Cheerleaders and the SAU Marching band. This event coordinated by the SAU Cheerleaders and the SAU Marching band.

The SAU Homecoming Queen and her court will be presented at 2 p.m. at Wilkins Stadium. The football game begins at 2:30 p.m. The Muleriders will face Arkansas Tech University. During halftime, banners and float winners of the Homecoming parade will be announced.

The Alumni baseball game will begin thirty minutes after the football game. This event is coordinated by SAU Baseball coach Allen Gum.

Following the game, the Greek Step Show begins at 7 p.m. at W.T. Watson Gym. This event coordinated by Assistant Dean of Multicultural Services Cledis Stuart.

•The SAU Foundation and the SAU Alumni Office donate 1,000 towards prizes to SAU Student Organizations during the homecoming week.

Representatives from various health organizations will be available to speak with students about current and future career opportunities in health-related fields. Current SAU students and alumni with a nursing major or any other health-related major are encouraged to bring multiple copies of resumes and register for door prizes at the event.

For more information or to view information sheets on participating agencies, contact the Employment Resource Center at Reynolds 217 or call 870-235-4097.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The audience is also welcomed to attend a reception for Dr. Gabaccia in the Salon B in the Reynolds Center following the lecture.

Dr. Gabaccia is professor of history and director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

She is the author of numerous books and articles on immigrant life in the U.S. and Italian migration around the world, including From the Other Side: Women, Gender and Immigrant Life in the United States (Indiana University Press, 1994) and Italy’s Many Diasporas (Routledge, 2000). She has also written about food, culture, and migration in We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (Harvard University Press, 1998). Reviewers have praised her work for revealing how the immigrant experience shaped American culture.

The lecture is sponsored by the History, Political Science, and Geography Department at Southern Arkansas University and 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 first ceremony begins at 11 a.m. for the School of Graduate Studies, with a 1 p.m. ceremony following for graduates from the College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Liberal and Performing Arts and the College of Science and Technology.

The speaker for this year’s graduation will be Arkansas State Representative Bruce Maloch of Emerson. Since 1986, Maloch has been with Farmers Bank & Trust and currently serves as regional president and chief operating officer and is a member of the bank’s board of directors.

Maloch received a B.B.A. in business agriculture from Southern Arkansas University in 1980 and a Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. While at SAU, Bruce served as president of the Student Government Association and later served as president of the SAU Alumni Association.

Community and governmental affairs have long been a part of Maloch’s interests. He served 10 years on the Columbia County Quorum Court, has served as president of the Magnolia-Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, Columbia County Bar Association and the Group 4 Arkansas Bankers Association for Southwest Arkansas. He is a member of the Magnolia Economic Development Corporation and serves on the Magnolia Airport Commission. Maloch is current chairman of the Arkansas FFA Foundation and has long been active in Arkansas Farm Bureau and Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association activities. He is an auctioneer and donates his services for charitable events throughout the area. In 1997, Maloch received the Outstanding Young Alumni award for Southern Arkansas University.

Maloch and his wife, Martha, live on a farm south of Magnolia where they raise registered Brangus cattle. Martha is a retired educator from the Emerson-Taylor School District. They have three children, Ryan, Lauren, and Victoria; a son-in-law, Scotty Covington and daughter-in-law, Amy; and granddaughters Reese Covington and Marley Kate Maloch. The Maloch’s are members of First Baptist Church of Magnolia where Bruce is an adult Sunday school teacher.

The SAU Office of Alumni Relations will sponsor a reception for all graduates from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Blue and Gold room. For more information regarding commencement exercises at SAU, call the Office of the Registrar at 870-235-4031.

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 first session will be offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 20-22 in the Grand Hall of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center at Southern Arkansas University. This training is free and will be hosted by SAU and Eric Plummer, Chief of Police. The title of the session is “Simulation-based Incident Command System (ICS) Training for Command Post & Public Safety Response Personnel.” This course will be geared toward university and college administrative officials, command level campus public safety officers, emergency response command level officers and EOC personnel.

“The advantage of this three-day course is that participants will be able to cover all aspects of prevention and preparedness with exercises in a “model city” environment,” Plummer said.
The other course is intended to help University/college administrative officials with training related to emergency preparedness plans. The course will be offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Magnolia Room of the campus and community center on May 21-22.

SAU President Dr. David Rankin said the course is particularly relevant in light of recent events such as the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University and the tornado event at Union University.

“We must realize that universities will not be able to handle the emergency response alone and will need to work with outside agencies to manage the affect of the event on our community,” Rankin said. “With this being said, we must know how other agencies will respond in order to have a seamless transition into a unified command.”

The fee is $295 and may be payable to Southern Arkansas University Police Department.

Registration is ongoing for both sessions. Call Plummer at 870-235-4372 for more information.

Twelve students participated in the Festival, entering a total of 18 videos in five different categories. The categories were: commercial, motion graphic, narrative, documentary and music video. Students from SAU, John Brown University, and area high schools participated, but in the end, Southern Arkansas University Students rose to the top.

Heard’s experimental music video titled “Let Go” won the grand prize of $300. Second place, $200, and the McNeill Family Prize for Best Documentary Film worth $100 went to Jameson Sheppard of John Brown University for his film, “Rush,” a documentary following the progress of two teens in dirt track racing. Third place and $100 went to Matt Taylor of SAU for his motion graphic “Celestial Prison.” Matt also received the People’s Choice Award for his narrative film, “Unscripted,” an improvisational horror film set in downtown Magnolia. “Yellow Rock,” a documentary by Gina Caylor of Fayetteville High School, won Honorable Mention.

Judges for the festival were David Murphy, SAU Theatre and Mass Communications department chair, Daehwan Cho, assistant professor of digital media, and Aaron Street, director of the SAU Communications Center.

Plans are already in the works for the festival to take place again next year sometime in April. For more information, contact Daehwan Cho at 870-235-4260.

During Burgess’ career, she has served in many capacities in the field of education, but always with the idea of how to best serve the interests of children and youth of African ancestry. She has studied at the College of the Ozarks, Pacific Oaks College and the University of Massachusetts, and now serves as dean of the College of Education at Southern Arkansas University.

Upward Bound is a program that assists selected high school students in developing the academic skills and motivation that will help them to become successful college students. Southern Arkansas University will be honoring the graduates of its division of the program. Students graduating are from Bradley, Camden, El Dorado, Lafayette County, Magnolia, Stephens and Taylor, Ark.

•Adult Swimming: June 2-12, Monday-Thursday at 2:30- 3:30 p.m.
•Youth Swimming: June 2-12 or 16-26, Monday-Thursday at multiple times
•Scuba Diving for Beginners: June 2- July 3, Monday-Thursday at 5:30-7:30 p.m.
•Scuba Refresher: June 2-July 3, Monday-Thursday at 5:30-7:30 p.m.
•Horse Riding for Beginners: June 2- July 26, by appointment only
•Aquacize: June 3-July 31, Tuesday and Thursday at 6-7 p.m.
•Summer Art Workshop: June 9-12 or 16-19, Monday-Thursday at 1-3 p.m.
•Youth Tennis Clinic: June 9-13, Monday-Thursday at 9-10 a.m.
•Youth Fundamentals of Golf: June 23-26, Monday-Thursday at 8 a.m.-noon
•Advanced Golf: June 30-July 3, Monday-Thursday at 8 a.m.-noon
•Lifeguard Course: July 7-10, Monday- Thursday at 12-7 p.m.
•Smart Sitter: July 14-17, Monday-Thursday at 9-11 a.m.
•Children’s Art Workshop: July 14-17, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
•Youth Theater: July 21-31, Monday-Friday at 2-5 p.m.
•Instant Piano for Hopelessly Busy People: July 23, 6-9:30 p.m.

For more information about registration, class locations, instructors and costs, please contact the Office of Continuing Education at 870-235-4005.

Students participating in the ceremony are required to line up at 6 p.m. in Harton Theatre. Graduates of the Colleges of Business and Education are asked to line up on the left side of the theater, while those graduating from the Colleges of Liberal and Performing Arts and Science and Technology are to line up on the right.

In the event of inclement weather, the W.T. Watson Athletic Center will serve as an alternate site for the commencement exercises. If this is the case, two separate ceremonies will take place. The College of Business and the College of Education will have their ceremony at 7 p.m., and the ceremony for the College of Liberal and Performing Arts and the College of Science and Technology will take place at 8:30 p.m.

Bob L. Burns, chairman and CEO of Farmer’s Bank & Trust in Magnolia since 1983, will serve as the guest speaker at the ceremony.

Regardless of the weather, the Nursing Department ceremony will be at 4 p.m. in the Reynolds Center Grand Hall. Participants are asked to line up at 3:30 p.m. in Foundation Hall. In addition, the School of Graduate Studies will hold its ceremony at 5:30 p.m. in the Grand Hall as well. Students, faculty and platform guests are to line up in Foundation Hall at 5 p.m.
The Office of Alumni Relations will sponsor a reception for graduates, family and faculty from 4:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the Blue and Gold Room of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center.

For more information regarding graduation at SAU, call the Office of the Registrar at 870-235-4031.