Just like that, winter break is over, and we’re back on campus for the spring semester. We continue to support our campus community as we are impacted by COVID 19 and are staying the course with in-person classes, requiring masking in all campus buildings (regardless of social distancing, and encouraging vaccinations, boosters and testing. I spent part of the first two days of classes working a Help-A-Hog table and helping students find their way to classes, offices, and other places across campus. It’s always a nice way to see and interact with students and give them a little help.
Spring signals that it is time to open our Division of Student Affairs scholarship applications. The Division offers scholarships for which nearly every University of Arkansas student can apply. This past school year the Division supported students with 230 scholarships awarded for a total of $266,050. We hope you will encourage students to apply for these scholarships or maybe even support our students by making a gift to one of these scholarships.
As the new semester begins, we look back at the most read stories on Arkansas News for 2021. The University of Arkansas community publishes stories to the Arkansas News site, which is emailed to about 37,000 recipients daily. Several of the top 20 stories read over the last year were Student Affairs related, from articles on Distinguished Lectures to stories about Greek Life events.
PCR Testing for COVID-19 on campus has gotten a huge boost thanks to Pat Walker Health Center and a partnership with an outside medical team. We have the capacity to test several hundred people a day and is available on the Union Mall for walk-up testing M-F, 8am-4pm, between Jan. 18 to Feb. 18. This mass clinic is open to anyone on campus, especially those not experiencing symptoms. In addition, the campus community can receive flu shots at this site. For those who are having symptoms the Pat Walker Health Center still remains the best place to get tested on campus. Our executive director of communications, who told us about getting vaccinated on campus, decided to get tested and offers a first-hand account.
Our Q & A ‘s feature the Career Development Center with a new assistant director and a graduate student. Nakell Baker is the new assistant director for the Career Studio who just started her work here this semester. Nakell is located in the new Student Success Center building, giving the Career Development Center a prime location in this impressive new building. Cadi Stair is a first-year Graduate Student who worked as a peer mentor for the Career Development Center during her undergraduate education. She is working on her Master’s in Higher Education with plans to graduate in 2023 and work as an academic advisor.
We hope you enjoy this February 2022 issue of the Student Affairs Bulletin. If you have ideas for stories or would like more information on anything you read here, please email Scott Flanagin, executive director of communications at sflanagi@uark.edu.