And just like that, once the students came back from Spring Break, the semester ramped up and then it was over. Reading Day (formerly known as Dead Day) was yesterday May 6, and final exams start Monday. April, as always, was a busy month on the University of Arkansas campus with a back to normal number of programs and events: lectures ,concerts, award ceremonies, and end-of -the year celebrations.
The stars aligned when the Distinguished Lectures Committee brought tennis great Venus Williams to campus on April 12. The lecture was a Q&A session moderated by Danyelle Musselman, former sportscaster, and wife of Men’s Razorback Basketball coach Eric Musselman. Venus talked about her life and had some great advice for our students, who hung on her every word. Before the lecture, Venus attended the opening ceremony of the new University Recreation Tennis Center. As our lucky stars would have it, the center’s opening had been pushed back due to weather events delaying construction, and so the grand opening just happened to coincide with Venus’ lecture. We’ll have more on that new Tennis Center for you when the Bulletin returns this Fall.
Our Q&As this month come from Student Activities and our Headliner Concerts Committee. Trisha Blau is the assistant director of programming for Student Activities and has been at the U of A for 13 years. Blau is the advisor to the Headliner Concerts Committee and says that she loves working with students and seeing their excitement when the events they work so hard on are successful and loved by their fellow students. Our student Q&A is from Collin Petigna, a senior majoring in graphic design and Spanish. Petigna, who is from Shawnee, Kansas, is the student chair of the Headliner Concerts Committee. He has loved his U of A experiences, and has really enjoyed helping bring big name acts to campus for events like the Springtime of Youth concert.
Speaking of which, the Springtime of Youth concert festival has become a U of A spring tradition, but one that hasn’t happened in person since 2019 due to COVID. Last year’s concert was virtual, and the April 2020 concert was cancelled. This year, the concert was scheduled for the Washington County Fairgrounds as usual, but the threat of bad weather had the committee working with Razorback Athletics for an alternate venue inside Bud Walton Arena. For the safety of the students, musical acts, and everyone involved, staff made the call prior to the Saturday, April 30 concert, to move the show indoors so that the stage could be built, and everything set up before the concert. The students really enjoyed the show in safety!
We hope you have enjoyed the stories we’ve brought you this school year, as we sure have loved telling them. This edition is the last Bulletin newsletter of the semester, but we’ll be back in the fall. If you have ideas for stories or would like more information on anything you read here, please email Scott Flanagin, executive director of communications for Student Affairs at sflanagi@uark.edu.