Mullins Library OK'd for renovation work
FAYETTEVILLE -- A plan to empty the main library at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville of most of its books to create more study areas has received a boost with the approval of an approximately $17 million renovation project.
University of Arkansas System trustees agreed on Thursday to move forward with the renovation of David W. Mullins Library. Books will be transferred to a new storage building under construction and set to open in mid-2018.
The renovation of the library's third and fourth levels will remove asbestos and leave "an empty shell," according to university documents.
Fayetteville-based Miller Boskus Lack and Boston-based Perry Dean Rogers Partners will design the new library layout, said Mike Johnson, UA's associate vice chancellor for facilities. After a design is completed, renovation work will likely take 12-18 months and be finished before the 2020 fall semester, he said.
Molly Boyd, assistant to UA's libraries dean, said the early plan is to keep portions of the library open during the renovation.
Con-Real, based in Arlington, Texas, has been chosen as the project's construction manager, Johnson said.
3 students selected Fleischer Scholars
FAYETTEVILLE -- Three business students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville this fall are the first to receive yearly $10,000 Fleischer Scholars Program awards aimed at helping low-income students and those who are among the first-generation in their families to attend college.
The program began at UA under a different name in 2015, bringing high school students to live on campus for a week in the summer to learn about business.
Financier and entrepreneur Morton Fleischer sponsors the yearly programs, which are free to students. He began the program at Arizona State University before working with UA's chancellor at the time, G. David Gearhart, to bring the effort to UA. Fleischer is the co-founder and chairman of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Store Capital.
The scholarships, renewable for four years, are funded by businesses and donors that include Signature Bank of Arkansas, Bank of England, Bear State Bank, First Arkansas Bank and Trust, Jim and Glennis Nokes, and Greenway Equipment.
Barbara Lofton, director of the diversity office at UA's Sam M. Walton College of Business, said the university is growing the program by raising money to offer more awards and by bringing more students to campus. She said about 100 students will take part next summer, up from the fewer than 40 who took part this year.
Pledge to promote workplace diversity
FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville has signed a pledge to advance workplace diversity and step up training on unconscious bias.
UA last month announced it has joined the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Group. Mostly businesses -- including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc. -- have signed the group's pledge.
Members agree to support "complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion" and to "implement and expand unconscious bias education." The pledge also calls for the sharing of best practices.
Unconscious bias education "enables individuals to begin recognizing, acknowledging, and therefore minimizing" potential blind spots, the pledge states.
Training videos referred to by the group talk about mental shortcuts common to all. The videos describe how biases can be countered in part by taking time to "slow down" and ask questions, as well as get perspectives from others.
Yvette Murphy-Erby, UA's top diversity officer, said some UA employees have completed unconscious bias training but diversity-related training will be expanded and more people will be trained.
"Unconscious bias, to me, that's a big fundamental piece. It's a big part of the foundation, that people don't know what they don't know," Murphy-Erby said.
Metro on 11/12/2017