University to host ’70s cult survivor
A Jonestown survivor will speak at Arkansas Tech University on April 5.
Laura Johnston Kohl will give her lecture in Room 300 in the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center on the university’s Russellville campus. The free event — hosted by the university’s Department of Behavioral Sciences, Department of History and Political Science and College of Arts and Humanities — will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. with the lecture starting at 6 p.m.
Kohl, now a bilingual middle school teacher in California, was part of the religious group, Peoples Temple, led by the Rev. Jim Jones. On Nov. 18, 1978, more than 900 members drank a mixture of a powdered soft drink and cyanide under Jones’ direction and died. Kohl was one of 87 members who survived, according to a news release.
She will sign copies of her book Jonestown Survivor: An Insider’s Look immediately following the lecture, titled “Don’t Drink the Kool Aid: Advice from a Jonestown Survivor.”
Center announces 5 students at UCA
A University of Central Arkansas center has named five students as a part of its new community and economic development fellowship program.
The five students are Danny Baxter of Clarksville, Jacob Holland of Cabot, Jordan Johnson of Jacksonville, Brittany Lutz of Montclair, Va., and Ellen McKinnie of Cabot.
The fellowship through UCA’s Center for Community and Economic Development will expose students to different careers in the field and provide networking, coaching and mentoring, according to a news release. Throughout the program — which runs in the spring and fall — the fellows will take part in three site visits showcasing the field at local and state government levels and in the nonprofit realm.
The students will also be able to join the Arkansas Community Development Society and attend this year’s Community Development Institute for free, according to a news release.
New site will test, teach eye surgery
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has staked out a part of the ninth floor of the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute for an eye surgical simulation and education center.
The center is named after Willard and Pat Walker, whose charitable foundation gave UAMS $600,000, according to a news release. It includes classrooms and clinical space, simulation machines, microscopes and other equipment.
Opening last week, the Walker Center — which will be led by Dr. Ahmed Sallam, Jones Eye Institute ophthalmologist and assistant professor in ophthalmology department — will be a place where ophthalmology residents and UAMS students can learn surgical techniques and procedures in a different setting than an operating room, the news release states. Ophthalmology resident physicians will now have to show proficiency in certain surgical techniques and procedures, according to new curriculum requirements.
“The completion of the ninth floor is the capstone of the Jones Eye Institute,” said Dr. Christopher T. Westfall, the Jones Eye Institute director, interim UAMS College of Medicine dean and director of its Department of Ophthalmology. “It’s fitting this was accomplished through the continued generosity of the Walker family.”
ASU, Japan school to start exchange
Arkansas State University will start a “2+2” student-exchange program with a Japanese university.
Under the program — which ASU’s board of trustees approved earlier this month — Arkansas State students who are in the interdisciplinary studies program could start their first two years in Jonesboro and finish their last two years at Saitama University, just outside Tokyo. Those students would then earn two degrees: one in interdisciplinary studies from Arkansas State and one in liberal arts from Saitama, said Thilla Sivakumaran, ASU’s executive director of global initiatives.
Students in Saitama’s liberal arts program would similarly finish out a degree at Arkansas State, he said, adding that the universities are expecting students starting in fall 2019 or fall 2020.
ASU has partnered with Saitama through various exchanges since at least 2010, he said. The latest partnership will help the Jonesboro campus be more of a global campus and provide its students with an opportunity to earn two degrees, he said.
Pulaski Tech OKs partner in Mexico
The University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College is now the second in the state to form an agreement with Technological University of Matamoros.
Pulaski Tech and Arkansas Tech University in Russellville have now partnered with the Mexican university in the state of Tamaulipas. Both agreements are just the start: The Arkansas schools will now explore possible ways in which they can collaborate.
Each institution’s officials signed the frameworks in January and announced them recently.