Bill and Alice Nix Petting Zoo to be open April 17 The College of Agriculture and Technology announces the semi-annual Bill and Alice Nix Petting Zoo. The petting zoo will be open to the public on Saturday, April 17, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the ASU Farm Beef Barn on Longhorn Drive. For the health and safety of both children and animals, no food, drink, toys, or pacifiers are permitted in the petting zoo. Petting Zoo animals include sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, calves, rabbits, turkeys, miniature horses, and a miniature donkey.  The Petting Zoo also includes free hay rides and horseback rides. For details, to volunteer, or to book a school group for the fall opening, contact Sherry Ellis (sellis@astate.edu), Agriculture Studies Office, at ext. 2087. For details, see the NewsPage release. Final choir performance of 2009-10 season is April 18 The Department of Music will present the ASU Concert Choir, University Singers Men’s and Women’s Choirs, and the premiere of a new Vocal Jazz ensemble in a performance that will also feature the graduate conducting recital of Patrick Manes. The event will be held on Sunday, April 18, at 3 p.m. at Riceland Hall, Fowler Center. The choirs will present music from several different styles in their final performance of the 2009-2010 concert season. According to ASU director of Choral Activities, Dr. Dale Miller, this performance will introduce the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, a new group founded and directed by Kyle Chandler, assistant professor of music and coordinator of music education for ASU. The Concert Choir is accompanied by staff accompanist Brian Henkelmann, and the Men’s and Women’s Choirs are accompanied by senior vocal performance major Willie Sullivan. The concert is free of charge and the public is cordially invited to attend. For details, including personnel, see the NewsPage release. Final Jazz Ensembles performance of season is April 19 The Department of Music at ASU will present the ASU Jazz Band in its final concert of the 2009-2010  season, along with a few numbers from the new Vocal Jazz Ensemble on Monday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Riceland Hall, Fowler Center. Jazz is a musical style that has the ability to react to and absorb other musical traditions, and in their performance, the Arkansas State University Jazz Ensembles will present “Something Borrowed, Something Blue.”  Throughout the program, audiences will be treated to musical examples which display how jazz has borrowed from a wide range of styles and ensembles throughout its history. The ASU Jazz Bands are under the direction of Dr. Ron Horton. The concert is free of charge and open to the public. To begin the evening, audiences of the concert will be treated to a performance by the Arkansas State University Mixed Vocal Jazz Ensemble. The ASU Jazz Band and the ASU Jazztette will also perform. For details, including personnel, see the NewsPage release. Renewable Energy conference is April 19 In its commitment to actively promote renewable energy development in the region, Arkansas State University’s College of Agriculture and Technology will host a one-day conference on Monday, April 19, in the Mockingbird Room of the Reng Student Services Center/Student Union, 101 N. Caraway Road, from 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. The conference, “Renewable Energy in Arkansas: Opportunities for Economic Development,” will include invited speakers from industry, outreach, government, research, and education sectors. The stakeholders in various aspects of renewable energy will present their vision for the development of the Arkansas economy through alternative and green energy sources. An overview of current efforts and challenges in areas of renewable energy will be provided. There will be four sessions dealing with the vision of renewable energy, renewable energy research, educational opportunities, and outreach and economic development. Registration and conference information is available at the College of Agriculture and Technology website. Questions should be directed to Dr. Paresh Patel, director, renewable energy technology program, at (870) 733-6044, or to Dr. Rajesh Sharma, renewable energy technology program, at (870) 733-6018. Dr. Hendricks wins Susie Pryor Award for history Dr. Nancy Hendricks, director, Alumni Communications, has won the 2010 Susie Pryor Award for Arkansas Women’s History. The prestigious award is named in honor of the late Susan Hampton Pryor (1900-1984) of Camden, the first woman to run for political office in Arkansas after women won the vote, community leader, historian, and writer. Dr. Hendricks wrote this year's winning entry, “A Friend in Deed: The Private Correspondence of Sen. Hattie Caraway in the V. C. Kays Archives.” Hattie Caraway of Jonesboro was the first woman elected to the United States Senate, holding office from 1932 through 1945. The papers of the late V. C. Kays, founding president of what is today Arkansas State University, are housed at ASU-Jonesboro. In her manuscript, Hendricks contended that while often seen as ineffectual, Sen. Caraway, who died in 1950, worked tirelessly and effectively for her constituents. Her actions affected thousands of people as well as institutions such as Arkansas State University. Caraway helped obtain federal funds during the Depression for the construction of nine buildings on the ASU campus, four of which are still used today. Dr. Hendricks was quoted for her expertise on Caraway in the March 29 edition of Arkansas Business, and hopes ultimately to publish her research on the Caraway letters. Dr. Hendricks is an award-winning writer whose play, “Miz Caraway and the Kingfish,” tells the story of Caraway's campaign with Huey Long to become America's first woman Senator. Its New Orleans production was held over for an extended run and nominated by the American Critics Association for "Best Play Produced Outside New York." She also performs a one-person program, “Hattie to Hillary: Women in Politics.” Her most recent play is “Boy Hero: The Story of David O. Dodd,” and her screenplay, “Terrible Swift Sword,” about the Sultana disaster, is being perused in Hollywood. She was the recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award and the White House Millennium Award for her writing. For details, see the NewsPage release. Electrical Engineering program receives donation ASU’s Electrical Engineering program recently received a donation of an electric power grid protection system from Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL) of Pullman, Wash., a leading provider of fault monitoring and protection systems for the commercial electric power industry. The donation, facilitated by Mr. Emery L. Perry, regional SEL field representative from Conway, consisted of a protection relay module, associated test and simulation system, peripherals, and software. Perry presented the equipment to Dr. Robert Engelken, director, Electrical Engineering, and Dr. Paul Mixon, Electrical Engineering. The equipment will be integrated with electrical power and machinery coursework and research at ASU to demonstrate to engineering students how fault tolerance can be maintained on the electric power grid.Such faults are anything that causes disruption or failure in the distribution of electric power and can include obvious things such as lightning strikes, fallen tree limbs, and collapsing lines and poles, and less obvious phenomena such as harmonics and voltage and current wave reflections on the lines. For details, see the NewsPage release. Back to the top