Governor Beebe, Wal-Mart, present $369,000 to ABI, ASU Wal-Mart Foundation today announced a $369,000 donation to ABI at ASU. The donation, presented in the Governor’s Conference Room, will be used to meet the cost share requirement for a U.S. Department of Energy grant awarded to the university. Dr. Elizabeth Hood, Plant Biology, who holds a joint appointment with ABI and is Distinguished Professor of Agriculture, is the principle investigator for the $1.5 million Department of Energy grant. ABI is pursuing the commercialization of bio-based product development, drawing upon Arkansas agriculture and forestry resources. The Wal-Mart grant will support research focused on making ethanol from plant stalks and leaves, agricultural residues and forestry residues. Emerging alternative fuels, such as cellulosic ethanol, algal biodiesel and hydrogen, offer promise to help meet America's future transportation energy demands. For details, see the NewsPage release. Web rollout brings new look, improved functionality On Tuesday, Sept. 9, Arkansas State University will roll out an updated Internet homepage and other redesigned web pages. The faculty and staff of ASU have led in the design and rollout of the new site. The ASU web redesign project was commissioned by ASU chancellor Dr. Robert L. Potts as a result of a web design task force’s report in February of this year, and the ensuing project resulted in the redesign and restructuring of ASU’s web site. The look and feel of ASU’s web presence will change, and so, too, will the back-end systems that host the site. The redesign will add functionality; information geared to external audiences will be available via the Internet, and information geared to internal audiences will be available via the Intranet. A new content management system, dotCMS, will help websites look and feel and operate more consistently. The redesign will keep ASU’s webpages more consistent, easier to update, and more user-friendly. For details, see the NewsPage release. Alumni Association announces Homecoming 2008 plans The Arkansas State University Alumni Association announces plans for Homecoming 2008 which will be held on Friday-Saturday, Sept. 19-20. All alumni and friends of the university are invited to attend. A high point of this year's Homecoming will be the pre-game open house at the brand-new Cooper Alumni Center from 4-5:30 p.m. Music will be provided by the popular local band, The Brewers, and guests will be treated to barbeque from Whole Hog. The open house is free and open to the public. The Homecoming football game will begin Saturday evening at 6 p.m., as ASU hosts Middle Tennessee. Between the first and second quarters, members of the 1958 football team will be honored. Halftime brings the Distinguished Alumni presentation in which this year's recipients will be recognized along with the announcement of the Homecoming Court. Throughout the weekend, there will also be special reunions for former ASU cheerleaders, football players from the 1958 team and Greek organizations including Pi Kappa Alpha and Sigma Phi Epsilon. For more details, see the Alumni Association website, contact the Alumni Office at (870) 972-2586, e-mail alumni@astate.edu, or see the NewsPage release. Yearbook pictures will be made this week Yearbook pictures are the sources of the headshots used in Inside ASU and for news releases from University Communications. The staff of University Communications urges all faculty and staff to have yearbook pictures made. Yearbook pictures for all faculty and staff will be made from 9 a.m-4 p.m. today through Friday, Sept. 12. Pictures will be made on the first floor of the Student Union; a valid ASU ID must be presented. For details, contact Natalie Eskew, coordinator, Student Services, ext. 2055. Back to the top