ASU announces record fall 2009 enrollment
As Arkansas State University celebrates its Centennial year, Chancellor Robert L. Potts today announced a record enrollment for the fall 2009 semester. The preliminary total enrollment to be reported to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education from the 11^th class day is 12,185, up 695 students, representing a 6% increase over 2008’s final fall enrollment of 11,490. Not included in this count are an additional 218 students in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program, which prepares these students to participate in regular academic courses in the future. Thus, with these students included, ASU has 12,403 students registered this fall. The total undergraduate headcount was 10,049, up 285 students from fall 2008’s 9,764 for a 2.9% increase. The total number for new freshmen stands at 1,736, or 166 students fewer than last fall’s 1,902. International student enrollment also broke records; international student enrollment for 2009 is 418, an increase of 96 students compared to 322 international students in fall 2008, for an increase of 29.8%. For details, see the NewsPage release.

Traveling exhibition opens today in ASU's Hall of Science
A traveling exhibit that explains the inner workings of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational–Wave Observatory (LIGO) will be on display and open to the public in the Hall of Science in the Laboratory Sciences Center, East Wing. The exhibit will open Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. with a ceremony, and the public is invited to attend. The exhibit will remain on view from Wednesday, Sept. 9-Thursday, Sept. 24. After the opening ceremony, Dr. Mario Cavaglia will present a talk, "Listening to the Universe with Gravitational Waves" at 5:30 p.m. in Lab Sciences East 219. For details, contact Dr. John Pratte, Physics, ext. 3086.

Lecture-Concert Series opens with Martha A. Sandweiss
Author and professor Martha A. Sandweiss of Princeton University is the featured speaker in the first event of ASU's 2009-10 Lecture-Concert Series. Sandweiss will present “Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line,” a lecture adapted from her book of the same title, on Monday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in ASU’s Fowler Center Drama Theatre. Sandweiss’s presentation is this year’s Corinne Sternheimer Greenfield Lecture, funded by Drs. Rosalee and Raymond Weiss of Teaneck, New Jersey, in memory of her mother, Corinne Sternheimer Greenfield, through an endowment supporting an annual lecture in the ASU College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This event, like all events in the Lecture-Concert Series, is free and open to the public. Martha A. Sandweiss began her career as a curator of photographs, later became the director of a college art museum, and now, as professor of American studies and history at Princeton, teaches a broad array of classes in American studies, visual culture, public history, and the history of the American West. Her latest book, “Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line,” is the story of a brilliant man who lived a double life, one as celebrated white explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King, and the other as black Pullman porter and steel worker James Todd. It was a secret he only revealed on his deathbed. Sandweiss explores the story and complexities of this man and his family. Her book has been optioned for development as a film by HBO. For details, contact Dr. Gil Fowler, associate dean for the Honors College, at ext. 2308, or see the NewsPage release. The Lecture-Concert Series presents diverse programs to enrich the cultural life of the campus, community, and region.

Arkansas Heritage SITES program awarded three grants
The Federal Highway Administration has announced three National Scenic Byways grants totaling $560,600 for the Arkansas Heritage SITES program at ASU. Arkansas Heritage SITES (System Initiatives for Technical and Educational support) is directed by Dr. Ruth Hawkins. The largest grant, for $510,600, will be used to develop and implement a coordinated interpretive and marketing plan for heritage tourism in the Arkansas Delta Byways region, which includes two National Scenic Byways, Crowley’s Ridge Parkway and the Arkansas Great River Road. The funds also will provide for continuation of regional field services and technical assistance initiated through the Rural Heritage Development Initiative, a three-year pilot program utilizing heritage tourism and preservation-based economic development strategies. The two additional grants, for $25,000 each, will fund administrative support for the Arkansas Heritage SITES office at Arkansas State University to continue development of the two National Scenic Byways in the region. For details, see the NewsPage release.
  
Back to the top