ASU Board of Trustees to meet Dec. 3
The Arkansas State University Board of Trustees will meet at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 3, in the Science Building Lecture Hall at  ASU-Beebe.

Dr. Stripling is recipient of outstanding leadership award
Dr. Rick Stripling, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, received the Dr. Mossie J. Richmond Outstanding Leadership Award at the Arkansas College Personnel Association’s annual meeting, November 11-12, in Springdale. The award recognizes student affairs leaders from Arkansas who have made significant contributions to the association and the student affairs profession within the state. It is named for the late Dr. Mossie J. Richmond, former interim president of ASU and vice president for Student Affairs. Dr. Stripling said being named recipient of the award is especially meaningful because Dr. Richmond was a personal friend and mentor. Under Stripling’s leadership, the division of Student Affairs has overseen the construction of 10 new buildings and renovated two major buildings during the last decade. The construction and renovation projects, totaling over $135 million, include Collegiate Park and Northpark Quad apartments for sophomores, juniors and seniors; Heritage Plaza outdoor plaza and amphitheater; Florida coast-style apartments for nontraditional/graduate students; Red Wolf Den apartments for students with 60-plus credit hours; Honors Living-Learning Community; STEM/ROTC Living-Learning Communities; Red WOLF Center fitness and recreation facility; Student Health Center; Parking Garage; Student Union; Carl R. Reng Student Services Center renovation; and Kays Hall renovation. For details, see the NewsPage release.

Dr. Burns presents paper at annual meeting
Dr. Richard Burns, Folklore and Anthropology, recently presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society in Nashville, Tenn. His paper, “’Mama told Jody not to go downtown…’: Where is Jody Now?” was part of an organized panel on military folklore and will form the basis of chapter in a book on military folklore that will be published by Utah State University Press. His paper examined why some military marching chants, specifically Jody calls, which often contain language considered unacceptable in today’s armed forces, still thrive in military oral traditions.

Dr. Luster chairs panel on folklife at annual meeting
Dr. J. Michael Luster, Arkansas Folklife Program, and Rachel Reynolds Luster, Heritage Studies, recently presented a panel on Community-Based Folklife Practice at the annual American Folklore Society meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Dr. Luster chaired the panel,which included independent folklorist Meredith Martin-Moats. Panel papers included "Sustainable Communities, Parallel Paths, and Folklife Practice," “'For the Health of the Plant, Look to the Health of the Soil': New Agrarian Models for a Sustainable Culture," and "Embracing Human Rights-Based Education Models in Intergenerational Community Education: Opportunities for a More Culturally Sustainable Public Folklore Practice." The panel will be presented again in November at the Arkansas Anthropology and Sociology Association (ASAA) meeting at the University of Central Arkansas.

Dr. Lorence presents talk at international conference
Dr. Argelia Lorence, Metabolic Engineering (Arkansas Biosciences Institute and Department of Chemistry and Physics) presented the talk, "Engineering elevated levels of vitamin C in plants: Implications for agriculture, plant-based protein production and phytoremediation" at the 7th Latin American and Caribbean Meeting on Agricultural Biotechnology 2010 REDBio Mexico. Dr. Lorence’s talk highlighted the results herresearch team has obtained by manipulating vitamin C metabolism in multiple species including model plants such as Arabidopsis, and crop plants including rice and tomato.  Some of the results presented by Dr. Lorence are products of her P3 Center projects [funded by the RII: Arkansas ASSET Initiative (AR EPSCoR) by the National Science Foundation (grant #EPS – 0701890) and the Arkansas Science and Technology Center]. Dr. Lorence has worked in collaboration with Dr. Maureen Dolan (ABI/ASU), Dr. Fiona Goggin (UA Fayetteville), and Dr. Vibha Srivastava (UA Fayetteville). REDBio is the Technical Cooperation Network on Agricultural Biotechnology in Latin America and the Caribbean, and this major meeting is held every three years. 750 participants from 23 countries gathered in Guadalajara, Mexico, from November 1-5 to participate. In addition to her role as a speaker, Dr. Lorence also served as one of the judges who selected the top three presentations among the more than 300 posters in the event. Mar del Plata, Argentina, has been announced as the host city for the 2013 REDBio meeting, and Dr. Lorence has been already invited to participate.

Social Work presents World AIDS Day event Dec. 1
On Wednesday, Dec. 1, the ASU Department of Social Work is sponsoring its third World AIDS Day event, under the leadership of Dr. Patricia G. Walls, Social Work. The site of the conference is the Mockingbird Room, Student Union. Registration begins at 8 a.m., and the conference itself begins at 9 a.m. No pre-registration is required. The committee members for the conference this year are Ms. Peggy Wright, Geography, Dr. Loretta Brewer, Social Work, and Dr. Beverly Edwards, Social Work. The keynote speaker is Dr. Carl Abraham, who practices infectious disease medicine and internal medicine in Jonesboro. Mr. Jim Reynolds, director of the Craighead County Health Department, will be on a panel of discussants, along with Ms. Debbie Biazo, director of the Northeast Arkansas Regional AIDS Network (NARAN). There will be free HIV testing between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Dr. Walls hopes to provide the free testing opportunity to at least a hundred members of the ASU community this year. The Craighead County Health Department will be providing both the test kits to conduct the testing as well as the staff to conduct the pre-test and post-testing counseling. The test is a non-invasive procedure in which the cheek inside the mouth is gently swabbed. Testing is confidential, and the results are provided in a sensitive, supportive, and professional manner. Craighead County Health Department staff providing testing include Jim Reynolds, Jared Pulver, Michelle Williams, and Ryan Wooten. Student discussant panels and a balloon release are also planned, and the daylong event will end with a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m. in the Student Union Courtyard. For details, contact Dr. Patricia G. Walls, ext. 3297, or Dr. Beverly Edwards, ext. 3987, or see the NewsPage release.

Holiday book signing by ASU authors set for Dec. 3
A number of ASU faculty members will sign copies of their recently-published books on Friday, Dec. 3, from 12 noon-2 p.m. at the 3^rd floor exhibit space in the Dean B. Ellis Library, 322 University Loop West Circle, Jonesboro. Books will be available for purchase and will be personally inscribed by the authors for a unique holiday gift. The event is free and open to the public. The authors who will be signing their books are Dr. Gregory Hansen (“A Florida Fiddler”); Dr. Nancy Hendricks (“Dear Mrs. Caraway, Dear Mr. Kays”); Dr. Natalie Johnson-Leslie and Steve Leslie (“The ABCs of Surviving School Violence”); and Drs. Clyde Milner and Carol O'Connor (“As Big as the West”). For more information on the holiday book signing, contact librarian April Sheppard, ext. 3077. For more information on individual books and authors, see the NewsPage release.

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