Distinguished Performance Awards announced 
The 19th Annual Distinguished Performance Awards and Service Recognition Ceremony for non-faculty employees was held May 7, at 1:30 p.m. in Centennial Hall in the Carl R. Reng Student Union. The award recipients for 2011-2012 were: Rookie of the Year – Alletha Davis, Large Scale Distance Education, Team Player – Mendy Hendrix, University Advancement, Unsung Hero – Steve Riga, Information and Technology Services, Team Achievement (Departmental Award) – Landscaping Services, Facilities Management (Brian Pettie, Chad Woodard, Richard McCall, Jace McDaniel, Ben Tinsley, Bobby Ishmael, Pat Runyan, Bobby Burton, Greg Olson, Grady Clark, Anthony Passalaqua, Braden Gatling, Robert Hobbs, Jr., Bruce Spencer, Brian Webb, John Scott, Charles Hendrix, Seth  Broadaway, Frazier Dixon, Daniel Turner, Brian Acre, Charles Roberts, Timothy Colburn,   Bryan Shanks, Adam Elam, Debbie Greenway, Tim Davis, James Woods, and Danny Potts), Extra Mile – Joyce Mann, Center for Excellence in Education, Outstanding Part-Time – Madison Rupard, Residence Life, and Faculty Outstanding Recipient of Collaborative Efforts (FORCE) – Dr. George Foldesy, Center for Excellence in Education. David McKinney, Staff Senate president, hosted the program. ASU Chancellor Dr. Tim Hudson presented service certificates in recognition of retirees and staff members who have completed 10, 20, 30, and 40 years of service at Arkansas State University. Those awards were presented by the respective vice chancellors. View the complete list of honorees at the Staff Senate website.

Griffin Scholars Endowment Fund is largest gift ever
Dr. Tim Hudson, Chancellor, announced yesterday the largest endowment gift in ASU history at 1 p.m. at Cooper Alumni Center, 2600 Alumni Boulevard. A $5 million estate gift from alumnus F. O’Neil “Neil” Griffin has established the Griffin Scholars Endowment Fund. A Griffin Scholar stipend will be awarded to incoming freshmen on the ASU campus in Jonesboro. The amount of the scholarship fund includes tuition, fees, on-campus housing, and books for up to 18 credit hours per semester. A stipend is also available for junior and senior year students to study abroad for a semester. A Griffin Scholar must be a permanent resident of Arkansas or a permanent resident of the following counties in Missouri: Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Dent, Dunklin, Howell, Iron, Madison, Mississippi, New Madrid, Oregon, Pemiscot, Reynolds, Ripley, Scott, Stoddard, Shannon, Texas, or Wayne. A Griffin Scholar is preferably a student with an ACT score of 30 and above; students with an ACT score of 27-29 will also be considered, as will Pell Grant-eligible students. Griffin, originally from the Needham Community between Jonesboro and Bowman, is a 1948 ASU graduate with a bachelor of science degree in business administration. His career has included professional accounting, banking, investment banking, and CEO of two publically held corporations.  He is now semi-retired and resides in Kerrville, Texas, where he is primarily engaged in philanthropy and investments.  He and his family foundation have been major contributors to college scholarship programs, cancer treatment and research, fine arts and numerous other causes across the United States. For details, see the ASU News release.

Dr. Hansen publishes book chapter
Dr. Gregory Hansen, English and Philosophy, published a book chapter, “Richard Seaman’s Presence in Florida’s Soundscape,” in the 2012 book The Florida Folklife Reader. This new publication was edited by Dr. Tina Bucuvalas, the former state folklorist for Florida. The book is a compilation of essays on Florida’s traditional culture, and it provides an overview of topics ranging from maritime folklore, cultural traditions of the Seminoles, and African-American Sacred Steel gospel music to articles on the folklife of south Florida’s Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Greek communities. The Florida Folklife Reader has earned the Stetson Kennedy Award from the Florida Historical Society. The award is for a book based on investigative research which casts light on historic Florida events in a manner that supports human rights, traditional cultures, or the natural environment.

Dr. Melany Bowman to speak at conference
Dr. Melany Bowman, Spanish, will speak at the Conference On Race And Ethnicity In Arkansas, Friday and Saturday, May 11-12, in Little Rock at the Darragh Center in the Central Arkansas Library System, 100 Rock Street. She will speak during the panel discussion “The Latina/o Experience in Arkansas” from 3:45-5:15 p.m. on “Soy el Jefe: How Hispanic Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Economic Landscape of Northeast Arkansas.” The two-day conference is part of the Winthrop Rockefeller Centennial Conference and will address one of Governor Rockefeller’s primary concerns—the quest for racial and ethnic justice and equality. Dr. Bowman lived in Costa Rica, Chile and Colombia for the first 12 years of her life,where she learned Spanish and English simultaneously. Prior to working at ASU, she taught Spanish for eight years at a private school in the area. She is alsoactive within the Hispanic community in Jonesboro through volunteering and by previously serving as a board member with the Hispanic Community Services Center, Incorporated. Dr. Bowman’s research interests include assimilation of Hispanics in Jonesboro and the growth of the Hispanic population in Jonesboro.

Preview the new homepage today
Get a sneak peek of the new university homepage that will launch later this fall today, Thursday, May 10, at 2 p.m. at the Delta Center for Economic Development, Room 103. Todd Clark, director, Web Communications, will make the presentation.

Honors College hosts ceremony May 11
The Honors College at Arkansas State University will host the 3rd annual Honors Recognition Ceremony and Reception on Friday, May 11, at 5 p.m. in the Cooper Alumni Center, 2600 Alumni Boulevard. Seventy graduating Honors students will be recognized in the company of their parents, families, guests, and university dignitaries. Graduation distinctions for each student are noted below along with their hometown. In addition, the Honors Professor of the Year 2012 will be announced­--this award is nominated by and voted on by Honors students. There are three distinctions in graduating from the Honors College--Graduating in University Honors, Graduating in Honors, and earning the Honors Certificate. Honors students ‘Graduating in University Honors’ have successfully defended an Honors Senior Thesis, completed a minimum of 24 credit hours in Honors coursework, and are graduating with a 3.50 or higher cumulative grade point average. This distinction is recognized on their diplomas and their formal academic transcripts. These students are also presented with a gold Honors medallion and a certificate in recognition of their accomplishment. 
Honors students ‘Graduating in Honors’ have completed a minimum of 18 credit hours in Honors coursework and are graduating with a 3.50 or higher cumulative grade point average. This distinction is recognized on their diplomas and their formal academic transcripts. These students are also presented with a silver Honors medallion and a certificate in recognition of their accomplishment. Honors students earning an Honors Certificate have completed a minimum of 18 credit hours in Honors coursework and are graduating with a 3.00 or higher cumulative grade point average. These students are presented with a certificate in recognition of their accomplishment. For a complete list of all Honors College graduates, see the ASU News release.

Spring Commencement is May 12
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel will deliver the commencement address to more than 2,100 graduates at Arkansas State University’s two commencement ceremonies Saturday, May 12, in the Convocation Center, 217 Olympic Drive. The spring graduating class is the largest in ASU’s history, exceeding last year’s number of graduates by more than 100 students. ASU Chancellor Dr. Tim Hudson will present diplomas. The morning ceremony is at 10 a.m. for the Colleges of Agriculture, Business, Engineering, Fine Arts, Nursing and Health Professions, and Sciences and Mathematics. Beginning at 2:30 p.m., graduates from the Colleges of Communications, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and University College will receive diplomas. View ASU’s commencement online; see the instructions online at the graduation page. A broadband connection (384k or greater) is required. To view the video stream, Windows users can open the Windows Media Player. Macintosh computer users can use Quicktime and open the file URL at mss://streamer.astate.edu/asutv. Windows Media Components for Quicktime (by Flip4Mac), should be installed.

HiStory Time is May 12
The ASU Museum holds HiStory Time Saturday, May 12, at 10:30 a.m. Children ages 2-8 are invited to attend, and older siblings are encouraged to tag along. Explore the history of the region through a story, objects on exhibition, and a hands-on activity--songs, games, or crafts--that varies according to the story. On exhibition now are Arkansas Rocks, Rivers, and Roadcuts and the Arkansas Frontier. For details, visit the ASU Museum online or call ext. 2074. HiStory Time is free, and the public is welcome.

Southern Tenant Farmers opens exhibition May 12
The Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, 117 South Main Street, Tyronza, will open the Historic Buildings of Poinsett County Art Project Exhibit on Saturday, May 12, from 1-3 p.m. The exhibition will run throughout the month of May. Students from all Poinsett County schools were invited to submit an artistic rendition, as well as a researched description, of a historic building located within the county. Selected pieces will be featured in the new Poinsett County History Book, produced by the Poinsett County Historical Society. The project and exhibit are sponsored by a Raising Education Achievement and Competence in the Humanities (R.E.A.C.H) grant, supported by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. For more details, contact the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum at (870) 487-2909. The Southern Tenant Farmers Museum is an Arkansas State University Heritage Site.

KASU's Bluegrass Monday has Claire Lynch Band May 14
The Claire Lynch Band will perform a concert of bluegrass music on Monday, May 14, at 7 p.m. at the Collins Theatre, 120 West Emerson Street, in downtown Paragould, Arkansas. The concert is part of the Bluegrass Monday concert series presented by KASU 91.9 FM. KASU will pass the hat to collect money to pay the group. The suggested donation is $5 per person. Typically, Bluegrass Monday concerts are on the fourth Monday night of each month. Due to the Memorial Day holiday, May’s concert will be on the second Monday. Claire Lynch is a two-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s “Female Vocalist of the Year” award, and she has been nominated for that honor a total of 13 times. She has been a trailblazer for women in bluegrass music, beginning her career in the 1970s with the Front Porch String Band. Lynch began a solo career in the early 1990s, producing a string of successful CDs for Rounder Records, two of which were nominated for Grammy awards for Best Bluegrass Album. Lynch is also an in-demand harmony vocalist. She toured with Dolly Parton in support of her “The Grass Is Blue” and “Little Sparrow” bluegrass CDs. Lynch has also appeared on albums by Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Pam Tillis, Kathy Mattea, Ralph Stanley, and many more. The Claire Lynch Band features musicians who have won an astounding number of awards. In the span of only two years, mandolin and fiddle player Bryan McDowell won 21 first place awards at various national and international contests. Guitarist Matt Wingate won the Doc Watson Guitar Championship in 1997 and was featured on the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine in 2009, being praised not only for his skill as a flatpicking guitarist but also for his vocal abilities, his songwriting, and his skill as a multi-instrumentalist. Band member Mark Schatz is a two-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Bass Player of the Year award. He has worked alongside musicians including Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, John Hartford, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Nickel Creek. KASU 91.9 FM is the 100,000-watt public broadcasting service of Arkansas State University. For more information, contact KASU program director Marty Scarbrough, (870) 972-2367. Visit Bluegrass Monday on Facebook.