Lyon College gets press in the Wall Street Journal

The Lyon College Pipe Band and Scottish Heritage Program recently garnered the College some valuable national press.

A Wall Street Journal story from May 11 mentioned Lyon as one of a handful of colleges in the nation to offer a minor in bagpipes. The only other schools mentioned by name were St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C., and Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., which offers a major in bagpipes.

Lyon’s pipe band will travel to Glasgow, Scotland this summer to compete in the World Championships against the top pipe bands in the world. On Aug. 12, the band will compete on the Glasgow Green in the center of the historic city.

Kenton Adler, Lyon’s academic services coordinator, said the band has a legitimate shot at taking home to the top prize.

“Jimmy’s doing a great job preparing the band,” he said. “And I think we have an excellent chance to win the Worlds in our grade.”

Adler said the Wall Street Journal article demonstrates how the bagpipe is beginning to be reconsidered.

“It’s long been seen as a ‘folk’ instrument, but now is being viewed as a more mainstream ‘serious’ instrument, and by a larger audience,” Adler said. “We at Lyon College certainly take it very seriously. Jimmy and I will be playing pipes with the symphony in Little Rock on Memorial Day, performing in a new piece by a composer from California I believe.”

There’s been some discussion here at Lyon about the creation of a bagpipe major, Adler added.

“As I understand it, the major would be a Music Education degree that qualifies the graduate to teach music in primary or secondary schools, but with their performance instrument being the bagpipe as opposed to piano, organ, or voice,” he said. “That would be outstanding, and would attract some very talented people to Lyon.”

Adler looks forward to seeing “those discussions bear fruit,” he said.

“And I hope that when it does, the Wall Street Journal does a follow-up and takes a closer look at Lyon and the excellent opportunities available to all our students,” Adler said.

New tool opens new doors of learning for Lyon students

By Wil Shane
Lyon College News Bureau

A new educational tool slated for use in the upcoming term will allow Lyon College students to access lectures, seminars and teaching programs at other institutions, while also allowing Lyon faculty members to collaborate with educators at those other institutions.

Jay Zahner, director of information services, said Lyon’s new state-of-the-art video conferencing equipment will give students heretofore unknown access to programs at any college or university in the nation.

The equipment was paid for by funds from an INBRE grant, he added, and consists of a Dell computer, two Web cams and other pieces. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (UAF), the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and seven partner institutions, including Lyon College, received a five-year, $16.7 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand and improve educational opportunities in Arkansas.

In addition to Lyon College, the six other partner institutions include, Arkansas State University, Hendrix College, John Brown University, Ouachita Baptist University, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the University of Central Arkansas.

The new video conferencing gear will be put on a mobile cart and housed at the Derby Center to be used in any classroom for a variety of applications, Zahner said.

"We’ll just wheel it into the classroom and tie into the projector in the room," he said. "One Web cam will be aimed at the class and the other at the professor."

The system will be linked via the Internet with other instructors in their own classrooms at other institutions.

"That way they can serve as guest lecturers for our students," Zahner said. "That will give our students access to teachers at any school in the country. As well, our award-winning faculty could provide similar services and thus increase the exposure that both they and Lyon receive."

The equipment could potentially also help Lyon expand some areas of study, he added.

"We can talk face to face and facilitate data sharing," he said. "We’ll also use it to have guest lecturers in our classes too."

Lindblom often travels to Little Rock to attend seminars, and he can use the equipment to watch the programs here, without having to go to Little Rock, thereby eliminating travel time and expenses.

Dr. Dave Sonnier, professor of computer science, will be using the new equipment to discuss research with his dissertation advisor, Dr. Yupo Chan at UALR.

"I’m looking forward to meeting with Dr. Chan without having to drive to Little Rock," Sonnier said.

Lyon professor works to preserve historic homes

(Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of articles about the involvement of Lyon College faculty and staff in the community.)

By Eric Ramirez
Lyon College News Bureau

For the past 25 years, Batesville has been renovated, renewed, and restored. This is, in large part, is thanks to the Batesville Preservation Association.

“Diane and I have always loved old houses and antiques ever since we were young grad students,” Dr. Terrell Tebbetts said explaining his passion for the BPA.

In fact, Dr. Tebbetts, the Martha Heasley Cox Chair in American Literature at Lyon College, has been involved with the BPA since its founding in 1981. He has served on the board many times and has been president twice. During his first presidency, he was involved in publishing a book on Batesville’s historic neighborhoods, “A Guidebook to Historic Homes of Batesville, Arkansas.”

Diane is the 2006 president of the BPA, replacing Mrs. Lorri Sonnier, wife of David Sonnier, a Lyon College computer science professor.

Lyon College, formerly Arkansas College, was established in 1872. The original campus was located between College and Boswell streets in downtown Batesville. And Morrow Hall, its first academic building, stands today as one of Batesville’s many beautiful and historic structures listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Tebbetts and his wife have been involved in the restoration of four homes in Batesville’s historic area. They now live in the Garrott House, built in 1842, making it the oldest home in Batesville.

The BPA has one mission: to promote the preservation of historic buildings. BPA goes about achieving this mission in three different ways, including educational activities, recognition of good work and making occasional grants.

BPA educates others on historic homes by inviting experts to come to Batesville and run seminars on how to achieve a historic paint color, historic landscaping and what yards would look like in different eras, as well as touring historic homes. The BPA holds an annual tour of four to five historic homes in Batesville.

“Everything from charming bungalows to Victorian splendors,” Tebbetts said as he discussed the histories of some of the historic homes.

The BPA has had to put up quite a fight to get Batesville to look as nice as it does now.

“When BPA began, half of the houses on the south side of Main Street were either broken down into apartments or left derelict,” Tebbetts said.

In 1990, BPA led a petition drive and requested that the city council re-zone the downtown residential neighborhood so that there would be only single-family dwellings. Soon enough, Bates and Broad Streets joined in, too, and launched their own petitions.

What is so important about old homes anyway? According to Tebbetts, “It’s a way to be in touch with lives you couldn’t normally be in touch with. When you see how a home was built, you see a different way of life opening up.”

He used as an example some charred spots on his dining room floor, which were apparently created when embers fell while someone was cleaning the fireplace.

“Think of how life was,” he said, “when to be warm in the winter you had to tend fireplaces in every room in the house, bringing in wood several times a day, shoveling out ashes. Think of the time spent just to keep your family warm.”

“These historic homes are important for their simple beauty, too,” Tebbetts added. “We’ll never build like that again. If we lose them, we’ve lost them forever.” Thanks to BPA, we’re not losing them any more. All it takes is one drive down Main Street to see the wonderful grandeur of the houses on either side.

“We’re going to have as good a community as we’re willing to work for,” Tebbetts said relating the importance of serving the community, “This town began many decades before us and it’s going to be around a long time after us. I just want to be able to say that I left it better than I found it.”

For those needing information on or wishing to join the Batesville Preservation Association please call (870) 698-4342 or e-mail ttebbetts@lyon.edu.

Lyon College group ‘funnels’ profits to Sheriff’s Youth Ranch

A group at Lyon College is feeding its desire to help at-risk youth by sending a large portion of the money it raised selling food at the 27th annual Arkansas Scottish Festival to the Arkansas Sheriff’s Youth Ranch.

Kappa Delta Pi, an honorary organization in education, sold funnel cakes at the festival, and donated 60 percent of the proceeds to the Ranch. The group is open to education students of both genders with a GPA of 3.0 or better.

Kappa Delta Pi member Kerie Dunn said the group supports the Ranch’s work in helping the residents obtain quality education.

“Kappa Delta Pi chose to donate to the Youth Ranch because of their work with children and the emphasis they place on helping the youth obtain an education,” Dunn said. “Since we are an International Honor Society of Outstanding Educators, we will choose different organizations that help children to receive an education and donate funds to help with the endeavor of outstanding education.”

Dunn said the sale went so well that the group plans to continue the donations.

“The funnel cake sales went better than we anticipated and we are hoping to make the Scottish Festival and Youth Ranch donations a tradition for Kappa Delta Pi,” she said.

The ranch currently has five sites, including a 530-acre site near Batesville, an 87-acre campus near Hardy in Sharp County, a 120-acre campus at DeGray Lake near Amity in Clark County, a 265-acre campus near Alma in Crawford County, and a campus under development at Harrison in Boone County.

Youth Ranches CEO Mike Cumnock said the facilities have a proven record of helping turn youths’ lives around before it’s too late. And few are in better positions to recognize someone in need of help than the 75 county sheriffs in the state of Arkansas, he added.

“We know we’re making a difference in the lives of these kids,” Cumnock said. “The involvement of the sheriffs in the Ranches makes perfect sense. They’re often the first to become aware of families in crisis and in constant contact with children who are continually falling through the cracks. Often, these at-risk children are simply ‘thrown away’. If we don’t take a stand to help them now, we may eventually be forced to deal with a troubled adult.”

Lyon College library’s amnesty offers ‘Hope and Help’

		Since 1990, the staff at Lyon College’s Mabee-Simpson Library has offered "Help and Hope" to area residents in need, while giving students a chance to get out of paying fines for overdue books. Camille Beary, assistant director of the library, said each year during spring and fall finals, the library forgives all outstanding fines if the student brings in a non-perishable food item or clothing to be donated to Batesville Help and Hope. "We give them two or three weeks’ notice, and we always end up a carload of stuff," she said. Beary said between 30 and 50 students brought in items for Amnesty @ the Library and those items will soon be taken to Help and Hope, to be distributed among those who need them. The event benefits the students as well as those needing the donated items, she added. "No seniors with outstanding debts owed will receive a diploma," Beary said. "And underclassmen can’t check out anything else until the fines are paid. So this is a good thing for everyone involved."
Marjorie Seasholtz, administrative assistant; Judy Blackwell, assistant for technical services and special collections; Dean Covington, director of the library; and Camille Beary, assistant director, stand with the food and clothing items donated by Lyon students during the library’s twice-annual Amnesty Week.

According to the group’s Web site, Batesville Help and Hope, a United Way Agency, was incorporated in 1987 to provide food and clothing at no charge to residents of Independence County who are in need. Concerned citizens from area churches felt that a single, efficiently run center could serve people more easily than the existing church pantries and clothes closets.

In March of 1987, Help and Hope opened its doors in a vacant neighborhood grocery store.  In September of 1994, Help and Hope, through the generosity of businesses, individuals, and churches, was able to purchase the present building which provided more space.

Help and Hope continues to be supported by the community through the United Way, area churches and other groups and individuals in the county.

The center is open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. – noon, and is located at 2622 East Main. Donations of non-perishable foods, personal hygiene products and good, clean clothing are gratefully accepted during the work hours. The agency always needs children’s clothing, maternity clothes and work clothes for adults.

For more information on Help and Hope, call (870) 793-9181.

Sports

Baseball

Former player and Booster Club step to the plate for Scots Field

By Wil Shane
Lyon College News Bureau

A former Lyon College baseball player and the school’s booster club took a swing at ideas to benefit Scots Field, and they both knocked it out of the park.

Members of the booster club heard about some stadium seating that was going to be discarded from the greyhound racetrack in West Memphis.

By the time of the April 11 home game against Harding University, the seats, made of black metal frames and red plastic seats and backs, were in place and ready to use. 

The seats are located along the first and third baselines, two rows deep, giving the field total of 48 new seats. The booster club also added new landscaping to the surrounding areas.

But before the new stadium seats found a home at the ball field, a 2003 Lyon graduate made sure future players had something to hit the ball over. 

High winds knocked down about 100 feet of the old outfield wall in November 2005, prompting Doug Gillam, who played ball under Coach Kirk Kelley, to take action on behalf of his former team.

“The previous fence was eight foot high, wood board and wood frame construction,” Steve McDaniel, Lyon’s director of the physical plant, said. “The weather and age had taken its toll on it. Last fall, a wind blast from one of the straight line thunderstorms caused approximately 100 feet of fencing to collapse.”

Gillam and his family provided the materials and manpower to erect the new outfield wall and the college purchased the concrete for the fence footings. The wall features a strong metal design and incorporates two observation decks outfitted with picnic tables. Both decks are wheelchair accessible.

The project wasn’t the first time Gillam and his family have gone to bat on behalf of Lyon College. He had only been out of school for a month when he returned and pitched an idea to Lyon President Walter Roettger.

“He told Dr. Roettger that he wanted to build an indoor baseball complex,” Tim Bruner, Lyon’s vice president for Institutional Advancement, said.

The project’s cost came in around $300,000, and Gillam saw it through to completion.

“He and his family built it with their own hands or gave money or got in-kind gifts given to the project until it was done,” Bruner said.

He and his family operate Gillam Farms, and its accompanying store, The Fruit of the Vine, near Judsonia. The store sells items such as fruit juices, spreads and preserves, pickled vegetables, fruit butters, syrups and gift baskets.

Coach Kelley said the support the Gillam family has shown to the Lyon baseball program has been “unbelievable.”

“There’s no way to thank their family enough for what they’ve done,” Kelley said.

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Region XI tournament

(From the Batesville Daily Guard)

Michael Young
Guard Sports Writer

Basketball