February 12, 2007
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• Lyon professor to present program on the image of the Arkansas hillbilly • Arkansas feuds subject of museum lecture • The Lyon College Concert Choir will travel to California in March • Japan Lecture Series looks under the hood of Toyota’s business strategies • Participation in the Lyon Greek system has increased • Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter dives in for Special Olympics |
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Lyon professor joins Ivory-Billed Woodpecker search efforts
Lindblom, Lyon’s assistant professor of biology, joined the team lead by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology as part of the overall search by the Big Woods Conservation Partnership. Searching by foot and by boat, Lindblom slept in a duck hunting lodge during his time a field. Though he didn’t make an ivory-billed sighting, he did see all other eight species of woodpeckers indigenous to Arkansas. In total, he spotted 59 species of birds, nine species of mammals and one species of reptile. Each search team is given a two-square-kilometer grid to cover during the search. Clues they were trained to look for include roosting cavities in trees and foraging signs. In 2004, entrepreneur, naturalist and Hot Springs native Gene Sparling was the first to spot an ivory-bill alive since 1944, prompting the largest organized search for an endangered species in U.S. history.Sparling visited the Lyon College campus last year to present a lecture on the bird as part of scheduled Convocation events. He first spotted the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, a find that led to an extensive search in Arkansas.Lindblom said most of what is known about the ivory-billed woodpecker comes from the doctoral thesis of James Tanner, published in 1942. "In the preface to Tanner’s thesis, the then-executive director of the National Audubon Society, John Baker, and Arthur Allen, professor of ornithology at Cornell University, made an impassioned plea to save the last known ivory-bills by conserving their habitat," Lindblom said. In his thesis, Tanner specifically identifies an ivory-billed containing "Two years after Tanner’s thesis was published, the Singer Tract was clear-cut and ivory-bills were not seen again in the area," Lindblom said. The ivory-billed woodpecker once inhabited swampy forests in the southeastern and lower Mississippi valley states. Sightings were recorded from North Carolina to Florida and west to eastern Texas and Arkansas, with some reports in Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma in the 1800s. John James Audubon reported ivory bills as far north as the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers around 1825. Averaging about 20 inches in length, the ivory-bill is frequently mistaken for the smaller but similarly marked pileated woodpecker. Ornithologists distinguish the two by several field marks including the location of the white wing feathers. When seen from above, the full-width white patch in the ivory bill’s trailing wing feathers folds to form a white "saddle" on its back when the bird is perched. Males have a prominent scarlet crest; the female’s crest is black. The first time authorities classified the ivory bill as extinct was in 1900, but ornithologist Arthur Allen found a small group living in Florida in the 1920s. About a decade later, the only known surviving ivory bills lived in northeast Louisiana on that tract of land owned by the Singer Company that Lindblom referenced above. Economic interests prevailed and the area was logged until only a single snag still stood in a clear-cut area. A snag is a standing dead tree often inhabited by woodpeckers of many types. This snag housed the last remaining ivory bills known to science, but in April 1944, a storm blew it down and no more sightings were confirmed until Sparling made his landmark discovery in 2004. "To me and others, the rediscovery of this bird and subsequent conservation efforts gives us a second chance to conserve the bottomland habitat that is so important to many species, not just ivory-billed woodpeckers," Lindblom said. "My hope is that the habitat preserved today will help prevent the loss of other species of plants and animals while providing a place for any remaining ivory-bills to stage their comeback."
For more information on the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker, go to Cornell’s Web site at: www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory.
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Lyon professor to present program on the image of the Arkansas hillbilly
From the gentle wisdom of Jed Clampett to the "hillbilly chic"
movies of Burt Reynolds, the image of the Arkansas hillbilly has worn many
faces, and an upcoming program at Lyon College will take an in-depth look at
them all.
Dr. Brooks Blevins, Lyon’s assistant professor of history, will present his program, "Arkansaw: The Making of a Hillbilly State," on Feb. 27 in the Mabee-Simpson Library.
The author of the books "Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image," and "Lyon College, 1872 – 2002: The Perseverance and Promise of an Arkansas College," Blevins said no one is certain as to where the term "hillbilly" originated.
"Most likely, it comes from the British Isles and refers to a friend who lives in the hills," he said. "The first recorded written reference to the term doesn’t appear until 1900, in a magazine published in New York. But it was certainly in wide use before then."
That first reference in 1900 came in the New York Journal in a story about vote buying in Alabama.
Other sources cite the origin of this nickname as coming from Ulster. Scots-Irish settlers in the hills of Appalachia brought their traditional music with them, and many of their songs dealt with William, Prince of Orange.
Supporters of William were known as "Orangemen" and "Billy Boys," and their North American counterparts were soon referred to as "hillbillies."
Incidentally, the origins of the term "redneck" are also thought to be Scottish and refer to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant. The "Covenanters" were largely Lowland Presbyterians who signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia.
The term "redneck" became slang for a Scottish dissenter. Since many Scots-Irish settlers in America – especially the South – were Presbyterian, the term was applied to them, and then, later, their Southern descendants.
One of the earliest recorded examples of its use comes from 1830, when an author noted that "red-neck" was a "name bestowed upon the Presbyterians."
Though people classified as "hillbillies" have historically lived from New York and Pennsylvania, to the Smokies and the Texas Hill Country, the term is often tied most closely with rural Southern Appalachia and the Ozarks region.
And despite the common perception that being a hillbilly carries with it a negative connotation, most references to the term have been cast in a favorable light, Blevins said.
"The interpretation of the hillbilly image has generally been positive," he said. "Those interpretations were tinged with the authors’ romantic views of pioneers and frontiersmen, living on their own terms."
The favorable, romantic view of the "Arkansawyer" stems from the pre-Civil War era, Blevins said. The folk tale of the "Arkansas Traveler" and the "Big Bear of Arkansas" by Thomas Bangs Thorpe, as well as the travel accounts of Albert Pike and Friedrich Gerstacker, were some of the earliest, and most favorable, accounts of Arkansas Ozarkers.
The "Arkansas Traveler" is the state’s most famous folklore legend. It spins a tale of a city gentleman who gets lost in the Arkansas wilderness during the 1840s. His encounter with a backwoods squatter produced a story that became a stage comedy, playing from New Orleans to Boston.
Radio programs in the 1930s and 1940s such as "Lum and Abner" and "The Arkansas Traveler," hosted by Arkansas native Bob Burns and named for the famous legend, continued the trend. Films such as John Wayne’s "Shepherd of the Hills," and television shows such as "The Beverly Hillbillies" soon cemented the image’s place in popular culture.
In the 1970s, Burt Reynolds’ string of successful movies such as "White Lightning," "Gator," and "Smokey and the Bandit" firmly established the Hillbilly Chic trend that had found its roots decades earlier.
However, Reynolds’ movie "Deliverance" cast hillbillies in an entirely different, and less favorable, light. One journalist is quoted as saying that "Deliverance" did for north Georgians what "Jaws" did for sharks.
Blevins’ presentation will be based on the new book he’s currently working on, which focuses on the notion that the image of Arkansas hillbillies is far more favorable and positive than what is normally believed by the people who live here.
"Arkansas people have too often been defensive about the hillbilly image and its negative implications," he said. "All in all, the image has usually been a favorable one."
In the Ozark region, the image has translated into millions of tourist dollars for places such as Silver Dollar City and Branson in Missouri. Dogpatch U.S.A., in the Arkansas Ozarks also attempted to capitalize on the image, though that venture went under long ago.
The lecture will also be a live webcast at: http://vidserv1.lyon.edu:8080/, and after the presentation, the lecture will be available on the library’s Web site for listening at: www.lyon.edu/webdata/groups/library/Librarynewsandevents.asp.
Blevins presentation is free and open to the public. For more information on upcoming events at the library, contact Camille Beary, assistant director of the library, at 698-4267.
Arkansas feuds subject of museum lecture Feb. 21
Some old time neighbors dedicated to fighting each other to the death will soon bring some of today’s neighbors together for a friendly good time at the Old Independence Regional Museum.
At noon on Wednesday, Feb. 21, Dr. Jeffrey Johnson will deliver a lecture, "Arkansas Feuds in Arkansas Sources," as part of the Brown Bag with a Book series at the museum.
Dr. Johnson earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Tennessee Tech University and his Ph.D. in American literature at Harvard University. His 2000 dissertation on feud narratives in American literature won both the Howard Mumford Jones Prize and Helen Choate Bell Prize for dissertations from Harvard. He is currently an assistant professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas.
Now in its third year. the Old Independence Regional Museum’s Brown Bag with a Book series will feature two additional presentations this semester. On March 29, Dr. Joseph Key (Lyon ’88) of Arkansas State University will discuss the history of the Quapaw Indians in Arkansas, and on April 18, Dr. Steve Striffler of the University of Arkansas will discuss Hispanic migration and labor issues and the modern poultry industry.
The Old Independence Regional Museum is located at 380 South 9th Street in Batesville. Plan to bring a sack lunch, and the museum will provide free water and soft drinks. Admission is free.
For more information, go to: www.oirm.org.
Lyon College Concert Choir headed to California for series of performances
The cathedral, long heralded as a great landmark of the bay city, will host the choir as part of their "singing for pleasure" series at 2:30 p.m., on March 29.
Immediately following the performance, the choir will travel to Windsor, Calif., to sing at First Presbyterian Church of Windsor,
at 7:30 p.m., that same evening.Windsor Presbyterian Church Pastor Amy Seymour Haney, a 1993 graduate of Arkansas
College, is excited to be hosting the choir of her alma mater, having been a member of the concert choir herself.Seymour Haney has worked in churches since graduating from the college, where she majored in economics after discovering a love of mathematics from Dr. Ed Mosley.
"Economics and the ministry are both systems," she says. She has a passion for both.
The choir will also be performing a joint concert with Leland High School of San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Gunderson High School. The Leland High School choir is under the direction of Rian Rodriguez, who, with Dr. Plaag, conducted the Bacau Symphony in Romania last summer.
Each of the choir members had to raise $300 to participate in the trip, and the choir will ask for donations during their concerts to help defray the costs as well.
Locally, the choir will be performing at the First Presbyterian Church of Texarkana on Friday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m., and the Kirk of the Hills
Presbyterian Church in Fairfield Bay on March 19 at 7 p.m. In addition, the choir will perform their end-of-year concert at First Presbyterian Church of Batesville. The choir will also perform at the annual "Bach Bash" on March 18 at the Christian Science Center, at 4 p.m.
For more information, contact choir director Joel Plaag at (870) 698-4259 or Claudia Marsh at (870) 793-1767.
Japan Lecture Series looks under the hood of Toyota’s business strategies
Chester C. Dawson III, author of Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit, will take you behind the scenes of one of the most ambitious and lucrative business strategies executed in the past 20 years.
On Thursday, March 22, at 7-8:30 p.m., in the Derby Lecture Hall on the Lyon campus, Dawson will tell the inside story of how the Toyota Motor Corp., defied critics to launch its luxury brand and beat its competitors at their own game.
The event is part of the Japan Lecture Series 2006-2007.
Dawson is vice president at SPARX Investment & Research Inc., the New York-based office of Japanese hedge fund SPARX Asset Management Co.
Previously, he worked as international finance editor at BusinessWeek magazine and has been a frequent contributor to the magazine’s automotive industry coverage. Dawson spent 10 years in Tokyo covering Japan Inc.’s "lost decade" for BusinessWeek, Dow Jones & Co.’s Far Eastern Economic Review, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News.
His cover stories at BusinessWeek include "Can Anything Stop Toyota," "The Zen of Nissan," and "The Americanization of a Japanese Icon."
He graduated with a M.A. degree from Harvard University in 1993 and earned his B.A. at Ohio University the previous year after spending his junior year abroad at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Lyon College is one of only four colleges/universities in the state to offer Japanese studies, and Lyon’s Japan Studies Program, established in 2002, is the only one in the eastern half of the state that provides advanced courses so students can learn about the culture as well as the language of Japan.
The Japan Lecture Series is made possible by the grant from the Freeman Foundation.
For more information on the Japanese program at Lyon College, contact Mieko Peek, instructor of Japanese language and literature at: mpeek@lyon.edu.
Participation in the Lyon Greek system has increased by 10 percent this semester.
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The Kappa Sigma brotherhood |
Tau Kappa Epsilon members at Chapel Walk |
The brothers of Zeta Beta Tau |
"I’m excited for Greek Life," Zeta Beta Tau President Jakeb Howard said. "ZBT is blown away by the increased interest in Greek Life, and there’s no doubt the other fraternities feel the same way."
Members of all three fraternities (Tau Kappa Epsilon, Kappa Sigma and Zeta Beta Tau) knew something big was about to happen when a near record numbers of prospective members signed the Rush list the week prior to joining.
On the morning of Saturday, Feb. 3, hundreds of fraternity supporters gathered near the hill next to the Nichols Building, facing Brown Chapel, ready to participate in a decades-old tradition at Lyon College: Chapel Walk. Everyone anxiously awaited the 22 prospective fraternity members to receive their bids and run from Small Chapel toward their fraternity of choice. A total of 19 prospectives exited the chapel with nine men going to Tau Kappa Epsilon, seven to Kappa Sigma and three to Zeta Beta Tau.
"This has been the largest pledge class we’ve had since 1991," Neil McCarthy, president of Tau Kappa Epsilon, said about this year’s Rush. "We had some of the most alumni support in what seems like years, and our candidates are very excited and eager to start their candidate period."
Lyon’s Fraternal and Pan-Hellenic councils differ from the vast majority of Greek systems at campuses nationwide in that Lyon maintains a "closed bidding" system rather than an "open bidding" system. This means that those interested in becoming a member of a Greek organization must wait until their second semester at Lyon, have at least 12 Lyon credits and have maintained a GPA.of at minimum 2.0 to join a fraternity and 2.5 for sororities.
The Greek system at Lyon consists of a total of five organizations: Alpha Xi Delta, Zeta Beta Tau, Kappa Sigma, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Phi Mu – a total of 3 fraternities and 2 sororities serving a student population of about 500. Alpha Xi Delta and Phi Mu also enjoyed increased interest in their organizations and each gained 10 members earlier this semester during their recruitment. That means participation in Greek organizations has risen 10 percent this semester, from 25 percent to 35 percent, a fact everyone involved in Greek life can be proud of.
"Kappa Sigma is delighted for everyone in Greek life. Not only were numbers great this semester, everyone is just really excited right now. I just hope for more semesters like this one," Jonathan Pyle, the president of Kappa Sigma, said about increased interest in Greek life.
At this momentous Chapel Walk, Zeta Beta Tau gained Matt Bishop, Cory Emerson and Sam Davis.
Kappa Sigma added Andrew Nadzam, Michael McQueen, Beau Palmer, Seth Johnson, Nate Pyle, John Michael McCauley and Jeff Thessing.
And Tau Kappa Epsilon gained
Seth Dobson, Sean Kilday, Will O'Guin, Cody Crymes, Chris Powers, Jerry Farina, Justin Dill, Justin Bullard, and Daniel Angel.TKE 'dives in' to help Special Olympics
For the second year in row, a fraternity at Lyon College dove in to help the Special Olympics, and their efforts landed them in deep – and cold – water.
On Feb. 10, the Xi Tau chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon made a "Polar Plunge" into the frigid winter waters of the White River to help raise money for the Special Olympics, the fraternity’s national philanthropy. Ten fraternity members made the plunge and Dr. Bob Gregerson, Lyon’s Willie Dillard Bryan Associate Professor of Biology, made an appearance as well.
Locally, the fraternity has also recently committed to helping serve the children at the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch, located in Bethesda just outside of Batesville. The group will be doing various community service activities and fund-raising for the Ranch.
Neil McCarthy, a junior biology major from The Woodlands, Texas, is the community service chairman for the college’s chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon. He said the fraternity made the "plunge" at last year’s inaugural event, and has also served the community in various other ways.
"We’ve tried to keep our community service hours up throughout the year by cleaning Ramsey Mountain and by helping out around the college, especially with intramurals and the varsity sports," he said. "And our partnership with the local Youth Ranch will be fun, helping with their events and just hanging out with the kids and upcoming college students."
Youth Ranch CEO Mike Cumnock said the TKEs represent a standard of achievement that the children at the Ranch can learn from.
"Most of our children would be the first members of their families to go to college," he said. "Having college students who are willing to volunteer one of their most valuable assets – time – to help others are the types of role models we want."
Having the TKEs interact with the children face-to-face and one-on-one will do more to inspire young minds than rhetoric ever could, he added.
"Young people who care about the success of other young people, and are willing to sacrifice for them, says more to the kids than millions of words," Cumnock said. "TKE members, in volunteering, are giving something money can't buy – acceptance."
The TKEs relish the opportunity to help with the Polar Plunge, and the fraternity intends to continue its support of the event, McCarthy
said."Sometimes it’s hard, with the hectic schedules and homework we have at school, to get out and try to give back to the community that we’re a part of," he said. "We’re glad this will become a regular event for the Teekes. We’re excited about it."
For more information on how to donate to the Polar Plunge and the Special Olympics, contact the coordinator of the event, Jessica Fagan, the north central Arkansas field representative for the Special Olympics. The phone number for her Batesville office is (870) 698-2035.
Basketball
Union edges Lyon College, 68-58
JACKSON, Tenn. -- A pair of double-doubles sparked the NAIA's No. 13-ranked
Union University Bulldogs to a 68-58 triumph over the Lyon College Scots in a
TranSouth Conference tilt on Saturday. Union's Brian Lake and Mack Bealim each
scored a game-high 15 points on the way to their double-doubles. Lake pulled
down a game-high 12 rebounds and Bealim added 10 boards.
Scots' forward Preston Butts scored 12 points and had nine rebounds to pace the
Scots. Jonathan Donaldson added 10 and Levi Taylor had nine.
Union soars to 17-7 overall and 10-3 in conference play. Lyon falls to 10-14 and
1-11. The Scots will host Mid-Continent at 8 p.m. tonight in Becknell.
Scots' losing skid ends at 10
The Scots' 10-game TranSouth Conference losing streak came to an end Thursday
when Trey Salley hit a layup with :01 remaining to send the Scots to a 70-68
victory over the Freed Hardeman Lions. Levi Taylor led the Scots with 16 points
and was 6 of 6 from the free-throw line. Guard Jonathan Donaldson notched a
double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Salley scored 12 points and
Preston Butts added 11 points and six boards. Lyon hit just 42 percent from the
field, but the Scots had their best free-throw shooting performance since
conference play began, hitting 16 of 19 shots from the foul line for 84 percent.
No. 6 Union pushes past Pipers
JACKSON, Tenn. -- The NAIA's No. 6-ranked Union Lady Bulldogs had seven players
who scored in double figures en route to an 89-46 rout of the Lyon College
Pipers Saturday in TranSouth Conference play. Union's Ena Daniels led all point
producers with 15 points. Lady Bulldog teammate D.J. Sissko notched a
double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Lyon's April Carter was the only
Piper who scored in double figures with 14 points on 5 of 10 shooting -- 4 of 8
from 3-point range.
Union improves to 20-4 overall and 11-2 in the TranSouth. Lyon College falls to
10-14 and 3-9. The Pipers will take on Mid-Continent, a new TranSouth rival, at
6 p.m. tonight at Becknell.
Baseball
Scots win seventh_straight with sweep of CMU
Scots' left fielder Brent Moss went 6-for-7 with five RBIs in both games of a
doubleheader sweep of Central Methodist on Sunday afternoon at Scots Field.
Game two was powered by a dominant pitching performance from starter Jeffery
Matlock.
Lyon won the first game 9-4 and took the second game 10-0. The two Scots'
victories polished off a four-game weekend sweep of CMU.
The Scots improve to 7-0 this season and play again on Wednesday at Harding
University. CMU falls to 0-4.
Game One
The Scots won the first game, 9-4, behind a 4-for-4 day from Moss and three hits
from Matlock.
Jerry Farina (2-0) picked up the win in game one, pitching five innings of
four-hit ball with three strikeouts and three walks.
Andy Wahl also drove in two runs with a double.
Game Two
Jeffery Matlock hurled a five-inning, complete game shutout in the game-two
triumph. Matlock (1-0) struck out three in his game-two turn on the mound,
walked two and only gave up one hit.
Moss was 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and two RBIs in the second contest.
The Scots will travel to Searcy for an afternoon contest against Harding. They
will return to Scots Field for a 1 p.m. Friday game against Evangel and a
Saturday double-header beginning at noon.
Dr.
Tim Lindblom spent the first two weeks of January deep in the backwaters
of the White River National Wildlife Refuge searching for a fabled and elusive
species of woodpecker that science had classified as extinct for more than 60 years.