Lyon’s Alpha Chi chapter selected as the outstanding chapter in the nation

Six members of Lyon College’s Alpha Chi chapter attended the National College Honor Scholarship Society’s national convention in San Antonio, Texas, March 15 – 17, and they brought home a pair of prestigious honors.

At the convention, Lyon students Haley Skinner, Laura McWilliams and Ashley Dorsey learned that Alpha Chi has for the seventh consecutive year named Lyon’s chapter one of its 2006 Star Chapters, a distinction achieved by only about 10 percent of the more than 300 chapters across the country.

This distinction was surpassed, however, with the announcement that Lyon’s Alpha Chi chapter was awarded the President’s Cup, marking it as the outstanding chapter in the nation for 2005-2007.

President’s Cup winners retain the trophy and title for two years. The large traveling cup (right) is now on display in Lyon’s Derby Center for Science and Mathematics. At the next national convention in 2009, Lyon will pass the cup to the next recipient and replace it with a smaller cup that will remain on campus permanently.

Selection of the outstanding chapter is based upon convention attendance, sponsorship of local scholarly presentations, scholarship and award recipients, and service. During the past two years, 11 students have attended Alpha Chi conventions giving nine scholarly presentations. Also during this time, three students have been awarded scholarships and fellowships, with another selected as first alternate in a scholarship competition.

Locally, Lyon’s Alpha Chi chapter has sponsored 35 scholarly presentations during the last two years.

All three students attending made scholarly presentations at the convention. Skinner, Lyon’s chapter president and student delegate to the convention, discussed her research in a presentation entitled "Problems and Pitfalls: Lessons Learned from Psychological Experimentation."

McWilliams presented her research on "Arsenic Remediation in Groundwater Systems" and was awarded runner-up in the Joseph E. Pryor Fellowship Competition.

Ashley Dorsey of Searcy presented her paper, "The Tragedy of Selfishness: Criticism of Capitalism in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice," and was awarded the Michael Flachmann Prize in Shakespeare for her presentation. For her paper and presentation, Dorsey was also awarded the Edwin W. Gaston Scholarship.

Lyon’s three chapter sponsors, Dr. Gloria Everson, Dr. Terrell Tebbetts and Dr. Tim Lindblom, also attended the event. Tebbetts, a member of the Alpha Chi National Council, was awarded a Distinguished Service Award for his 34 years with Lyon’s chapter of Alpha Chi.

During free time at the convention, students and faculty visited various sites around the city, including a bird watching trip to Friedrich Wilderness Park and dining and shopping along San Antonio’s famous River Walk.

According to the group’s Web site, Alpha Chi is a general honor society that admits students from all academic disciplines. Membership is limited to the top 10 percent of an institution's juniors and seniors. Invitation to membership comes only through an institutional chapter. A college seeking a chapter must grant baccalaureate degrees and be regionally accredited. About 300 chapters in almost every state induct more than 11,000 members each year.

On April 14, Lyon College will open its doors to area high school students interested in learning how an education at the school will help set them on the path to future success.

Denny Bardos, Lyon ’s vice president for Enrollment Services, invites all area high school seniors and juniors, as well as other potential students who have yet to visit the campus, to attend the Open House event.

Registration begins at 9:45 a.m. at the Lyon Business and Economics Building rotunda, located on the north side of campus.

The schedule of events for the day include presentations by faculty on the academic programs of the College, lunch on campus, and campus tours. Other presentations will focus on state, federal and institutional financial aid.

Parents and students will have the opportunity to participate in separate student and parent discussion panels at 10:40 a.m. Current Lyon College students will share their experiences at Lyon. This presentation and discussion is intended to let potential students meet the people who matter most at Lyon College – the students.

In addition, College admission representatives will be on-hand to answer questions.

Attendees may choose among the six divisions. There will also be a session for those who are undecided about a major.

Tailored to students. Student leaders and the Directors of Residence Life and Student Activities will highlight the numerous opportunities you will be given as a Lyon student to become involved in student clubs, organizations, and activities.

Athletic Director, Terry Garner, will outline what it takes to be a varsity athlete at Lyon College. Talk with the coaches and student athletes about their teams and programs. This session is recommended for students and family members.

This session features a brief overview of the federal financial aid process. A checklist and timeline will be provided as a resource. Alternative loan programs, Payment Plan Options and the College’s generous scholarship and grants program will be discussed.

At 1:30 p.m., a Campus Tour led by student ambassadors will give parents and students a closer look at one of the most attractive campuses in the South.

The event will conclude at approximately 2:30 p.m. at Nucor Auditorium. The Open House is free to all interested students and their families and lunch is provided.

To register, call the admissions office at (870) 698-4250 or (800) 423-2542.

A former journalist who worked in Japan for m ore than a decade visited Lyon College to give an inside look into one of the most ambitious – and successful – business strategies executed in the past 20 years.

Chester C. Dawson III (speaking at right), author of "Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit," detailed how Toyota developed and launched its Lexus brand, climbing from a zero share to a 25 share of the luxury car market in the space of only 10 years.

The event was 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.

Prior to that, he worked as International Finance Editor at BusinessWeek magazine. He spent more than 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.

Dawson said when Toyota executives conceived the Lexus brand, they knew perceptions among car buyers were biased against them.

"The idea of a Japanese luxury car wasn’t taken as a serious threat by Mercedes, BMW and the other established luxury car brands," he said.

Toyota wasn’t the first Japanese car company to create a luxury brand however. Nissan had already launched its Infinity line before the first Lexus rolled off the assembly line, and Honda’s entry into the market, Acura, wasn’t far behind.

Toyota dedicated over more than 1,400 engineers, six years and almost $1 billion developing the first Lexus model, the LS 400. They did so partly because U.S. sanctions on foreign imports limited the numbers of cars Toyota could send over. Faced with selling a set number of cars, they opted to sell higher priced cars to keep profits climbing.

"Lexus sold more than 300,000 cars in the U.S. last year," Dawson said. "That’s only been done four times in history. Twice by Lexus and twice by Cadillac, way back in the '80s."

To achieve that success, the company differentiated themselves from other luxury brands by identifying an underserved niche in the market.

"Cars like Mercedes and BMW have built-in perceptions that go with them," Dawson said. "It’s acknowledged that if you drive a Mercedes, you’re saying you have the money to spend, look at this. Their image is flashy."

The typical Lexus owner is different, he added.

"Lexus targeted the ‘bobos’," he said. "Bourgeois bohemians."

Bobos are a combination of free-spirited, artistic rebels who have some of the material ambitions of their bourgeois counterparts in the corporate world.

Only one thing is missing from the Lexus lineup, and that’s a "halo car," Dawson said.

"They don’t have a top of the line, high performance sports car, but they’re developing one now," he said.

That car, the 500-horsepower LF-A Concept is currently under development and could be unveiled as soon as the next industry trade show in New York City.

Now driving at the front of the luxury car pack in the U.S. market, Lexus is a car brand that doesn’t even exist in Japan, Dawson said.

"In Japan, a Lexus is a high-end Toyota," he said. "They’ll sell you a $50,000 Toyota and a cheap little $30 kit to put the Lexus name on it."

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.

Novelist Kent Haruf became an "overnight success" when he published his acclaimed novel "Plainsong," and on Tuesday he told an audience at Lyon College how achieving that overnight success took 25 years to accomplish.

Haruf, this year’s Leila Lenore Heasley Prize winner, gave a lecture in the Bevens Music Room, and that evening at 7:30 p.m., he hosted a reading of his work, also in the Bevens Music Room.

At right, Haruf (left) accepts the Heasley Prize certificate from Mrs. Annis Heasley of Batesville, a member of the family for whom the prize is named, and Andrea Hollander Budy, chair of the Heasley Prize Committee and writer-in-residence at Lyon.

It took a lot of work and a lot of time for him to learn to write fiction that could get published, he said.

"I was 41 before I published anything, and I’d been writing for twenty years," Haruf said. "Life is good now, but it’s taken me a long time to get here."

Born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of a Methodist minister, Haruf grew up in eastern Colorado, where his novels are set.

He studied literature at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, took graduate courses at the University of Kansas and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. There, he studied with writers such as John Irving, Vance Bourjaily, Dan Wakefield and others.

The author of four novels, Haruf’s most recent works are "Eventide" and the aforementioned "Plainsong," winner of the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and a finalist for the National Book Award in 1999, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The New Yorker Book Award. His novel "The Tie That Binds" received a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation.

The success that came with the publication of "Plainsong" allowed him the luxury of retiring from his teaching position at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He now lives with his wife, Cathy, outside Sedelia, Colo., and is currently working on his next novel.

Haruf said he foregoes the use of computers, preferring the sound and feel of yellow paper in an old manual typewriter when he works. He creates the early versions of his stories in a unique way, he said.

"I write first drafts with my eyes closed," he said. "That blocks the analytical part of my mind and frees me of constraints. I write blindly so I can see."

Though the outlines he uses when creating the framework for his novels are "brief," Haruf has the whole story and its major plot points laid out in his mind before he ever begins tap-clacking his words onto the page through his old typewriter.

"All my books begin with characters," he said. "Fiction is about trouble, the chain of causes and effects. The plot becomes what happens to these people and how they respond."

As his literary influences, Haruf cited writers as diverse as Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, James Baldwin and Dylan Thomas. But two stand out above all others, he added.

"To me, Faulkner and Hemingway are pre-imminent," Haruf said. "I read them like Scripture every morning before I work."

The Leila Lenore Heasley Prize is awarded annually to a distinguished representative of American or international letters, theater or cinema. Each spring, the Heasley Prize recipient gives a free public lecture, reading or performance at Lyon College. Dr. Martha Heasley Cox, professor emeritae of English at San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif., established the prize in 1995 in memory of her sister.

In the near future, the past will come alive at Lyon College when the campus presents this year’s District II History Day.

On April 3, the day-long event will feature various types of history exhibits, and the winners will be honored at an awards ceremony in Nucor Auditorium in the Lyon Building.

Each year Lyon College serves as host for Arkansas’s District II History Day , which is part of a yearlong education program that culminates in a national contest every June.  Lyon has been hosting History Day for teachers and students around north central and northeastern Arkansas since 1982.

National History Day engages students in grades 6 – 12 in the process of discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Students produce dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries, and research papers based on research related to an annual theme. The exhibits will be in Becknell Gym, the performances in the Lower Union and the documentaries will be shown in the Citizens Bank Room of the Lyon Building.

These projects are then evaluated at local competitions, such as the one at Lyon. The top three entries from each division and category then advance to the state competition in Conway. The state’s top finishers continue on to the National History Day competition in Washington, D.C.

History Day found its roots in 1974 when Dr. David Van Tassel, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, wanted to improve the teaching of history in elementary and secondary schools. He and his colleagues in the history department created a one-day contest for students to showcase their historical research called National History Day.

Over the next few years, the contest grew across Ohio and into surrounding Midwestern states. By 1980, it had grown into a national organization and in 1992 National History Day moved its headquarters from Cleveland to Washington D.C.

Today, two million students, teachers, parents and volunteers from across the nation participate in National History Day annually, offering, in addition to the contest, workshops, seminars and curricular materials for teachers and summer internships for students.

For more information on the District II History Day at Lyon College, please contact Dr. Brooks Blevins, assistant professor of history, at 870-698-4210, or bblevins@lyon.edu, or Adele Grilli at 870-698-4246, or agrilli@lyon.edu

Weinzierl to examine American attitudes toward the Japanese during World War II

Dr. John F. Weinzierl, assistant professor of history at Lyon College, will present a lecture on Tuesday, March 27, at the Mabee Simpson Library. A brief summary of the presentation by Dr. Weinzierl follows"

"The American people never hated an enemy as intensely as they did the Japanese during the months following the attack at Pearl Harbor. This lecture will discuss the fact that the ferocious war that ensued in the Pacific was based not only in vengeful rage, but upon feelings of racism. In fact, racism was an extremely important component of World War II, and apart from the genocide of the Jews, it still remains a neglected topic. American racial hostilities against the Japanese (and Japanese racial hostilities against the Americans) transformed the war in the Pacific into something much different than what was witnessed in Europe.

"In the Pacific, fewer prisoners were taken, atrocities were committed with regularity, and the final goal of the Americans was to exterminate the Japanese. To understand this war, it is necessary to see it through American eyes of the 1940s. Ernie Pyle, a journalist whose dispatches were published in over 700 newspapers, gives us this perspective. Soon after arriving in the Pacific theater Pyle told his American audience that the enemy in Asia was different. 'In Europe we felt our enemies were still people, but out here I soon gathered that the Japanese were looked upon as something subhuman and repulsive; the way some people feel about cockroaches or mice.' This racist attitude permeated the highest levels of government and was of course embraced by the media and popular culture.

"Pyle’s observation of the Japanese being subhuman accurately reflects American racist sentiment of the times. The Japanese were perceived as subhuman, inhuman, monkeys, rodents, treacherous, and criminal, but never human! Countless songs, movies and comic books reinforced and perpetuated this view and helped desensitize the American people and dehumanize the Japanese. In the war in the Pacific, the chasm between 'us' and 'them' became unbridgeable."

This event is free to the public and will be at 11 a.m. at the Mabee-Simpson Library at Lyon College. A reception will follow. Call 870-698-4267 for more information.

Remember Lum and Abner? The Weaver Brothers and Elviry? Probably not, but these rustic favorites from a bygone era will soon be playing in a classroom near you. In conjunction with Lyon College’s Ozark History and Culture course, Dr. Brooks Blevins will be hosting free viewings of three World War II-era films. All three films played off of, and contributed to, stereotypes of the Ozarks and capitalized on the craze for all things hillbilly in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Each film will be prefaced with a brief introduction highlighting the film’s stars and its historical context; a brief discussion period will follow each film. All film screenings will take place at 6:30 p.m. in room 202 of the Lyon Building. All Lyon faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend; there is no charge. For more information, contact Dr. Blevins at 870-698-4210 or bblevins@lyon.edu.

The schedule of screenings is as follows:

Tuesday, March 27^th In Old Missouri (starring Weaver Brothers & Elviry)

Wednesday, April 4^th The Bashful Bachelor (starring Lum and Abner)

Thursday, April 12^th I’m From Arkansas (starring Slim Summerville)

Dr. Joseph Key will present a lecture, "Masters of This Country: The Quapaws, 1673-1833," as part of the Brown Bag with a Book series at the Old Independence Regional Museum at noon on Thursday, March 29.

The Quapaws were one of the primary groups of Native Americans in Arkansas from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century, controlling most of the eastern half of the state.

Key, one of the foremost experts on the Quapaws and other Arkansas Native Americans, is an assistant professor of history at Arkansas State University. A 1988 graduate of Lyon, Key earned an M.A. in history from West Texas A & M University and a Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas, where his dissertation on the Quapaws and environmental change won the best dissertation prize from Phi Alpha Theta/Westerners International.

The Old Independence Regional Museum’s Brown Bag with a Book series is now in its third year. The series will feature one additional presentation this semester. On April 18, Dr. Steve Striffler of the University of Arkansas will discuss Hispanic migration and labor issues and the modern poultry industry.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a sack lunch to the museum, located at 380 South 9^th St., in Batesville. Old Independence Regional Museum will provide free water and soft drinks. Admission is free.

For more information on the museum, go to: www.oirm.org.

Batesville and the Lyon College community lost a "treasured friend" and colleague on March 21 when Virginia Porter Kirk died at 84.

Born September 23, 1922 in Oklahoma City, Okla., she was the daughter of James Arthur Porter and Maude Casey Porter.

Kirk served as a professor of chemistry at Lyon, then Arkansas, College from 1957-1977, and also as head of the Science Department at the College. She also taught for five years at Arkansas State University.

She and her husband, Elmer Kirk, have been honored several times by the College. Virginia, who was named a professor emerita of chemistry upon her retirement, was presented the Friend of Education Award in 1982 and given an honorary degree in 1997. Elmer, a longtime supporter of the athletic program at Lyon, was named an Honorary Alumnus in 1997 and was honored with the Athletic Hall of Fame Service Award last fall.

Mrs. Kirk was active in the community as well as on campus. She was a member of the City Planning Commission, Batesville School Board, founder of United Way of Independence County, founder of the Baptist Student Union at Lyon (AC) and was named Teacher of the Year at Lyon. She also received an honorary doctorate from Lyon College, and was named Citizen of the Year.

The contributions she made to Lyon College and its students is immeasurable, said Lyon President Dr. Walter Roettger.

"Lyon College has lost a treasured friend whose teaching touched the lives of countless individuals," Roettger said. "We will miss her greatly. Our thoughts go out to her family."

She is survived by her husband Elmer Kirk of Batesville; two daughters, Sarah Drake and her husband, Morris "Mac" of Batesville, Katie Holt and her husband, Robert of Harrison; a sister, Sue Longsworth and her husband Thorne of Wichita, Kansas; four grandchildren, Tad Dunlap, Mary Beth Dunlap, Richard Holt and Anna Kate Holt, and several nieces and nephews.

The funeral service as held Friday, March 23, at the First Baptist Church in Batesville with Ralph Wallis, Eddie Cox and David Parker officiating.

The family asks that memorials may be made to Lyon College’s Annual Scholarship Fund, 2300 Highland, Batesville, AR 72501; the Batesville Public Library, 368 E. Main Street, Batesville, AR 72501; and/or the Old Independence Regional Museum, P.O. Box 4506, Batesville, AR 72501.

Sports

BATESVILLE – Lyon College Scots’ second baseman Justin Brown drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 10^th inning to complete a 9-8 come-from-behind victory over the Cumberland Bulldogs in the rubber game of a three-game TranSouth Conference matchup Sunday afternoon at Scots Field.

The Scots (26-5, 7-5) , ranked No. 14 in the NAIA National Baseball ratings, tied the score at eight apiece in the 10^th when shortstop Andy Schatzley led off the inning with a solo homer to left field. Brown then drew the game-winning free pass to score Mike Sanchez from third.

Derek Bond (6-0) earned the victory, pitching 3 2/3 innings of relief in place of starter Jeffery Matlock. Bond allowed one hit, walked one and gave up an earned run in the 10^th frame.

Lyon first baseman Andy Bettis finished 2-for-3, scored three runs and hit his team-leading 11^th home run of the season, a game-tying two-run shot in the sixth inning. Brent Moss had a two-run single in the third and Nick Salahub drove in two runs.

Adam Tomlinson suffered the loss for Cumberland, which fell to 20-12-1 overall and 8-4 in the TranSouth.

After the 2-1 series win, the Scots sit four games back of conference front-runner Trevecca Nazarene.

The Scots host Williams Baptist at 2 p.m. Tuesday, then take on Freed-Hardeman in a three-game conference series at Scots Field against Freed-Hardeman at 2 p.m. Friday and a Saturday double-header beginning at noon.

Brent Moss' sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning, helped the Lyon College Scots to a 2-1 victory in game two of a TranSouth Conference split with the Cumberland Bulldogs Saturday at Scots Field.

The Scots (25-5, 6-5), No. 14 in the latest NAIA national baseball rankings, lost 15-3 in game one of the double dip.

Moss' sacrifice fly preserved a victory for Scots' starter Jerry Farina (6-1), who tossed a compete-game four hitter with five strikeouts.

Lyon third baseman Andy Wahl drove in the team's only other run with a single in the first inning.

Cumberland's Zach Whitmore was stuck with a no decision despite throwing six innings of three-hit ball with nine K's. Closer Adam Tomlinson took the loss.

In game one, the Scots scored their three-run total on a 3-run shot by designated hitter Nick Salahub.

Justin McGarity (4-3) suffered the first-game defeat for Lyon. Robert Clayton earned the win in a complete-game, five-inning start, allowing only three hits.

Cumberland settles at 20-11-1 overall and 8-3 in the TranSouth Conference.