The quality and value of a Lyon College education has earned it another spot in the Princeton Review’s 2008 edition of "America’s Best Value Colleges."

The honor marks Lyon as one of the nation's best value undergraduate institutions.

The Review features Lyon in the 2008 edition of its book, "America’s Best Value," a guide profiling 165 colleges chosen for their excellent academics, generous financial aid packages and/or relatively low costs of attendance.

The Princeton Review selected the schools for the book based on data it obtained from administrators at more than 650 colleges during the 2005-06 academic year, and its surveys of students attending the schools.

"We considered over 30 factors to identify our ‘best value’ colleges," said Robert Franek, the Review’s vice president of Publishing. "The 90 public and 75 private colleges we chose for this edition offer a terrific education, plus they have impressive records of meeting students’ needs for financial aid. We highly recommend them as America’s best college education deals for 2007."

Judging criteria covered four areas: Academics, Tuition GPA – the sticker price minus average amount students receive in scholarships and grants – financial aid and student borrowing.

Beginning April 24, the Princeton Review posted a list of its 165 best value schools on its Web site at: www.PrincetonReview.com.

"America’s Best Value Colleges" has three-page profiles on the colleges and lists of the top 10 best value private colleges and the top 10 best value public colleges overall in the book. The Princeton Review does not rank the schools in the book 1 to 165.

The book also has advice about applying for college admission and financial aid. The Princeton Review is an education services company known for its test-prep courses, books, and college and grad school admissions services.

Last year, Lyon received several similar accolades.

In August, U.S. News & World Report announced that it had named Lyon to its list of "Great Schools, Great Prices," coming in at No. 23.

That same month, the Princeton Review included Lyon on its list of "Best Southeastern Colleges" for the third year in a row.

And in September, Lyon College was named to Washington Monthly’s list of the most socially beneficial universities and liberal arts colleges in the nation. Out of 202 listed, Lyon came in at No. 76.

A landmark musical discovery made by a Lyon College professor last summer was announced April 20 to coincide with the 75th-anniversary of an annual Bach Festival held at the college in Ohio where he made his historic find.

Dr. Russell Stinson, Lyon’s Josephine Emily Brown Professor of Music, was doing research in the Riemenschneider Bach Institute at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio last June when his eyes saw something that was hard to believe.

He had gone to Baldwin-Wallace College to examine an anthology of Bach pieces that had once belonged to a 19th-century pianist, composer and wife of German composer Robert Schumann.

Stinson, author of the recent book "The Reception of Bach’s Organ Works From Mendelssohn to Brahms," was already well aware that that Clara Wieck Schumann’s handwritten markings appear throughout these piano reductions of Bach organ works.

But the handwritten notations made by Schumann’s own hand caught him by surprise. And Stinson’s discovery didn’t end there. Some of the notations may have been written by another legendary German composer and musician. Johannes Brahms, who befriended the Schumanns in the 1850s, may have authored some of the notations as well.

In a recent interview with the Plain Dealer of Cleveland, Ohio, the state’s largest newspaper, Stinson said the Schumann discovery is an important development in Bach scholarship.

"We like to think we have here a major addition to our understanding of how three of the greatest musicians of the 19th century responded to the model of Bach," Stinson said in an article by Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg.

The Bach anthology consists of 11 items, including preludes, fugues, fantasies, toccatas and variations. The editions were printed from about 1815 to 1833 in Germany. Stinson believes Robert Schumann purchased them personally to continue his study of Bach’s organ music.

"Schumann was a frustrated organist," Stinson said. "As was Clara."

After Robert died in 1856, the collection remained with Clara until her death in 1896. The Schumanns’ daughters, Marie and Eugenie, inherited their possessions. When faced with financial hardships, they sold large parts of the library.

One of those buyers was Albert Riemenschneider, founder of the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music and the Bach Festival. In 1937, he purchased the Schumann anthology.

Gustav Mensching, an associate at Hug & Co., a music publisher in Zurich, Switzerland, who owned the documents, told Riemenschneider that Marie Schumann had confirmed the markings in the documents to be her mother’s.

But Stinson recognized Robert Schumann’s handwriting, written in red, in observations about organ registrations, analytical markings and wrong notes.

Another direct connection between the anthology and Robert Schumann that Stinson found was an article published in the November 1841 issue of the journal Neue Zeitschift fur Musik describing typographical errors in the edition of the Toccata in F major included in the Baldwin-Wallace College collection.

Schumann served editor of the journal.

Last October at the Robert Schumann House, the composer’s birthplace museum in Zwickau, Germany, Stinson confirmed the authenticity of both of the Schumanns’ handwriting.

"They were floored that these materials had made it over to America," Stinson said in Rosenberg’s article. "We compared Clara’s performance markings in the ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ there with markings here. They are a perfect match."

Stinson isn’t as certain about the authenticity of the Brahms’ handwriting examples, but the professor’s gut tells him some of the notations belong to the famed musician.

Brahms became friends with the Schumanns in 1853 in Dusseldorf when the young pianist and composer performed his own piano arrangement of Bach’s Toccata in F major at a party the couple is likely to have attended.

Stinson believes vertical slashes and tiny writing he found on pages of the Fantasy in G major, which Brahms played often in concert, could be Brahms’.

Winfrey delivers Williamson Prize Lecture

Lyon College’s Clark N. and Mary Perkins Barton Professor of Management stepped to the podium last week with spaghetti Western theme music rising behind him to face down the "Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in corporate America.

The winner of the 2006-07 Lamar Williamson Prize for Faculty Excellence, Dr. Frank Winfrey presented his lecture, "Organizations: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," on Friday, April 27 in Nucor Auditorium.

The 27th Lyon professor to receive the prize, the top teaching award at the college, Winfrey’s married to Dr. Anne Austin, the dean of learning at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. The couple has two daughters, Frances and Kathryn.

His research centers on CEO compensation, corporate governance, and corporate growth opportunities. The Carnegie Bosch Institute published his research papers for "Applied Studies in International Management" at Carnegie Mellon University.

Since coming to Lyon College, he’s taught a variety of courses and has led students on Nichols Travel-Study courses to Munich, Germany, and Paris, France. In January 2000, he taught a course on leadership in Warsaw, Poland.

Reformed laws governing corporations and the chief executives running, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, them constitutes some of the "good." The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 and commonly called SOX or Sarbox, was prompted by a number of major corporate scandals including such as the Enron debacle.

Some of the perceived "bad" is represented by names like Rockefeller, Carnegie and Duke, all of whom exploited and manipulated trusts and gave capitalism a bad name. Modern names such as Ken Lay left the same bad taste in the mouth of American investors.

And the "ugly" can be demonstrated by vast numbers of CEO self-enrichment, often involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

But Winfrey ended on a "good" note.

"Today, there’s more control over CEO compensation packages … and other improvements in regulatory oversight," he said. He concluded with a "good" way to help prevent futures problems. "Shareholders need to exercise more control over their CEOs."

The Williamson Prize is given annually by Lyon College to the faculty member deemed to be the most outstanding in four categories: professional competence, scholarly ability, exemplary humane and Christian values, and contributions to the community.

The Lyon Board of Trustees established the Williamson Prize in 1979 in memory of Lamar Williamson (1887-1974) of Monticello, Ark. A distinguished lawyer, businessman and civic and Presbyterian Church leader, Williamson attended Lyon College from 1901-1903 and remained a friend of the college throughout his life.

The Williamson Prize confers upon the recipient a silver cup and a stipend from a memorial fund, both of which were given by J. Gaston Williamson of Little Rock in honor of his father. The award is announced at Commencement each May. The winner of the prize presents a public lecture at a convocation the following academic year.

Lyon adds New Alumni and Alumni Trustees to Board

Rick Davis '80	John Boling '07 (left) and Adam Long '06, Lyon's Young Alumni Trustees. (Photo taken at the recent Arkansas Scottish Festival dinner and ceilidh by Wil Shane)

The Lyon College Board of Trustees gained a pair of faces that are new to the board but familiar on campus.

The board also nominated Dr. Shane Smith ’93 and Robert Young III for re-election by the Synod of the Sun as members of the trustee class of 2011.

Boling is only the second person to hold the Young Alumni Trustee position, joining the first Young Alumni Trustee Adam Long ’06. The board approved a measure at its Feb. 22, 2006 meeting to create the Young Alumni Trustee position, making it the first college or university in the state to do so.

College officials expect the move to give the board deeper insight into the lives of the students and ways to better serve their needs, as well as the needs of the college. Lyon President Dr. Walter Roettger said the move will build a reservoir of leadership talent the college can utilize, benefiting everyone involved.

Each senior class elects its own representative to a two-year term on the board, with each term beginning right after spring commencement.

The only eligible voters for the position will be those members of the graduating class who are participating in commencement. The class of 2006 elected Long prior to his graduation, with his term beginning immediately following graduation. That term will run until 2008.

Boling’s term will run until 2009. The election and rotational process will then continue each year so that at any given time, the board will have two Young Alumni Trustees.

The new Alumni Trustee, Ricky Davis, defeated Donald Rogers ’88 and John Peiserich ’95 to win the position. Davis owns several Sonic Drive-In restaurant franchises in Arkansas and has served with the Chamber of Commerce, Cleburne County Health Foundation as well as membership in the Lyon College Regional Advisory Board and President’s Council.

Rogers is a consulting application programmer who earned a degree in Computers from Lyon College, and currently serves on the Lyon College President’s Council and Alumni Council.

Peiserich is an attorney with the Little Rock firm of Perkins & Trotter as an environmental, oil and gas law attorney. He and his wife, Carolyn Yeager Peiserich ’95, are active in the Lyon College President’s Council and Alumni Council.

A senior Lyon College history major has been accepted into a Japanese consulate program that employs foreign, degree-holding individuals as conversational English teachers to Japanese schoolchildren.

Tristen Dean will travel to Japan this summer to take part in the Japan Exchange and Teaching program (JET), where participants serve in local authorities as well as public and private junior and senior high schools.

Mieko U. Peek, instructor of Japanese language and literature at Lyon, said the first group of participants will arrive in Japan in late July to have a three-day orientation in Tokyo. Dean will leave in August.

There are three types of positions offered by the JET program, including Assistant Language Teacher, Coordinator for International Relations, and Sports Exchange Advisor.

Dean will be an Assistant Language Teacher. These participants are placed mainly in local boards of education or public junior and senior high schools.

Coordinator for International Relations participants are engaged in internationalization activities, and are placed in offices of local authorities or related organizations.

Sports Exchange Advisor participants promote international exchange activities through certain designated sports. They are generally placed in sporting facilities or boards of education from which they assist in sports training.

Dean said he’s eager to land on Japanese soil.

"I’m looking forward to this culturally rewarding experience, particularly the chance to examine many aspects of my native tongue that as a native speaker I often overlook and discount," he said. "I’m also really looking forward to learning more about the Japanese language, its culture, and especially having the chance to advance my interest in kendo and Iaido at a Japanese dojo."

"I’d like to thank Peek-sensei for all her hard work and devotion to the educational advancement of her students," he said. "I owe my success to her."

Though Dean is Peek’s first Lyon student to take part in JET, three of her students during her tenure at Louisiana State University in Shreveport did participant in the program.

"Since I started teaching at Lyon in 2002, there were always one or two students who were interested in the JET every year, but they did not meet the deadline, which is the first week of December." Peek said. "Hopefully more students from Lyon College will finish application forms by the middle of November so that I can review all of them. The JET Program is a great opportunity for our students to expand their horizon."

The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program is designed to promote mutual understanding between Japan and other nations. The program aims to enhance foreign language education in Japan, and to promote international exchange at the local level by fostering ties between Japanese youth and foreign youth.

The program started in 1987, and 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the program. As of 2006, there are 5,508, participants in the program from 44 countries.

Participants are invited to Japan as representatives of their countries and are expected to be responsible in all of their activities, especially those concerning the promotion of mutual understanding between nations. It is desirable that participants are adaptable and have a positive interest in Japan.

In 2005, Lyon College, one of only four colleges or universities in the state to offer Japanese studies, implemented an exchange agreement with Akita International University in Japan.

Currently, Japanese students Eri Kasai, Tomoko Iwasaki, Ran Tsurumaki, Miho Yonaga, Kazuya Watanabe and Kyota Ishikida are participating in the student exchange agreement between Lyon and AIU.

Last year, Dean hit another milestone when he passed Level Four of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test, administered by the Japan Foundation and the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services. Each test is made up of three sections: Writing-vocabulary, listening and reading-grammar.

To learn more about the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, go to: www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/JETProgram/homepage.html. For more information on Japanese studies at Lyon College, contact Mieko Peek at (870) 793-1790, or e-mail her at: mpeek@lyon.edu.

Reception honors departing faculty, staff

A reception  was held Friday at Bradley Manor to bid farewell to six departing faculty and staff colleagues. Dr. Bob Gregerson, the Willie Dillard Bryan Associate Professor Biology, and Merritt Johnson, assistant professor of art, are leaving Lyon at the end of the semester. Dr. Pat Whitfield, the Rountree Caldwell Bryant Professor of Education, and Gayle Silberhorn, administrative coordinator for business and finance, are retiring. Registrar Janelle Reeves and Head Tennis Coach John Bennett are also leaving at the end of the semester.

Peggy Roettger and Dr. Bob Gregerson	Athletics Director Terry Garner and Dr. Pat Whitfield.
Registrar Janelle Reeves (center), Leca McKenzie and Michele Howard	Gayle Silberhorn and Vice President Ken Rueter
AD Garner with Coach John Bennett	Vice President and Dean of Faculty John Peek and Merritt Johnson

SCARF recognizes students' work Making presentations of their art and research recently at the Student Ceative Arts and Research Forum (SCARF) were (from left) Laura McWilliams, Ashley Dorsey, Steven Bass, Megan Kinion and Sarah Fendley. Laura McWilliams' summary of her paper on "Arsenic Remediation from Groundwater Systems" took the first-place award. Ashley Dorsey's summary of her paper on a movie version of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" tied for second place with Sarah Fendley's discussion of her paintings, "Young Woman in White" and "Self-Portrait in Three." Megan Kinion discussed her painting, "Myself and I" and Steven Bass's musical score for Emily Dickinson's poem, "There is Another Sky" was performed by Lyon students. Photo by Eric Stewart

Old Independence Regional Museum will host a talk by anthropologist Dr. Steve Striffler titled, "Big Chicken: Latinos, Poultry and the Changing South," at 12 noon on Tuesday, May 8.  This is the fourth presentation in the 2007 Brown Bag with a Book series. Bring a sack lunch to the museum, relax, eat, and enjoy hearing about another chapter of Arkansas history on your lunch hour.  Free water and soft drinks provided. This event is free and open to the general public.

Striffler is an associate professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He studies and teaches in the areas of Latin America, immigration and food. Striffler is the author of "In the Shadows of the State and Capital," about the United Fruit Company in the banana-producing areas of Ecuador and "Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of American’s Favorite Food," which explores connections among the poultry industry, immigration and industrial agriculture on our society at large.

Now in its third year, the Brown Bag series is collaboration between Old Independence Regional Museum and Lyon College with support from the Independence County Quorum Court.

Current exhibits on view at Old Independence include Region on the Move and Where the Delta Meets the Ozarks. The temporary exhibit, Historic Bridges of Arkansas, will be on view through mid-May.

Old Independence serves a 12-county area, including Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White and Woodruff. Parts of all these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820s Arkansas territory.

Continuing exhibits at the museum showcase Native American life and the National Register structure built as an armory in the 1930s and now housing the museum.

The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and from 1:30 – 4 p.m. on Sundays. Admission in $3 for adults, $2 for seniors and $1 for children. The museum is located at 380 South Ninth, between Boswell and Vine in Batesville.

For more information, please call 870-793-2121.

Sports

Lyon baseball player Andy Bettis and soccer player Allison Morrison were named the Dick Winningham and Winnie Marable Award winners, respectively, recently at the Lyon College Athletic Awards Night.

The Winnie Marable award is given to the outstanding female student athlete while the Dick Winningham Award is given to the outstanding male student athlete.

Bettis is the all-time leader in home runs for the Scots. He hit his 50th on Saturday in McKenzie, Tenn.

Morrison helped lead the Pipers to their first ever region tournament in soccer. The Pipers finished with a program-best 13-6 record and were 5-2 in the TranSouth Athletic Conference standings, good for third.

Listed below are the other award winners:

John T. Dahlquist Scholar Athlete Award — Alison Sablick; NAIA Champions of Character Individual Award — Michelle Eubanks; NAIA Champions of Character Team Award — Volleyball

Snezana Jovanovic, most improved player, TranSouth Scholar Athlete; Nikki Baker, 3-point field goal percentage, TranSouth Scholar Athlete; Ashley Waller, hustle award; Maribeth Waters, rebound leader; LeAnna Peerson, defensive player; April Carter, Piper Award, most valuable player