Campus Talk: Arkansas Tech president recognized for diversity efforts

Editor’s note: Each Tuesday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Campus Talk,” a recap and roundup of education news.

ARKANSAS TECH PRESIDENT RECOGNIZED FOR DIVERSITY EFFORTS: Dr. Robin E. Bowen, president of Arkansas Tech University, is one of 27 administrators from around the U.S. selected for the 2016 Giving Back Award from Insight Into Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education. According to the magazine, recipients were selected based on their “outstanding demonstration of social responsibility, a commitment to charitable services and involvement with students, faculty and staff to serve underrepresented populations.”

Among the initiatives that Arkansas Tech has enacted to serve underrepresented populations under Bowen’s leadership is the establishment of a Department of Diversity and Inclusion within the Office of Student Services. Bowen has also encouraged efforts for Arkansas Tech to engage the growing Hispanic population inside the state, including select tours of the campus offered in Spanish to make the parents and families of prospective students feel more included.

CRAINS ENDOW SCHOLARSHIPS AT UA: University of Arkansas alumni Larry and Janett Crain of Searcy are supporting UA business students from Searcy and Conway with an endowed scholarship specifically for graduates from those two high schools. The couple’s $125,000 gift will create the Larry and Janett Crain Endowed Scholarship Fund in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Recipients must be graduates of Searcy High School or Conway High School with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher and demonstrated financial need. The scholarship will be renewable for four years, as long as the recipient maintains a 3.0 GPA each academic year.

SCALIA’S DEATH AND THE IMPACT ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: The Chronicle of Higher Education explores one of the expected cases that will still be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court despite the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin legal challenge involves a white woman’s assertion that she had been unfairly denied admission to UT because of the campus’s race-conscious admissions policy. Read the analysis from The Chronicle on how this case could still likely be decided even though one of the “lightning rod” critics of affirmative action won’t be there.