Campus Talk: University of Arkansas startup lands $746,000 grant
by February 23, 2016 10:11 am 126 views
Editor’s note: Each Tuesday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Campus Talk,” a recap and roundup of education news.
UA STARTUP LANDS $746,000 GRANT: The National Science Foundation has awarded a $746,366 grant to WattGlass LLC to further develop the University of Arkansas’ patent-pending coating technology that makes glass anti-reflective, self-cleaning and highly transparent. The nanoparticle-based coating will increase the efficiency of solar panels and reduce their cleaning and maintenance costs, said Corey Thompson, chief technology officer for WattGlass, a Genesis Technology Incubator client at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park. The NSF grant will allow WattGlass to add two employees.
‘HOXIE: THE FIRST STAND’ HONORED DURING MLK YOUTH SUMMIT: Content partner KASU 91.9 FM reports: Students, lawmakers, and activists celebrated the nonviolence philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while honoring the Hoxie school integration at the 16th Annual Nonviolence Youth Summit at Arkansas State University last week. Ethel Tompkins, the first African American woman to graduate from Hoxie Public Schools, served as the keynote speaker for the summit. Tompkins recalled the events of 1955 – two years before the Central High crisis – that led to Hoxie’s integration. She also said a project is in the works to turn the former one-classroom building in Hoxie into a national museum to commemorate the integration.
AFTER BOYCOTT CONTROVERSY, DOWN SEASON, MISSOURI FOOTBALL PROGRAM STRUGGLES FOR DONATIONS: The Columbia Tribune, hometown newspaper for the University of Missouri, reports that donations to the UM athletic department are down after a losing football season during which the football team threatened a boycott in support of student protests.
During fall 2015, a group of student activists protested what they called a hostile racial climate at the university. After the football team threatened to sit out of practices and a big upcoming game in solidarity with the protesters, University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned.
Cash contributions to the athletic department from November 2015, when the players threatened to boycott, through January 2016 were down 24.3 percent compared to the same three months in the previous football season. Donations to other university departments are down, too, the Tribune reports.