The Traveler

Issue date: 2/6/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Veronica Pucci A worker uses a cherry picker to help clean up the damage caused by the recent ice storm that swept through Northwest Arkansas.

Three major on-campus events were postponed or canceled last week because of the ice storm while professors across campus have had to revise their syllabi to account for two lost days of lectures.

First, University Days for kids from kindergarten through the sixth grade has been canceled, according to the university Web site. University Days are a time for students from Kindergarten to High School to come on campus and learn about science, math and technology, said Steve Voorhies, manager of media relations for the university.

University Days for students in the seventh through 12th grades is now scheduled for Friday Feb. 13, according to the university Web site.

Next, artist Mel Chin spoke Tuesday night as a visiting lecturer in the Art Department. Chin spoke in the Fine Arts building at 7 p.m., and was originally going to speak a week beforehand, but the lecture had to be postponed because of the ice storm, Voorhies said.

Chin, who believes that creativity and environmental awareness can transform politics, people and the places they live, is a nationally known conceptual artist, according to the art department Web site.

Finally, the university was scheduled to have a reception for Hank Kaminsky, who has three sculptures on display on campus, that same Tuesday, Voorhies said. It has not been determined when that event will be rescheduled, he said.

University professors have also had to revise their lesson plans after the ice storm, and they must cover all relevant material with two fewer days of lecture time.

"It's caused havoc," said Hoyt Purvis, professor of International Relations. "I spent the better part of Sunday before the Super Bowl revising the syllabi of my classes."

Inclement weather forces professors to scramble because they had planned to cover a certain amount of information each class and now they have to move more quickly, Purvis said.

Information that he originally planned to spend an entire class period on must now be covered in 30 to 40 minutes, he said.

Pearl Ford, a political science professor, has also had to "double up" lectures, and she had to prepare for classes that she would not have, she said.

"The students are playing catch up and I'm playing catch up as well," Ford said.

The situation is not as bad as it could be because Ford structures her syllabus to give more time to subjects than she really needs to compensate for inclement weather, she said.

However, it is more stressful to lose days at the beginning of the semester because she was just getting into a flow, she said.

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