UA getting center to aid racial justice
FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville is among 13 schools announced Thursday as selected to host a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Center.
Previously announced centers at 10 other schools have aimed to provide "transformative programming," according to the Association of American Colleges & Universities, which works in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation on the effort.
"AAC&U is thrilled to partner with these outstanding institutions on our way to establishing 150 centers across the country to ensure that higher education is playing a leadership role in promoting racial and social justice," Lynn Pasquerella, the association's president, said in a statement.
UA is the only campus in Arkansas to be selected for a center.
The 10 schools previously announced as hosting centers have programming plans that include organizing talks on racial healing and developing interactive learning experiences centered on the harm caused by racism, according to the college association's website.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2016 publicly launched its Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation effort, described on the foundation's website as addressing historic and contemporary effects of racial bias.
A spokeswoman said Friday that the foundation has spent $34 million on the effort since 2015, including support for the Association of American Colleges & Universities.
Mark Rushing, a UA spokesman, said the university has received a $27,200 grant to help develop the center, which will be based in the campus space used to house the UA Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, Leadership Development & Strategic Supports Center.
Rushing said the new center will begin operating Feb. 1.
Professor receives writing fellowship
FAYETTEVILLE -- Toni Jensen, a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville professor, has been awarded a $25,000 Creative Writing Fellowship in prose from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jensen is one of 36 writers to be selected for the honor in 2020 out of nearly 1,700 applicants, according to the National Endowment for the Arts.
She is the author of a forthcoming book, Carry, described by UA as "a memoir-in-essays about gun violence, land and indigenous women's lives." A collection of Jensen's short stories, From the Hilltop, was published in 2010.
Jensen joined the UA faculty in 2014 and teaches in UA's Program in Creative Writing and Translation.
"This highly prestigious award to Toni Jensen is a wonderful achievement and not in the least surprising. She is one of the brightest rising stars of the department," William Quinn, chairman of the UA Department of English, said in a statement.
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