Ricardo Martinelli, president of Panama, and Lee Bodenhamer, Arkansas businessman and philanthropist, will receive honorary degrees for “their achievements in politics and business and for their strong support for education,” according to a press release.

Martinelli, who will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, credits the skills he learned at the UA as the “best preparation he received to become a business leader and the leader of his country,” according to the release.

Martinelli graduated from the UA in 1973 and won the presidential election in 2009 to become president of Panama.

Bodenhamer was born in El Dorado, Ark., and graduated from the UA in 1957.

Later, in 1986, he created the Bodenhamer Foundation, which provides financial support for organizations including the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Washington Regional Foundation, the Baptist Health Foundation and the St. Vincent Medical Center Foundation, according to a press release.

Martinelli and Bodenhamer will receive their degrees during the All-University Commencement ceremony at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, May 11, and they will also both address the graduating class of 2013.

“I’m very pleased that we are able to recognize two such distinguished University of Arkansas alumni in this way,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart in a press release.

The conference will take place in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. It will focus on teaching the audience how to find and convert growth opportunities with customers, according to the CRE website.

The goal of the conference is to bring together leaders in the marketing community to lend their insight and share their expertise to attendees, said Claudia Mobley, director of the CRE.

Additionally, it will give attendees the chance to learn what it takes to be an industry leader by those who are already leaders in the marketing industry. Speakers for the conference are practitioners in the fields of preeminent marketing, market design, retail and research, Mobley said.

There will be five presentations by five separate speakers representing different companies, according to the MARS Advertising website.

First, Stephen Quinn, EVP and chief marketing officer for Wal-Mart, will present “Real Time Marketing.”

Second, Fern Grant, EVP of strategic planning for MARS Advertising, will present “Driving Behavior Change to Unlock Growth.”

Third, David Marcotte, SVP of retail insights for Kantar Retail, will present “OmniChannel Category Management: Making the Buzz Operational.”

Fourth, Greg Silverman, CEO of Concentric, will present “From Insights to Action: How to Harness Data to Deliver Results.”

New to this year’s event, there is a networking lunch and the inclusion of an afternoon panel presentation entitled “Excellence in Strategic Selling and Collaboration,” which will feature Scott Huff, SVP, GMM consumables, Wal-Mart; Ashley Buchanan, SVP, snacks and drinks, Wal-Mart; Gary Severson, SVP and GMM, hardlines, Wal-Mart; and Michelle Gloeckler, SVP, home, Wal-Mart, according to the MARS Advertising website.

The panel will be especially insightful for UA students since it will discuss issues that Wal-Mart suppliers regularly face in the marketing industry, Mobley said.

Nabih Masri, a UA senior from Jordan, said he will stay in Fayetteville doing an internship. He said he hopes there will be many events to keep him occupied during the summer.

There are several events going on this summer for those who plan to stay in Fayetteville.

The fourth annual KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival will have concerts every Thursday night over a six-week period this summer. The performances will include a variety of chamber music featuring diverse instrumental groups from many musical eras, according to a press release. Everyone is eligible to attend, and tickets are free.

One concert featuring music by Mozart and Brahms will take place May 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the UA Fine Arts Building.

The ROTC building on the University of Arkansas campus will be filled with poetry, stories and drama this summer. It is a chance for young authors to explore their own creativity and learn how to be a writer at Kidswrite. The writing camp will be in June, according to a press release.

The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas’ (SONA) concert will take place May 18 at the Walton Arts Center. It will start at 7:30 p.m. A John Williams tribute honoring the man who has written the scores for so many popular movies will be the theme of the concert, featuring selections from “Star Wars,” “E.T.,” “Harry Potter,” “Jaws,” “Superman,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Schindler’s List,” among others. The SoNA singers will also be featured at the concert, according to a press release.

Fayetteville Parks and Recreation will bring its 17th annual Gulley Park Summer Concert Series  to nearby Gulley Park. All of the concerts start at 7:30 p.m. and will occur from May 30 until August 8, with a concert every other Thursday. All of the concerts are free and open to the public.

The Ozark Open Water Swim, held by the RAC AquaHawgs Swim Team, will include a 1K, 2K and 4K race at Beaver Lake. The races will take place at 8:30 a.m. on May 27. Registration fee is $35 per person and includes a race cap, T-shirt and goody bag.

Students are looking forward to Fayetteville’s summer events.

“Fayetteville is a college town, so once the long break starts, the town will be so quiet,” said Annabelle Young, a UA junior. “I’m glad there are events going on at least.”

Some of the events held during the week included an Earth Day vendor fair, a sustainability open house and the construction of a water bottle tower outside of the Union. A creek cleanup was also scheduled but was canceled due to weather.

The vendor fair was held in the International Connections Lounge and hosted 28 registered student organizations and campus groups. Due to the location, hundreds of students passed through the fair, said Carlos Ochoa Jr., director of the Office for Sustainability.

The open house was attended by around 50 students and faculty members, including Dr. Danny Pugh, dean of student affairs.

“My office and the division of student affairs will soon be discussing possible partnerships in the years to come,” Ochoa said.

The water bottle tower was the most noticeable feature sponsored by the Office for Sustainability. Every year, a giant skeleton of a water bottle is constructed outside of the Union and filled with approximately 12,000 water bottles.

“This sculpture represents the number of bottles thrown into the landfill each day by the UA community,” according to the Office for Sustainability website.

Care for the Creek, an event held every semester to clean up Mullins Creek, was canceled due to weather. Ochoa said the cleanup will stay on schedule for the fall semester.

Earth Day is not the only time that the Office for Sustainability is active, though. Several events are held throughout the year, with many occurring annually. RecycleMania and the RSO recycling competition are two of the more commonly known events.

Earth Day is a day when many capitalize on increased sustainability awareness. The official slogan of the Earth Day Network for 2013 was “The Face of Climate Change.” The goal of this was to collect photos of people across the globe that contribute to sustainability efforts and show that a little goes a long way when many people all over the world contribute.

Although Earth Day may be over, that is no reason to stop trying to save the planet, according to the Earth Day Network website. Switching to reusable water bottles or planting a tree can make a big difference, especially when others are doing similar things.

Anyone with questions about the Office for Sustainability or how to get involved in future events can be directed to sustain@uark.edu or by dropping by the Sustainability House on Harmon Avenue.

Legend spoke highly in favor for education equality. The United States has slipped from the highest rate of high school graduates to the 18th spot. He mentioned his own high school and how he noticed that the graduating class was half the size of his freshman class.

“Ten percent of schools account for 40 percent of dropouts,” Legend said, quoting a statistic from the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Excellent teachers and principals, more access to one-on-one tutoring, longer school days and the encouragement to succeed are some of the key elements to a good school, Legend said. The focus of evaluations shouldn’t be to find the bad teachers and fire them, but to focus on the average and good teachers and make them great. Every student should have access to excellent teachers, he said.

College students are at the prime time to begin to make a difference, he said. There is so much opportunity to change the world, and having a degree is the best way to make that happen.

“I know you’re ready to do something big,” Legend said. “I’m here to motivate you to make a difference.”

He told everyone to consider using their money and even social media to help out a cause they’re passionate about. These are two of the cornerstones to creating change, and once a person finds what they’re truly passionate about, then waking up and knowing change is possible is worth it, he said.

Legend heads up organizations to help with the issues of education equality and poverty. The Show Me Campaign works to improve education and eradicate poverty, which is one of the characteristics of those in low-performing schools. Teach For America allows recent college graduates to commit to teaching for two years in an attempt to raise student achievement in schools.

Harlem Village Academy is a charter school that brings in students from low-performing schools and puts them with better teachers. In 2008, HVA became the first school to have 100 percent of eighth graders score proficient or higher on the state math exam. That same year, non-HVA schools only had 43 percent of their students score proficient or higher.

Legend closed his lecture with a performance. Legend is a nine-time Grammy-winning artist. He performed “Tonight (Best You Ever Had),” “Save Room,” “Who Do We Think We Are,” “Green Light” and “Ordinary People.”

BYX is the largest Christian social fraternity in the country, offering its members “a lifelong brotherhood of committed Christian men seeking the bonds of brotherhood and unity in Christ through the avenue of a social fraternity on the Arkansas campus,” according to their website.

BYX has the party annually at the UA, but the Island Party is not specific to this campus; it is a national BYX tradition. Dating back to the group’s founding in 1985, the founding chapter at the University of Texas held the first Island Party to announce the founding of their fraternity. Today, chapters nationwide hold the party annually.

Here at the UA, members of BYX use the Island Party as an outlet to serve the community.

“Our purpose for Island Party is to show God’s love to those who may not have ever experienced it and to create relationships with those in our community by serving them,” wrote vice president Josiah Raiford on the group’s website.

The music kicked off at 6:30 p.m. with an opening performance by local UA folk band Little Chief, a group that described themselves as “a ghosty feel, but overall pretty relatable,” according to singer Matt Cooper.

After Little Chief’s performance, headliner Matt Wertz performed. Wertz is a Nashville, Tenn., singer who plays acoustic rock and has toured with Hanson, Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw.

“I’m so glad that Matt Wertz came to our campus,” said Alex Irvin, a UA junior who attended the party. “His music is really soothing. Sometimes the simple things are the most beautiful.”

BYX’s Island Party is heavily funded by Lifesource International, a group that “helps children, individuals and families struggling with poverty and hunger,” according to their website. BYX uses this event to publicize Lifesource and to try and rally more support for it.

Christopher Moutos stretches on the Frisco Trail in Fayetteville, Sunday, April 28. Moutos participated in the Boston Marathon in April 2013 and completed the marathon an hour before the bombing attack. (Photo by Caroline Potts)

The UA chapter of the Society of Women Engineers organized a Women’s Appreciation Banquet on Thursday, April 25. The banquet was funded by the Associated Student Government and was held at the Inn at Carnall Hall.

SWE is a national organization that aims to “stimulate women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, and demonstrate the value of diversity,” according to their website.

“SWE is a good way to meet other women in this male-heavy field,” said Calley Martin, sophomore SWE member, “and this banquet is a nice way to see everyone before we all leave for summer.”

While the event was held by SWE, the focus of the evening was not solely on women in engineering.

“It was titled ‘Women’s Appreciation’ Banquet to represent empowering women not only for the members in the Society of Women Engineers, but to any women aspiring towards careers that are traditionally male-dominated,” said Amy Powless, SWE president.

Those who attended the banquet were treated to dinner and presented with a keynote address from Dr. Kim Needy, the department head of industrial engineering and current president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. The speech was focused on leadership, specifically leading by serving.

“In its simplest form, leading is love — as in a verb, not a noun,” Needy said.

After the address, an overview of SWE’s year was presented by Dr. Julie Carrier, SWE faculty advisor and biological engineering professor. Mentioned in the overview were events SWE held throughout the year, several projects the group worked on and the chapter’s growth from 24 to 44 members in the last year.

Awards were then given out by Powless to members who had volunteered their time attending events and had been heavily active in SWE.

“Another purpose of the banquet was to recognize everyone who supported or was involved in SWE throughout the past year,” Powless said. “It’s important to honor those who have dedicated so much time towards improving our SWE section.”

The night came to a close with the announcements of next year’s SWE officers by Powless. The new officers were given some advice from Carrier on their role within the organization.

“Freedom and responsibility come hand in hand,” Carrier said. “The responsibility to the new officers is to keep our organization growing.”

Starting Monday, April 29, until Friday, May 3, DJs will be asking trivia questions on the air, 88.3 FM. Students that know the answer email kxua.uark.edu. Students with the correct answer will have their names put into a drawing.

Prizes include 2 Wakarusa event passes, one camping pass and a swag bag containing four Wakarusa items. There will also be two daily winners who will receive Wakarusa merchandise.

Students should follow KXUA’s Twitter feed and Facebook page for information about when the questions will be asked.

Wakarusa will be May 30 to June 2 at Mulberry Mountain in the Ozarks and will feature more than 100 acts.

The cast of the upcoming musical Company rehearse, Tuesday, April 23. (Photo by Kris Johnson)

“Company,” a theatrical musical and comedy based on the book by George Furth, is a currently showing at the UA’s Fine Arts Center from now until Sunday. Current UA students will be able to get into the six-time Tony Award-winning original Broadway production for free for the last day on Thursday, but will only be required to pay $3 per ticket (a $13 discount from normal adult tickets) for the weekend showings.

“We chose this play for several reasons, said Drama Department Chair Andrew Gibbs, First of all it’s a significant piece of work by a major American playwright, and also the subject matter regarding marriage and social interaction. It’s just a nice, audience pleasing play.”

Based in New York City, “Company” tells the story of five young couples and their single friend, Robert. Despite being handsome, charming, and funny, the 30 plus year old bachelor can’t seem to find himself a suitable match. “Company”, details the journey Robert takes to understand both the ups and downs of romantic life, while reconciling that relationships may not be fairy-tale in nature, but they are necessary for both a full and prosperous life.

The Department Chair (who also served as lighting designer for the production) also noted the choice to pick the play over others was partially prompted by the diverse array of roles available for student actors to choose from.  Kieran Cronin, who has previously starred in the UA productions such as “Blithe Spirit”, stars as the play’s leading man.

The play’s director, Kate Frank who has a M.F.A from the University of Arkansas, has previously had experience staging “Much Ado About Nothing” at Northwest Arkansas Community College, with additional directing credits including “Sinclair” and “Tartuffe”.

In terms of responses, Mr. Gibbs indicated very positive reception amongst audiences. “[I think] they are enjoying all our fine work and the various songs as well. The songs themselves are a combination of sophistication, as well as a sense of critical social awareness.”

The well attended event has drawn mixed demographics of viewers, with more non-students tending to participate in weekend showings. The last day for students to get into the event for free is Thursday, April 25th, and the final showing of Company will be on the 28th. Tickets for non-student adults are $16, $14 for seniors, and $7 for university faculty, staff, and children under the age of 18.

Tickets can be purchased at the University Theatre Box Office in the Fine Arts Center from 12 to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday and two hours prior to showings. Online ticket purchases can also be made at theatre.uark.edu.

Described as a “champion of rural areas” by Dean Michael Vayda, Tom Vilsack spoke on the importance of rural areas and the role of current students in agriculture.

Prior to the lecture, a large group protested the new C&H Farms hog farm. Recently, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality gave the company a permit to operate a 670-acre farm along a tributary of the Buffalo National River.

If built, the annual 2 million gallons of waste from the 6,500 hogs would be disposed of by spraying it over the surrounding grasslands, potentially polluting the nearby river, according to the Fayetteville Flyer.

“We want Secretary Vilsack to know that we feel the actions taken by the Farm Service Agency, a department of the USDA, have not been in good faith or help to achieve the very goals Secretary Vilsack is coming here to promote,” wrote former Fayetteville mayor Charles Daniel Coody on the event’s Facebook page.

An online petition opposed to the farm already has nearly 10,000 signatures.

Despite the protest, the lecture continued undisturbed.

Born in Pittsburg, Pa., on Dec. 13, 1950, Vilsack received his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in New York in 1972 and his Juris Doctor from Albany Law School in 1975. After graduating, he settled with his wife in Mount Comfort, Iowa.

In 1987, Vilsack was elected as mayor of Mount Pleasant, and in 1992, he was elected to the Iowa Senate. Later, in 1999, Vilsack was elected as the 40th governor of Iowa, where he served until 2007. Vilsack briefly ran in the 2008 presidential election as a member of the Democratic Party, eventually withdrawing his bid. After Barack Obama was elected as president, Vilsack was announced as the 30th secretary of agriculture and assumed office on Jan. 21, 2009, according to an article on CNN.

The presentation began with a video prepared by Dale Bumpers, during which he described the lecture as the biggest event of the year for the Bumpers College and said that the Dale and Betty Bumpers Distinguished Lecture Series was so important because it “exposes our students to the real world.” After the video, Chancellor Gearhart thanked the Bumpers for all they have done for the UA, the state of Arkansas and the world.

The lecture took the form of a town hall meeting, beginning with a brief speech by Vilsack and then opening up into a Q-and-A session with the students in attendance.

Vilsack’s speech opened with thanks to the Bumpers and an expression of gratitude toward the Clinton family for their help aiding his campaign for governor. Former President Bill Clinton was last year’s speaker for the Distinguished Lecture Series.

Vilsack then went on to discuss how important farmers and rural areas are to America. Focusing on how rural areas influence the nation’s agriculture, economy, national security and energy, Vilsack said America needs to get a better understanding of how important these areas are and take a more active role in agriculture and conservation.

“I represented farmers … They are an underrepresented, unappreciated group in America,” Vilsack said. “Because of them we as a country are able to feed ourselves … Don’t take that for granted.”

Vilsack presented three threats to the rural way of life: a lack of Americans willing to do rural work and the immigrants picking up that slack; the fact that the youth in rural areas are leaving to find nonagricultural careers, the difficulty the ones who stay are facing and a lack of conservation efforts; and, finally, the difficulties that climate change will present for farmers.

Vilsack discussed how these three threats are all fixable, but that it will take several steps, numerous groups working together and a tremendous amount of effort to rectify them.

“Your generation has the ability to redefine what it means to be rural and do better than mine in researching and evolving agriculture,” Vilsack said in response to a student’s question about where current students can fit into agriculture. “There are unlimited opportunities, but you have to take a chance on rural areas.”