Thursday’s thumbs

NWACC’s false start; Vets come home

The Arkansas primary elections are set, the weather is changing by the second and there will soon be yet another football head hog in town. Time to stick out our thumbs and see which way the winds are blowing.

They went and did it anyway, and the camel’s nose is now firmly inside the tent. The normally level-headed trustees for Northwest Arkansas Community College erred this week by dipping a toe — that’s their analogy — into the murky and tumultuous waters — that’s ours — of inter- collegiate varsity sports. The board voted 7-1 (Mark Scott was the lone board member to show common sense) to start men’s and wom- en’s cross country teams who will begin competing with other schools by 2021. The program — one of the least expensive possible among intercollegiate team sports — will have spots for 20 students. The justification for the new program, which will cost about $54,000 a year, is to draw students to campus who might not otherwise come. Scott, among others, wonders if that money might be better spent attracting a few more than 20 students to campus. NWACC trustees of the past have resisted the siren call of competitive athletics, having turned back previous efforts to start baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball teams. They heeded the warning of the school’s founding president, Bob Burns, who said intercollegiate athletics would be an unnecessary, expensive and distracting element in the life of a small, state-funded community college. Not this time. We predict renewed efforts at NWACC to expand into other sports, sooner rather than later, now that the barrier has been breached. Will intercollegiate sports coming to NWACC be the end of the world? Hardly. However, it likely will divert the focus of some stakeholders and administrators from the school’s primary educational and training missions. And that’s too bad.

Northwest Arkansas Community College board member Mark Scott. See above.

Earlier this week, Mother Nature gave us a taste of the yucky stuff related to winter (ice, sleet, freezing rain, slick streets, frigid temperatures) and none of the fun (a lovely, snowman-worthy blanket of snow; a day off from school; sledding down a steep Ozark hill). And, it’s only the middle of November. C’mon, Ma, get it together.

The people who volunteer for military service do so with the promise from us, the taxpayers, that we’ll take care of them when they’ve done their bit. Too often, we fall short. Way short. Some folks here in Northwest Arkansas are doing great things to take up the slack. The Continuum of Care is a group of d0-gooders (and we mean that in the most positive sense possible) who keep track of people in need — including about 30 veterans with no place to call home. The group works to connect folks who need a hand with the those who can provide it. It was with great pleasure that we read in Monday’s paper that the group believes they can “effectively end” veteran homelessness in the Benton and Washington counties by the end of the year. Bravo to those who are working to keep the promises we made to our military veterans.

Are you ready for some political campaigns? Neither are we. But here they come anyway. Yeah, we know. The presidential candidates are already at it with TV ads, social media blitzes and endless speeches about this plan and “my opponent’s” shortcomings. Sadly, we’re about to get some of it on a local level too. And it’s not even election year yet. That’s because the Arkansas Legislature, in its finite wisdom, moved the usual even-numbered year preferential primary election in 2020 from the familiar third Tuesday in May to March 3 in order to correspond to “Super Tuesday” presidential primaries. The theory is that Arkansas can play a more prominent role in presidential politics if its primary is in March. See, in most years, the major party nominations are foregone conclusions by the time May rolls around. If Arkansas votes on Super Tuesday, well, the candidates will pay more attention to us (never mind that there are 13 other state primaries that day, most in states with more electoral votes; just how much attention Arkansas will get is debatable). One of the unintended consequences of the move is that campaigns for county offices, state legislative seats and nonpartisan judicial posts must start before 2020 rings in, and before Santa visits and before mom pops the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven. Some of these lucky folks who win in March will get to keep knocking on doors and kissing babies all the way to the November 2020 general election. In other words, a year from now. That’s a tall price to pay for a seat on the Quorum Court.

Congratulations are in order for three local teachers who recently received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Cheri DeSoto, a fifth-grade science and social studies teach at Holt Middle School in Fayetteville; Tiffany Taylor, a physics teacher at Rogers Heritage High School; and Anna Shaw, a math teacher at Kelly Middle School in Springdale were recognized for their work over the past two years. Those teachers are three of 15 from the two-county area to receive that recognition over the last 18 years. The real winners, though, are the students who get to learn from the best.

Fort Smith’s Brittany Allen will get a chance to see runway models strut her stuff on national TV. Allen is one of 16 fashion designers who will compete in season 18 of the TV reality competition show, “Project Runway,” which airs on Bravo Network. For those not familiar with the show, designers each week are given a timed challenge to make a certain kind of garment to be displayed in a runway show for a panel of experts. The challenges force the designers to use unconventional materials or unusual themes to design the clothes, which must be conceived, constructed from scratch and fitted to models in a matter of hours. The judges eliminate the poorest performing contestant each week. The last designer standing gets $250,000 and a fashion spread in Elle magazine, which we suspect is priceless to an up-and-coming designer. Allen, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, has already started her own apparel brand, so she’s already a success. Here’s hoping she can make it work with the judges on the show.

Even for those of us who aren’t the museum-going type, Crystal Bridges’ “State of the Art” exhibit in 2014 was a wonder. If you don’t recall the original “State of the Art” program, it went like this: The talented staff at Bentonville’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art scoured the nation looking for creators whose work deserved or demanded recognition. Dozens of artists were selected to display their work at the Bentonville museum. The resulting, dazzling and diverse exhibit wowed art experts and novices alike. The good news is that “State of the Art” won’t be a wonder of the one-hit variety. Crystal Bridges’ will open early next year its new and highly anticipated exhibit space the Momentary in Bentonville, with “State of the Art 2020.” Once again, the museum staff has crisscrossed the country looking for artists with something unique and challenging to say. The 60 artists selected for next year’s show are in for a real treat and, perhaps, a life-changing artistic experience. Same goes for those of us lucky enough to see it.