Higher education notebook

UAM official set to leave key post

A vice chancellor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello is stepping down and going into the private sector.

Jay Jones has worked as vice chancellor for finance and administration since he joined the university in 2006. He served as interim chancellor in 2015, and in 2016 became the interim vice chancellor for advancement. Last year, he also became the third person ever to earn an honorary degree from the university.

The Helena native’s last day is April 14, and the university did not say last week what the plans were to fill the job.

Jones has worked as controller and as vice chancellor for finance at Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas before moving to Monticello. He has been a certified public accountant since 1989.

UAMS will train volunteer leaders

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is holding its inaugural Patient Scientist Academy this week.

The academy starts Thursday and will continue each Thursday throughout April from 10 a.m. to noon. It will provide training for those interested in volunteer leadership roles to help the academic medical center’s clinical research programs match patient needs, according to a news release.

As a part of the academy, participants will take part in roundtable discussions and interactive sessions on how researchers decide what health issues to study, how research is conducted and the benefits of research involvement.

The free training will be held at UAMS’ main campus in Little Rock. More information is available from Nicki Spencer at ndspencer@uams.edu or at (501) 526-6629.

Scottish heritage honored at Lyon

Lyon College will hold its 38th annual Arkansas Scottish Festival from Friday to Sunday.

The festival, once known as the Ozark Scottish Festival, celebrates the college’s roots: its Scottish heritage and Presbyterian affiliation, according to a news release. The festivities will kick off Friday with a Celtic concert in the campus’ Brown Chapel. Admission is $10, or free to children under age 18.

It will continue at 8 a.m. Saturday with a Scottish breakfast at the Batesville school’s dining hall and will be followed by music, solo piping and drumming competitions, sheepdog demonstrations, Highland dancing demonstrations, children’s games and a British car show. A parade is scheduled for 1 p.m., and an awards ceremony will be held later that afternoon. The night will close with a feast and dancing.

Sunday’s events will start at 8:30 a.m. with an outdoor worship service. Admission to the festival on Saturday and Sunday is free.

The college will also hold the Tartan Mountain Bike and Trail Race, which includes a 5K trail run, a 10K trail run, a 10-mile mountain bike race and the kilted mile, where competitors in kilts run a mile. More information is available at lyon.edu/trail race. Proceeds will benefit the maintenance of the college’s trail system.

The private college is also hosting a book sale to benefit the library. Donors may drop off books, DVDs and CDs at the campus’ Mabee-Simpson Library. More information is available at (870) 307-7206 or at camille.beary@lyon.edu.

Museum curator to visit Fort Smith

A Metropolitan Museum of Art curator will speak at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith on Tuesday.

Barbara Drake Boehm, the Paul and Jill Ruddock Senior Curator for The Met Cloisters in New York, will come to the university to talk about the “vibrant and animated approach to decorated letters at the beginning of books made during the Middle Ages,” according to a news release. The free lecture starts at 5 p.m. at the university’s theater of Windgate Art & Design, 535 N. Waldron Road, and includes a reception at 6 p.m.

Boehm has written about the topic and has co-authored Jerusalem, 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven, an exhibition at the New York art museum that looks into the role Jerusalem took in shaping art during those four centuries. She has also worked to acquire several illuminations of Italian choir books for the museum’s collection.