Little Rock Main Library

Thursday I had a quiet morning to myself (or so I thought).  I walked over to Little Rock’s main library to catch up on work while playing phone tag with John Jasik who was trying to make my travel arrangements to the Ukraine.  I was finally able to talk with him and get my itinerary worked out.  I was looking forward to the trip to the Ukraine.   After working for a little while in the library, I walked over to Ashley’s at noon to have lunch with Julia Busfield, one of our alumna.  She is a partner in the firm Busfield & Duggar.  I’d never met her and Dean Miller suggested that I look her up while I was in town.  She and I had a very lively lunch discussion.  It was great to meet her and I’m hoping that she’ll come up and visit the Law School sometime.  Thanks very much Julia for making time in your busy schedule to visit with me.   

After lunch there I was able to get back to work for a while and to get ready for the Arkansas Democratic Black Caucus Annual King/Kennedy Dinner which was held at the Wyndham Hotel in North Little Rock.  Rep. Linda Chesterfield (who happens to be a Soror) is the organizer of the King/Kennedy Dinner.  The dinner is named in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John Fitzgerald Kennedy whose lives paralleled each other and who gave their lives in the pursuit of those ideals which epitomize the Democratic Party.  This year’s event also celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the NAACP, and the decisive role that NAACP has played in the lives of Arkansans and the American people.  I was very honored by the fact that the W. Harold Flowers Law Society nominated me for the Thomas E. “Pat” Patterson Education Award and I was selected to receive that award.  I was very much looking forward to the evening’s events and very grateful to my colleagues in the Flowers Society for thinking of me (and a special nod to Hester Criswell, President of the Flowers Law Society this year).  

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Razorback Day at the Capitol

Why was I returning to Little Rock you might ask, after having been there the week before? Well, it was Razorback Day at the Capitol! It began at 11:00 a.m. which meant a bright and early departure time. I had several events scheduled after that on Thursday and Friday, so that meant packing, getting ready, and getting out on time to arrive for Razorback Day. I managed to do that and rolled into Little Rock a little before 11:00 a.m. The opening rally was held at the Old Train Depot. The area where we met was called Next Level Events. Lunch was provided and the menu included spaghetti and meat
sauce, fettuccini with cream sauce, caesar salad and garlic bread. Chancellor Gearhart welcomed the group and introduced Governor Mike Beebe who spoke about the legislative session, fiscal issues, and his commitment to restoring higher education’s revenue shortfalls once the economic situation improves. Following his remarks, Vice Chancellor Athletic Director Jeff Long introduced Coach Bobby Petrino who spoke to the group. In addition to Coach Petrino and Vice Chancellor Long, Mike Macechko also spoke.  After lunch everyone was shuttled over to the Capitol building where Tusk the hog was parked out front. While the UA supporters entered the Capitol building, the Razorback Band was playing in the second floor rotunda. Accompanying them
were cheerleaders and the mascots. You could hear the Razorback enthusiasm echo all throughout the Capitol building. Following the UA pep rally, many of us went to the House and the Senate to visit with our local legislators and a group of us even went into the Senate Gallery where Chancellor Gearhart was to address that body.

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Prof. Guzman

Monday was a very, very busy day.  It started (as usual) with Pilates with Claudia at Studio Pilates followed by an early morning meeting to plan a reception for Prof. Guzman.  As many of you know, Prof. Guzman retired as of last year.  However, this is the last class of students who had an opportunity to have been in one of his classes, so we wanted those students to be able to say goodbye to him.  As it turned out, he was going to be in town to pack up his belongings, so the meeting that morning was to think about how to put on a nice event. 

Later that morning I met with Tim Tarvin and Emily Bridges.  They are the heros behind the Legal e-Source program.  If you haven’t visited our Legal e-Source website, you should.  It has received national recognition.  It’s a website that serves as a resource for non-profit organizations and gives them basic information on various legal issues they may face.  Prof. Tarvin and Emily were coming to meet with me about looking for grant funding to continue to develop and maintain the Legal e-Source website. The grants that we currently have will be expiring at the end of this spring.
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Denise Hoggard and myself

Saturday, February 7, Denise Hoggard, who has been featured in the blog before and who is a wonderful friend, cooked me breakfast.  It was fantastic!  I felt very loved.  She cooked hashbrowns, ham, bacon, eggs, biscuits, mocha and fruit.  It was fantastic (did I already say that? well, you all know that I’m a foodie, so . . . anyone who cooks for me gets big love).  Thank you very much, Denise.  Afterwards, we sat around, digested and visited.  I have to say it was a little bit tough to get on the road after that, but I was certainly a much happier camper after her gracious hospitality.  All in all it had been a fabulous week and a good end to the week.  It was time to get home, unpack, and get ready for church on Sunday and to prepare for the next week.

On Friday, February 6, I started out at 9:00 a.m. and met with Tom Carpenter who is our alum and City Attorney for Little Rock.  We had not met before but had a fabulous conversation.  It was very enjoyable.  We talked about everything from race, to the tasks of city attorneys, some of the most interesting challenges, and what’s happening in Little Rock.  It was quite interesting.  Tom indicated an interest in having student externs work in his office and we are very excited about that.  A number of students have already indicated an interest and we will be following up with him about that.  Thanks very much, Tom.  I know his day is probably, well I could see it, from the number of calls and people stopping in, that he has a very busy day and I am very grateful to him for taking time out to meet with me.

Dept. of Veteran's Affairs in Little Rock

At noon I met with one of my favorite folks, John Snell.  He is an alum and was in the same class as Terry Smith who came over and helped me clear my yard.  In fact, years ago he and Terry actually came over and bolstered my front porch after I had a student group over and somebody fell through the stairs (long story).  He truly is a good friend.  He works in the Regional Counsel’s office for the Department of Veterans Affairs.  I hadn’t seen him for a long time, at least not to be able to sit down and catch up, so we had lunch together at Copper Grill.  And you know what?  I don’t even know what I was thinking, but I didn’t take any pictures on the 6^th!   We had a great visit.  He keeps up with a lot of the folks in his class and it was good for me to hear what they were doing.  I really appreciate you John for driving over to have lunch.

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Women Featured in AY Magazine

Bright and early at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday I had to show up at Jason Masters Studio on Main Street which is located in the Block Two Loft, for the photo shoot for AY Magazine.  As you know, 8:30 a.m. is early to be photo ready so after dinner I went right to bed and got up early to look spiffy for the photo shoot the next day.  It was really a blast.  It was fun to meet all the other women.  They were (as you might imagine) pretty spunky and I’m very honored to be amongst them.  The shoot was a fun time and during it we got to know each other a little bit.  I know what you’re asking, “Who else was featured?,” but you’ll just have to pick up AY Magazine in March and see for yourself.   After the photo shoot, I asked if we might take some pictures on my own camera for the blog and here they are, but they aren’t going to be nearly as fun as the professional photos done by Jason, so you’ll just have to watch for that.

Dining Room in Brave New Restaurant

At 11:30 a.m. I drove out to meet Jack Lavey who is a long time union and employee side labor and employment lawyer.  He has been a very good friend to me and workers in the State of Arkansas.  Jack befriended me not long after I arrived here in Arkansas and has kept up with me over the course of my career.  He’s been an encouragement and good buddy.  I wanted to see him and to spend time with him and to let him know I’ve been thinking about him and how much I appreciate him.  He and I went to lunch at Brave New Restaurant which is a wonderful restaurant and has a terrific view.  I think I was still suffering from my cold house.  I couldn’t get warm, so I had a bowl of soup and a salad.  It was delicious.  It was called a “Spinach and Brave New Shrimp Salad.”  It was baby spinach tossed with pears, walnuts, Stilton cheese, and vinaigrette, topped with Brave New Shrimp and caper berries.  Jack had a salmon sandwich which looked fabulous.  We talked everything – politics, the election, labor – it kind of reminded me of my pre-Dean days.  It was really good to catch up with Jack.  We have a number of close mutual friends and I was able to find out what was going on in Little Rock from a progressive perspective.  I very much enjoyed my time with him.  Thanks very much Jack, for the treat.  It certainly was a double treat to be able to spend time with you.

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Amy Bower of AY Magazine

Wednesday, February 4, started with a request for information from a legislator and we scrambled to get that information in on time.  It was some pretty detailed budget information about the law school.  Once we got that out, I had an interview at 1:30 p.m. with Amy Bower of AY Magazine because I will be featured in the March edition as one of the top ten most powerful women in Arkansas in the category of law.  I’ve been teasing the folks around me saying I think it’s a lot more fun to be a top ten hottie at 50, but as one of our young alums, Chris Nebben reminded me, being a powerful woman is hot for guys who are smart.  So, I’ll take that compliment!  I’m very honored to be featured in AY Magazine.  Amy and I completed the interview that afternoon.  At 2:00 p.m. that afternoon we had a quick meeting to go over the upcoming events for the semester.  Michele Payne would be out for three weeks due to surgery, and the trooper that she is, she wanted to make sure that everything was in order before she left.  I very much appreciate her.  She is a delight to work with, very organized, and keeps me on task.

Frere Roger Shutz, Founder of the Taize Ecumenical Community

Right after our meeting, I left for Little Rock and attended a Taizé service at 5:30 p.m.  A Taizé service is a service of prayer through song, words and contemplation.  It’s a very quiet, meditative reflective service.  A little bit about it . . . Taizé is the name of a village in the Burgundy region of France where a young Swiss theologian named Roger Shutz founded a Christian ecumenical community at the beginning of World War II.  He wanted to work for peace and help Jewish refugees by celebrating Christian unity.  His dream was to live in community with others who would practice the essential dimensions of the Gospel in a manner that would offer a response of Christian Reconciliation and hope in the face of the horrors of the war.  Brother Roger, as he became to be known, founded such a place in Taizé.  Taizé worship, now held in most major cities in the world, could be said to provide a ring of prayer, constantly encircling the earth.  The service was held at First United Methodist Church in downtown Little Rock.  It’s held there the first Wednesday of every month and I was fortunate enough to be invited by my friend Steve Shults to attend the service with him that evening.  It was a wonderful way to stop in the middle of what had been a very hectic and challenging time and to be quiet, reflect, and become centered again.  I’m very grateful to him for the invitation and very much enjoyed that service.

Dinner at the Vermillion Water Grille

What I did after that was a lot of fun.  I checked into my usual hotel, the Hampton Inn in downtown Little Rock, and walked down to Vermillion Water Grille where I met Jane Kim, Chris Nebben and Cameron McCree for a rollicking, laughter filled evening and a wonderful dinner.  It was delightful to be with them.   They always make me laugh and lift my spirits and they were fantastically fun as always.  Thanks very much to Jane who treated me to dinner.  I didn’t expect that at all.  The treat was being with them.  By the way, let me add here for those of you who read the blog, if you’d like me to get in touch with you while I’m in Little Rock or to share a meal or break bread, just shoot me an e-mail at cnance@uark.edu or send me a Facebook message and I’ll certainly get in touch with you and we’ll set something up.

Provost McMath

The next day, Tuesday, February 3, started out with my monthly meeting with Provost McMath.  It was a brief meeting.  We just had a little bit of business to visit about, but it’s always good to touch base with your boss and let him know what’s going on.  It’s been a pleasure reporting to Provost McMath.  I guess the most important point of the meeting was I needed to get my IDEA (Individual Development and Educational Assessment) survey done.  It’s an electronic survey sent to the faculty and staff that allows them to rate our administrative team here at the law school.

Professor Elizabeth Young

Later that afternoon I had a brief meeting with Prof. Elizabeth Young.  It’s always good to see her and to catch up with what’s going on.  As you may remember, she is a new faculty member who joined us and has brought our Immigration Clinic on line.  She had some fabulous ideas for programs and outreach.  It’s great to have her aboard.  She is being recognized by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal as one of the “Fast 15.” Way to go, Elizabeth!  We are all very proud of you!

Later that day in my continuing quest to regrow my hair, I ventured up to Rogers.  But before I did that I went by the house because through Facebook I learned from those of you on Mt. Sequoyah that the power might be back on.  So after my meeting, I zoomed back out to the house and flipped the main circuit breaker and indeed the power came on!  And of course, you know what the first thing I did was, go in and turn the thermostat up so that when I came back my house would be warm.  After that I raced to Rogers so I wouldn’t be late for my hair appointment where Lora takes very good care of me.  It is growing back and I’m very grateful to her for that.  I missed a Women of Distinction meeting, but everything got scrambled coming back and facing down the ice storm.  I still did not have telephone or cable, but you know what?  It didn’t matter because the house was warm.  That was very important.  Ironically, Tuesday was to be my last day home that week for a little while because I was to head to Little Rock the next day.  It was nice to come back to a toasty house on Tuesday evening.

Monday morning, February 2, back to work after four days off.  I believe that’s the longest time the University has ever been closed in its history.  It was closed for a number of reasons, not only because of the ice itself, but the falling limbs, downed power lines, and unsafe conditions as the ice fell.  It had been a tough week for everybody.  It was good to get back.  I forgot to mention that my mom’s power came back on Saturday and Terry and I moved her from her temporary apartment back to her own apartment.

Monday it was important to touch bases with people in the building and making sure everyone was okay.  It had been a little bit stressful because many of our law school community were without phone (as well as power) and it was tough to catch up with people to know how they were doing.  It was good to see them around the building and know that folks were okay.  Believe it or not, I did go to Pilates.  It was warm, so that was a nice change.  We had a faculty meeting scheduled that day, but ended up canceling it.  It just didn’t seem like we had any business so important that we had to go forward with the faculty meeting.  It was best to give everyone a chance to get back into their classes, catch up a little bit, and get into the swing of things after the toughness of the week before.

At 1:30 p.m. I attended the Chancellor’s Administrative Policy Council meeting.  I think I’ve mentioned the CAPC meeting before.  It is an advisory group for the Chancellor.  It’s comprised of the broader constituency of the University.  As you might imagine, the focus was the ice storm, the things that still needed to done, what some of the ramifications were, and just plain information sharing.  One of the things that we learned at the meeting was that the Associated Student Government (ASG) was planning a clean up that Thursday.  I had to miss it because I had another trip to Little Rock.  The ASG officers had everything well organized and their efforts helped the Facilities Management people get a jump on some of the clean up.  Let me say something about that . . . there were a number of amazing members of the University of Arkansas community who came to campus and helped deal with the situation even as their own homes were without power and had damage from the storm and tree limbs.  The folks associated with the Physical Plant were here clearing sidewalks, hauling limbs and cutting dangling limbs from trees, even as they faced their own challenges at home.  The folks who serve food in the dorms and in the Union came in to work.  The folks who run the payroll for the University came in to make sure that the members of the community who didn’t have direct deposit were able to pick up their paychecks.  I want to say to those folks, we really appreciate you and the extraordinary service you rendered under very difficult conditions.

One of the worst ice storms in Northwest Arkansas history

I set out yesterday morning to try to get back to Fayetteville.  It didn’t turn out quite that way.  My flight left at 3:00 p.m., so I got up and got dressed, checked e-mail once again, read the paper, grabbed a quick bite of breakfast and headed to the airport.  The cab driver was talking about the weather, and he said that’s why he lives in Phoenix so he doesn’t get our kind of bad weather.  He said the worse they have to deal with is how hot it gets in the summer time, and when he sees tornados and ice storms in other places he’d much rather have the hot weather (so that was the ride to the airport).  I checked in for the flight which was delayed (as a lot of flights were because of the weather).  We arrived at Dallas and when we got there the flight to XNA was delayed and changed gates several times.  After finally boarding the flight, we got to XNA and the pilot came on the intercom system and told us that because of the very low visibility caused by fog, he would be unable to land.  He was going to try to circle and see if we could wait it out.  It got to a point where we had to make a decision because of fuel, so we ended up going over to Tulsa.

At Tulsa we were offered the option to either fly back the next day or get on a bus and be bussed back to Northwest Arkansas.  By this time it was 10:30-11:00 p.m. at night and I knew that even if I arrived at XNA all the shuttle drivers would be gone, and I didn’t have a way to get back to the house.  Plus it’s not a good idea to arrive at the house at 2:00 a.m. in the morning in icy conditions.  It seemed a better option to me to stay over for the night in Tulsa which is what I did.  The flight was then rescheduled for the next morning from Tulsa to XNA.  All we had to do the next day was check in and say, “I’d like to get back on my flight.” Well that sounded like an easy thing to do, but when I showed up at the airport at 7:00 a.m. in the morning for the 8:05 a.m. flight, there was a lot of confusion.  The flight didn’t show up because it wasn’t regularly scheduled and I didn’t have a ticket from Tulsa to XNA which of course made sense because there are no regular flights from Tulsa to XNA.  The supervisor came out and we got all that straightened out.  I checked my luggage and went upstairs to go through security.  I had not been issued a new boarding pass because this was a continuing flight.  Unfortunately the boarding pass I had had the date of the day before because, well of course, it was a continuation of a flight from the day before.  The TSA Agent would not let me through with the boarding pass that wasn’t dated with the current day’s date, so back down to the reservation clerk I went, who then called back upstairs to TSA and I was finally allowed through security. 

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