Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes final project proposal. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-168, 62-69).

For years Arkansas voted for Republicans in blue. From post-Reconstruction to industrialization and civil rights, Arkansas maintained a conservative ideology while aligning itself with the Democratic Party. In the late 20th century, the South shifted to the right, but the Natural State stayed loyal to the left and its traditional voting tactics. It would not be until the 21st century that Arkansans would recognize that the national Democratic Party did not represent their views. By the 2014 midterm elections, Arkansas’s long time conservatism, newly developed industry and demographic changes coalesced into a partisan change. Arkansas embraced red.

The purpose of the study was to make an assessment of Arkansas middle school/junior high art programs using National Art Education Association standards. Data were collected from questionnaires, curriculum guides, and school visitations. Participating in the study were 127 schools enrolling 53,502 students of which 14,755 (28%) were taking art classes. For comparisons, the state was divided into five regions.

The purpose of this study was to determine the personal reading interests of students in the third, fourth and fifth grades and to determine if advances in technology in the past twenty years have changed their reading interests.

This study focuses on the causes and consequences of depopulation in the Lower Mississippi Valley during the Protohistoric period (ca. AD 1500-1700). The Protohistoric period in the region is characterized by indirect and infrequent contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, dramatic population losses and/or regional abandonments accompanied the collapse, transformation, and coalescence of Native American societies during this period across the interior southeastern United States. The causes and timing of these phenomena, however, were often multiple and occurred in a time-transgressive manner. The goal of the research presented in this dissertation was the identification of the forces and processes of cultural and demographic change that were responsible for transformation experienced by a Late Mississippian population represented by the Tillar Complex in southeast Arkansas during the Protohistoric period. Multiple lines of evidence, including archaeological, historical and environmental data, were employed to test a multi-causal model of population decline, adaptation, and abandonment of Bayou Bartholomew by Tillar phase peoples sometime during the seventeenth century. The external forces hypothesized to have been catalysts that drove social and cultural transformations and eventual depopulation include the military expedition of Hernando De Soto, disease, and a series of prolonged droughts that impacted large areas of the Southeast in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to compare the staging of the Passion Play of Oberammergau, Germany, with the staging of The Great Passion Play on Mount Oberammergau, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Source material includes literary writings of the century concerning Passion plays, interview with the directors of both productions, and eyewitness accounts of the 1970 producation in Germany and the 1970, 1971 producations in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, U.S.A. Photographs of actors and scenes from both productions are used throughout the thesis.

Commercial thinning in the South is a highly efficient mechanized operation which operates year round. Southern winters are typically wet; therefore, the potential for soil rutting and compaction exists when heavy machines are used. This study was undertaken to determine if mechanized thinning in wet weather impacted the soils and affected tree growth. Soil and tree growth data were collected from two natural loblolly pine stands located in the coastal plain of Arkansas that were thinned 4-5 years previously. The Demonstration Area was 1.9 acres in size and 26 years old, with a site index of 50 feet (base age 25). The second study area, the Deer Camp Area, was 4.0 acres in size and 31 years old, with a site index of 60 feet (base age 25). The soil physical conditions in both study areas were not significantly impacted by the mechanized thinning operation. In general, the soils had bulk densities below 1.3 Mg/m³, approximately 15% macropore space, 30% micropore space, and ruts were generally less than 6 inches deep. Trees growing greater than 12 feet from the skidding corridors were compared with trees growing 0-12 feet from the skidding corridors. In both study areas, radial growth of the trees next to the corridors exceeded that of those between corridors after thinning. Other results varied by site. On the Demonstration Area the trees in the 0-12 foot zone had larger DBHs and crown widths than the trees between corridors; but the trees growing more than 12 feet from the corridor were taller than the trees growing within 12 feet of the corridor. In the Deer Camp Area, the trees within 12 feet of the corridor had larger DBHs, total heights, and heights to the live crown than the trees growing more than 12 feet from the corridor. The main reason tree growth next to the corridors exceeded that of trees between corridors ( > 12 feet from corridor) was because of heavier thinning in the areas closer to the corridor. The only post-thinning growth reductions were found in trees growing near the deepest ruts (i.e. >6 inches deep). In both study areas, these trees had extremely poor radial growth responses after the mechanized thinning, increasing only 1.6% in the Demonstration Area and decreasing 4.7% in the Deer Camp Area. The trees located on ruts less than 6 inches deep had the highest radial growth responses to the thinning operation. The trees on 3-6 inch ruts responded 20.2% in the Demonstration Area and 28.6% in the Deer Camp Area; on 0-3 inch deep ruts, the trees responded 15.0% and 23.3%, respectively. Bole damage was also found to reduce the growth of residual loblolly pine. Damaged trees growing within 6 feet of the rut had the lowest increase in radial growth after thinning. On both study areas, the damaged trees located more than 6 feet from the rut did not seem to be adversely affected by the bole damage. Overall, mature loblolly pine seems tolerant of small amounts of soil disturbance and basal damage, but, if both occur, then tree growth is severely reduced. / Master of Science

This paper examines the various responses of progressive white southern clergy to school desegregation events in Arkansas. I investigate why no major white clerical movement emerged to support civil rights, arguing that internal and external factors limited their genuinely motivated witness. National and local clergy endorsed Brown for both religious and practical reasons, arguing that segregation was counter to Christian brotherhood and hurt worldwide evangelism. However, like William Chafe’s progressives in Greensboro, too many clergy worked for school desegregation but ignored African American voices, believing that their demands unnecessarily inflamed the local opposition and unfortunately urged patience and civility instead of justice. Furthermore, clerical intervention proved to be less effective than ministers expected. Sympathetic clergy experienced physical harassment and congregational opposition for speaking out, and local communities simply ignore their messages.

Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / David R. Steward / The Ogallala Aquifer is a supply of water for several municipalities in western Kansas, as well as an irrigation source for local farmers. Since the 1950’s, when the aquifer started to be pumped for irrigation, the region has seen steady declines of the groundwater table. These declines have reduced stream flow in the Arkansas and Cimarrron Rivers, and caused a redistribution of riparian phreatophytes. This thesis studies this redistribution of phreatophytes, and develops statistical relationships relating a phreatophyte’s location to depth to groundwater, increase in depth to groundwater, distance from a stream or river, and hydrologic soil group. Remote sensing was used to determine tree locations on predevelopment and post-development aerial photography. These locations were mapped using ArcGIS, and ArcAEM was used to model groundwater flow in six riparian regions taking root uptake into account. It was found that once the depth to groundwater becomes greater than about 3 m, tree population will decrease as depth to water increases. Trees were located within 700 m of the river. Areas with a dense tree population (>10% tree cover) occurred where the average depth to water ranged from 0.24-1.4 m. Areas with moderate tree density (5-10% tree cover) corresponded to an average depth to water ranging from 2.1-19 m. Areas with a low tree density (<5% tree cover) corresponded to an average depth to water ranging from 11-28 m. It was found that phreatophytes have a high likelihood of growing on hydrologic soil group A and a low likelihood of growing on hydrologic soil group B. The number of trees located on hydrologic soil group D was what would be statistically expected if tree location were independent of soil type. It was also found that tree locations could be used as an indicator of good hydraulic connectivity between surface water and groundwater. This information can be used to help guide future installation of monitoring networks and expand research projects from central Kansas to western Kansas.