Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer and the nation’s largest private employ-er, is making a pledge to hire every recently discharged vet-eran who wants a job.

The plan is set to be an-nounced as part of an address delivered in New York on Tues-day at the annual retail industry

convention by Bill Simon, pres-ident and CEO of Wal-Mart’s namesake U.S. business.

Wal-Mart, based in Benton-ville, Ark., says it projects it will hire more than 100,000 veterans in the next five years. Honorably discharged veterans will have a “place to go”, says Wal-Mart’s Simon, according to prepared text supplied by the discounter. The hiring pledge, which will begin on Memorial

Day, covers veterans within 12 months of leaving active duty. Most of the jobs will be in Wal-Mart’s stores or its Sam’s club locations. Some will be in the company’s distribution centers.

“Let’s be clear; hiring a vet-eran can be one of the best decisions any of us can make,” Simon plans to say in his ad-dress to retailers gathered on the third day of the four-day Na-tional Retail Federation conven-

tion. “Veterans have a record of performance under pressure. They’re quick learners, and they’re team players. These are leaders with discipline, train-ing, and a passion for service. There is a seriousness and sense of purpose that the mili-tary instills, and we need it to-day more than ever.”

The company says that it has spoken to the White House about its commitment, and said the First Lady Michelle Obama’s team has already ex-pressed an interest in working with Wal-Mart and with the rest of the business community.

In the next several weeks, the White House will convene the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of De-fense and major U.S. employ-ers to encourage businesses to make significant commitments to train and employ American’s returning veterans, according to Simon’s prepared text.

First lady Michelle Obama, who’s spearheaded a White House drive to encourage busi-nesses to hire veterans, praised Wal-Mart’s announcement, call-ing it “historic.”

Wal-Mart which also oper-ates Sam’s Clubs, employs more than 1.4 million workers in the U.S.

Associated Press writer Mark S. Smith contributed to this re-port from Washington, D.C.

Tuesday brought Henderson some icy weather. The day also punctuated the provost search that has been ongoing since this summer.

Yesterday, Dr. Glendell Jones announced that Dr. Risa Dick-son will be the school’s next provost and vice president of academic affairs.

A reception was held follow-ing her acceptance of the new title.

“I am so excited to join Presi-dent Jones in moving Hender-son forward,” Dickson said in her announcement speech.

She explained her vitality for progressing the university to “a premiere institution.”

She also commended the university for its impact on the community and its alumni.

Dickson expressed interest in “developing exciting and cre-ative programs and to get peo-ple motivated in terms of ‘who we want to be.’”

“Our first job is to find out where we are and work for-ward from there.” Dickson said later. “Our vision and mission need to come from strong com-munication.”

Dickson has had a long range of experience at every level of the university hierarchy and says that her “unique perspec-tive” should be an asset to her role as provost.

“I am very excited,” Dickson said. “You should feel com-

fortable approaching me with ideas, it’s your university. I love to work with students.”

Dickson currently resides in California and will begin mov-ing to Arkansas soon to assume her role as the new provost. Although she is moving from California, this is not her first rodeo (so to speak) with living in the south.

Dickson is originally from Tulsa and is embracing the op-

portunity to live in the south.Dickson earned her Ph.D at

University of Southern Califor-nia in interpersonal and orga-nizational communication in 1991, according to her resume.

She has served as associate provost for academic person-nel at California State Univer-sity, San Bernardino from 2010 to the beginning of her tenure as provost here at Henderson. She also served as a professor

in the department of commu-nication studies. Since August 2012 Dickson has been attend-ing the Becoming a Provost Academy, a program created with the purpose of preparing leaders for their potential posi-tions of provost in colleges and universities.

She will be a part of this pro-gram until June of 2013.

Other qualities and skills Dickson has had experience

with in her career as associate provost for academic person-nel include personnel manage-ment, institutional research, re-tention, promotion and tenure processes, faculty recruiting and hiring processes and many more, according to Dickson’s resume.

Dickson believes a liberal arts education is a powerful tool. This is why Henderson ap-peals to her.

Features

Diversions

Sports

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2013 HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY VOLUME 105, ISSUE 15

Compiled by staffThe Oracle

Dickson chosen as Henderson’s new provost

MOVING AND SHAKING New provost and vice president of academic affairs Dr. Risa Dickson is shown above (left) shaking hands with Dr. Clint Atchley, professor of English and director of the Master of Liberal Arts program.

Photo by Ryan Klare/Oracle

Photo courtesy of Steve Fellers

Suspect in Arkadelphia slayings due in court

SNOWED OUT Around 1 p.m. classes were cancelled at Henderson due to a wintry mix of of precipitation. The Garrison center closed at 2 p.m. In an e-mail from Maralyn Sommer, interim provost, it appears that classes will go on as usual Wednesday morning.

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (AP) — A suspect in the deaths of two young Arkansas girls and their stepfather is due in court for arraignment.

Riakos Lizana is due to go before a judge Tuesday in Arkadelphia.

Lizana was arrested in De-cember in connection with the deaths of 4-year-old Mar-ley Crutchfield, 6-year-old Adiele Crutchfield and the girls’ stepfather, 40-year-old Bobby Jean Galbraith.

Police say a baby was also found unharmed at the Arka-delphia home where the bod-ies of the girls and their step-father were found.

Lizana is being held at the Clark County Jail without bond on three capital murder charges.

The local public defender’s office did not respond to a phone message for comment on Monday.

Wire reportAssociated Press

Wal-Mart pledges to hire 100,000-plus veterans Anne D’InnocenzioAssociated Press

Who doesn’t love a little friendly competition? At the beginning of every year we are bombarded by award show af-ter award show and while they are all prestigious in their own way, it seems like the Academy Awards is the show on every-one’s minds.

This year has been an amaz-ing year for movies and the Oscars are proof of that. With movies like: “Argo,” “Silver Lin-ings Playbook,” “Django Un-chained,” “Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” all nominated for best picture it is sure to be not only a fun year at the Oscars but one that the general public can get behind.

The last few years haven’t necessarily been too exciting in the awards department. “The Artist” is a great movie but wasn’t really available for ev-eryone to see until the awards were already handed out.

This year the four major cat-egories are filled with movies that have been accessible to the average movie goer and it is shaping up to be a close race.

In the Best Actor in a Lead-ing Role we have: Bradley Coo-per, Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Jackman, Joaquin Phoenix and Denzel Washington.

I honestly haven’t seen “Les Miserables” or “Flight” so I can’t judge Jackman or Wash-

ington but from seeing Cooper, Day-Lewis and Phoenix in their respective roles I can tell you that there is no way anyone can match their performances.

As much as I enjoyed Phoe-nix in “The Master” I just can’t see him winning, especially against the man who portrayed one of America’s greatest presi-dents.

My gut tells me that Day-Lewis has it in the bag but my heart wants Cooper to win. His performance blew me away in “Silver Linings Playbook” and it would be cool to see it go to someone who hasn’t won be-fore.

There are only two movies I’ve seen in the Best Actress in a Leading Role categories and they are “Silver Linings Play-book” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” I’ve heard great things from the others but can’t really judge their performances.

If I had to narrow it down to three nominees they would be Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Law-rence and Emmanuelle Riva.

I honestly think it will go to Chastain. She pretty carried a three hour movie almost by herself while Lawrence had the help of Cooper. Besides, Lawrence is young and has her whole career ahead of her.

From what I’ve heard about the foreign film “Amour” I wouldn’t be surprised if Em-manuelle Riva snuck up and won. Now to get into the two

categories every filmmaker longs to be nominated for: Best Director and Best Picture.

Best Director is a category that has probably snubbed the most people over the last 85 years and this year is no excep-tion. The two biggest this year were Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck. This may be my fanboy coming out but I think the academy should have at least given Christopher Nolan a nod. I know “Dark Knight Ris-es” wasn’t spectacular but this is like the fourth time he has been snubbed.

The same goes for Quentin Tarantino. He has only been nominated for “Inglorious Basterds” and “Pulp Fiction” and neither have won him an award.

Tarantino himself has said he doesn’t know how many more good movies he has in him and it would be awesome to see him get an award before he retires.

Between the nominees Ste-ven Spielberg, Ang Lee and David O. Russell are the most know but it seems like there is a lot of buzz over Benh Zeit-lin’s directing of “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

If I were a betting man I would put my money on Zeit-lin but Lee and Spielberg have both won before so it could go any way.

Best Picture is the largest and most prestigious category the academy has. This year

there are nine movies that have made the cut: “Amour,” “Argo,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Mis-erables,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”

With this many great movies nominated there is no way for me to make a legitimate predic-tion because anyone could take home the prize.

If I had to pick the top four it would be between: “Argo,” “Sil-ver Linings Playbook,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Lincoln.” These aren’t the best four mov-

ies on the list but they are the most likely to win in my opin-ion.

I’ve already given my vote to “Silver Linings Playbook” be-cause it is one of the best mov-ies I’ve seen in a long time. It is the closest thing to a perfect film and it deserves to be rec-ognized.

No matter who you want to win, it easy to say that 2012 has been an awesome year for mov-ies and movie goers. So cast your votes and place your bets because we’re in for a heck of a competition.

PAGE 2 JANUARY 16, 2013FeaturesAlumnus’ unique passion informs local culture

J.D. RobertsStaff Writer

85th Academy Awards picks

There’s something about 2 o’clock in the morning that makes cereal so much better. This early morning rendezvous with my cereal however, was different. Normally, I would sit down in front of the television and waste my time mocking the ridiculous infomercials but this morning I found an odd surprise, belly dance. Not just any belly dancing though, belly dancing in America. Fantastic, I don’t need a new waffle iron anyway.

I settled in about 10 min-utes into the documentary and was starting to reconsider the waffle iron idea. The dancing reminded me of my days as a cheerleader in high school. My face can still feel the spasms from all the fake smil-ing I was forced to do. And the outfits, dear Zeus, brightly col-ored silks screaming through the TV at my bloodshot eyes. I learned that this was Cabaret style belly dancing. Chances are if you know nothing about belly dancing and you had to give it your best description, this would be it. Out of sheer boredom and my restraint from buying that sweet waffle iron, I kept watching.

Just when I had about enough of the neon colors scratching my eyeballs this petite dancer wearing black came across the screen. The cheerios were gon-na have to wait, I was stunned. Her movement was not big and boisterous but slow, controlled, and grounded. Her arms were adorned with huge bracelets and big white lilies surrounded her head with cowry shells

hanging down past her shoul-ders. She defied logic. I was convinced she was an alien because no one moves like that. Who knows how long I sat there but when I could feel my eyelids sticking to my eyes I knew it was time to refocus.

At this point I had lost my spoon somewhere in the couch and the cat was drinking the milk from my bowl I had ne-glected. None of that mattered, by god I knew I had work to do. I listened long enough to catch her name. Rachel Brice. I scribbled it down on a stray post it and pinned it on my cork-board with five thumb tacks. Seeing as I had no internet I sat there in my room, mind going ninety miles an hour. As soon as the sun came up I was going to make a bee line across the yard to my grandparents and look up the alien woman on the internet.

What started out as a mere search became a full on quest the next day from sun up to sun down. I was like a sponge, ab-sorbing all this new knowledge I had never been exposed to growing up in Mena. I came across another woman that was similar to Rachel Brice named Zoe Jakes. I remember think-ing, after seeing Jakes’ perfor-mance at Tribal Fest, I want to do this, surely I can.

Now you can only tie up your grandparents phone lines for so long before they kick you out and I had reached that point. I walked across the yard kicking the grass and thinking about this whole new world. Where do I get started? Who teaches around here? These questions were not answered since no one really taught in the area, but I was not yet willing to give up on this idea. Taking everything I soaked up from YouTube and dragging the biggest mirror in the house to my room I tried the only thing I could think of, imitation.

If someone had been a fly on the wall they would have died from laughing that day. I’m still grateful that no one ever caught a glimpse of those early prac-tice days. But with a little de-termination and digging from past dance experience I was able to start imitating some of what I saw. It was the furthest thing from pretty but it was a toe in the right direction. The next few months were a wash,

rinse, and repeat; I would scour the web for hours and then scurry home and imitate every-thing I saw.

The day came when I ob-tained my first DVD that Rachel Brice produced. This was my first dose of yoga as well. The introduction of yoga made me realize the level of dedication this dance actually requires. Instead of getting discouraged it motivated me to push myself to learn one new technique each day.

Through all my frenzied practices and excited talk of my new found hobby I found a group of young women in the area that were also interested in the dance.

I began meeting with these ladies once a week, bouncing ideas and techniques around and starting to actually feel like I was a dancer.

It was bound to happen and I knew it, my first performance. I had been teaching myself belly dance for roughly a year and meeting up with other dancers for three months and it was time to show what I had learned. I was afraid that my sweaty palms were going to cause me to stab my eye out with the eyeliner pencil. Not only was I nervous due to the little amount of technique I had, but Mena isn’t known as a mecca for belly dance either. I doubt many there know that square dancing isn’t the only form of dance in the world.

Of course my worries were only partly right, I didn’t trip of my pants or lose my headdress and I didn’t slip and bust it on stage either, that was a relief. However the towns’ reception of us left a lot to be desired. It was the first time I had been

told, behind my back of course, that what I was doing was vul-gar and lewd. Some audience members even told me to my face that thought it was all dis-tasteful. I smiled and simply told them that it was not. I real-ized after my first performance that I was going against the grain of where I lived and a part of me did not care one bit.

Years passed along with many restless nights of practice and doubts about it all. I have since transferred to another college and even met the woman that ignited my passion, Zoe Jakes. Even though I’m still in Arkan-sas, I’ve seen things change for the world of belly dance, even in Mena.

I’ve performed in my home-town numerous times since my first performance and each year the reactions are better and better.

Cassandra ParksGuest columnist

GRACEFUL GROOVE Cassandra Parks is shown posing as Gianna St. Grace, her stage persona she uses for bellydancing performances.

Photo courtesy of Max Slaughter Photography

Photo courtesy of Devin Castle

YOUTH IN REVOLT Quvenzhane Wallis portrays Hushpuppy in a scene from “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Wallis was nominated for an Acad-emy Award for best actress.

Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Fox Searchlight Pictures, Mary Cybulski

JANUARY 16, 2013 PAGE 3Diversions

Henderson State’s basket-ball team fell to Arkansas Tech 75-63 on Saturday, Jan. 12 in Russellville.

Henderson, 8-5 overall and 3-4 in the Great American Con-ference, began with a 5-0 lead with two good free throws by Andre Ensley and a three-point shot by Jonathan Fitzgerald.

Arkansas Tech made their first point of the game with a la-yup made by Kendell Pinkney to make the score 5-2 with 17:40 remaining in the first half of the game.

With 15:00 left in the first half, the Reddies had a 13-7 gain over Arkansas Tech with two good three-point shots by Melvin Haynes.

Arkansas Tech tied the game at 13-13 with 13:39 left in the first half. Henderson then took the lead again with a layup by Matt Nicholson.

Arkansas Tech tied the game up once again when Wil-lie Kirkland made a good jump shot with 12:22 left in the first half.

Arkansas Tech then took the lead making the score 20-17 when Henderson’s Joe McCoy made a good three-point shot to tie the game up with 8:00 remaining in the half. Arkan-sas Tech returned with a layup made by Marshawn Arnold.

The two teams fought for the top spot in the game for the rest of the half.The half ended with a layup by McCoy for Henderson to have the upper hand in the game with a one-point lead of 33-32.

The teams traded leads four times and were tied five times during the fight for lead.

In the first half Henderson

made eighty percent of their free throws and forty five per-cent of their three-pointers.

The second half began with Arkansas Tech taking the lead with a dunk by their Charles Mells.

Henderson struggled for the

remainder of the game to keep up with Arkansas Tech, bring-ing the score back up to 37-36.

Arkansas Tech still in the lead, with a three-pointer made by Peri James.

17:52 remained in the game. Arkansas Tech then started

to take their lead in the game not letting Henderson catch up for the remaining minutes.

With 10:21 left in the game, Fitzgerald made a good layup to bring the score to 55-46.

Henderson was still left un-able to catch up to Arkansas

Tech, who maintained the lead in the gamev.

Henderson’s Fitzgerald lat-er made a good free throw to make the score 56-52.

Arkansas Tech was still in the lead with 7:31 remaining in the second half.

The last play for Hender-son in the game was with Ensley’s layup to make the score 69-63.

Arkansas Tech shot their final point with a free throw shot made by Kirkland to end the game 75-63.

Arkansas Tech out-re-bounded the Reddies 29-14 in the second half of the game.

Henderson was able to make 20 percent of their three-pointers in the second half and 33 percent for the total game.

The Reddies made 57 per-cent of their free throws in the second half and a total of sixty six percent.

Fitzgerald led the Reddies in scoring by having 16 points and four assists.

McCoy finished the game with a total of ten points for the Reddies.

Ensley made his seventh double-double of the season ending with 14 points and eleven rebounds for Hender-son.

Arkansas Tech’s Kirk-land led the scorers of the game with twenty six good points.

Pinkney made 10 points for Arkansas Tech.

Arkansas Tech shot fifty percent for the game to make them 29-for-58 from the field. Henderson will host the next

game to Southwestern Okla-homa on Thursday, Jan. 17 at the Duke Wells Center.

Tipoff is set for 7:30Additional reporting by Troy

Mitchell.

PAGE 4 JANUARY 16, 2013SportsHenderson falls 75-63 to Arkanas Tech

NEVER QUIT Henderson’s Joe McCoy (picture above) finished the game against Arkansas Tech with a total of 10 points with Henderson falling 75-63.

Photo by Ryan Klare

Kaitlyn KitchensSports Editor