Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and K KUARFM, 89.

And hello again everyone, and thanks very much for joining us.

The world, the nation, our state, all still dealing with a pandemic we would prefer to believe is behind us.

It is not.

But there's another invisible peril, one that comes around every autumn except this year.

It's making itself felt earlier than usual and too significant, even lethal, effect.

More on that.

Coming up first, a landmark decision for a landmark institution.

After months of deliberation, the trustees of the University of Arkansas system this week chose Doctor Charles F Robinson.

As Chancellor of the flagship Fayetteville campus, he becomes the first African American to lead an institution.

Where faculty, staff and student diversity has long been an issue as a professor of history, Doctor Robinson came to Fayetteville 1/4 century ago and soon enough began climbing the administrative ladder and most recently was Provost and interim chancellor.

He comes to us now from Fayetteville via Skype.

Chancellor, thanks very much for joining us and congratulations.

Thanks, Steve.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

By all accounts.

By multiple.

Well, by all accounts, you had the, the enthusiastic support of your faculty and your staff and a great many in the corporate community and even in the political community.

Let's put it, but not at the top of the system administration.

Is that going to hamper your leadership?

Is that going to stymie your agenda in any way?

I don't think so.

I think end of the day the trustees did what they thought was best for the university, and I hope to live up to their confidence.

And the campus is energized and excited about moving forward.

There are almost certainly still some Arkansans alive, perhaps not many who remember when the Fayetteville there was not a black face on the Fayetteville campus.

Now that institution is being LED for the first time by a man of color.

Put that in perspective or have we turned a corner?

Is this truly a landmark, or is it possible that we're making too much of it?

Well, I mean I anytime I'm involved in something that gets attention, I I kind of feel that probably making too much of it.

But at the same time I'm a historian and my focus is on the American, South American history and I do think that it's a statement about opportunity, opportunity in in in a very important area and it suggests that if people are work hard enough.

And they are focused enough and they can build coalitions that you know, we could reach a date like this and and and now we're in this day and now we have to take this opportunity and and help students, help students gain greater access success and move on to have productive lives as citizens who give back to their communities.

Can you give us a sense of your agenda like 123?

Do you have some top priorities that you really want to address up top?

Absolutely.

First, the student success or land grant is always going to put student success first.

We have to create greater access so that students can afford to be here, particularly Arkansas students.

And then when they come here, we have to help them fulfill the the promise of matriculating successfully and going out and finding employment that will make them productive citizens.

And then our research agenda is really important to us.

We've got to expand that.

Research agenda so that we can do more to attract more federal and state dollars from a research perspective.

More corporate input in our research enterprise so that we can help solve the problems first of the state of Arkansas and then the nation and the world be more of a player in in that space.

And then in order to achieve that you've got to have the right people and the best people and so we want to be more of an employer of choice and.

We we believe that we're moving in that direction to set up the bureaucratic framework to to achieve all of those goals.

And we're we started yesterday with talking about strategic planning because there's no rest for the weary.

We've got to get going now that this decision has been made, now we've got to produce and I intend to organize my team in order to be able to do just that.

There are dollar signs doctor and everything that you just went over and funding is always a problem.

Higher energy is often a problem, usually a problem for higher education in Arkansas.

What are you?

What's the message that you're going to to be carrying, particularly to the General Assembly?

Well, Steve, you're absolutely right.

There's always a need for more dollars to accomplish good things.

But we also have to become better stewards that managing the dollars that we already have.

The state is generous to us.

Of course, we would love for the state to do more, but but that's not where we start.

We have to be better managers.

I want to keep tuition low for our Kansas because that access mission is really, really important to me and I know to the university.

And we have to be better stewards of those dollars to make sure our bureaucracy is lean.

And and then we need to get support from our our our donors, people who are committed to these issues that we raise and and will get behind us and help us to better achieve them.

So I think we have.

A lot of momentum.

We have very generous donors and and and again if we do our part as administrators to manage more effectively I think we can achieve a lot more with the support that we're receiving from the state and our donors and of course the the energy and and the and the commitment of our students.

Doctor am I hearing you say that that that higher Ed or or Fayetteville in particular has been has been prodigal in terms of its resources.

No I I think you could always do better as Abraham Lincoln talked about becoming a more perfect union we can be a more perfect university.

There's so much more to do.

I mean the administrators jobs are to take what has been done and to see if you can tease out more and better.

So I I think it's a matter of us my my comment is not a criticism to to the past in any way.

It's just that I know that there are.

Efficiencies that we have not yet utilized to their you know or optimize and we're going to do that hopefully in my term and and continue to move that needle needle forward.

Is there Sir?

Well, you know that that there is.

I I needn't tell anyone at Fayetteville, there is resentment elsewhere in higher Ed in Arkansas and especially within the University of Arkansas system that the Fayetteville campus is the 8 or 900 pound gorilla.

It basically gets what it wants and the other units in the system have to take what's left.

Would you address that question?

Well, you know I don't see it that way.

We we get funding from the state based on state rules that we didn't write and actually the percentage of our budget from the state is, is, is fairly small.

Outside of that we have to go and and make our own revenue.

We we do that through growth and our student body which we've been very successful.

We've had two successive years of record enrollment and that includes records in Arkansas.

We attract, we've attracted record Arkansas student numbers in our last two freshman classes and we intend to continue to improve on that.

And then in terms of our federal research dollars, we have to have our faculty in place to go out and get those dollars compete for for those dollars.

And with regards to our donors, we, we go to our donors, we don't go to other donors, people who donate to other schools.

It's really the people who are interested in supporting what what's on.

Our what's at our campus.

So I don't see us as, as you know, working against other institutions.

We want to work with other institutions.

We work towards goals to better you know, support our student body and our campus community.

And I don't see us at odds with with the other campuses.

What did you see the funding mechanism that's put into the state of the allocation of state dollars?

Is that the structure of it?

Is it fair?

Well, I believe that it is what it is and and we didn't now and I want to under score that we didn't create it at the University of Arkansas.

We simply abide by the rules and we've been very successful in in in managing the OR managing the the performance model and looking at what we needed to do.

We we moved away from faculty advisors and professionalized our advising and so as a result our retention and graduation rates.

Have improved over the years, and that's what we're supposed to do.

So we'll abide by whatever rules the state establishes and we want to be the best in in every space.

So, you know, the question of fairness is really left to state legislators.

I'm just the chancellor at the University of Arkansas.

The matter, Sir, of student affordability and of course there's a great debate now over loan forgiveness.

And I I don't think we've got time to go there, although if you'd like to, I'd be, I would welcome your thoughts on it.

But in terms of state support of the institution, is that going to be central to to to keeping the university or making the university more affordable?

Higher education everywhere.

As I've said, Steve, I believe the state is generous to us.

Of course, we would love to get more like any institution.

But I think it's important for us to be better managers of the resources we have.

I am absolutely committed to doing everything I can to keep costs low for Arkansans because we're a land grant institution and that's an issue tied to access.

And so we will continue to work with what we have to better utilize it and to make sure that we're optimizing utilization of our resources for the success of our students.

Well, one final question.

Doctor, we've got Ole Miss on Saturday and you wanna make a prediction there.

What?

What are your thoughts?

Are you gonna send some plays in?

Well I don't have any plays but I've got a lot of I got a lot of fire in my heart for the for the Razorbacks and so hopefully that'll that'll be enough to get us a win.

We need one is it you know we're we become bowl eligible if we win this week thought Chancellor Charles Robinson again congratulations best wishes and thanks very much for joining us come back again soon.

Thank you Steve appreciate you.

All right.

And we'll be right back.

We are back.

The doctors and other clinical personnel sounded the alarm weeks ago.

This year's influenza season, they warned, would make itself felt far earlier than in years past.

Move at higher velocity, and its impact could be substantially greater than in years past.

No, not COVID-19, which is still with us, but seasonal flu, a different.

Animal or different virus?

In the last 52 week flu calendar, about 30 deaths from flu in Arkansas were recorded.

In the current flu season, already half that number have been recorded.

And after fewer than two months.

Doctor Jennifer Dillahay is director of the Arkansas Department of Health and a specialist in infectious diseases.

Dr Welcome back to our air.

Thanks very much for joining us.

The threat right now as the clinical community sees it anyway, are you more concerned?

With conventional forms of flu then with COVID as, as the as the landscape shifted in that sense, yes, the flu really has taken off like a rocket in Arkansas.

We're really concerned about the stress on the health system, which has been under a great deal of stress for the last few years.

Right now in terms of outpatient visits for flu, it's three times as high right now, very early in this the flu season.

Compared to what we see on average flu year?

Is that does that go darker to the nature of the viruses that you are seeing or have we are we simply not being cautious enough?

Well, it's there's no evidence right now that the virus causes worse disease than before, although it can cause very severe illness and death.

I think part of it is that people haven't been exposed to these viruses over the last few years, so their immunity has waned.

And so we have a lot more vulnerability to infection and severe disease in our general population.

Are you concerned, doctor, that you mentioned it yourself second ago that there have been certainly stresses over the last couple of years in terms of of the healthcare system, the delivery system, are we in danger of being overwhelmed again or are we approaching that point?

Well, I think it is a consideration that we have to take seriously.

Children's hospitals around the country have been inundated with patients who have the respiratory sensitive virus, which we call RSV.

We're fortunate in that I think in Arkansas we have peaked with our RSVP.

Time will tell if that is actually true, but we think that is the case now.

But then right on the heels of that is influenza, the flu and young children are very vulnerable to severe illness with the flu.

Are you and other physicians, are you targeting certain demographics?

Are there are are there democratic demographic imperatives at work here that that that really need to be a mindful of the consequences?

Yes.

So the people who are most vulnerable to the flu are the very young and the very old, as well as people who have chronic health conditions like diabetes or heart disease and women who are pregnant.

So those are the groups that really, really need their flu shots.

This year, everyone aged six months of age and older is recommended to get a flu shot.

Children who have not had a flu shot.

Before who are 8 and younger need 2 doses 4 weeks apart and now is the time to get started if kids haven't been vaccinated already.

Now, I believe also there has been a very sad development in the last, just the last several hours we have had Arkansas has recorded its first pediatric death of the season.

Is true.

So far we've had a total of 15 flu related deaths in Arkansas compared to 30 that we had last year.

And the last flu season before we had the pandemic, it was about 120.

On a bad year, it can be close to 300, but the thing that concerns us, of course, are that young children and unfortunately we have reported our first pediatric death this flu season in Arkansas.

What can we immunize against and is it possible to overestimate the value anyway of of immunization?

Are there some some segments of the population that it's simply not as critical as as others?

Well, that is the one thing about the flu.

People who are healthy without chronic illness can suffer from severe flu and die from it.

It's harder to predict those people.

That's why everyone needs to get vaccinated.

And it's going to be really important for school children to get vaccinated because they spread the flu in the community and bring it home.

And of course that it causes absenteeism from school and we want to make sure.

Children stay in school as much as possible because of the all the school they have missed last couple of years.

It's not without precedent at all.

And even before COVID that entire school systems had to be shut down in Arkansas because of the prevalence of influenza in one form or another, and that has occurred.

We know that the school systems that have a higher proportion of students vaccinated have lower absenteeism at the height of flu.

Season.

And so it's going to be important for everyone to get vaccinated this year in order to dampen the spread of flu in our communities, particularly in our schools and our workforce too.

Doctor, are we gonna are we just resigned to seeing a continued wave of new variants of one of variants of influenza or other respiratory diseases is something we're going to have to learn to live with and fight as best we can.

Well, that appears to be the case.

We know that the flu virus mutates and comes up with a new kind of version variant year to year.

We track that so that we can match the vaccine as closely as possible.

So far this year, it appears that the current vaccine, which covers four different flu strains is well matched to the ones that are circulating the vaccine.

Itself protects against actual infection about 50% of the time, so about.

50 people out of 100 who get vaccinated will completely be prevented from getting the flu.

The real value of flu vaccine is that it keeps people, even if they get the flu, from having severe illness and ending up in the hospital.

Hey, as always, thank you for being with us.

Come back soon.

Thank you.

And in a moment we'll be back with a bit more.

And finally in this edition, this.

Failing to recognise and deal with emotional issues can of course have tragic consequences.

Most every occupation has its own particular set of stresses.

No calling stress free, including farming.

Perhaps especially farming.

So here's this month's edition of Good Roots I can't see.

That I'm still over the death of my friend.

He's always on my mind and stuff.

Always.

Farming is not very forgiving.

I've had a few really, really bad seasons.

The pump over here on the ground, it normally pumps it out of here into the picker.

It just stopped pumping.

I wish I knew why, but I don't.

That's try it after this one.

Usually pump grease to that tank and then we grease to pick her from that tank to the heads, but not at the pump.

Quit.

We got to figure out how to manually.

Get this grease in that tank.

Unfortunately, the first days are always the worst.

The pickers, the combines, they've been sitting up all year and you know, you only use these things once a year.

There's usually always something.

You know, we have to work on them a little bit, get them tuned up and ready to go.

I tell people all the time, farming is not something that you just wake up in the morning and say, I want to be a farmer.

It kind of has to be in your blood.

My name is Darren Davis.

I'm owner of Lakeview.

Farm Lakeview being where we live.

That's where the name derives from.

You're in Lakeview, Arkansas, and I'm also the mayor of this town.

I've been mayor for eight years going into my third term.

Yeah.

One of my friends say, well, it's pretty out here, but it ain't worth a penny out here in the field.

You got to get it to the gym.

You have to be man, you have to have a strong mind and you really have to live.

For me, I don't think an ordinary person would have any idea the amount of work and the amount of time, more so than anything that you put in this profession, is very much time consuming and it, and it's like everything else, is not for you.

Yeah, we're informing weather is probably the most challenging thing.

That's something obviously we don't have any control over prices and things is, is is a challenge.

Sometimes grain prices are way up this year.

So as grain prices go, so does expenses.

I've never seen grain prices increase and expenses stay the same.

The chemical fertilized fuel always rise with it.

I I talked to a lot of farmers and they're able to talk to me.

We talk.

About a lot of ways of of recovering from debt and people you can go to and programs you can go to and don't live above your means I guess would be the short way of saying it.

Farming is.

It's not very forgiving.

Not a lot of family time, missed kids, ball games and activities in school.

It was always kind of mom that had to do that.

We were always out working.

Because you gotta make own demand decisions.

What to do here, what to do there.

So it's hard to be gone and do that.

When you're coming in from a long day of work, 8-9 o'clock from 6 that morning to 9 that evening and now you all worked up and you got to try to find something to eat, you got to shower, you got to do everything.

So you just kind of have to wind down.

So it's normally after midnight before I go to bed every night and and normally we're up 536 at the latest.

So we don't do very much in the winter months, so December, January.

February.

So that's when I try to get rested and get ready for the next season.

I don't know of any farmer that hadn't had at least one disastrous year.

Dear friend of mine and and.

He committed suicide a few years back and it was one of the hardest things I've had to deal with because he was a friend of mine and and I I wear his hat all the time.

So it got a little more than he wanted to deal with and we.

And I thought he was OK with it, thought we had got it situated and settled.

And then I got the horrible phone call about 5:30 AM.

I can't say.

That I'm still over the death of my friend, but he's always on my mind and stuff.

Always.

And and I hear stuff that he's saying and it kind of makes me laugh because he was a funny person so.

This business will.

Caused some.

Tragedy and and everything.

And I and I know people say, well, why do you do it?

You just do it because you love it.

That's the only way I can explain it.

When you start a new year, you're like, thank God, made it through this one, let's start another one.

Now you you probably would think, who wants a job like that?

But most of my friends, we've been doing it for a long time and most of my friends come from farming backgrounds.

Any one of us could be gone at any given year, so.

It's just the nature of the beast is part of the business.

I've heard a lot of people think about Suicide, said hey, it did cross my mind.

I've had to help people.

I've had to let people use tractors because they didn't have one or lost theirs or whatever the case may have been paid.

Borrow mine, do what you got to do and bring it back when you get through and whatever you can to help them and to help them get through a talent and time.

I'm willing, I'm willing to do it.

This program is funded through a farm and ranch Stress Assistance Network Grant provided by the United States Department of Agriculture and administered by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.

And that does it for us for this week.

Another week is coming and we'll see you there.

Thanks for joining us.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and K KUARFM, 89.