Recently, an ambiguous question has dawned on the minds of many: Will artificial intelligence (AI) reshape the future of education?

AI has gained mainstream recognition, as Generative AI (Gen-AI) tools have become increasingly accessible for public use. Growing awareness of AI has also fostered controversy regarding how the technology will continue to evolve. Yet, its future still remains highly volatile, with possible implications ranging from groundbreaking to destructive. Despite major emphasis on the technology’s future impacts, AI is not just a distant promise but is actively reshaping the world. This transformation is prominent in academic institutions, where the technology’s presence is forcing teachers and students to grapple with both potential opportunities and ethical dilemmas of AI and how to navigate the tool’s use in education. 

Although widespread public awareness of AI has only recently begun, most people have unknowingly used AI for over a decade. Google maps, search engines and autocorrect are all commonly used examples of AI. But, what really is AI? According to Faisal Kalota in the Education Sciences journal, AI broadly refers to the techniques that enable machines and computer systems to behave with human-like intelligence.

“While AI has advantages over human intelligence, such as increased speed, the ability to communicate with many different systems effectively, and the ability to reconfigure itself, human intelligence can efficiently achieve complex goals through things such as motivation, emotion, creativity, and mutual understanding,” Kalota said.

In this journal, Kalota said that AI is classified into three categories based on its capabilities: artificial narrow intelligence (ANI), artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial super intelligence (ASI). ANI, also known as Weak AI, is the only form of AI that actually exists today, as the other forms are merely theoretical. As its name implies, ANI is extremely limited in functionality; it works by using predefined algorithms and data sets to perform specific tasks with extreme efficiency. It lacks consciousness, awareness and cannot perform outside of its programmed task. There are many subsets of AI that fall under the larger framework of ANI, all with distinct functions—one of these being Gen-AI.

“Generative AI is a machine learning model that can generate new data instead of making predictions,” Kalota said. “The new data can be audio, code, images, text, simulations, and video.”

Gen-AI has existed for over seventy years but was brought into the public eye when the AI research company, OpenAI, released ChatGPT in November 2022. After its debut, ChatGPT reached over 100 million users in only two months. Subsequently, the years 2023 through 2025 marked the most rapid advancement in Gen-AI, bringing about the development of thousands of competing AI tools.

Kalota explained that ChatGPT is a very sophisticated form of Gen-AI that uses artificial neural networks (ANN) and large language models (LLMs) to generate an output based on a given prompt. Essentially, it is a chatbot that was trained with web-pulled texts, which allows it to communicate with users through human-like dialogue.

Upon the release of ChatGPT, students quickly began to use the site to aid academic tasks, such as coursework, studying and research. An engineering student at the University of Arkansas said that he has used Gen-AI as an academic resource for over two years. He said that he primarily uses Gen-AI as a search engine to explain the missing details from his notes. The student explained that he tries to avoid using Gen-AI to complete homework assignments, unless he has no other option, but often still ends up turning to it. Although he regrets it afterwards, the ability of Gen-AI to provide immediate answers is overwhelming alluring.

“I do try to use it in a way that’s actually helpful for my learning,” the student explained. “But I mean, sometimes, something’s due at midnight. And you know, you don’t think you’re going to get done, so it’s just easy to just boot up ChatGPT. It won’t get it 100% right, but you still get it done. I’m cautious of it for sure, but sometimes things happen.”

The use of Gen-AI by students has become normalized, raising concerns about potential overreliance on this technology in academic settings. The U of A student admitted that he believes most students, especially engineering majors, turn to Gen-AI immediately to save time when completing coursework. He estimated that at least 90 percent of engineering majors heavily rely on Gen-AI, adding that he is shocked by the students who do not use these tools because they likely have significantly less free time as a result. Despite his own use, the student expressed concern about his reliance on Gen-AI. During his freshman year, he had never used any form of Gen-AI. 

“I think freshman year I studied a lot more,” he said. “Maybe that’s because I felt like all I had to rely on was myself. So I kind of knew that I needed to be more prepared. It does make me nervous thinking about how AI is affecting my own learning. It can be easy to get through some coursework without really understanding it. And I think that kind of makes me nervous when thinking about engineering because if you think about an engineer who maybe just used AI throughout their whole college career, just getting it to do everything for them, and they’re an engineer, but they don’t really know what they’re talking about. I mean, that’s kind of nerve wracking, you know.”

The use of Gen-AI by students is only one way that the technology has infiltrated schools, leading to prominent discussions concerning the evolving role of AI in education. Due to the vast capabilities of AI, educational institutions have been attempting to understand how to use the technology to support school administration, teachers and students. In June 2024, former Provost Terry Martin created the AI Task Force and Working Groups to develop guiding principles and procedures on how to utilize AI at the U of A. Dr. Chase Rainwater, head of the Department of Industrial Engineering, served as the chair of the task force.

Rainwater said that it became necessary to begin looking into AI when students and faculty gained legitimate and useful access to the technology around 2023. Although AI had already been a part of higher education, there were no policies or official integrations of it.

 “Now, the tools that kind of dragged us into this I think were predominantly in the generative AI space, and I think they still are, but agentic AI and physical AI are still very relevant,” Rainwater said. “So, we weren’t limited to generative AI, although there was an urgency and continues to be a bit of a spotlight on that because of the influence it has on our classes.”

Further explaining why the U of A began to examine AI, Rainwater said that there’s an understanding that most students coming to the university have already been exposed to AI in K-12 settings, so AI is coming in the door regardless. He also said that many employers now expect students to be equipped with the skills to operate AI integrated tools. 

“There was almost like a three-level effect there, and a response was necessary,” he said. “As we saw at many of our peer institutions, there needed to be a formal addressing of this.”

The original AI Task Force ran from 2024 and 2025, with the charge to understand how AI was already impacting the academic space, the research space and the operation space. Rainwater explained that the task force had significant findings in that year, with diverse results depending on the part of campus being studied. The only consistent finding was that the use of AI was widespread throughout the university, which led to the revelation that AI needed to be officially addressed at the U of A in a plethora of areas. Notably, the need for immense training and education on AI use, campus wide, became evident. 

“We didn’t have tools that were protected at the time,” Rainwater said. “We did not have as much guidance to give to faculty about how they should be instructing students on the use of AI or at least warning and protecting them.”

In May 2025, Rainwater was designated the 2025-2026 Provost Fellow for AI to implement recommendations from the AI Task Force report. Since then, he has been helping lead four AI working groups on teaching/learning, research, data security and ethics and training. He also participates in the AI Executive Steering Committee alongside many of the senior leaders on campus, including the Provost. Rainwater said that he is currently working on new initiatives and long-term plans to determine how AI will be formally incorporated into higher education over the next 10 years. 

However, he also claimed that AI is already being integrated across campus in many ways, noting that faculty, staff and students have all found beneficial ways to incorporate AI tools into their academic work. It has primarily been used to increase productivity and efficiency in research, teaching and learning. 

“We have a lot of smart, really talented staff on campus, and some of them have already, on their own, identified things that make their job easier, so they can get more done and help us achieve things that we couldn’t achieve before,” he said. “We’ve seen faculty using it to expand the offerings that they give to students, both in terms of the lecture and in terms of assessments. We’ve also seen faculty encourage and help students integrate AI as a learning resource—a tutor, if you will.We’re still just at the tip of the iceberg, I think because, you know, this is very class dependent in terms of the amount of AI that’s even appropriate for a particular class.”

Despite these positive observations, the use of AI in education also comes with many risks. Rainwater explained that Gen-AI models thrive on taking information and learning from it. Hence, it is important for students and educators to understand how AI tools could interfere with individual privacy and privacy laws, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). He said that faculty and staff, in particular, must be conscious of using models that are secure and protected so that they do not risk leaking personal and sensitive data, including student information. Gen-AI also has many inherent limitations; it can produce biased outputs, leading to the potential that systems generate malicious, deceptive or false content. Because he does not think that AI will disappear anytime soon, Rainwater said that he aims to bring awareness to all of its positives and negatives.

“I think AI is as much a part of the future of higher education as it is a future of everything in our lives at this point,” he said. “As to whether it’s…just an added tool or…a radical transition in the composition of a college campus, I think time will tell. At the moment, as humans, we have a lot of influence on it. I understand that there’s a narrative of where that goes away, and that’s an interesting debate to have, and I’m not saying it’s wrong, but at the moment, we kind of control a lot of what is going to happen here and so I choose to think about ways that we can positively make use of this.”

Meanwhile, many educators have also resisted the increasing presence of Gen-AI in academic settings. Professor LewEllyn Hallett has been teaching at the U of A since 2013 and currently serves as the Associate Director of Rhetoric and Composition Program. Prior to working as an educator, she had a career as a writer for 35 years. To stay informed on the evolving role of AI, she has attended many workshops and webinars regarding AI’s use in education. As a passionate writer and educator, Hallett is troubled by how AI could impact the Rhetoric Composition Program, its courses and its students. In addition, she stresses the ethical implications of Gen-AI use. 

“I don’t think you can use AI ethically, technically, because there’s so many issues behind this,” she said. “It uses people’s material, people’s writing, art, all kinds of words and images…without any kind of permission or credit. And that’s problematic. That undercuts writers, artists.”

As a writing instructor, Hallett said that she fears that students’ reliance on Gen-AI to help with writing could impede the development of important skills, such as their ability to truly think and communicate. Additionally, she said that the writing AI produces lacks authenticity, voice and human perspective. AI’s writing may sound good, but it’s flat and generic, she said. Using Gen-AI to cut down the amount of work one has to do can undermine the learning experience, leading to missed opportunities.

“When I see students use it for research, like undergraduate students, I feel like they are missing that experience of looking for something,” Hallett said. “And, you know how when you go down the various trails that research will put you on, sometimes it’s not going where you want it to go, but you still learn something interesting. Students are just handing over that learning and experience to AI because it can do it fast. That is also giving up another skill set to something outside of ourselves.”

Hallett said that she worries AI could eliminate jobs in higher education by replacing many aspects of course design and instruction. She said that if Gen-AI is being used to create assignments, organize material and respond to student work, it may be tempting for universities to replace instructors with this technology altogether, especially for online courses. 

“My overall stance on it would be that the costs outweigh the benefits,” Hallett said. “I think we absolutely should regulate it. We should learn from the past. The argument I hear a lot of times is, ‘Well, everybody’s all alarmed now; we were also alarmed when TVs came into everybody’s living room, and then when we had computers, and then the World Wide Web, and then we had social media, and then we had cell phones, and every step, some people were always alarmed.’ But, we were right to be alarmed because it changed us. Every one of those things changed us, changed culture, changed the way our minds work, changed our ability to do certain things.”

Like Hallett, many other educators recognize the overwhelming risks of AI. Dr. Maggie Fernandes is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at the U of A. Alongside colleague Dr. Megan McIntyre, Fernandes has been tracking how academics are responding to Gen-AI, particularly in the classroom, since the release of ChatGPT in 2022. Their work has centered around many fundamental questions concerning the technology, including its ethical challenges, environmental impact and technical limitations. 

Ultimately, they encourage the refusal of Gen-AI in writing studies, which they describe as the “the range of ways that individuals and/or groups consciously and intentionally choose to refuse Gen-AI.”

“Dr. McIntyre and I, we’ve been trying to look at both the response that is pushing people, teachers included, but also students into using this technology when it’s still very new and also trying to chart out paths for those who don’t want to use it,” she said. “So, our main project has been trying to understand the effect of this technology on education and trying to think of alternative ways of understanding this technology beyond use.”

They found that there is an overwhelming push for adoption of Gen-AI in higher education based on broad speculations about what the future of the technology will be. Fernandes said that a narrative has circulated that Gen-AI is inevitably the future of education, which has led many institutions to quickly endeavor in finding ways to help students use Gen-AI responsibly, rather than resist it. She explained that this push for adoption has eliminated the importance of choice by suggesting that there’s only one way forward.

“The other reason why I think there’s a big push is these technologies are intensely marketed,” Fernandes said. “They’re marketed to universities, in part because they’re not profitable yet. So, getting people to use them is part of the game and part of the stage of this technology that we are still at. And so, all of this is about selling a product, not about making education better.”

With many AD based subscription models emerging, college students have become one of the major demographics who Gen-AI tools are marketed to. Because of this, Fernandes feels that it’s important not to demonize the use of the technology by students who are curious about it. For many, this technology is being pushed upon them without any information about its risks.

“What I really think is important is for everybody to be able to make choices for themselves and for students to have the opportunity to learn how to write and read and think free from these technologies, but to ultimately have information so that they can make informed decisions about using these tools,” she said.

In her own classes, Fernandes does not ban the use of Gen-AI. Instead, her goal is to give students enough information about the technology so that they can make their own informed decisions. She encourages struggle in her classes so that students do not feel the need to turn to Gen-AI tools.

“The more people understand these technologies, the better positioned we are to respond to them,” she said.

Fernandes said that she appreciates the U of A’s current reserved approach and attempt to fully understand Gen-AI tools but that there is also an opportunity for the university to address the harms of Gen-AI. Fernandes explained that one of the most significant harms associated with Gen-AI is the proliferation and development of data centers. Gen-AI relies on data centers to deploy and train its applications, and these facilities require massive amounts of water and electricity to do so. This has many environmental implications, including the exacerbation of global warming. Consequently, data centers also raise electric bills and deplete water supplies of nearby communities.

“What we really need to be thinking about is if an entire university pivots to Gen AI in every class, what effect does that have on our state, on our local communities, and how do we need to be mindful about what that is,” Fernandes questioned. “I think the university can do more to start having those conversations…How do we actually grapple with it ethically?”

Over the next few years, Fernandes said that she thinks critical awareness of the harms and limitations of Gen-AI tools will increase, leading to more efforts to get these tools out of the classroom.

“The idea that this technology is inevitable is tied up in the marketing of this technology,” she said. “We can’t separate those two things, largely because that’s a really effective way to sell things to people, and it does seem impressive enough that we can imagine the future being radically shifted because of it. I don’t think anything’s inevitable.”

Some versions of this technology will probably prevail, she said. However, she explained that she does not think that Gen-AI tools will be profitable in the future; according to the companies that design LLMs, like ChatGPT, the problems these tools have are basically unfixable. Fernandes said that OpenAI recently announced that chatbots will always hallucinate, as this is just a fundamental part of the technology. 

“I think that what is necessary going forward is to reject that inevitability narrative, not on the basis that this technology will go away if we ignore it,” she said. “What I think we should do, instead, is really look seriously at its problems and remind ourselves that there are multiple ways to respond to the same problem.”

As AI continues to unfold in the classroom, one thing remains clear: the future of AI in higher education is not predetermined. Rather, the fate of the technology is in the hands of students, educators and institutions.

The post AI’s Ambiguous Role in the Future of Education appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Addie Jones

Mia Quain has done the math. Her salary is $60,000, the most she has ever earned, for a systems administrator position at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

By most metrics, Quain is doing things right. She has a steady job, is mid-career and holds
technical skills. Yet she still cannot afford to buy a house in the area she has called home for more than three decades.

“The cheapest possible housing is like $250,000 when you look at the real estate listings,” said Quain, 33, who grew up in Gravette. “And the wages have just not gone up like that.”
Many young professionals in Northwest Arkansas are earning more and working harder while feeling they are falling further behind previous generations. The culprit is a pair of crises – a housing market outpacing wages and a job market with ever-moving goalposts.

In 2019, Quain and her then-partner purchased a home in Decatur for $76,000. The mortgage, bills and insurance combined to around $650. Today, that same house is estimated between $175,000 and $200,000, and a similar starter home would cost around $2,000 a month.

Nothing has changed about the house, but everything has about the economy.

“Houses are like two to three times more expensive than they used to be,” Quain said, “and
careers are the same almost. Maybe they’ve gone up by 25% or 30% in the same time period.”

According to data from the Sam M. Walton College of Business Career Services office, the
average starting salary for a Walton College graduate was $51,622 in 2021, the earliest year on record. By 2024, the number had risen to $60,464, an approximate 17% increase over three years.

The overall job market has also grown more uncertain, with Career Services Senior Director Lindsey Steiger-Muck sharing companies are waiting longer to determine how many full-time roles they have available and not posting positions as early as the past.

The U of A Class of 2024 Career Outcomes Report shows Walton graduates concentrated
heavily in retail, consumer packaged goods, transportation and logistics, industries heavily tied to the Walmart ecosystem in NWA. For graduates whose degrees fall outside those areas, the region offers a considerably thinner market.

Hadassah Toliver graduated from the U of A in December 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in
psychology. She had the education, ambition and plan to become a child psychologist, but her job search proved to be more difficult than expected.

“I felt like since I had the qualifications, it should be easier,” she said. “But it was just pretty hard overall to find one.”

It took Toliver two months to secure a position as a registered behavior technician after applying to 30 jobs across multiple platforms: Indeed, Handshake, LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter.

The experience taught her the realities of the current job market, where people often report applications being ignored, interviews constantly ending in rejection and the sad realization that a degree is not the differentiator it once was. Toliver said several of coworkers do not hold degrees yet earn the same or more than she does.

“I went through four years of college just to get the same level of things as people that didn’t go,” she said. “Nothing against people that didn’t go. But it’s just frustrating that I spent all that money, all the years, and it’s still the same value.”

Toliver is in a field where a bachelor’s degree opens relatively few doors. Specialized roles in areas like clinical work and research require graduate training.

“Psychology is a really hard degree to get entry-level jobs in,” Toliver said. “So that was
basically the only thing I could do that relates to what I want to do in the future.”

The 2024 Outcomes Report shows psychology undergraduates reported a mean starting salary of $37,086, nearly $23,000 below the university-wide bachelor’s median of $60,000.
While Toliver lives in Fayetteville, she commutes to Bentonville for work – an increasingly
common practice for young professionals who feel priced out and left out of the student-focused market. Bentonville, home to Walmart’s global headquarters, unofficially serves as the region’s professional center, while Fayetteville, home to the university, increasingly caters to students over career-seekers.

Toliver said many organizations in Fayetteville were looking for interns or students to shadow, not full-time staff. Toliver is holding onto her student rental from her final semester, and when her lease ends, she will have to find housing in a new environment where non-student units often have widely different price tags.

“Now that I’m not a student, I’m able to see how many things are only available to students,” she said. “Trying to find apartments that aren’t student housing, but the prices being significantly higher because they expect everybody that’s not a student to be made of money — it was kind of crazy to see.”

Quain sees a similar pricing dilemma, with entry-level tech positions at the university starting around $40,000. “It won’t be great,” she said.

“You could survive in an apartment probably. But to actually start building savings and all those things you’re supposed to do when you start careers; that’s just so far outside the realm of possibility. People in their mid-careers are now finally starting to be able
to save.”

Quain remembers graduating high school in 2010 and attending career counseling events.
Advisors would hand out materials from universities across the state, advertising expected salaries for different fields.

At the time, they listed $50,000 to $70,000 as a starting salary for a systems administrator.

“But that’s what I make now,” Quain said, “in the middle of my career, at the university that made those promises to kids.”

Quain studied computer science at Arkansas Tech University for three years before later
enrolling at the U of A to study graphic design. While she did not leave with a degree, she said she would not be able to afford working as a graphic designer, not if she wanted “to have a house to live in.”

The pressure compounds beyond housing and wages. As rent rises in Fayetteville and young professionals begin to commute, they spend more on gas. They face higher food costs, and for those with student loan debt, the financial stress is even higher.

“Everything is so tight-budget and it’s just hard,” Toliver said. “I’ll make enough to pay my bills and my rent and my groceries, but I don’t have a lot left after that.”

John Folan, head of the Department of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, has been working on the area’s affordability crisis longer than most of his students have been alive.

Folan is the founder and director of the Urban Design Build Studio (UDBS). There, he has spent 25 years doing what he calls “public interest design,” creating housing solutions for communities that typically cannot access design services. He founded UDBS in Pittsburgh in 2008 then brought it to the UofA in 2019, focusing on the region’s housing gap for working individuals.

“That’s one of the areas where there’s the greatest need in this region,” Folan said.
The target population is essential workers earning roughly $16 to $18 per hour, which sits at around 38% of the area’s annual median income. These people staff schools, hospitals and service industries yet are systematically excluded from homeownership.

UDBS used the “Design to Income Model,” disregarding what a home “should’ look like to
focus on what a person in that income bracket can actually afford.

“It’s a very hard target to hit,” Folan said.

“What we’ve done is take a look at what land costs in this region, accept the cost of labor and materials as variables we can’t change, and back into a size of home that somebody can afford to have built. What it does is get them into a situation where they own a piece of land, they own a home, and they can see that home appreciate in value.”

Working backward from land costs and labor and materials, the studio landed on homes that are roughly 450 square feet on 1,000-square-foot land, allowing owners to expand their property if
their finances allowed. This model varies from subsidized housing standards, which are typically capped at 1,200 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It also avoids government
reliance. Mary Beth Mashburn, a 2021 architecture graduate, has worked as a UDBS fellow since graduating and brings a perspective that Folan cannot: living through the housing crisis.

After graduating, Mashburn rented for a period before she and her husband decided to buy, a decision driven in part by how high rent had climbed.

“One of the decisions that factored into it was rent getting to be so high that we’re paying the same amount to just buy a house,” Mashburn said. “Most of my friends still rent.”

In regards to the UDBS work, Mashburn said many people in this area are used to a lot of land and have to adjust to the density affordable housing requires. Folan said the responses to discussions about density are usually not well-received.

Folan is not the only person in NWA working to address housing and affordability issues. Mayor Molly Rawn formed a housing task force, and NWA leadership has implemented pilot zoning programs designed to encourage more varied housing types. UDBS is also developing a university-wide initiative called AR Home Colab, which would bring faculty from the law school, the Fulbright College, engineering, sociology and the Walton College of Business to develop housing solutions in partnership with the private sector.

“The potential exists,” Folan said. “The region understands these challenges.”

Walton Career Services data shows that approximately 40% of Walton graduates stay in NWA after graduating, while 60% leave. Even Quain, who has spent her whole life in NWA said she has made the conclusion that young people would likely be better off starting their lives elsewhere.

“I would find a different place to settle down,” she said. “I feel like things aren’t going to
materially change here. I think it’s only going to either stay the same at best or get worse.

I hate to say that, but I’d find a medium-sized town I like that has the vibes I want, and I would try to build a life there before it gets too expensive.”

Quain said she has watched Fayetteville change from a small hub of arts and culture to a
fast-growing metro – and she mourns what has been lost along the way. Spaces like Backspace, Avenue on Dickson Street, that featured square dancing and local bands, are gone, replaced by student housing.

Her own building on Hill Avenue is being vacated, due to a university agreement to house
graduate students. Residents were told to leave by May, offered $10,000 to go quietly, but they fought it at City Council. They won – but lost anyway when the university stepped in and decided to buy the whole place anyway.

Quain still remains hopeful, just in a different way. She thinks young people are dramatically underestimating their ability to make change through local civic participation.

“I’ve seen one person show up to a City Council meeting and change the whole discussion,” Quain said. “There are often no young people there at all. So even one person showing up and having an opinion makes a difference. You can find your council person’s email address. You can become friends with them. They want to help people.”

Toliver, still early in her career, said her advice to others navigating the same job market she did is expanding your horizons.

“I had it super specific at first, but then I was like, I need to branch out,” she said. “As long as I’m getting [a job] in my degree area or my level of expertise, I think that’s gonna help.”

Folan said young people who are coming out of school are entering an affordable housing crisis and carrying a much greater debt burden than someone from his generation.

“I very rarely run into a student these days that says one of their priorities is owning a home,” he said.

What young people prioritize instead – flexibility, travel, experience – may look like a simple preference. But it is also a response to a society and market where traditional metrics of success and stability now seem out of reach.

Quain has done the math. So has Toliver and an entire generation. And they are all arriving at the same answer.

The post The math doesn’t add up: Jobs, housing and the cost of being young in Northwest Arkansas appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Lillian Sage

Late at night, a girl sits in her room alone on her phone. She has fallen victim to everyone’s favorite act of doomscrolling.

Opening up Instagram, she sees multiple posts with different captions and comments. Moving over to the Discover Page, she types in her best friend’s username in the search bar.

Tucked in bed, lights turned off, her finger taps the screen twice to indicate liking their newest post. She is one of the first to like and comment on every one of their newest posts. Her job as this person’s best
friend is to protect them. However, her “best friend” might need protection from her.

While she might like and comment on every one of their posts, so do thousands, if not millions, of other people. The “best friend” is actually a celebrity. The fan only knows the persona this person decides to share with the public, but feels as if she knows them personally.

This is a parasocial relationship.

Kali Melton, an avid social media user, said it is possible that she herself has been in a parasocial relationship before. She believes these relationships stem from people wanting something they will never have otherwise.

“I feel like people are feeling more attached to people they’ll never speak to,” Melton said, “instead of people that they can speak to and hang out with. I think it’s easier to obsess with someone that won’t hurt your feelings, rather than someone who might turn their back on you.”

These relationships can be done with the right intentions and wrong actions or even vice versa. Carol Jarzyna wrote in an article “Research has shown that this type of PSI [parasocial interaction] gives us a feeling of belonging, helps us feel closer to our ideal selves, and raises our self-esteem.”

These relationships lead to the question of how people can find community when the culture is extremely digital. Are parasocial relationships a good sign because they give us this feeling of belonging and show an attempt at forming connections? Or are they dangerous because they are not consensual from all sides?

Reilly Kincaid, a sociology professor at the University of Arkansas, believes there to be middle ground between these two questions.

“If I listen to a podcast regularly,” Kincaid said, “I’m going to start feeling like I actually really know this person’s life in a way that they’re never going to know mine. I don’t think that that’s a bad thing, as long as they don’t replace more equitable, healthy, mutual relationships.”

Kincaid said relationships that do not have equivalent effort from all sides can be unhealthy whether they are parasocial or not. So, people should be cautious when it comes to these types of relationships.

Meanwhile, U of A psychology professor Dene Wamsley discussed more of the reasoning behind why some people might find themselves in a parasocial relationship.

“We’re consuming content that’s made on these individual pages,” Wamsley said, “like YouTubers or TikTokers, and I think there’s a reason why we gravitate towards that. You’ll also see this in the influencing realm, that the more relatable influencers that seem to be kind of down to earth tend to be liked more than those who seem above it, or they’re not relatable, or they make a lot of money, or they seem like they’re
better than other people. I think a lot of us are clamoring for that relatability, maybe because we’renmissing some of it in our everyday lives.”

Michaela Taylor stated in a book that “the initial intent of social media was to make communication and connection accessible from a distance and has developed into a technology that serves endless other purposes.”

Other purposes of social media can consist of advertising, entertainment, and even news
sources. According to the Pew Research Center, out of all the younger generations of people who have found friends online, 64% of them met through social media, meaning that social media has been a solid way to form connections. However, Kincaid believes users of social media need to be more intentional if they are
searching for community on these sites.

“I think that today there are a lot more ads that we have to sort through,” Kincaid said, “a lot more distractions competing for our attention. Just in terms of how the algorithms have changed social media, like on Instagram, a lot of what people are seeing in their feeds is no longer just things from their friends
and family. It’s from influencers and things like that, which has its own benefits, but I do think that that kind of competes with the idea of using social media for social connection.”

Wamsley shared similar thoughts about the use of social media to build community as Kincaid. They both emphasized the importance of media literacy. Media literacy is the ability to sort through these ads and distractions that Kincaid talked about. As well as, being able to comprehend the effects that media can
have on a person.

“I think that having a monitor for yourself on ‘how does this picture make me feel,’” Wamsley said, “‘if I’m engaging in this kind of comment section, how does this make me feel’ can be really important. It’s okay to disengage, it’s okay to unfollow or shift your feed, but you should also be mindful of not surrounding yourself in an echo chamber as well because that’s kind of the opposite side.”

Megan Brown defined echo chambers in an article as a “distribution of videos recommended to a user that is both ideologically homogeneous and centered on the user’s own ideology.” So, they do not allow the user to see any content that is different from what they believe.

Wamsley said it is important not to be surrounded by content that might be harmful. This content can include being stuck in an echo chamber or focusing on advertisements that might hurt people’s self-esteem. Kincaid discussed some of Cory Doctorow’s ideas of “enshittification.”

The thought process behind Doctorow’s work is that the quality of platforms like social media gets worse and worse. These platforms are originally created to look and sound promising, which gets people to join or sign up. However, when these platforms become popular, there is a twist.

“They [the people behind the platforms] can start decreasing the quality of the platforms to monetize them, ” Kincaid said. “They know that we’re already hooked. We came there to connect and to be able to see pictures and videos and ideas from friends and family.”

When there is a large group of people on the site, that is when they know to start increasing shareholder value. Kincaid said the ads and distractions that can be found within the social media world are a part of this “enshittification.” This is why having media literacy can help when searching for connections.

Kincaid is not completely against using social media as a way to find community, just cautious.

“I certainly don’t want to raise any sort of moral panic about finding connection on social media,” Kincaid said. “I think that finding connection anywhere is good. So, if that’s social media, if that’s where you find social connection, then that’s great. I just think that research does show that we’re more lonely and more
isolated. I don’t think that the phones are the sole reason, or that the social media is the sole reason. I do think that for a lot of folks, it’s not giving them the quality of social engagement that they seek or that they would get from in-person engagement, but I think it’s a valuable tool.”

Wamsley emphasized that social media should only be used as a tool.

“Unfortunately,” Wamsley said, “for a lot of people, social media is the majority of our lives these days, and having healthy boundaries on how you use that, but also exploring real-world stuff more often, is always beneficial. And again, I’m not saying that I don’t do this too. I’ve had to remind myself to get into reading some more, go to the gym, work out, go hiking, hang out with my cats, because off-screen stuff really can help to re-center us.”

To go along with these examples that Wamsley mentioned, Kincaid named off a few ways for people to reach the quality of social engagement that they might be looking for.
Many are relatively easy like talking to neighbors or people at the grocery store. If people are feeling like they need more, there are always opportunities to join clubs, sports teams and places of worship.

Some of Kincaid’s research revolves around people’s social roles. These social roles can consist of many of the examples above such as being a baseball player or being a church attendee.

Kincaid said people who have more social roles tend to have better mental health. While social roles do not completely correlate with digital media, there can still be effects.

“Social media becomes problematic to the extent that these online engagements take away time and energy from the things that we would otherwise be doing in our community that can add social roles into our life,” Kincaid said.

So, when people are focused on social media, they are less devoted to having social roles in the real world which in turn can lead to mental health conditions. In order to stray away from this, Kincaid gave her advice for people who might need help finding
community in a digital age.

“I think being intentional about who we follow and how frequently we are finding ourselves on our phones,” Kincaid said, “and also starting to kind of be mindful about how we feel after. I think that the more attention that we can bring to our social media habits, the more that we can begin to curate a space that feeds us, rather than using it in ways where it’s extracting things from us and we’re not gaining
anything in return.”

Wamsley explained that she believes people are starting to lose “third spaces.” These are places where they can go without necessarily having a reason to just get out and be social. Places like the mall or a park can be good examples of third spaces. There does not need to be an event or money spent at these places, just an excuse to get out.

“Now that the internet is as big as it is, we don’t spend time in third spaces as much,” Wamsley said.

“I think on a college campus, the fact that we have Hogsync and actual affiliated groups and organizations might be beneficial. I think if somebody is really seeking out community that they can try to look into what’s already been constructed on campus, and just trying to look into hobby-based or interest-based
gatherings.”

Melton also discussed the importance of finding these more specific groups. She gave examples of searching for people interested in yoga, crystals, jewelry and knitting. She also mentioned how people who are familiar with each other online could come together in person at a coffee shop to study together.

Wamsley said there can be many reasons as to why some people would rather communicate online than in person. These people might be neurodivergent or autistic, or even just scared of rejection or introverted. A big part of in-person communication is being brave, according to Wamsley.

“I think people shouldn’t be so scared about getting their feelings hurt,” Melton said, “I think it should be something that we get used to and accept, because we can’t coddle ourselves our whole lives. We need to feel heartbreak. We need to feel pain. We need to feel sadness. Without darkness there is no light, and the
bad things make the good things even better.”

While in-person communication can cause people to feel a sense of fear or dread, it can also be easier to comprehend.

“The internet makes it so much harder to have civil conversations when you can’t see somebody face-to-face,” Wamsley said. “It’s way easier to dehumanize them, not have as much empathy for them. It also makes it easier to take comments out of context, because you don’t have facial expressions or emotional tone of voice, so people can come across as colder or angrier without those other cues to rely on.”

While social media was originally intended to be a way people could form connections, multiple different obstacles have overtaken these platforms. These obstacles, whether they are the ads and distractions thanks to the monetization of these platforms or the confusion due to the lack of direct communication, have made it difficult for social media to continue bringing people to the kind of community they are searching for.

If people are trying to find connections today, with such a heavy presence of technology, they need to be more intentional. This intentionality can be shown by pushing through the obstacles discussed above found on social media, or being brave and moving to the old-fashioned way of talking to people out in public.

“Open yourself up to be silly and make mistakes,” Wamsley said. “I think that a lot of us end up isolating ourselves because we’re worried about rejection, and it can just feel really scary to get out there. I think that you’re gonna have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince; that’s the case for many things.”

Finding connection in this digital age can take a lot of effort and time, especially if people are looking for a strong and long-lasting community. It can be easy for a person to hide behind their screen and not show their real selves.

However, the most authentic version of a person is required to find real community,
whether it be online or in-person.

The post Rebuilding Community In the Digital Age appeared first on Hill Magazine.

In 1952, the University of Arkansas’s first honors program was established in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. In 1977, the U of A’s Walton College of Business established its own honors program. It was not until 2002, following a $300 million commitment from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, that the honors program was offered university wide. 

The Honors College is an interdisciplinary program, with courses designed to introduce students to disciplines from a variety of majors. These courses engage students in creative thinking, allow students to explore new technologies and teach the principles of research. According to the 2024-2025 Honors College Annual Report, enrollment accounts for 13-15% of the undergraduate population. 

A core component of the Honors College experience is the Honors capstone project, which requires students to expand their learning outside of the classroom. The capstone project, better known as the Honors thesis, is personalized to an individual’s major. The project culminates in a presentation which students present to a committee of faculty members. 

The Honors thesis process begins with identifying a topic, a daunting task that requires honors students to create a unique research question. While some students might struggle with narrowing down research interest, Hayden Tucker, a U of A senior majoring in advertising and public relations, had known that she wanted to research the effects of AI in the workplace since her freshman year. 

During Tucker’s freshman year, ChatGPT (an AI chatbot) was released. As the technology improved, she became more worried about the expanding role of AI. Tucker was terrified that because of AI she would be unable to find a job post graduation. It was her feelings of fear that motivated her to research the topic.

“I decided that this would kind of help me feel more at ease about my job situation, if I could just understand it more, because a lot of my fear came from not understanding it,” Tucker said.

After identifying a research question, students in the honors program must find a research mentor. A research mentor is a U of A faculty member that guides the student through the research process. Finding a mentor can be a tricky, but rewarding process. 

Tucker began the search for her mentor by emailing a few of her older professors, who recommended she reach out to Dr. Ginger Blackstone. Dr. Blackstone has taught courses about AI which aligned with Tucker’s research interest. 

“We started meeting on a weekly basis, and have for about the last year and a half. It’s been super great to work with her,” said Tucker. 

Jessica Lobb, a senior double majoring in biology and psychology, identified her mentor through her work at the U of A’s SPARK Lab. Lobb has been a part of the lab since her sophomore year, and has been working on her thesis for the past 3 semesters.

While Lobb knew she wanted to write her thesis about women’s health care, she had trouble narrowing her topic into a single research question. Alongside her mentor, Lobb spent a day brainstorming different research interests. Eventually, she determined that her thesis would focus on the bias of physicians in prescribing birth control.

“I personally had friends that were impacted by the birth control they were on, and I’d heard about a lot of studies in the lab of kind of, how that impacts women,” Lobb said. 

Anna Morgan, a senior psychology student, has worked in both the CODA lab and A SCAN lab. Dr. Judah, the lab director of the CODA lab, is Morgan’s mentor. Her thesis focuses on people’s perception of attentional control and its relationship to depression and anxiety. 

As an honors student, Morgan had known she would have to write a thesis since her freshman year. However, it wasn’t until her junior year that she began working on her thesis in earnest. In her experience, freshman and sophomore year are to learn what interests you. 

“I think doing this project has made me more interested in research in itself. I’ll find myself reading research articles on Saturday night at 10 p.m.,” said Morgan. 

Morgan is preparing to defend her thesis in April. Working alongside her mentor, she is now putting refining touches on her thesis. In the coming weeks, she will begin to work on her thesis defense PowerPoint presentation. Morgan is excited for her defense and confident it will be a success. 

“I really feel scholarly. I get really excited whenever I hear new findings. I think it shifted my view towards what you do in graduate school. Graduate school and PHD programs sound really fun instead of scary,” Morgan said.

Tucker defended her thesis on March 16 and she is excited to graduate with honors. While she knew her thesis by heart, she was still nervous. To overcome her nervousness she reminded herself that the committee was there to support her, not to judge her. 

“I thought that doing all this research and writing a super long paper was something I wasn’t capable of. I think it really showed me that, yes, you are capable, and you’re in this position for a reason,” Tucker said. 

Lobb is grateful that she decided to write an honors thesis, though there were several times she felt overwhelmed. Lobb defended her thesis after her interview on March 20. Prior to her defense, she reported feeling nervous but pretty confident. 

“It’s going to lead to a lot of growth, and it can be hard at times. Get involved early and chip away at it slowly, and by the time you get to the end, you’ll be like, wow, this is a really incredible thing that I accomplished,” Lobb said. 

The post The Final Deadline: University of Arkansas Honors Students Prepare for Thesis Defense  appeared first on Hill Magazine.

On March 12, the Multicultural Center showcased a gallery of stories. Lined wall to wall with photos of women, the HER gallery invited students to view visual celebration of identity, culture and confidence. 

Created as part of Women’s History Month, the gallery was focused on empowerment through visibility. For Nadia Walton, a cultural programming coordinator at the Multicultural Center, the story behind HER was deeply personal and purposeful. 

The gallery was created to highlight students for Women’s History Month and was centered on empowerment by visibility. For Nadia Walton, cultural programming coordinator at the MC, the idea behind HER was international and personal.

“HER just came about because when you say, like, ‘I’m her,’ this is me. I’m she,” Walton said. “It shows your identity, it shows your beauty. We have different shades of beauty as women, and I think that’s what HER means.”

Walton has had her role for about a year and organizes monthly cultural programming at the MC. For March, she said she wanted to create something that not just celebrated women, but also reflected the strength of their stories. 

She said she drew inspiration from the historical significance of lipstick as a symbol of identity and power. Walton wanted the gallery to demonstrate the idea that beauty is not just about aesthetics, but it is also tied to expression and confidence.

“Back in Western civilizations, a lot of women wore lipstick to create identity, to create power,” Walton said. “It wasn’t about beauty at the time, it was about the power that they had because they couldn’t do certain things.”

That sense of power was prominent throughout the gallery. It featured bold portraits featuring women of different backgrounds. Some emphasized individuality, focusing on one face, while others highlighted connection, focusing on a group of women. 

Fatima Nazif, a junior biomedical engineering major and a participant of the gallery, said being involved in the gallery was unexpected and meaningful. She was invited to join the Women’s History Month project, which eventually led her to being the cover of the exhibition. 

“It was actually a surprise that I was selected to be on the cover,” Nazif said. “So it was really a surreal moment. I just felt appreciated […] it just showed that I’m capable of being on the cover of something.”

Nasif is also the president of Students Advocating for Stronger Sisterhood (SAS), a student organization centered around building community and mentoring women on campus. The organization was recently reestablished after a hiatus and has already begun hosting events aimed at creating a supportive environment for students. 

That mission of representation and connection corresponds with the purpose of the HER gallery.

“I think it’s very important just to have any foundation for representation,” Nazif said. “Whether that’s women or people of color of just any ethnicity… this photoshoot was a great opportunity to bring women together of all colors and just celebrate us.”

The gallery also gave attendees the opportunity to understand each other. For Nasif, the experience of being in front of the camera and seeing others do the same highlighted diversity on campus.

“Just being able to see how people express themselves, I think that’s an amazing way to see our backgrounds and cultures,” she said. “Whether that’s in makeup, clothes or posing, you can convey an emotion and a story.”

The storytelling aspect of the gallery resonated with attendees as well. Freshmen Kylah Kemmings and Keon Smith said they came to the event to support their friends who were a part of the photoshoot, and they left with a deep appreciation for the gallery overall. 

“[The gallery] looks really beautiful,” Demmings said. “I had just come to support my friend, but this is a really great thing to see.”

Smith felt similarly and he said it was impactful seeing the final results of the photoshoot.

They said as they walked through the gallery, certain images stood out to them. Demmings pointed out the cover portrait, commenting on how the bold styling captured the theme of the exhibition.

“It just gives like women, like just straight women.” And I love that,” she said. 

For Smith, the group shots were especially meaningful.

“They’re showing sisterhood,” he said. “I really like that.”

That focus on unity and representation is especially significant given that the UofA is a predominantly white institution. Many of the women featured in the gallery are women of color, which added another layer of meaning to the event.

“I think it’s important to come see that we are out here,” Demmings said. “It’s important to be seen and know that we’re here.”

Smith added that representation reflects resilience, especially for people who have intersecting marginalized identities.

“It supports success from a  double minority perspective,” he said. “Overcoming challenge after challenge and still succeeding.” 

For Izzo Ahmed, a cultural programming coordinator at the MC, that layered representation is what makes the message of the gallery powerful. 

Ahmed emphasized that having spaces like this is crucial especially for identities that have been marginalized or overlooked.

“I think it’s important to center various identities, especially identities that in the past haven’t had space to be centered,” Ahmed said. “Women’s struggles have long been documented, and we want to continue that. It’s not history, it’s her-story.”

The post Painted in Courage and Framed in Legacy, HER Gallery Celebrates Identity, Power and Presence appeared first on Hill Magazine.

In movies and magazines, the fashion industry is depicted as luxurious and glamorous. However, the reality is more complex. According to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the fashion industry is a huge contributor to the generation of waste. In 2018, the US generated 12,970 tons of clothing and footwear. That same year 9,070 tons of clothing waste ended up in landfills. 

“I really do think that the issue with all of the waste is due to corporations pushing fast fashion and everything being made out of plastic, so nothing lasts,” Kyla Tacker, six-year resident of Fayetteville, Arkansas said.

Tacker hosted a clothing swap event on February 28. According to Tacker, she was inspired to host a clothing swap event after spring cleaning. Ultimately, Tacker wanted to prevent her old clothes from ending up in a landfill or in the hands of a reseller.

“Sustainability is not just about recycling and reusing. It’s resisting something becoming trash,” vice president of the University of Arkansas U of A’s University Programs, Annalise Robins said.

University Programs hosts several sustainable markets throughout the year, including an annual clothing swap event called Swap Till You Drop. On March 6, University Programs hosted a physical media swap for books, CDs and DVDs. According to Robins, the sustainable markets hosted by University Programs are often U of A students’ first introduction to clothing swaps. 

 “I’d much rather swap something with one of my peers for free than buy it from Goodwill,” said Cecilia Acosta, a political science and earth science major at the U of A.  

Acosta attended her first clothing swap event during her freshman year. Since then, Acosta has been to several swap events hosted by University Programs, the Sustainable Fashion Club and even one hosted by Fayetteville High School’s eco fashion club. 

“It reveals the nature of sustainable fashion cycles,” Acosta said.“It really is just someone in your community that doesn’t want a certain item, you do want a certain item. It gets a new life.”

University Programs’ “Swap Till You Drop” event does not just accept clothing donations; participants are also encouraged to bring canned food donations. 

“I literally watch people go into Club Red and buy one of the cans of soup and then come back,” Robins said. 

Ultimately Robins wants the people who participate in the University Programs events to learn that sustainability can be fun. 

“I read that there are enough clothes on this earth to clothe the next six generations, which I think is crazy,” Acosta said. 

Acosta explained that thrifting and attending clothing swaps are great alternatives to consuming new clothes. When wearing something that already exists, you can prevent clothing from ending up in landfills. 

“I think more people should be conscious of how they consume, and be aware of what happens to their clothes after they’re done with them,” Acosta said. 

“Goodwill [doesn’t] even let people in our area look at the good stuff because it all just ends up going to auction on eBay,” Tacker said “So it doesn’t end up going back into our community at all.”

Robins said that people need to take a step back and not just not blame corporate greed for Goodwill’s prices. Goodwill provides training and education to people who were previously incarcerated or never received a GED or high school diploma.

“There is no perfect thrift store, and by blaming goodwill, you’re not actually giving a new hot take,” said Robins. 

Acosta said she has a hard time finding cute clothes at the Goodwill in Arkansas. Instead, she is disappointed by having to pay $11 for a pair of pants. 

“I definitely think swap meets build community because it cuts out the middleman,”  Acosta said.

At Tacker’s clothing swap event she hosted last month, community was the focus. Guests sat together in a circle and took turns displaying the clothes they brought, putting their names in a bowl if they were interested in “buying” an item up for auction. Excited shouts of how cute clothing items would look on the lucky person who was picked were heard around the room.

“When you’re an organizer, you have to think about meeting the needs of the community and seeing where there’s an open want and how you can fill that want,” Acosta explained. 

Acosta is a Depop ambassador and has been working towards hosting her own swap events at the U of A. Through the processes of planning those events she has been surprised to learn that many people on campus are interested in clothing swaps. 

“Whenever I go to the mall and I see all the fast fashion, it’s easy to feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t like that kind of thing,” Acosta said. 

However, because of her experience as a Depop ambassador, Acosta has been encouraged to continue pushing for sustainable fashion. Instead of buying new clothing, she hopes that more people can find joy in shopping for thrifted clothing.
“I think that having events, specifically in the Arkansas Union, which is kind of like the living room of campus, does impact Fayetteville because we take so much space up here and to know that is what we’re valuing tells the city that that’s something that should be valued,” Robins said.

The post Activism in Fashion: Local Sustainability Groups host Clothing Swaps  appeared first on Hill Magazine.

When Friday rolls around after a long week, students can finally catch their breath after 5 days of class, work and responsibilities. All that’s left to do is decide how to spend their weekend. Historically, a stereotypical college kid can be found at a local bar on any given Friday night, forgetting their worries with drink in hand.

This is still a reality on campus, but lately, we see a different Friday night becoming more common. A night that includes entertainment instead of intoxication, reflecting instead of forgetting and mocktails instead of cocktails. There is no denying the growth of this trend, with many brands profiting on nonalcoholic drink lines and dry businesses emerging to accommodate a generation with waning interest in the cliche weekend habits. 

The catalyst of this movement is a combination of several factors— mental health being a large one. 58% of Gen Z said they plan to drink less in the new year solely to improve their mental health; this is a significant 45% increase from the year previous according to Circana 2025. 

The correlation between drinking and mental health is unique right now. With social media technology emerging in society alongside Gen Z, strict self-image management has become a non-negotiable. What happens in a weekend no longer stays there, but instead leaves a permanent digital footprint. 

The weight of maintaining a positive image means that a night out is far less freeing than it used to be, contrasting to an age where students and young adults were able to let loose with little “evidence” or negative effects.

Another factor in this trend is Gen Z’s increased awareness of physical health. In a society hyperfocused on holistic wellness, some young people are deciding that alcohol is no longer compatible with their lifestyle.

On top of this, many students are expressing fatigue of the clubbing lifestyle, choosing instead to partake in eclectic activities or more diverse entertainment on the weekends. 

The buzzword an increasing number of Gen Z is using to identify their stance on alcohol is “sober-curious.” The term describes a person taking a step back from the late-night partying lifestyle to experiment with more diverse sober activities, often involving new hobbies, craft workshops, and lattes or mocktails.

Whether for public image management or personal wellbeing, society is shifting to keep up with the growing “sober-curious” audience. Even the local Ozark Charcuterie & Wine Bar introduced their first mocktail to their menu last week, which is a telling decision for an establishment with “wine” in the name to make.

Fayetteville in particular has seen lots of creative dry events on the calendar this year. Instagram page “fayettevillecitylifestyle” promotes local Northwest Arkansas businesses and events, giving us a glimpse into what students and residents have been into lately. Each monthly post lists events like “Game Night at Meteor Cafe,” “Downtown Fayetteville Coffee Crawl,” and “Yoga at Fayetteville Public Library.” The page spotlights new businesses from Iris Art House & Supply Co.; an art shop and maker hub, to Artemis Temperance Lounge; a non-alcoholic lounge and venue–proving that local interest is expanding beyond just happy hours.

Bo Counts, owner of Pinpoint and the new Artemis Temperance Lounge, has been involved in the NWA bar scene for long enough to see its evolution. He said that he has noticed Gen Z becoming tired of the same type of bars, cheap booze and lack of diverse third spaces. 

Counts reflected on a time when Dickson street had something for everyone. Common Grounds was a late night coffee cafe for all ages, and Smoke & Barrel hosted indie bands and independent music almost every night, just to name a few. According to Counts, the Fayetteville nightlife used to have a diversity we do not see anymore, with spots for anyone from art school students to Greeks. 

He thinks the nature of the forgotten spots he grew up with are the missing piece to this generation, and an answer to the public’s demands. “People are craving a space like this, but they don’t know it yet. They don’t know what they’re missing.”

Counts’ latest endeavor, Artemis Temperance Lounge, is an alcohol-free bar focused on authentic discovery and diverse community. The vibe is cool and dimly-lit by night, decorated with unique art on the walls and eclectic furniture. The space hosts various pop-ups and events from live local bands to ceramic workshops to art showcases.

“I wanted to bring back some of those spaces that Fayetteville lost,” Counts said. “Something that’s about the community, and it’s not necessarily centered around, ‘oh, we’re just going to the bar to get drunk.’” 

The new lounge operates with a goal of being that lost “third-space,” providing weekend activities for those looking for something besides drinks at Tin Roof. Many Gen-Z students are tired of the same weekend routine and crave something new, but struggle finding other places worth their time and money.

Businesses attempting to fulfill the demand of a growing sober-curious population face difficulties creating something that can compete with a traditional bar, however. A Dickson Street bar automatically has an established value because of the audience for a known spot with familiar drinks. Non-alcocolic bars have to fight for their success.

“The challenge is, are there enough people here to support what we’re doing and not just be like, ‘hey, that’s so cool?’”

It is not that Counts is anti-alcohol, in fact his first project was creating the well-known pinball and cocktail lounge Pinpoint back in 2018. He simply observed the local need for a different kind of entertainment and shifted his focus from cocktail to mocktail. 

Nonalcoholic drinks plastered with the snappy “mocktail” label are growing in popularity within Gen Z. Everyday we see more brands capitalizing on the sober trend with wide varieties of non-alcoholic beverages that mimic the taste of familiar cocktail flavors.

Even popular beer and seltzer brands have released versions of their products without the alcohol, such as Michelob Ultra Zero and White Claw Zero Proof. The goal is to provide a fun and familiar drink while catering to a sober-curious generation.

Counts, however, dislikes the term mocktail. He instead refers to the Artemis beverages as non-alcoholic, claiming that the prefix “mock” is negative. 

“It’s like a fake drink,” Counts said. “A cruddy imitation of something you’d rather have.”

Alcohol-free bartending has advanced past just pouring Sprite and Grenadine in a cup, with mixologists spending years testing different formulas, crafting their own syrups and utilizing modern culinary technology. Now that there is a growing interest in non-alcoholic drinks with the same intentionality and complexity as traditional cocktails, their efforts are appreciated rather than seen as novel.

Counts argues that it is harder to create an interesting drink without the backbone of a spirit. “To create a beverage that makes you want to sip it and think about it, and isn’t just ‘fruit punch:’ that’s the goal.”

Artemis is intentional in their efforts and is far from just a bar with no alcohol, priding itself in the varieties of events hosted at the venue and mixologists who aim to tailor quality drinks that are actually worth your money. Many spots we see popping up have similar motives, to decentralize alcohol and give young people a more diverse Friday night experience without sacrificing a good time.

A weekend on Dickson is well-spent at Tin Roof or YeeHawg, no doubt about it. But for the growing number of “sober-curious” students looking for an entertaining Friday night without the hangover, new options like Artemis Temperance Lounge are opening up every day. Taking a step back from familiar weekend habits does not have to mean missing out on that “night-out” experience, and quality events and entertainment are out there waiting to put something fresh on your calendar.

The post Dickson Goes Dry: A College Town’s Response to The Mocktail Movement appeared first on Hill Magazine.

With more than 30,000 students at the University of Arkansas, making sure every voice is heard can be a challenge.  The Associated Student Government (ASG) of the U of A works to bridge that gap and give students a platform to raise concerns and shape the college experience for their peers. 

ASG supports programs and initiatives across campus while serving as a connection between students and university leadership. The organization is structured into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. Each branch works to represent student interest and advocate for improvements across campus. 

“Student government is important because it ensures that the university remains responsive to student needs,” ASG Chief Justice Paige Williams said. “It serves as a direct line of communication between the student body and faculty and staff, allowing us to advocate for policies and programming that students want to see.” 

One of the ways ASG gathers student input is through its annual student poll, which allows U of A students to share their perspectives on campus issues. The survey helps ASG leaders understand student concerns while identifying opportunities for improvement.

The polls cover a range of topics, including campus safety and wellness initiatives, dining and residence hall experiences, academic resources and student support services. Student participation is anonymous to encourage honest and transparent feedback. In this academic year’s survey, most students reported feeling generally safe on campus, but many want improvement on the lighting in different areas on campus, such as Old Main Lawn, and increased U of A Police Department presence, especially at night.  

“We rely heavily on that data to identify areas of need and guide the initiatives and improvements we focus on within our campus community,” Williams said. 

Along with gathering feedback, students had the opportunity to determine the student leaders who will guide these initiatives next year. 

The online polls were open from March 9-11, where students voted for executive leadership positions within the organization. The ballot included candidates for president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. Leading up to the election, candidates campaigned and shared their platforms about their priorities for the upcoming academic year. 

On March 16, the All in Arkansas ticket was announced as the winner of the election, setting the direction for student leadership and advocacy efforts in the upcoming academic year.

The All in Arkansas campaign focused on advocating, collaborating and innovating on behalf of the student body. Their platform emphasized on elevating student voices while strengthening relationships between students, university leadership and the surrounding community. 

Their opponents, the Elevate Arkansas ticket, led by presidential candidate Chas Batta and vice presidential candidate Sutton Shires, centered on three key pillars: belonging, safety and visibility. Their goal was to ensure every student feels represented and has access to information and resources on campus. 

During their debate held March 5, both campaigns discussed their visions for the future of student government and how they would address student concerns on campus. Logan Williams, the presidential candidate for All in Arkansas, advocated to assign Counseling and Psychological Services counselors to each college and expand the Razorbot initiative to assist Registered Student Organization (RSOs) with budgeting. Elevate Arkansas presidential candidate Batta focused on increasing the visibility of the Student Senate to ensure students are aware and understand the solutions that are being implemented on their behalf. 

At its core, ASG exists to ensure all voices of the U of A community continue to be represented. 

“We represent students of different majors, backgrounds, and experiences and advocate for student voices across the university,” Williams said.

The post How ASG Represents Student Voices at the University of Arkansas appeared first on Hill Magazine.

In “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” on Netflix, a young adult romance film loved by Gen Z viewers, the main character Lara Jean (Lana Condor) shares a sentiment that many college students can relate to, saying  “my life was a mess, but I could clean my room.” 

College students throughout the country are currently on the heels of midterms and spring break, and some have begun preparing for their upcoming graduations. With all of these events going on, these students may feel represented by Lara Jean’s messy life, and even messier bedroom. 

On top of schoolwork and having a social life, college students also have to worry about taking care of themselves. This can include cleaning their spaces, and what better time to do that than spring cleaning. 

The act of spring cleaning has its roots in many different cultures. According to Howstuffworks.com, in Iranian culture, the new year is in March, so they clean in preparation of the new year. Jewish culture also has a tradition of cleaning before Passover, which takes place in the Spring. 

Spring cleaning is also a time when people can just feel put back together after the long, cold winter months. Whether it be getting rid of clothes, decluttering drawers, mopping the floors, or even cleaning your room like Lara Jean, all of these can count as spring cleaning.

Aubree Patterson, a senior at the University of Arkansas, is a self-proclaimed “clean freak.” She mentioned that she “spring cleans” all year long. 

“I go through everything I own probably every two months,” Patterson said, “so I have nothing. Pretty minimalistic in [my bedroom], and I need every cleaning product. Like, honestly, a Clorox wipe will not suffice sometimes.” 

Patterson may clean all year round, but she discussed how she does hit some aspects a little bit harder during the spring time. While cleanliness has been a big aspect of Patterson’s character, she feels as if she has gotten better at keeping a cleaning schedule. She thanks living on her own for this.

“Honestly at home, I would not do as much as I did here,” Patterson said. “It is because it’s my own bathroom, my own room. So, I need to be on top of it, because if I don’t do it, then what’s going to happen? It’s just going to be dirty.”

Even though she has so much going on as a student right now, Patterson is able to stay on top of her chores. She believes that keeping her space clean helps her to be more productive. 

Lauren Hawthorn, a senior exercise science major, also believes a clean space helps her to stay productive. However, she does not see herself as a “clean freak.” 

She admitted to always being messy. Her clothes are all over her room, and it has been an ongoing bit with her family since childhood. 

Living in a two bedroom apartment has led Hawthorn to be adamant about making sure the common spaces are cleaned. Hawthorn believes that having roommates in college is what helped her to get better at cleaning.

“Like in a dorm when you’re sharing space,” Hawthorn said, “I think it made it easier, because I have the added pressure of I do not want this person I’m living with to be like ‘she’s a wreck,’ but like my individual space, it’s definitely a mess.” 

While Hawthorn does believe that she is more productive and even sleeps better with a clean room, she has noticed that her room gets more messy the more stressed out she is. 

“I have all this other stuff to do,” Hawthorn said, “and I’m worried about all this other stuff. I’m upset about all this other stuff. I do not want to clean my room on top of that, which I think for some people, though, it might be a de-stress thing, but that’s not the case for me.” 

Blair Prstojevich, a senior health sciences major at the University of Missouri, does see cleaning as a way to destress because she always feels better after a cleaning session. She even stated that she cannot do any of her other tasks until she feels as if her space is tidy. 

Prstojevich has a few tips and tricks for people who might need a little help when it comes to spring cleaning. 

“I normally put on a podcast,” Prstojevich said. “Or I put my headphones in and listen to music, and then honestly after the first five minutes, I’m kind of in the zone. Or if you have something to rant about, call your friend and then rant about it while you’re doing it, because then you’re worked up.”

While spring cleaning has been around for years, it can still be a tough task for college students since they are dealing with so many other things life throws at them. Even if it is just wiping down the kitchen counter or doing laundry, these students can find a version of spring cleaning that works for them.

The post A College Perspective on Spring Cleaning appeared first on Hill Magazine.

The frigid winds of winter are in the past, and the sun has started to warm up students’ daily walks through campus; evidence that Spring is upon the University of Arkansas. With this temperature change, another season lies just beyond the horizon: concert season. As students work their way through the semester and closer to the summer, they move nearer to a plethora of concert dates and live music events by their favorite artists. 

While some crave the intimate events of smaller local artists, like the ones that perform at George’s Majestic Lounge on Dickson Street, others count down the days to their next big concert date in a stadium.

Among the headlining news in nationwide music updates, artists Harry Styles, Tame Impala and Bruno Mars all announced tour dates in January for the remainder of 2026. 

Freshman University of Arkansas student Sania Parise said she acquired tickets for a Harry Styles show this October for his Kiss All the Time, Disco Occasionally tour. Other than wanting to see artists solely for their music and production, Parise said she loves to get dressed up for the themes of each concert she attends as well, getting inspiration from apps like Pinterest. 

“For Taylor Swift, I wore a more glittery outfit, and for Lana [Del Ray] I wore more pastels and tried to fit more of her aesthetic,” she said. 

Music is one of the many tools students use to stabilize their mood and explore the expression of their interests everyday.  Parise said that motivates her through her day, and allows her to be more creative with how she spends her downtime. 

“I love listening to music while I drive because it clears my mind,” she said. “It makes me super focused, even when I’m getting ready.”

For others, music also serves the purpose of providing comfort and nostalgia, especially for out-of-state students. 

Freshman Ellie Wyckoff said her two older brothers exposed her to a wide range of music genres, which allowed her to curate her own taste and become obsessed with different sounds as well. She attributes her love for R&B and rap to her brothers, and her interest in indie genres to her own discovery,  combined with the music interests of her friends. 

Music not only weaves its way into her workouts and walks to class, but into her friendships; Wyckoff said it plays a huge part in them, to the point that when a new album drops it’s a big deal, and they all listen to it together.

Wyckoff is planning on attending the Austin City Limits music festival in Austin, Texas in October. She attended this two-weekend festival in 2025, and said she was so infatuated with the experience that she has to go back. 

“It truly felt like a cultural experience,” she said. “I was able to see headliners like Hozier, but I also found a lot of small artists that I didn’t know prior to ACL, which was really cool.”

With so many artists employing social media managers to film their performances and teasers in this modern era of music communication, fans don’t always need to see their favorite artists live to experience their talent firsthand. Wyckoff said that live performances are just a different feel that cannot be rivaled by any other viewing of the artist.

“With all the fans [in the room] you capture so much more energy that you wouldn’t otherwise have…you kind of get to see what [the artists] are like as a person, too,” she said. 

Music’s role in Wyckoff’s life has been one of escapism and release of the day that she experiences outside of her earbuds. 

“For me, music has genuinely helped me with problems in my life,” she said. “I think most students love music because it offers an escape for them.”

Sophomore Sarah Schwaller was also introduced to the idea of music as an act of expression from a family member: her dad.  She said her dad’s knowledge of music influenced the way she interacted with different genres throughout her childhood, and affects the way she interprets new songs now. 

“He very much makes an effort to teach us about the [music] he loved to listen to when he was me and my siblings’ ages, and he also tries to discover new music and new artists,” she said. 

Schwaller described how her dad and his friends first heard the artist Tame Impala in a bar in Austin back when the band had just started to release music, which allowed her to become familiar with them at a young age. 

“I’ve been listening to Tame Impala since they were very, very new, so it’s fun to see them grow and become so big,” she said. 

Music has also made its way into how she shares her interests with her dad: Schwaller explained how she often tries to hide songs that she loves from him in the chance that he also loves it and plays it continuously.

“I gatekept a song by the Neighborhood, ‘Devil’s Advocate’ because I knew he would love it,” she said. “I kept it from him for a couple years, then he finally heard it, loved it… and now I’m going to their concert with him this year.”

As a student who attends about one concert a month, Schwaller has experienced both large stadium tours and intimate listening venues. She said that smaller venues have unique advantages that the larger shows lack. 

“At George’s [Majestic Lounge], you have opportunities to speak to the artists after, which I haven’t experienced anywhere else,” she said. “You can just go and introduce yourself, and say hello, and I just think that’s really cool.”

Most of all though, Schwaller said she appreciates how there are so many different interpretations of the same music, which has brought her closer to so many different people on campus, unified under the interest in one particular song, or artist. 

“There’s so much music that I’ve been able to talk to other people about, and they’re like ‘oh my gosh, I love that song too,’ because of the story that that song tells,” she said. 

Schwaller described sharing song interests with others as a form of emotional connection, unique to others that one would form with classmates or even friends.

“I think college students having the opportunity to listen to the music that they like and share it with others so openly is good for the human experience; it brings people closer in such a large community.”

The post On the Record: Students Experiencing Live Music and Discovering New Artists  appeared first on Hill Magazine.