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’re missing 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 get 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 reasonings 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.

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, a venue 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.

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.

The room hums with quiet tension as students scroll through their phones, each screen flashing headlines, opinions and breaking news alerts that rarely agree. At one table, a debate sparks over immigration policy; across the room, another conversation stalls before it can begin, silenced by the weight of assumed political labels.

Generation Z entered political life in one of the most divided periods in modern American history. Unlike previous generations, who may remember moments of bipartisan cooperation, ours has been defined by visible conflict and growing distrust between parties.

This polarized environment is the only political world Gen Z has ever known. As they grow to become a powerful part of the electorate, their views, values and responses to partisanship are growing to determine the future shape of American democracy. 

Political polarization refers to the widening gap between opposing political parties in terms of attitudes, values, and behaviors. In the United States, it exists in two forms: ideological polarization, a division in people’s views on policy, and affective polarization, where partisans view political opponents with mistrust and disdain.

According to nonpartisan researchers at the Pew Research Center, Americans’ views of opposing parties and those who disagree with them have become increasingly unfavorable over recent decades. Members of both parties seem to see political opponents as threats to the nation’s overall well-being, something that was once unusual in American politics.

Understanding the evolution of partisanship and its intensification is deeply essential to how Gen Z interacts with modern politics. Roots of polarization stretch back decades, to the founding of political parties as they know them, and the institutions from which they were built.

Think tanks – research organizations that study public policy and influence public debates – have played a significant role in the transformation from moderation in politics to extreme polarization. In The Thinkers: The Rise of Partisan Think Tanks and the Polarization of American Politics, published in 2024, political scientist E.J. Fagan traces how conservative and progressive think tanks have shaped the policy agendas and rhetoric of modern political parties.

The Heritage Foundation, one of the earliest conservative think tanks was founded in 1973 and has shaped conservative positions on tax policy, social issues and federal spending. Brookings Institution, another think tank, leans centrist and conducts research across economics, governance and domestic policy.

Fagan’s research shows that the growth of partisan think tanks closely mirrors the rise in political polarization, both in Congress and in public debates, suggesting that these institutions may also be responsible for contouring partisan conflict.

“The information polarization enabled by partisan think tanks has pushed both parties toward the extremes but in an asymmetric formation,” Fagan wrote.

Fagan explains the development of the Republican Party’s conservative ideology as “an explicit critique of the nonpartisan knowledge regime.” It came as a response to ideas that were considered inherently liberal rather than nonpartisan by founding members and required conservative counterpoints.

“When Republicans created their knowledge regime in the 1970s, they built it with the express purpose of providing an alternative to the expertise that conservative elites had come to regard as liberal,” Fagan wrote.

Later, this strategy shifted from studying policy and providing knowledge to actively attempting to reshape party agendas.

Fagan argues that this shift marked a structural change in how ideas moved through Washington. Instead of research leading to neutral policy discussion and gradual reform, ideological vision and policy packaging led to partisan mobilization and legislative pressure.

“Partisan think tanks are likely an important part of a larger story of how elites in both parties, first the Republican Party and later the Democratic Party, began to diverge,” Fagan wrote.

Organizations like Turning Point USA and Young Democrats serve a similar purpose on college campuses, giving young adults the opportunity to have open discussions about their political beliefs with their peers.

As these organizations multiplied on both conservative and progressive sides, they defined distinct ideological environments. The coherence strengthened the parties internally, but also widened the distance between them.

One of the biggest insights from Fagan’s research is his view that polarization wasn’t an accidental byproduct of social change, but instead, was the outcome of strategic institutional development.

Partisan think tanks compete for donor funding, influence within party coalitions and media attention, which rewards the sharper contrast between parties.

“Increased media citation of partisan think tanks may indicate that more conservative or liberal views are becoming mainstream and may thus be an indicator of their success rather than a cause of it,” Fagan wrote.

For Gen Z, this institutional backstory matters because it explains why polarization feels entrenched into what they know of politics.

Fagan explained that think tanks are not the lone cause of polarization. Economic inequality, civil rights, media fragmentation and demographic shifts all play major roles. However, his research highlights how organized infrastructure amplifies and stabilizes ideological conflict and how polarization is fueled by the institutions, such as think tanks and media networks, that produce and distribute political ideas.

Our generation is facing a uniquely polarized political era due to contentious elections and a growing distrust of institutions, amplified by the digital age. The 2016 presidential election is one of the earliest examples of Gen Z’s glimpse into a tumultuous political environment. With this, Gen Z is more diverse— racially, ethnically and in terms of religious identity—than previous generations.

According to data from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), Gen Z is the only generation in which less than half of its members are white and more people identify as LGBTQ+ than any other generation.

Additionally, Gen Z tends to lean towards progressive positions on those connected issues,  meaning that they are more likely to focus on civil rights, diversity and social justice issues and are more likely to vote for political figures with opposing ideas than past generations.Nationally, 31% of Gen Z identify as Democrats, 30% as independents and 23% as Republicans, but 16% of our generation’s adults answer with “other” or “don’t know,” according to PRRI.

Even as demographic data suggests Gen Z leans more toward progressive policies, public opinion research reveals deep skepticism toward political institutions among younger Americans.

In the 2025 Harvard Youth Poll, only about 19% of Gen Z respondents said they trust the federal government to “do the right thing most or all of the time.” Confidence in core institutions like Congress, the presidency and the judiciary scored even lower.

Despite comments that this might be a case of youthful cynicism, it reflects our generation’s real frustrations with what many perceive as a political system that is unresponsive to their needs.

Other recent polling shows a majority of young Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction and express negative opinions of both major political parties.

“The two party system will be the death of America if both parties continue to stagnate,” said Jason Marecki, a student at the university. Reflecting disappointment in the country’s current diversity in political representation.

Phoebe Collins describes themselves as a leftist, someone who seeks radical social and economic change in the direction of greater equality.

Collins said their political identity has not shifted since arriving at college. While their ideological position remained stable, she acknowledged becoming more intentional about staying informed, calling it a “conscious effort.”

Research shows Gen Z‘s political engagement and turnout in recent elections reached historically high levels. Collins believes their generation’s increased engagement is partly age-related, but it is also a reflection of changing politics.

The focus on immigration and social politics, Collins said, seems to dominate Gen Z’s conversations due to their increasing relevance and media coverage in the United States. They argue that both major parties increasingly rely on identity-driven appeals. Collins’ perspective shows that the shift away from economic policy may be intentional.  

“With the rise in both sides using identity politics as a way to garner support, attention often shifts away from economic concerns,” Collins said.

Instead of addressing economic inequality, Collins believes political actors highlight cultural flashpoints. 

Their critique reflects a long-running debate among scholars about whether polarization is driven primarily by ideology, identity or institutional incentives. Partisan affiliation increasingly overlaps with race and cultural identity, reinforcing affective polarization.

Despite identifying strongly with the left, Collins believes today’s polarization is less about policy substance and more about partisan branding. Gen Z’s diversity is fundamentally different from older generations, and more likely to guide who and what they choose to put our trust in.

To Collins, the two-party system forces complex political beliefs into binary categories. Forcing the polarization gap bigger. Gen Z’s comparatively high rates of independence could signal a realignment away from the traditional system. If younger voters continue to resist strict partisan labels, they may return to placing a greater focus on issue–based politics.

“I think the distinction between Democrats and Republicans has widened,” Collins said, “despite that, I feel like the policies themselves have shrunk.”

Labels of Democrat or Republican shape perceptions of peers before conversations even begin, and it can create an in-group, out-group dynamic. Collins admitted that they are not immune to that instinct.

“Polarization has created almost like a tribalist thought of ‘I’m in this camp, you’re in that camp,’” Collins said, “Somebody has a different political opinion than me and I just have to completely shut it down.”

College is one of the first environments where political identity becomes socially visible. Students study alongside peers with different identities. This diversity has the potential to expand perspectives and create a healthy environment full of conversation, but it can also amplify harmful differences.

Research from the American National Election Studies shows that party identification increasingly overlaps with other aspects of identity. On college campuses, where those aspects are actively explored and affirmed, your political stance can become directly connected to your self-definition.

Collins believes that when political identity becomes inseparable from personal identity, the disagreement feels existential rather than intellectual. Debates about immigration, healthcare or education policy no longer feel like a difference in priorities; deeper, like a rejection of someone’s lived experience.

The intensity of politics is both energizing and exhausting to them, which reflects a general attitude within Gen Z. Some people feel spurred to activism and political involvement to create change, but others are experiencing fatigue.

“Politics is exhausting in times of change,” Collins said. “But we need to stay focused.”

Despite brief moments of pessimism, Collins does not see disengagement as an option. For Gen Z, this polarization is something they are facing head-on; it is the driving factor of our entire generational attitude towards politics.

The ambivalence of existing within political spaces may be the defining emotion of our political experience thus far.

Collins reflects broader generational frustrations, but other students express a more radical critique of partisanship, one that involved rejecting the system all together.

Joshua Lerman, another student, described his political identity as “very anarchist,” and said that his views have remained consistently leftist, shaped by his upbringing and the increased exposure to political discourse in recent years.

“It’s kind of impossible to not be politically aware now,” Lerman said. “Everything is so constant, you’re always seeing it.”

Rather than focusing on the divisions drawn by party lines, Lerman said he views the current system as fundamentally flawed.

“I think the current system we have is completely broken, trying to fix it just by voting or working within it feels like playing inside rules that were never made to benefit everyone,” he said.

This perspective is another side of Gen Z’s disillusioned sentiment, an awareness about the effects of institutional structures as a whole. Trying to discuss these perspectives is increasingly difficult in political conversations, Lerman said.

He described avoiding political discussions with friends who hold opposing views, even when those differences are significant. Despite having such passionate ideals and beliefs, it doesn’t seem tangible to make space for them in the everyday world.

That breakdown in communication has had tangible effects on the personal relationships of students. This reluctance to engage highlights a paradox within Gen Z’s political identity: despite being described as outspoken and engaged, many still avoid direct confrontation in their personal lives.

At the same time, partisanship still continues to shape everyday interactions in subtle ways. Lerman noted that they tend to “test the waters” in conversations with new people by introducing his opinions cautiously, gauging their reaction before continuing further.

“It still affects who I surround myself with,” Lerman said. “It’s exhausting to constantly argue with people who see the world completely differently.”

Many Gen Z find it difficult to try to build open and welcoming relationships because of the stark difference in opinions. Lerman said he feels like there is a line between surrounding yourself with people like you, but also avoiding being stuck in an echo chamber of opinions.

“It’s really easy to end up only seeing one side,” he said. “But it’s just as easy to fall into an extreme isolationist direction without realizing it.”

Still, Lerman said he feels like Gen Z shows less restraint and more willingness to have conversations openly.

“People our age aren’t as afraid to call things out,” Lerman said. “Even if there are consequences, it feels important to say something.”

Gen Z is a generation deeply engaged in politics, yet increasingly skeptical that there are ways to produce meaningful change.

If polarization was built through institutions, media incentives and partisan infrastructure, it can also be reshaped through civic norms, electoral reforms and cross-partisan dialogue. Universities, workplaces and online communities will all serve as testing grounds for what that reshaping looks like. The future of American democracy will not be determined solely by whether Gen Z leans left or right – it will be shaped by how they respond to the partisan environment they inherited.

The post Partisanship and Changes in American Politics appeared first on Hill Magazine.

It’s official: Spring has arrived at the University of Arkansas. As the weather warms, tulips can be spotted from Silas Hunt Hall to Old Main. As gardening begins around campus, the smell of fertilizer has become an integral part of any walk across campus. 

Sydney Talley, a U of A senior, attests that gardening on campus encompasses more than flowers. Talley has been a part of the Volunteer Action Center since her sophomore year, and is now the Garden and Sustainability coordinator with the Full Circle Food Pantry. Talley’s day-to-day consists of taking care of the garden, as well implementing sustainable practices like making compost out of dented can donations.  

The Full Circle Food Pantry Garden has expanded in recent years, and is now operated year round. While Talley is limited to plants that thrive in Arkansas soil, she works alongside other VAC members to ensure that some crops widely used internationally are a priority. During the summer, cherry tomatoes and squash leaves are well loved by clients. 

The VAC garden operates as a community garden. Clients of the food pantry are encouraged to harvest from the garden, as well as wander between the garden beds. As clients engage with the garden, they are able to make the space theirs. 

“I think we should be more connected to our food systems. Growing food reminds you where it comes from and what it takes to get what comes onto your plate,” Talley said. 

Jayna Ravula, an agricultural leadership major with a minor in horticulture, grew up gardening alongside her parents. Living in an apartment, she grows her plants in containers to maximize her space. In the future, she wants to move into a house to have a larger garden. 

While Ravula’s parents taught her some of what she knows about gardening, she took it upon herself to learn more. In her hometown there is a discount bookstore with a whole section dedicated to books on plants. Oftentimes, the books contained fun facts. 

“I like that a literal plant can make food that nourishes my body. I feel pride and joy being able to pick my herbs and pick my tomatoes that I grew and I didn’t have to spend $3 at Walmart,” Ravula said. 

At the grocery store, she noticed that herbs were sold in big bundles while she only needed a little bit at a time. More than that, the produce sold at the grocery store was really expensive. This inspired her to grow her own herbs. While Ravula has shared cuttings of her plants with friends, it is through cooking that she most often shares her harvest. 

Simon Todd, a horticulture major, grew up surrounded by gardening. His mom has always maintained a garden, and eventually Todd started his own. Todd describes his style of gardening as lazy gardening, because he does not want to have to work hard maintaining it. In Todd’s garden there is no planting of annuals, weeding, mowing, or fertilizing involved. 

“I really like sitting outside and being lazy outside. I like sitting in my hammock and reading my book and knitting on my porch with my dog, and I like it being pretty when I do,” Todd said. 

Todd grows a variety of plants in his garden ranging from wildflowers to herbs. While he used to buy herbs at the grocery store, he was inspired by the rising price of produce to grow his own. In Todd’s herb garden he grows dill, parsley, cilantro, basil and mint. 

Many chain stores, like Walmart or Target, sell packets of seeds. When bought in bulk, the seed packs are cheap and allow a gardner to easily grow a wide variety of plants. Todd explained that seed packs can be a great way to grow plants that attract native pollinators.

Laura Pitts, a masters student at the U of A, grows a variety of plants in her graden. When she first started gardening, she focused on attracting pollinators. Pitts initially purchased a seed pack that advertised saving the bees. However, after researching the seeds in the packet she realized that several of the seeds were invasive. 

“It was super hard for me to comprehend that I can just so easily start causing that much harm. It  feels like the ability to go into your backyard and start a wildfire, but an organic one,” Pitts said. 

While Todd has not encountered problems with seed packs, he has run into a few of his own problems with chain stores. Todd has had difficulty shopping for plants at Walmart, because the plants are often mislabeled. 

“If I go to a store and see a plant I don’t necessarily recognize, I need to know how to water, how deep to dig a hole to bury it, and how much sunlight it needs. I just look up the name on the tag and the name on the tag is wrong at least a 3rd of the time,” said Todd. 

While gardening can be challenging, with every year you work in the garden you learn new skills, said Ravula. 

While some helpful gardening information can be found on online platforms like TikTok or Instagram, there are several local gardening initiatives. For online resources, the U of A cooperative extension website provides a depth of helpful gardening tips. If looking for physical resources, the Dickson Street Bookstore has a section dedicated to plants. 

“I think gardening is a really good way to ground yourself. It ‘s nice to get your hands on dirt, and  plants and earth, and the smell of water, rain ,and fertilizer,” Pitts said.

The post Wildflowers, Strawberries, and Leafy Greens: Northwest Arkansas Residents on the Power of Gardening  appeared first on Hill Magazine.

The Chinese New Year began Feb. 17 and lasts until Feb. 5, 2027. The year of the Fire Horse is in full swing after not occurring since 1966 according to the Chinese zodiac cycle. The new year is an important holiday that is celebrated with both friends and family. University of Arkansas student Eli Iliria saw this first hand while he was studying abroad in Beijing last year. 

“Studying abroad gave me a much deeper appreciation for Chinese new year,” Iliria said. “What stood out to me most was how the entire rhythm of the country changed during this holiday. Train stations and airports were filled with people traveling home to see family.”

Growing up celebrating the Chinese New Year, U of A student Ella Tran feels nostalgic looking back on her family’s traditions during this time of year. Wishing she could relieve those sweet moments, she continues to celebrate with her community here in Fayetteville, though it may look different. 

“We’ve settled for house gatherings that consist of spending time with friends and sharing joy,” Tran said. “I try to plan something every year that has some aspect of the culture, whether it be food or just fun activities.”

Big family reunions take place here to celebrate the upcoming year. Iliria recalls making assortments of foods with his community like pork dumplings to represent wealth and prosperity as well as fish to symbolize abundance. Beyond family gatherings, there are tons of big public celebrations such as temple fairs, cultural performances, firework shows and the famous lion dances, which Tran has fond memories of.

“I remember being surrounded by these lion dances, and at first, being afraid, but then open to the culture and fun that comes with it,” Tran said. “Whilst providing an entertain[ment] factor, they are a symbol of the Lunar New Year culture. 

While the holiday is centered around Chinese culture, it continues to be celebrated everywhere. Tran believes there are endless possibilities for Lunar New Year celebrations, so there’s no wrong way to celebrate. Many students on campus decided to do their own little things to celebrate and bring good luck going into this year.

U of A student Kayla Knaust did some research on what all the holiday consists of after celebrating for the first time this year, 

“On that day I looked up little things to do and not to do,” Knaust said. “I didn’t cut my hair, I didn’t take out the trash, sweep, sew anything, and most importantly, I didn’t wash my hair.”

According to sources on social media, there are small daily activities that are advised to skip out on in order to keep your luck going into the rest of the year. Cutting your hair supposedly cuts off your wealth and prosperity, and sweeping or throwing out the trash symbolizes throwing away your good fortune. U of A student Grace Lyons remarked that she also decided not to wash her hair.

“I did see that you weren’t supposed to wash your hair on the night of, because then you would wash away all the good things that will happen in the year,” Lyons said. “I’m a little superstitious, so I didn’t wash my hair in hopes of having a good rest of the year.” 

As someone who loves having something to look forward to, Knaust enjoyed her preparation for and celebration of the Chinese New Year. Based on the  symbolism of  Fire Horse, people celebrating are hoping for a year of movement, independence, strength and high energy. 

After writing out what she wanted to gain from the New Year and what she wants to leave behind, Knaust is looking forward to this year of free-spirit and pushing forward. As a Scorpio, this year is supposed to be great luck for her and she can not wait to see what comes at her in 2026.

As everyone enters the year with new goals, environments and motivations, the Fire Horse is taken in various ways into different aspects of life. When Iliria moves back into a small town after living a city lifestyle, he hopes to embody the horse’s energy and independence as he eases into the change.

“For me personally, I hope to carry that mindset of openness and momentum this year as I readjust back to living in the U.S,” Iliria said. 

Both Lyons and Tran feel the dynamic energy radiating off the year of the Fire Horse. While Lyons hopes to make this new period a space to grow as a person, Tran hopes that as a community, we can remember this power and use it to persevere though tough times. The Year of the Fire Horse is here to embrace and embody in many forms, but is always meant to be celebrated together, as one.

“Through this aspiration to live in the moment this year, we as a community can grow to understand each other as people on the same Earth, rather than strangers with ill intentions,” Tran said. “Chinese New Year stands to bring people together through shared joy.”

The post The Year of the Fire Horse: Free-Spirited Movement, High Energy, and Independence 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.