Opinion

This week, The Echo published a story about gender pay gaps at UCA. While many of these issues are due to larger problems than a university can address, there are some problems the university can address. The gender pay gap is caused by many issues, including a bad maternity leave [...]

When I started at UCA, I was a 33-year-old transfer student. It was only after I joined The Echo that I started to feel like I belonged at UCA. As a staff writer my first semester, I took on a lot of stories. Attending events that I was covering for [...]

Now that I’m nearing the end of my college years, I will leave UCA with a variety of experiences and views. On one hand, I’ve had a great college experience, as you will hear everyone say. I’ve met some great people, learned some information that will be vital for my [...]

This week, the faculty senate took President Tom Courtway to task about his hiring of Chief of Staff Kelly Erstine without a national search. This shows that the faculty senate is taking its job as a watchdog of the administration seriously, but this has not always been the case. When [...]

Stress-a noun meaning every college student’s worst nightmare. There are several ways one can cope with their stress through each semester’s heavy burden. Personally, I have tried playing basketball, videogames, watching television and multiple other things. While playing basketball works great for me, it is an activity that cannot be [...]

The UCA HPER Center is expected to break ground on an expansion project in July. The expansion will cover the entire current HPER Center parking lot. While this has raised some concerns due to the already limited parking on campus, it is a sacrifice that is necessary and the right [...]

There has been talk of adding a new Interfraternity Council fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi, to UCA Greek life. While I’m a big supporter of increasing Greek Life, this is simply the wrong direction to take. Currently, UCA recognizes seven IFC fraternities and five Panhellenic sororities. The fraternities are Kappa Sigma, [...]

When a campus organization is caught hazing its members, there is generally action taken by the school against the entire organization. So when six UCA cheerleaders tied a freshman cheerleader to a metal pole in near-freezing, rainy weather, the expectation was that there would be diciplinary action against the perpetrators. [...]

While doing research for a story Assistant News Editor Andy Robertson and I wrote about the Western Heights (WH) Complex, I found that I had a strong opinion about the elitist structure our campus seems to run on. Recently, UCA hired two employees in the administration, Kelley Erstine as chief [...]

Less than two weeks after getting Provost Steve Runge confirmed as permanent provost behind closed doors, President Tom Courtway appointed Kelley Erstine as his chief of staff. Erstine will begin his new job July 1. As with Runge, the issue is not his qualifications, but the way he was hired. [...]

Taking a few minutes out of a busy day can help break away from the stress of school. As college students we are overloaded with homework, studying and jobs. There is not a lot of free time to enjoying. For some students, spring break was a time to get away [...]

In last week’s issue of the Echo, I wrote an in-depth article about the shuttle bus system at UCA and the kinds of things the drivers do and go through. The bus drivers made sure to let me know that I made some questionable decisions on who I interviewed and [...]

When I became a Purple Bear in the fall of 2011, I brought my bike with me. I have always enjoyed pedaling around the tame landscape of UCA’s campus and appreciating the beautiful weather. I have never had a problem navigating around other students on my way to class—except that [...]

After pushing through a resolution to approve Provost Steve Runge in less than an hour, the Faculty Senate seems to have learned its lesson. At its March 12 meeting, senators chose to push back a resolution on changes to general education requirements. This was done so the senators could bring [...]

UCA’s Greek Life was yet again put in a negative spotlight March 13 in an Echo article describing allegations of sexual assault and video voyeurism. The fraternity at the center of the alleged incident, Sigma Phi Epsilon, has a history of bringing troubling attention to the university’s Greek organizations. Any [...]

Aside from parking at UCA, the wireless Internet is the second-highest complaint of students. The complaints range from the Wi-Fi being weak or nonexistent to the location of the wireless hotspots. At the March 4 Student Government Association meeting, the group was informed that UCA’s Information Technology department is working [...]