University of Arkansas



The University of Arkansas (often shortened to U of A, UARK, or just UA) is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Founded as Arkansas Industrial University in 1871, its present name was adopted in 1899 and classes were first held on January 22, 1872. It is noted for its strong architecture, agriculture (particularly animal science and poultry science), business, communication disorders, creative writing, history, law, and Middle Eastern studies programs.

The University of Arkansas completed its "Campaign for the 21st Century" in 2005, in which the university raised more than $1 billion for the school, used in part to create a new Honors College and significantly increase the university's endowment. Among these gifts were the largest donation given to a business school at the time ($50 million), and the largest gift given to a public university in America ($300 million), both given by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation.

Total enrollment for the fall semester of 2011 was 23,199, the largest increase in number of students since the 1940s and the largest percentage increase since 1975, an increase that came on the heels of a similar jump in 2010. Of the 23,199 students, 3,773 (16.3%) are graduate students and 399 (1.7%) are law school students. Of the total, 14,480 (62.4%) of the university's students were residents of Arkansas; 7,493 (32.3%) were out-of-state residents (with Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri representing the largest out-of-state student populations), and 1,226 students (5.3%) were from countries other than the United States. The university campus comprises more than 130 buildings on 345 acre, including Old Main, the first permanent academic building erected, and The Inn at Carnall Hall, which serves as an on-campus hotel and restaurant facility. Academic programs are in excess of 200. The ratio of students to faculty is 17:1. Tuition did not rise for the 2009–10 academic year at the University of Arkansas, thanks in part to a $1 million donation from the Athletics Department. The average tuition nationally rose 6.6%. On April 16, 2010, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees announced system-wide tuition increases of 3%–6.9% to combat decreases in state funding and increased enrollments. The University of Arkansas flagship campus experienced a 4.8% increase in tuition and fees for the 2010–11 academic year.

History
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville was founded in 1871 on the site of a hilltop farm that overlooked the Ozark Mountains, giving it the nickname "The Hill".

The university was established under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862. The university's founding also satisfied the provision in the Arkansas Constitution of 1868 that the General Assembly was to "establish and maintain a State University."

Location of the university was determined by bids from state towns and counties. The citizens of Fayetteville and Washington County. pledged $130,000 toward securing the university, a sum that proved to be more than other offers. This was in response to the competition created by the Arkansas General Assembly's Organic Act of 1871, providing for the "location, organization and maintenance of the Arkansas Industrial University with a normal department [i.e., teacher education] therein." Classes started on January 22, 1872.

Completed in 1875, Old Main, a two-towered brick building designed in the Second Empire style, was the primary instructional and administrative building. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its design was based on the plans for the main academic building at the University of Illinois, which has since burned down. However, the clock and bell towers were switched at Arkansas. The northern taller tower is the bell tower, and the southern shorter tower is the clock tower. One legend for the tower switch is that the taller tower was put to the north as a reminder of the Union victory during the Civil War. A second legend is that the contractor accidentally swapped the tower drawings after having had too much to drink. Although the southern tower was designed with clock faces, it never held a working clock until October 2005. The bell tower has always had some type of chime, initially a bell that was rung on the hour by student volunteers. Electronic chimes were installed in 1959. In addition to the regular chimes of the clock, the university's Alma Mater plays at 5 pm every day. Old Main housed many of the earliest classes taught at the university, and has served as the offices of every college within the university during its history. Today, in addition to hosting classes, it contains the restored Giffels Auditorium and historic displays, as well as the administrative offices of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The lawn at Old Main serves as an arboretum, with many of the trees native to the state of Arkansas found on the lawn. Sitting at the edge of the lawn is Spoofer's Stone, a place for couples to meet and pass notes. Students play soccer, cricket and touch football on the lawn's open green.

Beginning with the class of 1876, the names of students at University of Arkansas are inscribed in "Senior Walk" and wind across campus for more than five miles (2.5 miles of sidewalk). The sidewalk is one of a kind nationally. More recently, the names of all the recipients of honorary degrees were also added, including such notables as J. Edgar Hoover, Queen Noor, President Bill Clinton, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

One of the more unusual structures at Arkansas is the Chi Omega Greek Theatre, a gift to the school by the national headquarters of the sorority. It marked the first time in the history of Greek letter social organizations that a national sorority had presented a memorial of its foundation to the institution where it was founded. Chi Omega was organized on April 5, 1895, at the University of Arkansas and is the mother (Psi) chapter of the national organization. The theater has been used for commencements, convocations, concerts, dramas and pep rallies. The largest crowd ever assembled there – upwards of 6,000, according to professor Walter J. Lemke – was for a concert by the Army Air Corps Band during World War II. From 1934 to 1991, the space under the stage was used for a rifle range by the Army ROTC.

The University of Arkansas became the first major Southern public university to admit an African-American student without litigation when Silas Hunt of Texarkana, an African American veteran of World War II, was admitted to the university's School of Law in 1948. Roy Wilkins, administrator of the NAACP, wrote in 1950 that Arkansas was the "very first of the Southern states to accept the new trend without fighting a delaying action or attempting to . . . limit, if not nullify, bare compliance." Today the School of Law continues to receive national awards and recognition for its high degree of diversity.

Vitamin E was co-discovered by UA Agricultural Chemistry Professor Barnett Sure (1920–51). Sure, along with fellow professor Marinus C. Kik (1927–67) made major advances in nutrition science during their long tenures at the University of Arkansas. Sure co-discovered vitamin E, and extended knowledge of how vitamin E, amino acids and B-vitamins function on reproduction and lactation. Kik developed the process for parboiling rice (a major agricultural crop in the state) to increase retention of vitamins and shorten cooking time. He documented benefits of adding fish and chicken to rice and grain diets to provide adequate protein for a growing world population. Sure and Kik were Agricultural Experiment Station scientists and professors in the UA Department of Agricultural Chemistry, which merged in 1964 with Home Economics, now the School of Human Environmental Sciences.

In the 1920s, Loy Barnett, an engineering graduate student at the University of Arkansas, set forth the principle of high-level Class B plate modulation for radio transmission and developed the technology that allowed small- and medium-size AM radio stations to flourish across the United States. Barnett later joined RCA and continued research on broadcast technology into the 1960s.

The most widely-implemented automated mail sorting equipment in the world–the Wide Area Bar Code Reader–was developed by the University of Arkansas College of Engineering. A $50,000 grant from the United States Postal Service (USPS) to Professors Dwight F. Mix and J.E. Bass in 1989 began the research and development effort. By 1999, more than 15,000 University of Arkansas bar code readers were located in every major USPS facility, increasing the efficiency of processing 20 billion pieces of mail a year at a savings of $200 million. This R&D effort has spawned four additional electronic systems to help the USPS "read the mail."

During the 1980s, Professors Allen Hermann and Zhengzhi Sheng of the Department of Physics were in the vanguard of research in superconductivity: the phenomenon whereby Direct Current (DC) electricity, once started, can flow essentially forever. The Thallium-based material they discovered at Arkansas held the world's record for high temperature, 125K, for five years (1988–93) and drew international attention to the university. Their work led to numerous patents and a manufacturing agreement, as well as further advances in high-density electronics.

University of Arkansas plant pathologists George Templeton, Roy Smith (USDA), David TeBeest and graduate student Jim Daniels conducted research in the early 1970s that led to COLLEGO, the first biological herbicide for weed control in a field crop. Other UA scientists and students worked on the project that resulted in EPA registration of COLLEGO by Upjohn in 1982 for control of northern jointvetch in rice and soybeans. The work provided a model used worldwide to develop biological herbicides. Leadership in this area helped the U of A obtain grants from the USDA and others for construction of the Rosen Center for Alternative Pest Control.

Academics and Rankings
The University of Arkansas offers 214 areas of study leading to bachelors, masters, doctoral, and law degrees. Academic programs are organized into numerous departments and schools based out of the ten primary colleges on the main campus. The university and several of its programs have been recognized on the national level. In recent years, the University of Arkansas has been recognized as a "Top-Tier National University", one of the "Best 371 Colleges", a "Best Southeastern College", and one of the "50 Best Public College Values". In addition to the university's recognitions, several colleges have received special distinctions. The Sam M. Walton College of Business is ranked as the 24th top public business school in the nation, and is ranked 42nd amongst all public and private schools. It has also been recognized for its 6th ranked public Marketing program, 6th ranked public Corporate Strategy program, 9th ranked Accounting program in its division, 15th ranked public Supply Chain Management program, and 25th ranked public Masters in Business Administration program. The Fay Jones School of Architecture has been ranked as the 20th top undergraduate architecture program, and ranked with "notable distinction" into the list of America's World Class Schools of Architecture. The University of Arkansas School of Law has been ranked as a top 100 "Best Law School". The Creative Writing program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences has been ranked as the 5th best program in the nation. Other colleges with notable or nationally ranked programs include the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering.

Campuses and academic divisions


The following degree-granting academic divisions are located on the Fayetteville campus:

Other Divisions
The Honors College and Global Campus do not award degrees but provide degree programs with honors coursework and distance education opportunities, respectively, for the Fayetteville campus:

Satellite facilities
Altogether there are eleven branches and four other units in the University of Arkansas System, including the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock and a branch campus in Pine Bluff. Other branch campuses include University of Arkansas at Monticello, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Fort Smith. Additionally, the UA System includes two year or community college campuses in Hope, Batesville, De Queen, Morrilton, and the Phillips Community College in Helena-West Helena. Units also under the UA System include the Clinton School of Public Service, the Criminal Justice Institute, the Arkansas Archaeological Survey, the Division of Agriculture, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. The university maintains the most advanced secondary educational institution in Arkansas, the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The University of Arkansas is also the home for the Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium, SECAC, where the twelve member schools of the Southeastern Conference pool resources to assist each other academically.

Campus


The University of Arkansas campus sweeps across hilltops on the western side of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Among the 130 buildings on the campus, 11 buildings have been added to the National Register of Historic Places individually, with most buildings in the historic core being named as contribuiting properties to the University of Arkansas Campus Historic District.

Construction began on Old Main in 1873 and was completed by 1875 in the Second Empire architectural style. Built with local brick and sandstone, Old Main serves as the university's signature building. The building has remained on campus despite its recommended removal in 1925 Jamieson and Spearl master plan. The 1925 master plan from the architects of Jamieson and Spearl included destruction of all existing campus buildings and reconstruction in the Collegiate Gothic style. Several buildings were built in this style near the core of campus, including the Vol Walker Hall, Engineering Hall, Chemistry Building, Agriculture Building, and Home Economics Building. The plan ran out of funds and was never completed, leading to a somewhat haphazard arrangement of buildings after the 1930s.

The University's oldest tradition is Senior Walk, which contains the names graduates from each class of the university. Beginning at the front steps of Old Main and running along the sidewalks across campus, Senior Walk is adorned with more than 140,000 names of former students. This tradition is unique to American universities.

The Fine Arts Center was designed by Fayetteville native Edward Durell Stone, who also designed Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The buildings are indicative of Stone's idiosyncratic modern style which included patterns of ornament. Stone also designed a fraternity house, now used for academic purposes, and an apartment complex named Carlson Terrace on campus, which has since been demolished.

The east end of the University of Arkansas campus is adjacent to Dickson Street, which is one of the premier entertainment districts in the state. To the south of the university is Fayetteville High School, which contains nationally recognized academic and athletics programs.

The buildings listed individually or as contributing properties to the University of Arkansas Campus Historic District on the United States National Register of Historic Places for their architectural or historic significance are:

Sports


The mascot for the University of Arkansas is the Razorback, a type of wild boar, and Arkansas teams are often referred to as the Hogs (shortened version of Razorbacks). The school competes in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in Division I of the NCAA. No school in the SEC has won more total national championships than Arkansas; and only 4 schools nationwide (UCLA, Southern California, Stanford, and Oklahoma State) have won more national titles than the Razorbacks.

From 1971 through 2007, Arkansas had completely separate men's and women's athletic departments. On January 1, 2008, the two departments merged, leaving fellow SEC school Tennessee as the only remaining NCAA Division I school with separate men's and women's athletic programs.

Football
A football team began representing the University of Arkansas in 1894 and has since become one of the nation's top 25 programs in terms of all-time wins at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. The program was a charter member of the Southwest Conference (SWC) in 1915 and remained in that conference until departing for the Southeastern Conference in 1991, where Arkansas has remained. The Razorbacks won the SWC thirteen times and the 1964 National Championship from 1915-1991, with great success coming under coaches Frank Broyles and Lou Holtz. Today, the team plays its home games on campus at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, or at War Memorial Stadium, located in Little Rock, making the University of Arkansas the only Division I program with two home stadia. Arkansas has also had recent success in the BCS era, obtaining its first BCS berth in the 2011 Sugar Bowl and climbing as high as #3 in the BCS rankings in 2011 under Bobby Petrino.

Men's basketball


The head coach of the men's basketball team is Mike Anderson, who was previously the head coach at Missouri. The Razorbacks play their home games in Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus. The team won the 1994 National Championship under coach Nolan Richardson, who was later dismissed by the university following comments made during a press conference after a game against Kentucky during the 2001-02 season. Richardson claimed publicly and in court proceedings to have been the subject of racial discrimination. A federal judge in Little Rock, as well as the US Court of Appeals in St. Louis, ruled in favor of the U of A citing insufficient evidence to support a legal claim of racial discrimination, although the district court judge indicated that there was sufficient evidence to support Richardson's belief that he was discriminated against. In 2011, the university honored Richardson with its Silas Hunt Legacy Award.

The school has been to six Final Fours (1941, 1945, 1978, 1990, 1994, 1995) and was named as the eighth-best program in history by Street and Smith's magazine.

Baseball
The baseball team, under Dave van Horn, reached the 2004 and 2009 College World Series. They have made six trips to the College World Series (1979, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2004, 2009), going as far as the championship game. The team plays home games in Baum Stadium, which finished several major renovations in 2004. Baum was recognized in 1998 by Baseball America magazine as being the top collegiate ballpark in America, and was #1 in 2009 according to Rivals.com. The stadium has recently undergone expansion, including 20 new skyboxes (34 in all) and seats behind the bullpen in left field. On April 7, 2009, a stadium record 11,044 fans saw a 7–3 Razorbacks victory over the #1 Arizona State Sun Devils. A weekend series with LSU in 2007 drew 29,931, which is the SEC all-time attendance record for a three-game series.

Track and field
The most successful program in NCAA history, the Arkansas men's track and field and cross country teams, led by head coach John McDonnell are the most decorated teams in the athletics department. The program has won 42 national titles in Cross Country and Track & Field. One of its most famous stars is recent graduate Alistair Cragg who competed for Ireland at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece. Other Olympians have included Michael Conley, Daniel Lincoln, Graham Hood, and Matt Hemingway. The team has a home indoor track at the Randal Tyson Track Center and outdoor field at John McDonnell Field, which hosted the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track Championships. Current head coach Chris Bucknam, assistant coaches Doug Case and Travis Geopfert have continued to embrace the legacy, winning the 2009 and 2010 SEC Indoor Track Championships, along with the 2009 and 2011 SEC Outdoor Championships and the 2010 and 2011 SEC Cross Country Championships.

Woman's Athletics
The women teams at the University of Arkansas are also referred to as Razorbacks. There are 11 varsity women sports: basketball, cross country, indoor and outdoor track, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, and volleyball. Among the most successful women teams are volleyball, with 11 SEC Western Division titles; cross country with more SEC championships than any member institution; basketball with 17 postseason appearances in 30 years, including the 1998 NCAA Final Four; track and field with six SEC titles and the first back-to-back women's SEC triple crowns; and gymnastics nationally-ranked since the start of the program in 2002 with two (soon three) NCAA appearances. Sprinter Veronica Campbell was the first Razorback woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics, with marathoner Deena Kastor, an alumna, bringing home a bronze medal in 2004.

Senior Walk
The names of University of Arkansas students, starting with the first senior class of 1876, are carved into one of the concrete walkways or sidewalks on campus. This tradition was started by the 1905 graduating class of students, who drew their names into the walkway in front of Old Main, the oldest building on campus. Following classes added their names for more than a decade and then the university took over responsibility for adding new classes, as well as adding the names of students who graduated prior to 1905. Through most of the 20th century, the names were impressed in wet cement using brass letters. As the campus grew, and the graduating classes got bigger, the operation became unduly time-consuming. In 1986, the university's physical plant developed a special machine called the "Senior Sand Hog" to engrave the thousands of names required each year. School superstition states that it is bad luck to step on the Class of 1900; additionally it is said that if one steps on the name of the first graduating class, you will never graduate from the University of Arkansas.

"Calling the Hogs"
Fans of the University of Arkansas have been "Calling the Hogs" since the 1920s. This tradition, which refers to the school's most popular cheer at sporting events, is said to have begun when a group of farmers attending a game began issuing hog calls to encourage a lagging Razorback football team. The encouragement worked and the attending crowd took notice of the farmers' calling. By the next game, a group of men had organized to cry "Wooo, Pig, Sooie". The call has since become the school's best-known cheer.

Alma mater
The current version of the University of Arkansas Alma Mater was written in 1909 by Brodie Payne, an alumnus of the University of Arkansas. He submitted his song to an ongoing competition that was trying to find a song for the university and won first prize. Henry D. Tovey, who was the director of the Glee Club at that time, set the song to music. In 1931, the University College Song Association in New York reviewed a collection of 500 college tunes, and the University of Arkansas Alma Mater was judged to be one of the twenty-five best college songs of the United States.

It is a student custom to point towards Old Main at the end of the verse when the words "we sing unto you" are sung.

Fight song
The words of the current version of the University of Arkansas Fight Song were written by Edwin Douglass while he was still a student as late as 1913. Music was added in 1918 and the fight song was adopted by the University of Arkansas in 1932. The fight song is usually played at all home Razorback sporting events.

School colors and mascot
The school color of cardinal red (Pantone # 200) was chosen as the official school color by a vote of the student body in 1895. The two color choices were cardinal and heliotrope. White was added as a complementary color at a later date.

The University of Arkansas mascot has not always been the Razorbacks. From 1894, when the football program began, until 1910, the official mascot was the Cardinals to complement the school color of cardinal red. In 1909, according to school lore, the head football coach Hugo Bezdek gave a speech to a large group of students at the Fayetteville train station after returning from a victory over LSU in 1909 during an undefeated season. Coach Bezdek informed the crowd that his team had performed "like a wild band of Razorback hogs." Although students had begun referring to the team as the Razorbacks as early as 1907, Bezdek's statement popularized the use of Razorback for the team. The Razorback, which is characterized by a ridged back and tenacious wild fighting ability, had long been associated with the backwoods of Arkansas. The students loved the comparison, and the nickname became increasingly popular. In 1910, the student body voted to change the official university mascot from the Cardinal to the Razorback.

Live hogs were occasionally brought to football games as early as the 1920s, but providing a permanent live mascot dates back to the 1960s and a number of hogs have represented Arkansas since then. Tusk, a 380-pound Russian boar that closely resembles a wild razorback hog, is the current official live mascot. He resides on a local farm and leaves his home to attend all Arkansas home football games, and other select events.

Additionally, the University of Arkansas has a family of uniformed mascots. "Big Red", (also known as the "Fighting Razorback"), is the traditional mascot for the university and attends all athletic events. "Sue E" is the female hog and "Pork Chop" is the kid mascot. "Boss Hog" is a nine-foot inflatable mascot that joined the mascot family during the 1998–99 football season.



Razorback Marching Band
The Razorback Marching Band, one of the oldest collegiate bands in the United States, was formed in 1874 as the Cadet Corps Band as part of the military art department. The band participated in all the formalities of the Military Art Department, as well as playing for football games, pageants, and commencement exercises. In 1947, following a steady post World War II growth, the Cadet Corp Band was divided into the three current bands, a football band, a concert band, and an R.O.T.C. band. In 1956, the band adopted the name "Marching Razorbacks." In 2006, the 340-member Razorback marching band was awarded the highest honor bestowed upon a collegiate marching band, the Sudler Trophy.

Clubs and organizations on campus
There are over 350 registered student organizations on campus including special interest, religious, international and cultural organizations, honorary and professional service groups, and more.

The most recognized student organization on campus is the Associated Student Government, sometimes simply called "ASG." The student government is active in managing student fees, meeting with key university administrators and is actively involved in many important decisions made on the University of Arkansas Campus. Perhaps the most significant program on campus, ASG, along with University Parking & Transit, and with the support of the DRJ-III Memorial Foundation, manage the Safe Ride program which gives students a safe ride home from any unsafe or uncomfortable situation.

Arkansas is home of UATV, a student-run television station, and The Arkansas Traveler, a national-award winning student newspaper established in 1906. The university is also home to two radio stations: KUAF, a public radio station and NPR affiliate, and KXUA, an eclectic student-run station.

The University of Arkansas Press is known for publishing works on local and Southern history, as well as its strong poetry series, including books of poetry by former President Jimmy Carter and the former national poet laureate Billy Collins.

Distinguished Lecture and Headliner Series
One of the most visible student-run organizations is University Programs, a group of students dedicated to bringing comedians, concerts, and lecturers to campus. Notable speakers and bands to visit the University of Arkansas as a result of the organization include lectures by Ehud Barak, Benazir Bhutto, Dave Barry, Benazir Bhutto, George H. W. Bush, James Carville, Anderson Cooper, Geraldine Ferraro, Al Franken, Malcolm Gladwell, Magic Johnson, James Earl Jones, Martin Luther King III, T. Boone Pickens, Mary Matalin, Ehud Olmert, Apolo Ohno, Robert Redford, Salman Rushdie, Ben Stein, Joseph Taylor, and Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama. Past concerts were headlined by Dierks Bentley, the Foo Fighters, John Mayer, O.A.R., The Roots, T.I., Third Eye Blind, and Snoop Dogg.

Greek life
Sororities Fraternities Professional and Honorary
 * Alpha Delta Pi 1957
 * Alpha Kappa Alpha 1976
 * Alpha Omicron Pi 2006
 * Chi Omega 1895 (Charter chapter)
 * Delta Delta Delta 1913
 * Delta Sigma Theta 1974
 * Kappa Delta 1989
 * Kappa Kappa Gamma 1925
 * Sigma Phi Lambda 2005
 * Pi Beta Phi 1909
 * Zeta Tau Alpha 1903
 * Zeta Phi Beta 1978
 * Alpha Gamma Rho 1934
 * Alpha Phi Alpha 1975
 * FarmHouse 1954
 * Kappa Alpha Psi 1978
 * Kappa Sigma 1890
 * Lambda Chi Alpha 1923
 * Omega Psi Phi 1974
 * Phi Beta Sigma 1978
 * Phi Delta Theta 1948
 * Phi Gamma Delta 1969
 * Phi Iota Alpha 1931
 * Pi Kappa Alpha 1904
 * Sigma Alpha Epsilon 1894
 * Sigma Chi 1905
 * Sigma Nu 1904
 * Sigma Phi Epsilon 1907
 * Sigma Pi 1948
 * Beta Upsilon Chi 2004
 * Phi Alpha Theta 1921 (History honor society)
 * Kappa Kappa Psi 1924 (Lambda chapter of the national band fraternity)
 * Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia 1925 (Alpha Omicron chapter, oldest national music fraternity)
 * Alpha Chi Sigma 1928 (Alpha Sigma chapter, professional Chemistry fraternity)
 * Theta Tau 1928 (Upsilon chapter, Professional Engineering)
 * Alpha Gamma Rho 1934 (Social/professional agriculture)
 * Tau Beta Sigma 1950 (Psi chapter of national band sorority)
 * Lambda Pi Eta 1985 (Official Communication Studies Honor Society)
 * Sigma Alpha Iota 1925 (Sigma Omicron chapter of national music sorority)
 * Alpha Rho Chi (Architecture)
 * Alpha Epsilon Delta (Pre-medical honor society)
 * Eta Sigma Phi (Classics Honor Society)
 * Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish Honor Society)
 * Delta Phi Alpha Iota XI Chapter (German Honor Society)
 * Alpha Kappa Psi 1928 Beta Zeta Chapter (Professional Business Fraternity)
 * Sigma Alpha Iota Chapter (Professional Agriculture Sorority)

Notable people
The University of Arkansas Alumni Association, operates chapters in 30 states throughout the United States. Throughout Arkansas's history, faculty, alumni, and former students have played prominent roles in many different fields. Among its Distinguished Alumni is Ricardo Martinelli, president of the Republic of Panama who was elected in 2009. Seventeen Arkansas graduates have held the position of governor, including the current Governor of Arkansas Mike Beebe who has represented Arkansas since 2007. Twenty-six Arkansas graduates have also represented the state of Arkansas in the United States House of Representatives in every Congress from the start of the 57th Congress in 1901 to 2009. Six Arkansas graduates have also held at least one US Senate seat from Arkansas since 1945, and from 1979–2003 held both seats, including current US Senators Mark Pryor and John Boozman.

Arkansas alumni have made contributions to the business world and academia. Alumni include Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Other Arkansas business alumni include executives of major corporations like S. Robson Walton of Wal-Mart, Thomas A. Mars of Mars, Incorporated, Scott T. Ford of Alltel, David O. Russell of Verizon Communications, and Ed Wilson of Fox Broadcasting Company & Tribune Broadcasting. Other Arkansas alumni have also held Chancellor and President positions at numerous universities including David Wiley Mullins who served as the Chancellor of North Carolina State University,Dr. David Rankin Southern Arkansas University, and Ray Thornton who served as President of Arkansas State University.

Arkansas alumni have also made contributions to professional sports. Arkansas Razorbacks have gone on to play in the NFL, NBA, WNBA, and MLB. Current alumni standouts include MLB Cy Young Award winning pitcher Cliff Lee and four time NBA All Star Joe Johnson. Others former razorbacks include 10 Olympians who have won 14 Olympic medals including Mike Conley, Sr. who won Olympics medals at the 1984 and 1992 Olympics. Eight Pro Football Hall of Famers including Dan Hampton and two time PGA Tour major championships winner John Daly have attended the University of Arkansas.