FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The 79^th annual Hogs United Campaign officially began Oct. 1, with a goal to raise $150,000 for the United Way of Northwest Arkansas by Nov. 30. This is one of two university-wide fundraising drives each year. Hogs United is the drive aimed at raising funds for the local community as a whole.

“I usually talk about the prosperity that comes with the high employment growth in Northwest Arkansas, but there are also many hard-working families that struggle to make ends meet,” said Kathy Deck, director the Center for Business and Economic Research, and a co-chair of this year’s Hogs United campaign. “Last year, more than 100,000 people living in Northwest Arkansas were served by one of the 67 agencies supported by our local United Way. Some of those people are members of our campus community.”

Deck is one of three new co-chairs working the Hog United campaign, along with Melissa Harwood-Rom, senior associate dean of students, and Stewart Pence, director of philanthropy for the Associated Student Government.

Hogs United has traditionally sought donations only from faculty and staff, but this year students are also included in the campaign. Pence is the first student to serve as a co-chair and will coordinate student fundraising events.

“We have never asked for donations directly from students in our past campaigns,” said campaign coordinator Debbie McLoud, director of employee services for university human resources. “But several student organizations – including the ASG – have expressed a desire to be part of the campaign, and we welcome their participation.”

“Students on this campus are becoming more and more aware of the needs of their community – both the campus community and Northwest Arkansas as a whole,” said Pence. “Several of the Greek organizations wanted to get involved in this campaign, but there is strong interest among individual students, as well. We are hoping to develop a series of fundraising events around Homecoming Weekend that will give our students a chance to be part of this important campaign.”

In addition to seeking student participation, this year’s Hogs United campaign has also recruited campus coordinators for each college, school and division at the U of A. These volunteers are available to answer questions about the campaign and to help anyone through the process of making a donation.

The campus coordinators for Hogs United are:

• Christine Hilker, media center director, Fay Jones School of Architecture, 575-3677, chilker@uark.edu
• Mike Waddell, senior associate director of athletics, Athletics Department, 575-6533, waddellm@uark.edu
• Carmen Alessi, assistant to the dean, Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, 575-2034, calessi@uark.edu
• Fran Hagstrom, assistant dean, health professions, College of Education and Health Professions, 575-4910, fhagstr@uark.edu
• Donna Carter, BASIS training coordinator, Finance and Administration, 575-4164, dcarter@uark.edu
• Lori Kruse, administrative support supervisor, Finance and Administration, 575-6601, lkruse@uark.edu
• Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor, Finance and Administration, 575-6601, mrj03@uark.edu
• Sharon McFarland, assistant to the dean, J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, 575-3711, smcfarla@uark.edu
• Cindy Shackelford, director of administrative services, Global Campus, 575-6488, csshack@uark.edu
• Cassie Franklin, assistant to the dean, Graduate School and International Education, 575-7762, cfrankli@uark.edu
• Reynelda Augustine-Robinson, assistant to the deans, Honors College, 575-3673, raugust@uark.edu
• Andy Albertson, director of communications, School of Law, 575-6111, aalbert@uark.edu
• Marsha Norvell, executive assistant, Student Affairs, 575-2819, mnorvell@uark.edu
• Marilyn Smith, assistant to the dean, Student Affairs, 575-5004, mjsmith@uark.edu
• Kent Perodin, coordinator for marketing, Student Affairs, 575-3994, kperrod@uark.edu
• Judy Ganson, associate librarian, University Libraries, 575-2130, jganson@uark.edu
• Carolyn Eiler, events and programs manager, Sam M. Walton College of Business, 575-6153, ceiler@walton.uark.edu

 Hogs United is primarily an online donation campaign and features a new website, hogsunited.uark.edu, with more information about the United Way of Northwest Arkansas and the university campaign. The Hogs United site includes a direct link to the secure, individual donation pages of the United Way website. The donation site is individually password-protected and all private information will remain confidential. The site offers a variety of ways to give, but the Hogs United campaign also offers ways for people without Internet access to make donations.

“One of the themes of this campaign is ‘no donation is too small,’ and we mean it,” said Harwood-Rom. “Participation is as important as the amount that you donate. We want to meet – and even surpass – our $150,000 goal. But we want to do that with as many individual donors as possible. Last year we were No. 4 among schools in the SEC with under 10,000 employees, both in terms of participation and dollars raised. We want to do even better this year.”