ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – A $25,000 grant from the Alcoa Foundation will fund the construction of a boat dock at Henderson State University’s Simonson Biological Field Station.

The ADA accessible dock will provide convenient access to navigable shoreline and waterways to collect and study water samples and plant and animal specimens at DeGray Lake.

“The dock will allow students and researchers easy, fast, and safe entry into both our pontoon boat or jon boat,” said Dr. Troy Bray, associate professor of biology. “Without the dock, it is a labor and time intensive task that involves using the station’s tractor since the dirt ramp is not suitable for vehicles to launch and load boats.”

When the lake is low, students must tread through knee-deep mud to reach and climb aboard the boat, Bray said.

“Of course, this makes it impossible for some students to participate. The dock will be fully ADA compliant assuring all students the opportunity to join in field work.”

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (KTHV) - Since 1895, Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist have participated in one of college football's greatest rivalries.

With a rivalry comes trash talking, and maybe even some pranks. But when students start getting arrested and people's cars are destroyed, students and administration feel that lines have been crossed.

For 195 years, Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University's football teams and fans have crossed Hwy 67 in Arkadelphia for the "Battle of the Ravine". The rivalry is so intense, for a number of years, the football game was cancelled to avoid conflict. Nowadays, the students stick to pranking each other.

"Putting purple food coloring in the Henderson fountain, or Henderson doing something back across the Ravine," explains OBU Vice President for Communications Trennis Henderson.

ARKADELPHIA, Ark.—Marking Ouachita Baptist University’s third largest group of new students in the past 15 years, including 31 Governor’s Distinguished Scholars, Ouachita welcomed a total of 1,531 students to classes this fall.

The 2015 fall semester total marks the sixth consecutive year the university’s total fall enrollment has exceeded 1,500 students. Over the past three years, total new student enrollment has increased 12.5 percent, from 422 in 2012 to 475 this fall.

While the university’s residential on-campus enrollment is down slightly from last year, declining from 1,457 to 1,438, enrollment growth in other programs provided an overall increase from 1,501 students a year ago to 1,531 this year – a 2 percent enrollment gain.