The University of Arkansas 鈥� Fort Smith will host two town halls this summer 鈥� one at 6 p.m. July 31 for candidates in the Fort Smith board of directors race, and a second at noon Aug. 2 for Fort Smith mayoral candidates.
The board of directors town hall will take place in the theater of Windgate Art & Design, 535 N. Waldron Rd., while the mayoral town hall will be held in the Reynolds Room of the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center, 800 N. 49th St. Both events are free and open to the public.
Robyn Dawson, Sam Price and Libby Piatt are the three declared candidates for the at-large position 5 on the board of directors, while Rep. George McGill, Wayne Haver and Luis Andrade are running for mayor of Fort Smith. In each town hall, the candidates will field questions from AV抖阴 students and community members on their respective visions for Fort Smith.
These events are hosted by the AV抖阴 chapter of the American Democracy Project, in collaboration with the AV抖阴 Political Science Department. Dr. Williams Yamkam, assistant professor of political science and chair of the AV抖阴 American Democracy Project, said the town halls are a 鈥渨in-win opportunity for all the parties involved.鈥�
鈥淭he voters get to learn more about these candidates and their respective vision for the City of Fort Smith, and the candidates get an opportunity to reach the voters in a more personal and effective way,鈥� Yamkam said. 鈥淎t the same time, AV抖阴 gets to play its role as a 'public square' where salient community issues are debated, all for the benefit of democracy, which is at the core of the mission that Chancellor Paul Beran assigned to the AV抖阴 American Democracy Project.鈥�
For more information, contact Yamkam at 479-788-7981 or williams.yamkam@uafs.edu.