The department provides two special academic facilities for students and faculty- the Dr. Robert B. Walz Memorial Student Study and the Mrs. Curtistine A. Walz Center for the Study of Cliometrics and Public Opinion. These areas were made possible by endowments of the Walz family.
The Robert Walz Study is a special study and meeting area for students and faculty of the department. It contains a library with history and political science journals, computing equipment linked to the Internet, and a TV/VCR linked to CSPAN. It also has framed charters of student organizations and plaques recognizing Outstanding Graduates named each year by the faculty. The Walz Study serves as both a place for serious academic pursuits and as a place for good fellowship among students and faculty.
The Curtistine Walz Center is a room with computing and other equipment to provide opportunities to conduct quantitative studies and other projedts in history and in political science. A special focus of this center is conducting public opinion surveys of the students of Southern Arkansas University and the citizens of southwest Arkansas. In fall 1995 the first SAU POLL was completed, involving a survey of SAU undergraduates.The Walz Center is also used to prepare web pages for the Internet site on "The History and Culture of Southwest Arkansas," which is scheduled to go online in late 1997.