UA Board Approves Westark Merger
by December 25, 2000 12:00 am 88 views
The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees voted unanimously in a 30-minute meeting on Dec. 15 to approve a “merger agreement” that will make Westark College of Fort Smith the ninth college in the UA system. Eight of the UA system’s 10 trustees attended the meeting in Fort Smith.
Westark’s Board of Trustees approved the merger in a meeting Nov. 5.
“Everybody on both boards feels excited about the possibilities,” said B. Alan Sugg, president of the UA system.
Before the merger can be finalized, however, Westark must ask the Arkansas General Assembly to allow the college to propose a one-quarter percent sales tax increase to the voters in Sebastian County. That would raise about $5 million per year to help fund the campus, Sugg said.
Previously, a property tax millage was used to provide that money, but according to state law, that will no longer be possible if the campus becomes part of the UA system. The Legislature will meet in January, and the sales-tax approval process could take a few months.
Westark has about 5,300 students enrolled for college credit. An additional 4,844 students attend non-credit courses in Westark’s College of Business and Industry. The UA campus in Fayetteville, by comparison, has about 14,000 students.
Westark has an annual budget of $35.5 million, with $17.3 million of that coming from state appropriations. The school has 126 full-time credit faculty and 35 full-time, non-credit faculty.
Sugg said he didn’t believe the amount of state appropriations to Westark would change if it became part of the UA system.
Westark officials want to retain many of the college’s programs, including those pertaining to dental hygiene, health careers, athletics, business and industry education, outreach, manufacturing technology management, the Western Arkansas Technical Center and two-year degree programs.
The UA, which was founded in Fayetteville in 1871, currently has two campuses in Little Rock and one each in Pine Bluff, Helena, Hope, Batesville and Monticello.