Westark Bases Decision on More Four-Year Degrees

Westark College in Fort Smith decided to join the University of Arkansas system because area residents wanted the college to offer more bachelor’s degrees, said Joel R. Stubblefield, president of Westark.

Seventy-five percent of the people surveyed said Westark needed more four-year degrees, and joining the UA system seemed to be the easiest way to do that, Stubblefield said.

Westark will officially become the UA at Fort Smith on Jan. 1.

The campus, which currently has six bachelor’s degree programs, will probably offer another two or three within the next year.

“We are looking at strengthening our nursing, business programs and information technology,” Stubblefield said.

To join the system, Westark eliminated a property tax that had been in effect since 1965. Initially, that tax was 2.5 mills, but it was raised in 1990 to 5.25 mills to pay for capital improvements. A mill is one-tenth of one percent of assessed real estate property value.

Instead of the property tax, Sebastian County voters approved a new one-quarter percent sales tax to fund the campus as part of the UA system.

The sales tax will bring in $700,000 less per year than the property tax, which brought in about $5.1 million per year. That difference won’t be made up by the UA system.

But Stubblefield said a tuition increase for upper-level classes will offset part of the decrease. Tuition will increase from $40 per credit hour to $80, but Stubblefield said that’s still a bargain compared with most state schools.

“We raised that millage to build out an aggressive master plan in 1990, and we’re caught up on that,” Stubblefield said.

The boards of both Westark and the UA approved the merger late last year. Westark will become the ninth campus in the UA system.

Westark has about 5,700 students enrolled for college credit. An additional 12,000 students attended noncredit courses at Westark last year.

The UA campus in Fayetteville, by comparison, has about 14,000 full-time students.

Westark has an annual budget of $52.7 million, which includes a $22.1 million capital budget. Westark received $17.6 million from state appropriations this year. The school has about 126 full-time credit faculty and 35 full-time noncredit faculty.