UAFS campus active with construction

Increased enrollment, efforts to improve student learning environments and small business outreach are driving the significant facility expansion at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

UAFS officials on Thursday (July 30) released a statement outlining the numerous projects underway or soon to begin.

A large project launched the week of July 6 is a 130,000-square-foot student housing complex located at the west corner of Kinkead and Waldron Avenues. The four-story, two-building project will include a dining facility and is scheduled to be complete for students arriving for the 2010 fall semester. The project is funded by a $25 million bond issue, according to the UAFS statement.

The Math-Science Building is undergoing $400,000 of renovations to reconfigure space within the building to better suit the needs of students and faculty.
 
“The Math-Science building was completed in 1992 and was really state-of-the-art at the time,” said Mark Horn, UAFS vice chancellor for finance and administration. “The science labs were very good for the period, but when we became a four-year institution the needs for labs and space needed to be altered.”

Expansion and renovation of the Boreham Library is in the preliminary stages, with Fort Smith-based MAHG Architects expected to work with Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle LTD out of Minneapolis, Minn. The Minnesota firm specializes in library design and was the designer of the Fort Smith Public Library.
 
“We’re looking to double the size [of the library] and move from being a library to a full learning resource center,” Horn noted in the statement. “We want to include both paper archives and access to electronic databases and make it more suitable to a 24/7 campus and more attractive to students.”

A definitive cost for the library expansion is unknown.

“Currently we are finalizing contracts with the architects. After contracts are finalized and the actual designs are begun we can then begin to calculate costs. Right now in the planning of this project we are estimating about $10 million but that is strictly for planning purposes and is in no way a firm number,” said UAFS Public Relations Assistant Jessica Martin.
 
Included in the library expansion will be a Regional Entrepreneurial and Innovation Research Center funded by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The university received the grant April 17. The center will consolidate under one roof research services for small businesses and entrepreneurs that are provided by programs of the university and will improve access to state and federal assistance services of interest to small and start-up businesses.

Other campus construction projects include rebuilding a bridge span that connects the second floors of the Vines and Gardner buildings, cosmetic work and reconfiguration of spaces in the Flanders Business Center and the Business and Professional Institute building and an athletic field that can support intramural sports.

ENROLLMENT, RETENTION
Dr. Ray Wallace, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said during a June 23 UAFS Board of Visitors meeting that 2,320 students enrolled for Summer I and 1,443 enrolled for Summer II, up 8% and 3%, respectively, over the 2008 summer periods.

Early enrollment for the Fall semester stands at 4,979, up 11% over the 2008 period. Wallace said the percentage is likely to decrease, but remains well above the estimated 5% gain in enrollment. As of July 31, the university did not have an update on fall enrollment.

UAFS Chancellor Dr. Paul Beran said during the Board of Visitors meeting that the focus of helping students stay in school and obtain a college diploma is the “cause célèbre” of his administration.

The overall graduation rate at UAFS is 18%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. However, UAFS did not convert to a four-year degree granting university until 2001. As of the 2008-2009 school year, the retention rates for first-time bachelor degree seeking students who began the program in 2006 was 68% for full-time students and 41% for part-time students.