Pulaski Technical College President: ‘We’re At A Nexus’

Pulaski Technical College President Dr. Margaret Ellibee says her growing two-year school is planning for more meteoric growth as technology and workforce needs continue to expand.

Pulaski Technical College is the largest two-year college in the state and the fourth largest public higher education school in Arkansas with nearly 12,000 students, seven campuses, and a $50 million annual budget.

“What we have to look for in the future is additional funding if we want to add more buildings, if we want to add more faculty,” Ellibee said. “With rising costs and more people wanting to come to our college, we’re at a nexus. I think we’re going to have to discuss and look very carefully at are there other funding streams that can supplement what we have.”

Pulaski Technical College has seen explosive growth in its culinary, allied health, and advanced manufacturing programs to name just a few areas. Ellibee says that between talented faculty and specialized advisory groups, the school is constantly adjusting its curricula to turn out ready-trained workers or graduates prepared for more advanced education.

“We’re very fortunate to have very good faculty. In our technical programs, that faculty come from that industry,” she said. “The other advantage that we have in our technical programs is that we have advisory committees for those programs, and those advisory committees have business and industry representatives on them.”

The committees provide insight on current, changing, and future skills, Ellibee says.

Online courses have become a growing trend in higher education. There are traditional classes online and emerging “Massive Open Online Courses,” nicknamed “MOOCs.”  Ellibee says maintaining quality standards will drive the school’s digital offerings.

“We have about 5,000 students who are taking online courses,” she said. “That’s great for learners who can work on a computer and do that type of learning and do it at home, which is very effective and efficient for them, that’s great.”

“Our other learners at our college – and I’m one of them. I’m very visual and hands-on and we have a lot of learners like that – those learners like to have the courses on campus, the labs on campus, which are very textual and applied. We have to be able to meet the needs of all of those learners,” she added. “We want to make sure what we offer online is quality.”

Ellibee also discussed recent findings from the Arkansas Research Center, which highlighted the correlation between education and money.  For her thoughts on this subject and more, watch the full interview below.