A-State Chancellor asked about higher ed changes under legislative consideration

During her state of the state address earlier this week, Gov. Sarah Sanders said she wanted to streamline the college application process and wanted to create a process to terminate college professors for “woke indoctrination.” Arkansas State University Chancellor Dr. Todd Shields was asked about these ideas Wednesday (Jan. 15) during the meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Jonesboro.

Shields said he thinks the first part of Sanders’ proposed “Access Arkansas” higher education reforms could be a good tool for incoming college students. It would streamline the application process for colleges and universities to one universal form.

It would allow prospective college students to compare and contrast things like education and boarding costs, cost of living in certain college towns and cities, and other factors that might impact a student’s choice, he said.

“I’m a fan of that,” said Shields.

When asked about the “woke indoctrination” clause that could lead to the termination of professors, even those who are tenured, Shields said he hadn’t heard about that proposal and wasn’t sure how that would work.

A former college instructor, Shields said he would often take contrarian views from his own in the classroom to challenge himself and his students. One day, he might take what some would perceive as a conservative stance on an issue or topic and then argue it from a liberal perspective the next day. If someone recorded just a clip of him taking these extreme positions, you might come away with the wrong impression about what he was actually trying to teach the class as a whole.

Sanders didn’t give a specific mechanism that would be used to determine how a professor could be terminated, but the Arkansas Legislature is now in session and bills concerning higher education are expected to be filed.

Amendment 33 was passed decades ago to sever elected government officials from interfering in many practices used by colleges and universities and any change like this would have to be rectified through that amendment, Shields added.

“I don’t know how you’d grant tenure and then take it away. … I don’t know how you’d do that,” he said.

A-State recently hosted its first Catalyst: NEA Economic Development and Leadership Forum in Jonesboro. Stakeholders from the steel, healthcare, mental health and others sectors were invited to speak on numerous topics.

Shields said more than 600 people attended the forum. The goal was to let the public and industry leaders know how A-State was being used to develop workers in the different disciplines. The plan was to try and host this forum annually, but it was so popular that plan may have changed, he added.

“It went so well, now they want to have another one this fall,” he said.