Higher education leaders discuss ACCESS, collaboration, workforce in Fayetteville

Three leaders of Arkansas higher education institutions discussed changes happening across colleges and universities as part of a panel discussion hosted by the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) at the Fayetteville Town Center on Wednesday (April 23).

University of Arkansas chancellor Dr. Charles Robinson, NorthWest Arkansas Community College President Dr. Dennis Rittle, and UCA President Dr. Houston Davis participated in a panel led by Northwest Arkansas Business Journal and Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock.

The education leaders’ comments centered on workforce education, cross-collaboration between schools, and the new ACCESS Act – Gov. Sarah Sanders’ recently passed new law affecting higher education. One of the biggest issues of the day was college affordability.

“We want to make sure that every Arkansan knows that there’s a pathway to their goals and dreams,” said Robinson. “I think because we share that as leaders, we invite students, we provide them with pathways, we advertise who we are, and we’re also very sensitive about affordability. And that affordability issue is not one we take lightly.”

Davis said that before COVID-19, UCA trustees set on a path to tighten expenses and curtail programs that did not produce a high number of graduates. That financial discipline has allowed the Conway school to expand certain programs and keep tuition affordable.

“I’m proud of the fact that we don’t have any low producing programs. We’ve got a lot of quality enrollment in a lot of areas, but I think that’s because our faculty and our staff that are entrusted with that are making certain in the classroom and outside the classroom there is a rigor and relevance to make individuals be able to see that they can come to UCA, get that degree and they see a future in that,” said Davis.

“We take risks. We’re not afraid. We’re going to be bold and we’re not going to be embarrassed about that or going to apologize about that. In addition, we’re going to be highly generous with who we are,” said Ritter, whose NWACC campus attracts about 90% of its student body from Northwest Arkansas.

All three schools talked about the collaboration that exists regionally and statewide among chancellors and presidents.

“The idea is serving the state of Arkansas, and we serve the state of Arkansas better when we work together,” said Robinson. “I know that seems very simplistic, but we have a mutual interest in serving the state of Arkansas… There are issues that affect us all, affect our budgets, and so when we work together, there’s strength in that togetherness and the old divides just don’t work in today’s world.”

“We’re all pulling on that same rope in the same direction and I’m proud of that. I referenced the presidents’ and chancellors’ council, which is an opportunity for us to get all 32 of the public four-year schools and two-year schools together. We do that regularly, not just during the legislative session, but throughout the year to be able to talk about what are those things that are common denominator issues for all of us and how we are responding,” said Davis, whose school has more than 4,000 alumni in Benton and Washington counties.

Ritter noted that NWACC turns out plenty of graduates that are workforce ready, but many of his students also climb a higher education ladder and work on advanced degrees at the nearby UA campus.

“Do you know how many students right now that were at NWACC are now at the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2024? There were 4,144. That’s how many NWACC-ers were at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. And I’m proud of that number,” he said.

ADDRESSING WORKFORCE NEEDS
Ritter highlighted how NWACC was born out of a need to train workers for a growing labor force in the region, partially brought on by the demands from rapid growth by Walmart, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt and their suppliers.

“We’re working right now in the workforce intermediate area. And that is a model where we see in other regions of the country, in metropolitan areas, where they come up with these workforce organizations that help both identify the talent pipeline and then also make sure that the pipeline is being developed,” he said.

“About 35% of our student body are in the workforce. The other 65% are in transfer. So they’re ferrying over to the University of Arkansas, to Fayetteville or UCA, whatever school it may be as far as in the corridor. When we think about the students that are in the workforce, our faculty and our staff, each of those programs have advisory councils that are made up of industry leaders. We have approximately right now about 80 pathways that lead to positions in the workforce and they go anywhere from HVAC to culinary,” said Ritter.

For Robinson, dialogue between business leaders and educators is ongoing.

“We have direct conversations with industry leaders about what their needs are, but when you look at data, what you see is that there are critical workforce needs that we are meeting,” he said.

Davis, who is spending a portion of the week meeting with alumni and industry leaders in Northwest Arkansas, said trips like this are important because the needs are far greater than current capacity.

“All of the [UCA] colleges have advisory councils that are made up of industry representatives that are appropriate to the degrees that they offer and then degree programs and departments under that,” said Davis. “We need to make certain that we’re not just having that conversation in one nook of the state. We need to make certain that we’re coming here, and that’s a big part of what we’re doing this week, is having direct conversations so that we can be responsive and document that we’re heading in the right direction.”

ACCESS ACT
Among the promising changes for higher education in the ACCESS Act, the three campus leaders discussed support for more first-year lottery scholarship funding, non-credit and certificate activities, and concurrent enrollment in high school – which allows high schoolers to receive college credit before enrolling.

Some controversial aspects of the ACCESS Act did not seem to be a major issue for the panel. The new law prohibits excused absences for political activity on college campuses as well as outlines guidelines to prevent potential “indoctrination” of students by professors.

“In terms of free speech, I didn’t see the challenge from ACCESS because academic freedom was not injured,” said Robinson. “Now, I know there was some language that seemed to trigger concern about indoctrination. I really don’t know what that is. I mean, I kind of do as a historian, but I think we have it misunderstood. The act doesn’t prevent us from teaching what we need to teach. The pedagogy is held intact. Our faculty have academic freedom. That’s just a fact. If you look at it now, when it comes to the DEI issues, again, student support didn’t change.”

Davis said UCA doesn’t have an admissions policy that favors special populations, nor does it award scholarships to special populations, so that part of the bill would not affect his school.

“Do we have statements that employees have to sign in order to be employed? No. Do you have training and exercises that employees have to do in order to remain employed? No. Now, are those things true in higher education instances around the country? Yes. Yes, yes and yes. Does that make sense? So those elements of the bill were like, well fine. It was just making something illegal that we’re not doing already,” said Davis.

“We took it as we are serving all of our students and it is access for all of our students. We’re not going to stop,” said Ritter. “We love our students, we love them. And when you love them, there’s no laws against that. There are no rules against that.”

All three panelists also addressed a philosophical debate that is a hot topic in higher education: Should schools be only producing graduates for specific workforce needs or should higher education be more broad-based?

“I think that employers want to know that we’re preparing someone that has sort of a breadth and depth, that they’ve got broad enough exposure to where they can be in a mode where they will be trainable and can be educated on other systems, other technologies, other things. Because we talk about being lifelong learners all the time, but that’s really what people are doing now,” said Davis. “There are going to be doors that are going to open up potentially for them [students] that we never could have imagined just because the world’s so open and that’s exciting, and we want to prepare them to be able to take advantage of that.”

“People are starting in a career path and oftentimes it’s real jagged and wavy, and you’re in a lot of different spaces and you find yourself, it’s not just a tree trunk, it’s not that way. It might’ve been that way 50 years ago. It’s not so much that way today,” said Ritter.

“I meet with students regularly, and it’s not uncommon for students not to know what they want to do,” said Robinson. “They may have majors and they are exploring and trying to find themselves. This is about self-discovery, and that’s the beauty of higher education, that you’re given a runway to discover yourself. It’s a microcosm of the larger reality beyond college. You will continue discovering yourself.

“And so a good education is foundational. It helps you to think and improve your ability to learn, to communicate, to connect, to network, because your first job may not be very similar to your last. Remember, I was a history professor. I’m not that now, but history helps me in the execution of my responsibilities. So we want to create lifelong learners, people who are critical thinkers, who will continue to develop and grow and connect to what they believe is the better expression of who they are,” he added.