Mid-South Community College Merges With ASU System

Officials with two major institutions of higher learning in the state said Friday that the merger of Mid-South Community College into the Arkansas State University system later this year could be a defining moment in the economic history of the region.

“It is a right fit,” ASU System President Dr. Chuck Welch told the Mid-South Community College Board of Trustees members during a presentation Friday morning.

The trustees of both colleges approved a merger agreement and a plan of transition during the joint meeting at MacGruder Hall on the MSCC campus.

Officials with both colleges have worked for several months on the agreement, which takes effect July 1 and is contingent on the approval of the Arkansas Higher Learning Commission Board, the agreement noted.

Both Welch and MSCC President Dr. Glen Fenter gave presentations to one another’s boards as to why the merger was needed.

Welch said the merger will help provide students an opportunity to take advantage of new course offerings. The university currently offers classes at MSCC, ranging from education to energy classes.

“There is no other way to sum up today, other than historic,” Welch told the MSCC board.

Welch told the MSCC board that his university would benefit from a “strong” workforce training and workforce development program as well as a conversion charter school called the Academies of West Memphis already implemented by MSCC.

Welch also said ASU officials believe in local autonomy for each campus and that a merger would help MSCC receive greater statewide representation on issues as well as assistance on finance and personnel management matters.

Fenter then told ASU board members that MSCC has been active on workforce development issues for nearly two decades and that local support helped to make it happen.

Fenter said one scholarship program – the Goldsby Scholarship – has given nearly 3,400 scholarships to high school students since starting in 2001.

The program, created by West Memphis resident Tommy Goldsby, has helped students to later transfer to nearly 175 universities, including ASU, Baylor and New York University, Fenter said, noting the program has saved parents nearly $12.5 million in college costs.

“It has not only jump started careers. It gives kids a chance to go to college for the first time,” Fenter, who is leaving July 1 to work for a Memphis-based economic development and workforce training group, said.

The merger agreement supports the continuance of the scholarship as well as several other projects. Fenter said another project – the Arkansas Delta Training and Education Consortium or ADTEC – has already brought MSCC and ASU together.

MSCC and ASU-Newport were two of the colleges that started the program in partial response to the state losing out on a Toyota auto factory.

The loss of the plant forced officials to do something, Fenter said.

“It has been such a significant, positive move,” Fenter said of ADTEC.

From Oct. 2005 through June 2014, the program has raised nearly $67 million in funding to help with workforce training programs.

Fenter said two other workforce training programs – a hospitality/Delta cuisine program sponsored by Southland Gaming and Racing and an airframe and power mechanics program sponsored by Fed Ex – have begun to provide some dividends.

AGREEMENT HIGHLIGHTS
The following is a list of highlights from the merger agreement:

· MSCC will become a member campus of the ASU system and will not be a branch campus or satellite campus of any two-or-four institution in the ASU system.

· MSCC will be called ASU Mid-South after the merger.

· ASU Mid-South will be run by a chancellor, employed by the ASU system after a recommendation from Welch and approval by the ASU board. Welch said he will serve as the chair for the search committee, with the MSCC board, Fenter and residents providing input.

· A Board of Visitors for ASU Mid-South will be created, with the people serving at the effective merger date as MSCC Board of Trustees members will be appointed to the ASU Mid-South Board of Visitors by the ASU system board.

Each will serve a term equal to the unexpired part of their term, with a one-time exception that that the three members whose terms expire June 30 will have their terms renewed to have continuity. From there, as terms expire and vacancies happen, the remaining members of the board of visitors will recommend to the ASU Mid-South chancellor the names of three people from the area to fill a vacancy.

The chancellor will then recommend to the ASU system president an appointment. The terms for new members will be for six years or the remaining portion of the unexpired term.