UA Board Expected to Approve Westark Merger

The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet Friday in Fort Smith to consider a proposal to allow Westark College into the University of Arkansas system.

B. Alan Sugg, president of the UA system, said on Thursday that he expected the board to approve the proposal, making the Fort Smith community college the ninth campus in the UA system.

Before that can happen, however, Westark must ask the Arkansas General Assembly to allow the college to propose a one-quarter percent sales tax increase to the voters in Sebastian County. That would raise about $5 million per year to help fund the campus, Sugg said.

Previously, a property tax millage was used to provide that money, but, according to state law, that will no longer be possible if the campus becomes part of the UA system. The Legislature will meet in January, and the election process could take a few months.

The Westark board approved the merger agreement Nov. 5.

Westark has about 5,300 students enrolled for college credit. An additional 4,844 students attend noncredit courses in Westark’s College of Business and Industry. The UA campus in Fayetteville, by comparison, has about 14,000 students.

Westark has an annual budget of $35.5 million, with $17.3 million of that coming from state appropriations. The school has 126 full-time credit faculty and 35 full-time noncredit faculty.

Sugg said he didn’t believe the amount of state appropriations to Westark would change if it became part of the UA system.

Westark officials want to retain many of the college’s programs, including those pertaining to dental hygiene, health careers, athletics, business and industrial education, outreach, manufacturing technology management, the Western Arkansas Technical Center and two-year degree programs.

The UA, which was founded in Fayetteville in 1871, has two campuses in Little Rock and one each in Pine Bluff, Helena, Hope, Batesville and Monticello.

The meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Westark College’s Baldor Technology Center. Also Friday, the UA board will consider whether to begin selecting an architectural firm to design an addition to the Printing Services Building at the university.