The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday affirmed Gov. Mike Beebe’s appointment 24 hours earlier of former state Sen. Shane Broadway as interim director of the state Department of Higher Education.
At a special meeting held by teleconference, the 12-member coordinating board also unanimously accepted “with regret” the resignation of Jim Purcell as director of the department.
Purcell on Thursday accepted the job as commissioner of higher education in Louisiana, where he is expected to earn an annual salary of $285,000, up from his Arkansas salary of $188,699.
“It is with both regret and anticipation that I submit this letter of resignation, effective February 24, 2011,” Purcell wrote to the governor.
“It has been a genuine pleasure working for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education during the past three years,” Purcell wrote. “The work has been challenging and productive and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Coordinating Board, [Higher Education Department] Staff and Presidents and Chancellors. I will miss my associations here.”
In addition to the appointment of Broadway - who has been deputy director at the Higher Education Department since January - to the interim director’s job, the Higher Education Coordinating Board also appointed Harold Criswell, the agency’s associate director offinance, to be interim deputy director.
The board further voted to talk with Steve Floyd of Conway, a retired deputy director of the agency, about the possibility of Floyd’s serving as a consultant to the department for up to three months during the leadership transition period.
David Leech, chairman of the Arkansas board, said in an interview Friday that hiring Floyd, who has been an interim director for the agency in the past, hinges on finding the funds to pay him and also on whether Floyd is willing to come out of retirement for part-time work on special projects.
Broadway, 38, of Bryant was a longtime Arkansas lawmaker before taking the deputy director’s position this year. He served in the House from 1997-2003 and in the Senate from 2003-10. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
The coordinating board Friday voted on the personnel changes in public after a closed, executive session that lasted about 40 minutes.
The board members then voted unanimously to discuss at an April meeting the qualifications they would like to see in a new director and the process they want to use to fill the position.
The board already has scheduled a regular business meeting for April 15 at the ASU campus in Mountain Home. The meeting on the director search is likely to take place April 14, Leech said after Friday’s meeting.
Leech said he is grateful that Broadway was available to take the helm.
“When they hired Sen. Broadway to work with Dr. Jim Purcell, it was a match made in heaven,” Leech said. “The two of them together - the strengths that Shane brought to the department as far as working with the Legislature - it was great.
He said that department staff members highly recommended Broadway for the interim job.
“Shane has been remarkable in the time he has been there,” he added. “We are just so fortunate that he was there and put in the position when he was. It could have been rough sailing.”
Broadway will lead the department at a time when the Legislature is in the midst of its session. One of its primary focuses this year is higher education and raising the college completion ratein the state.
Asked if Broadway is likely to be a candidate to be the permanent director of the agency, Leech said the board did not address that question.
The department director helps coordinate the work of 22 community colleges and 11 universities in Arkansas and serves as a member of the governor’s Cabinet.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/26/2011