Commentary: Purchase of Railroad Property Best For Students, College

FILE PHOTO BEN GOFF A vehicle crosses railroad tracks that bisect the NorthWest Arkansas Community College campus in Bentonville.
FILE PHOTO BEN GOFF A vehicle crosses railroad tracks that bisect the NorthWest Arkansas Community College campus in Bentonville.

NorthWest Arkansas Community College's board of trustees recently voted to purchase the right of way for a railroad line that cuts through the heart of the Bentonville campus.

We believe this decision was about the long-term best interests of our students.

Some hold a differing viewpoint, and we respect that. My purpose is to share factors that went into the decision-making process so that our stakeholders can evaluate the complete picture.

NorthWest Arkansas Community College enjoys tremendous community support, and as a new president, I'm honored to be a part of continuing the great legacy of Northwest Arkansas' community college. As many of you already know, after the college was established in 1989, leaders sought out whatever space they could find to borrow or lease and begin the work of educating students. Eventually "the college without walls" became a campus with a central education facility (later named Burns Hall) and lots of opportunity for growth.

When the first land purchase occurred, perhaps no one realized how much the college would grow. Early master plans do not show the campus extending beyond the railroad tracks. The original idea, in fact, was to keep adding on to the central education facility. With a lot of community support, the college started to grow beyond just a single building south of the rail line. Within less than two decades, the college now has five additional buildings and a parking garage.

In 2013, the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad was no longer serving a customer down the line from the college, and we began discussions about purchasing the rail line. Without a customer along the railroad spur, the railroad's other option for generating revenue is to store rail cars along the lines. That is an understandable business decision, but with this action, the college lacks control over something parked in the middle of its campus. The contents of the cars (including potentially hazardous materials), the dangers associated with moving cars, and safety concerns regarding students or others who may be crossing around and through cars became key considerations. Above all, we at NorthWest Arkansas Community College want a safe campus for our students, faculty and staff, and having rail cars stored in the midst of campus is not safe.

Another important consideration was this: The rail line bisects the Bentonville campus. There are now three buildings north of the railroad line serving hundreds of students each day. The rail line is a physical barrier to campus cohesiveness. Research repeatedly has shown there is a positive relationship between student engagement and student learning and persistence. Students succeed when they are involved academically and socially in their college or university, and when there's a barrier to a cohesive campus, it makes that student engagement more difficult. Our ultimate goal is to help our students find success, and we are better equipped to achieve that goal if our campus is a united one.

A third factor concerns our master plan. In recent years, our leaders have looked at the potential for shifting the primary college entrance to the north. The Becky Paneitz Student Center was even designed in such a way that either north or south facing features could be the primary entrance. Images presented to the board of trustees demonstrated the stark contrast that would occur if the rail line were removed and the perspective changed for a north entrance.

The money the college will use for the purchase comes from ad valorem taxes and cannot be used for scholarships or college operations; it must be used for capital projects. In our presentation to the trustees, we encouraged looking at the costs for land acquisition as a whole, not just this section of railroad property. Certainly, in the first college land acquisition, the original cost per acre was less because a rail line cut through the property.

Even with the railroad property purchase, the average cost for all of the property the college has acquired will still be $32,122 per acre, almost a third of the appraised value per acre ($90,000) under current agricultural zoning.

We believe this was the right decision for our students' safety, for campus cohesiveness, for student success, and for future development. It is in the long-term best interests of the college and of our learners now and for generations to come.

Commentary on 03/09/2014

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