The University of Arkansas System president will ask the board of trustees to establish a separate online university to offer degrees chiefly for older learners with families and jobs, according to a proposal trustees will discuss at a meeting today in Fort Smith.
The first degree programs would be offered in the fall of next year.
“We have spent the past year visiting with constituencies across the UA System and throughout Arkansas, and we’ve studied similarefforts in other states,” UA System President Donald Bobbitt said in a statement, also citing Gov. Mike Beebe’s goal to double the number of state residents with college degrees by 2025. “I believe creating an online university focused on adult learners is the best way for us to answer the board of trustees’ call to expand and coordinate online education in the UA System.”
The board in 2012 passed a resolution for Bobbitt to grow online offerings, and the state has appropriated $2 million for the UA online efforts. The Legislature also adoptedresolutions recognizing the importance of the UA System’s online initiatives.
At the meeting, the board will consider the establishment of a process involving the system’s campuses to create a governance system for the university.
“It will be up to the campus whether they want to participate or not,” said Ben Beaumont, director of communications for the UA System.
Specifics such as the costs for students have not been outlined, though the UA System lists “affordable” tuition as part of the vision for the new university. While degree programs might begin next year, they would be offered in partnership with existing UA campuses until the as yet unnamed university receives accreditation.
In a letter to all UA Systemfaculty members distributed Tuesday, Bobbitt said a key part of the proposal involves inviting faculty to help, including with the design of degree programs “that will target workforce needs in the state.”
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has not made any commitments related to the new online initiative.
“We haven’t made any decisions as we are awaiting the details,” Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Sharon Gaber wrote in an email.
Faculty members on the Fayetteville campus have raised concerns about the duplication of existing online course offerings.
Janine Parry, chairman of the UA Faculty Senate, said it was “not surprising” to hear Bobbitt speak of a new university. “It is disappointing,” said Parry, a political science professor who studies Arkansas politics.
She said the proposal“seems to be packaged as coordination, but it looks like competition.”
The competition noted by crafters of the proposal, however, is with for-profit institutions such as the University of Phoenix.
“We hope to attract those students who are looking at the for-profits, as well as those who have some college but need a flexible option to complete their degree,” said Michael Moore, the UA System’s vice president for academic affairs, in a statement.
The two-day meeting begins at 10 a.m. today on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, in the Reynolds Room of the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center.
Another topic for discussion involves changing the description of the newly renamed Audit and Fiscal Responsibility Committee, which would be charged with “recommending fiscally responsible policies” to the board and also reviewing “strategic financial reports” annually. UA-Fayetteville had excess spending that led to a large deficit in its fundraising division for fiscal 2012, prompting a legislative inquiry and several changes last year within that part of the university.
The Friday meeting begins at 8:30 a.m., with the agenda including consideration of a resolution prohibiting faculty and staff members from carrying concealed handguns onto any UA campus.
The board passed an identical resolution in May, but must consider the issue yearly under a state law passed last year that allows trained and licensed staff and faculty members to carry guns onto campus while also giving colleges the right to opt out of the law.
Information for this article was contributed by Jeannie Roberts of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/20/2014