University of Arkansas System notebook

UALR to extend its campus footprint

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is extending its footprint in its campus master plan.

The metropolitan university currently extends through 28th Street in the capital city, and it got approval to move through 32nd Street. The extension means the university can buy up properties in that area when they become available. UALR, like other campuses, will still need approval from the University of Arkansas System board of trustees to purchase properties.

Steve McClellan, UALR's vice chancellor of finance and administration, said the move could help the university attract more students. Showing a photograph of an entrance from 32nd Street to the trustees, McClellan said, "If you're looking at your picture, you see to your left, which is to the west, you see a manicured campus ... but as those people approach our campus, they have these less favorable properties, and that's part of our sell."

"We think we owe it to our students and to our donors to try to improve the image of that street," he said.

The area currently includes a convenience store, which the university doesn't think will be up for sale, and houses, in which students live, he said. Moving the school's footprint will also give those students cleaner and safer access to UALR, he said.

UA trustees give OK to buying 615 acres

University of Arkansas System trustees on Friday gave the green light for its Division of Agriculture to purchase two tracts of land in Poinsett County.

The land -- about 615 acres, both along Arkansas 1 -- is for the development of a new rice research and extension center run by the Division of Agriculture. One property of 22.47 acres will be sold by Rusty Cartillar for $150,000, while the other property of 591.53 acres will be sold by R.B. Spencer Farms for about $3.5 million.

Funds for the purchase will come from the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board. The University of Arkansas board approved the purchase of the two parcels Thursday.

The rice and UA boards entered into an agreement in July, which in part gave the Agriculture Division funds to pay for the new farm, said Mark Cochran, the vice president for Agriculture Division. The division is expecting more gifts for construction of a facility on the new farmland, along with an endowment to help with the division's operating costs there, he said.

State archeological survey to raise fees

The Arkansas Archeological Survey is raising its curation fees for the first time in nearly two decades.

The survey, a part of the University of Arkansas System, is one of the largest in Arkansas and is home to archaeological materials from prehistoric and historic sites across the state. It also houses the University of Arkansas museum collections, which include archaeological materials, university history materials and a "substantial natural history collection," the survey's director George Sabo said.

"By agreement with the campus, the Arkansas Archeological Survey brings into its session all of collections that state and federal agencies and private archeological contracting agencies wish us to take care of over the long term," he said. "And so, to defray our hard costs to keep the collection safe and secure and in a good environment, also to defray our costs for materials to rebox the collections so that they're all in archived quality materials, we assess a curation fee."

Under the new fees -- approved by the University of Arkansas System board of trustees -- the survey will charge $350 per cubic foot for curation, $175 for curating a collection and $25 per linear inch for long-term curation of documents.

Metro on 11/11/2017

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