BENTONVILLE -- Visits to community colleges with residence halls didn't convince Northwest Arkansas Community College board members their school needs one.
More information is needed before they can make a decision, trustees said earlier this week.
Trustees had the opportunity to visit Labette Community College in Parsons, Kan., and Neosho Community College in Chanute, Kan., on July 30 and Crowder College in Neosho, Mo., on Aug. 2.
"We asked them to share the good, the bad and the ugly because we want to know what we might be faced with," Evelyn Jorgenson, college president, said at the board's Aug. 13 meeting.
Twenty-eight percent of community colleges in the country have residence halls, she said.
"It's not unusual, but it is unusual in Arkansas."
Legislation was passed in 2017 repealing the prohibition on community colleges and technical institutes constructing, maintaining or operating residence halls.
Trustees recently have been talking about whether the college could benefit from them. Jorgenson and Joe Spivey, board chairman, emphasized discussions are in the "very early" stages.
Some variables made it difficult to compare the Kansas and Missouri colleges with Northwest Arkansas Community College, several trustees noted. The three colleges have athletic programs while the Arkansas college doesn't.
About half of Crowder College's 400 residence hall capacity was used by athletes, said Ron Branscum, trustee.
Crowder is also in a more rural area whereas Bentonville has more housing options, said trustee Lucas Pointer.
Jorgenson said it's necessary to survey faculty and students about their thoughts on the possibility of residence halls. DeAnne Witherspoon, trustee, said she'd like to see recent high school graduates entering college also surveyed. It would be beneficial to find out if the lack of residence halls played a role in students not selecting to attend Northwest Arkansas Community College, she said.
One of the reasons behind repealing the legislation was to allow students to attend a community college that has a unique program, Jorgenson said. She cited the $6 million Walton Family Foundation grant that helped develop the college's culinary school. The Construction Technology program is another that not many community colleges offer.
Spivey said the numerous apartments being built in Bentonville and Rogers could provide students with housing options and encouraged other trustees to keep the taxpayers' best interests in mind.
The college also just broke ground on two facilities -- the Integrated Design Lab on the Bentonville campus and on the Washington County Center in Springdale.
"I'm just thinking that we should be focused right now on what is the job at hand," he said. "Are we spreading ourselves too thin?"
NW News on 08/18/2018