UA board of trustees notebook

UA chancellor gets contract extension

FAYETTEVILLE -- University of Arkansas trustees approved a contract extension for Chancellor Joe Steinmetz through 2023.

Steinmetz, 64, began Jan. 1, 2016, as the top administrator for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

His original five-year contract paid him an annual salary of $450,000 and yearly deferred compensation of $250,000.

In July, the University of Arkansas board of trustees approved his first salary increase, upping his annual salary to $464,000. In the past, Steinmetz had turned down a raise, UA spokesman Mark Rushing has said.

John Goodson, chairman for the 10-person board of trustees, said Thursday in a meeting held in Fayetteville that the extension for Steinmetz follows the same terms and conditions as his current contract.

Before the board was asked to vote on the contract extension, Goodson said trustees have asked UA System President Donald Bobbitt to provide for November's board meeting "more data as to compensation levels."

The board approved the extension without discussion.

Steinmetz's time as chancellor is already longer than that of other leaders at some similar universities in nearby states.

Jeffrey Vitter, who began in January 2016 as chancellor at the University of Mississippi, stepped down from the position earlier this year. In February 2016, Beverly Davenport began as chancellor at the University of Tennessee, but she was fired from the role last year.

In 2017, the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri hired new top leaders. In 2018, the University of Oklahoma hired a president who has since stepped down.

$1.7M in land buys cleared for sorority

FAYETTEVILLE -- Trustees on Friday approved three land purchases totaling about $1.7 million to clear the way for a new sorority house near the main campus of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

The properties, which include a 12-unit apartment complex and two rental houses, are "being purchased so they can be demolished for the construction of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house," Chancellor Joe Steinmetz told the University of Arkansas board of trustees.

Two new sorority houses opened in August 2018, and new houses for the Delta Gamma and Kappa Delta sororities were completed for the current fall semester. Those four projects involved more than $45 million in construction, based on information from UA and the university's Skyline Report on real estate.

In the past, some of these sorority house projects involved UA-owned land but relied on fundraising by the organizations.

Wendy Barker, a spokeswoman for the national Alpha Gamma Delta organization, said in an email that "we are excited to join the University of Arkansas community in the future." She declined to comment about house plans.

UA currently has 11 Panhellenic Council sororities, and a university spokesman said Alpha Gamma Delta is not currently a campus organization.

"We're too early in the process to talk about this, the process of organizing and wanting to be a part of the university's Greek organizations," UA spokesman Scott Flanagin said.

The properties to be purchased are located about a block and a half east of the intersection of Arkansas Avenue and West Maple Street, along what is sometimes referred to sorority row.

Flanagin said that in spring 2019, there were 4,248 Panhellenic sorority women at UA.

Trustees back UALR amid financial woes

FAYETTEVILLE -- John Goodson, chairman for the University of Arkansas board of trustees, said trustees will back the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as the school faces financial concerns because of declining enrollment.

"The board of trustees is actively engaged in finding solutions to the problems facing the institution," Goodson said Friday during the chairman's report to the board. The board met Thursday and Friday in Fayetteville.

UALR and central Arkansas are "hugely important to the mission of the U of A System," Goodson said.

"UA-Little Rock has a unique, important mission serving our capital city. We must consider the mission in light of the decisions that must be made in the coming months to help put the institution back on the path to success," Goodson said.

The university is facing a larger-than-projected budget shortfall because of enrollment declines this fall. During the meeting, trustees approved Christina Drale as UALR chancellor for a two-year period after the resignation of Andrew Rogerson from the position.

Metro on 09/16/2019

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