Leaders of the University of Arkansas System's new online university didn't get the response they expected when they called for volunteers to help develop a curriculum, officials said Tuesday.
They will recruit more faculty from the system's 11 campuses as they establish the first public online university in the state.
The challenge of gathering enough members for the curriculum committee is another hurdle facing the UA System as it tries to start the online school. Some chancellors opposed loaning campus funds to support it, and some campuses' faculty have expressed resistance to moving forward.
In early November, the administration for the online school sent notices to faculty at all UA System campuses asking for volunteers from four initial degree areas -- business, criminal justice, health care management and information technology -- to submit detailed applications to be considered for spots on the committee.
Michael Moore, the UA System's vice president for academic affairs and the leader of the online school, eVersity, said he hopes to assemble teams of five people in each degree area. The teams will meet Dec. 17-18 at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain to design the initial curriculum.
For volunteering their time, each member will receive a $3,000 stipend, food and lodging during the conference, and reimbursement for travel.
The deadline for interested faculty to submit an application was Nov. 17, and notices of team members selected by the eVersity staff were to be sent by Dec. 1, the notice said. However, Moore said Tuesday that a team has not been selected yet, and he plans to "notify them by the end of the week or Monday."
Moore said 22 applications had been received: eight for health care, seven for business, four for criminal justice and three for information technology. The volunteers hailed from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.
"We weren't particularly looking for a representative from every institution. That would be too large to get things done," Moore said.
No applications were submitted from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Moore said. The UA-Fayetteville Faculty Senate passed a resolution in November calling for a delay in the start of eVersity. Faculty members listed concerns that included their opposition to pulling $5 million from reserve accounts of individual UA campuses for a loan to cover startup costs for the online university.
Community and campus leaders -- including UA-Fayetteville Chancellor G. David Gearhart and UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson -- voiced opposition at an Oct. 17 special University of Arkansas System board of trustees meeting to the $5 million startup loan.
On Friday, the UALR Faculty Senate will consider a proposed resolution from its executive committee asking that UA System trustees explore alternatives to eVersity and that the system invest its resources in helping "its campuses develop state-of-the-art online programs."
Andrew Wright, president of the UALR Faculty Senate, said the low number of applications received by the UA System could be because of timing.
"It's the end of the semester," Wright said. "They need to get us at the beginning of the semester when we're loading up our work queue. By the time we get to this point in the semester, we're committed. It's hard to get them this late," Wright said. "Also, I'm sure some of those folks are not going to participate because they would see the conflict of interest."
Another reason, Wright said, is the limited number of faculty members at UALR in some degree areas offered by the planned online school. UALR, for example, already has online criminal justice and business degree programs.
"I would think those would be the faculty from which they would draw," Wright said.
With the criminal justice program, he said, "You're talking about only 10 people."
Moore said he would be "shocked if there wasn't any opposition" to the new venture.
"Any time you have significant, meaningful change, there are going to be some people who are going to have concerns. You should listen to them and address them, but that's not a reason to not move forward," he said.
Brandi Duncan, a registered nurse who is working toward her master's degree at UAMS, said the traditional campuses should embrace the fact that the eVersity "gives an opportunity to the people who are not able to attend their campus."
Duncan -- a Carlisle resident who is married with two children with another due in March -- said the online option allows nontraditional students like her to keep up with their busy lifestyles.
"Online colleges might be the steppingstone they need to start and then transfer to the traditional schools later," Duncan said.
She added, however, that there is value in earning a degree from a bricks-and-mortar college with name recognition. She said she had the option of attending an online college at the expense of her employer, CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock.
"My husband and I talked it over and decided I would go to UAMS. Having my second degree from UAMS, I will be more marketable later. After I receive my degree in 2016, I will need one more set of courses to be able to treat all ages of patients, so I might be thinking about applying to an all-online school just to get courses to apply for those boards. I will definitely go back to get my doctorate or Ph.D. through UAMS," Duncan said.
Moore said the students and the benefits that eVersity will bring them get him up every morning and cause him to push to bring the online university to life.
"Arkansas is 49th in the nation when it comes to residents with college degrees. That's where Arkansas is right now. We've got to find a better way to fix this. If we can find a way to offer a degree of the same value at a lower price than existing universities, shouldn't we do that? Isn't that in the best interest of the students?" Moore said.
"This may not be for every faculty member. Those who are opposed should not participate. We're going to have a coalition of the willing, and that's how we're going to approach this."
State Desk on 12/03/2014