The administration at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia said its first order of business Monday will be to advertise for engineering-professor applicants.
That new priority was the result of a unanimous vote, after some debate, by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday to allow the college to offer a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
SAU will be the only institution in south Arkansas to offer an engineering degree. The other colleges that offer the degree - Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway - are all in north or central Arkansas.
“You could draw a line across the state of Arkansas,” said Trey Berry, SAU provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Still, geography alone was not enough of a reason to give the go-ahead on the request, board member Olin Cook of Russellville said during the Academic Committee’s review of the proposal. He expressed concern that students may have to go out of state to get a job for lack of employment opportunity at home.
Berry said that the 14-month preparation of the degree request included the participation and support of numerous members of industry in southern Arkansas. He gestured to a group behind him that included executives from DuPont in El Dorado, CMC Steel Arkansas in Magnolia, and Albemarle Corp in Magnolia, all of whom had traveled to Little Rock to show their support.
“I have donors waiting in the wings to see what happens today,” Berry said.
Board member Bob Crafton of Rogers holds a civil-engineering degree and co-founded the Crafton Tull and Associates engineering firm, which has more than 300 employees across the state. Crafton said his firm hired 12 engineers last May and only six came from Arkansas universities.
“I do believe there are jobs here for engineers. I don’t really see this as going to hurt their situation in Arkansas. I stand behind this program,” Crafton said.
In an interview after the meeting, Steven Hughes, director of operations for CMC Steel Arkansas in Magnolia, said his company has difficulty recruiting out of state for engineering jobs because of its location. He credited SAU for developing a local workforce that calls southern Arkansas home.
“You need local people to stabilize the workforce,” Hughes said.
Board member Kaneaster Hodges Jr. of Newport applauded SAU President David Rankin’s efforts at a time when state jobs are being outsourced to India and China because of a lack of a trained workforce.
“Dr. Rankin, you’re a gutsy guy. You’re quiet, but effective and straight,” Hodges said.
Board member Sherrel Johnson of El Dorado said an earlier assertion by Berry that southern Arkansas engineering students go to Louisiana to earn their degrees instead of the northern Arkansas colleges was not a proper measure.
“I don’t like engineers. In fact, at another time in my life, I thought God was mad at me there were so many engineers around,” Johnson said. “But that’s not what this is about. This is about this program and whether or not we need a program in that region, and I do think we do.”
Board member Mary Anne Salmon prefaced her comments by saying, “I love engineers,” but cautioned that the board had talked previously about limiting the duplication of efforts in the state’s higher education institutions.
“I wish that we could have every program that every school wants. In Arkansas, we all know that our funding is limited and a lot of what we do goes back to the students in tuition,” Salmon said.
In an interview after the meeting, Berry said the college will work diligently to expand its engineering faculty, some of which will be cultivated from local industry. The college will also begin construction of a $2.7 million, 11,015-square-foot facility near the SAU Science Center and the new Agriculture Center to accommodate the new program.
About 21 students have already said they will pursue the engineering degree when it begins in the fall, Rankin said.
“This is a tremendous academic breakthrough not only for Southern Arkansas University, but for all of south Arkansas,” Rankin said. “This program will boost economic development in the region and offer our engineering students an opportunity to stay in the area after graduation.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/01/2014