Clause to protect
UCA, SAU-Tech
The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday unanimously passed a clause to its performance-based funding formula so colleges won’t suffer from adverse outcomes when participating in an initiative promoted by the state Department of Higher Education.
It says institutions are to be “held harmless” for complying with initiatives including, but not limited to, degree audits, contributions to economic development and increases in quality of education provided.
The proposal stemmed from the board’s April meeting, when, for the first time since the new performance-based funding formula was implemented last year, two Arkansas universities fell below the minimum score and faced a loss of up to 5 percent of their funds.
The resolution will help the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and Southern Arkansas University-Tech in Camden, which both scored less than the six points required out of 10 on the assessment model, recoup their funds for the forthcoming school year.
Both schools scored below the required minimum because of special circumstances.
UCA earned a score of 5.78 points because its administration conducted a degree audit in 2011 — in response to the Higher Education Department’s “Credit When It’s Due” initiative to boost college completion efforts — that resulted in a hefty rise in the number of associates degrees that were awarded.
Southern Arkansas University Tech earned 5.58 points on its performance-based assessment after participating in a two-year technical school program, Path to Accelerated Completion and Employment, a grant funded by the U.S. Labor Department. Because students could enroll in the program at any time, some were issued incompletes by the end of the semester if they started late.
2 medical schools
approved for 2016
The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board paved the way for two new osteopathic medical schools in the state at its quarterly meeting Friday morning.
The board voted to initially certify the New York Institute of Technology, based in Old Westbury, N.Y., to offer a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine at an off-campus facility through Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. In the same motion, the board also authorized a proposed Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Smith to continue planning and developing.
Both schools plan to open in August 2016.
The medical schools would help fulfill a need for primary care, especially in the under-served Delta region, their supporters said. In 2012, Arkansas ranked second in the nation in doctor shortages, according to a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
“Having two osteopathic medical schools in the state of Arkansas will help turn the situation around,” Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, vice president for Health Sciences and Medical Affairs at New York Institute of Technology, said in an interview after the meeting.
Board member Dr. Joe Bennett was the only member to vote against the motion.
“Creating a medical school is a massive procedure, and we should advance with caution and not be hasty,” Bennett said.
Miss Arkansas says
education her goal
The Higher Education Coordinating Board witnessed a star at its quarterly meeting Friday, when the newly crowned Miss Arkansas promoted her platform for higher education.
In pumps and a blazer, 20-year-old Ashton Campbell shared her mission of speaking to 75,000 Arkansan students about the importance of higher education.
“My parents were both first-generation college students, and my mom became a schoolteacher, so by about the age of 4, I was going to go on to college,” said Campbell, a junior at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville studying business administration and human resource management. “My parents told me, ‘Ashton, you’re a smart girl, but you’re going to need to find a way to pay for it.’”
While talking with students across the state, Campbell plans to help young Arkansans find individual paths to finance their higher education.
For her, the Miss America Organization helped significantly, Campbell said.
In recognition of her work, the Department of Higher Education has given her an office in Little Rock.