WEST MEMPHIS -- Mid-South Community College staff will work through the holiday weekend to prepare another draft of a proposal to join the Arkansas State University System after Mid-South's board of trustees suggested revisions at a special meeting Tuesday.
The partnership between the two institutions is expected to be finalized by the end of the fiscal year, June 30, and take effect July 1, at which time the 22-year-old community college that specializes in industry workforce training will become Arkansas State University Mid-South, according to the proposal.
Another special meeting will be held at noon Dec. 3 at Mid-South Community College for the board to decide whether to go forward with the partnership and to sign the agreement, community college President Glen Fenter said.
The agreement will then be sent to the ASU System for its approval. The merger will not have to receive approval or review from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education Coordinating Board, Director Shane Broadway said.
The next seven months will require a lot of work and meetings between the two parties and the boards of both the college and ASU System, Fenter said.
Included in that work will be finding a new chancellor for the new Arkansas State University-Mid-South.
Fenter -- who has been at the helm of the 1,900-student college since its inception in 1992 -- said Tuesday that he has been named the director of the newly formed Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce and will leave his post at the college June 30.
The Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce has its roots in the Memphis Fast Forward Program and will connect industry leaders in the Delta with programs at area educational institutions that produce the skilled workforce those industries need.
Some board members questioned whether potential job candidates would shy away from applying for the chancellor position because the community college is in the middle of a merger negotiation.
Fenter told the board Tuesday that the ASU name will draw a wider and more qualified pool of national candidates than the two-year college could draw on its own.
The board discussed who would hire the new campus leader -- Mid-South trustees or ASU System trustees. The Mid-South board members questioned whether ongoing negotiations would deter applicants because Mid-South's trustees could hire a new leader, but that leader would then report to new bosses -- the ASU System and its president, Chuck Welch.
If the merger comes to fruition, the ASU System will conduct a national search for a chancellor to lead the college, and the search will be "collaborative and will involve multiple college and community stakeholders," said Welch, who did not attend Tuesday's meeting but responded to a reporter's question afterward.
"With the amazing programs, facilities, faculty, staff and students currently at MSCC, I have no doubt we will be able to hire an outstanding individual to lead the institution into the future. Like Dr. Fenter, I believe that this merger would enhance our ability to attract a candidate. Combining the existing strengths of the campus with the many benefits of membership in the ASU System will be a major draw for prospective candidates," Welch said.
Welch said Fenter's resignation is a "bittersweet" development in the process.
"While we are excited for his new opportunity and the continuing impact he will have on the Delta region, he will be missed at MSCC," Welch said. "The accomplishments he made at the college are impossible to put into words, but suffice it to say that the college and community have been blessed by his presence and leadership."
Among the changes suggested Tuesday by the Mid-South Community College board were maintaining the group's nine-member, six-year-term membership instead of the ASU System's recommended five-year terms when the Mid-South trustees transition into an advisory Board of Visitors.
Other changes include adding that income generated from intellectual property, such as patents, created by the college's employees -- or their predecessors -- will stay at the ASU Mid-South campus; tweaking the employee benefits section to give employees more of a choice when it comes to health insurance; and clarifying that Fenter instead of "the current president" will be designated as president emeritus for three years from the date of the merger to continue fundraising and the promotion of regional economic development.
There was little dissension from the community college's board of trustees about the merger during Tuesday's meeting, but Trustee Richard Williford said he had been asked by "University of Arkansas brass" about why the partnership proposition wasn't extended to others.
Fenter said that when he first explored the merger idea, he felt it was best to partner with the institution that had the most "vested interest in eastern Arkansas."
"ASU is the university that is most logical for our students to choose to transfer," said Fenter, speaking of the four-year university in Jonesboro.
Cavallero Hart, 62, who recently moved to the United States from England and is attending Mid-South Community College to earn his general education requirements, said he was planning to transfer to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to complete a four-year degree in international studies.
Hart said he was excited to hear about the community college's partnership with the ASU System.
"With ASU on board, there will be additional resources for the students and faculty and a much, much larger room in which to operate," said Hart, who was studying in the library Tuesday afternoon. "When you look at tuition hikes that have students protesting in the streets of England and Spain, this is a win-win situation for both institutions."
Fenter said he began exploring the merger with the ASU System in "midsummer," but he did not announce the intended partnership until last week. The college has been tight-lipped about the venture.
When a copy of the drafted proposal was requested Monday by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the community college's vice president of institutional advancement, Diane Hampton, accidentally included a Democrat-Gazette reporter in her email reply to Fenter and three other college employees.
"Given this, I believe it's best we ask the board members to leave their draft copy at home," Hampton wrote in the email Monday.
After an additional Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request to the college as well as the ASU System, the proposal was emailed early Tuesday morning to the Democrat-Gazette. On Tuesday afternoon, emails and other documents requested by the newspaper concerning the proposed merger were released.
State Desk on 11/26/2014