For 50 years, Arkansas State University-Beebe has had a campus at the Little Rock Air Force Base. Through a partnership with the U.S. Air Force, the school has helped both airmen and civilians reach their higher-education goals, said Nancy Shefflette, ASU-Little Rock AFB director.
“We were the first campus that ASU-Beebe spun off,” she said. “We’re proud to have been asked to be here in the first place, and we’re proud to have been here for 50 years. There are thousands of people we’ve been able to help.”
The ASU-Beebe campus offers five eight-week terms annually, as well as traditional semester-length classes in the fall and spring and a 10-week summer semester. Many of these classes work hand in hand with Air Force degree requirements. Additionally, examination-for-credit programs are available.
“As a campus of ASU-Beebe, the students at the Air Force Base campus have access to all of the services we offer at our main campus in Beebe,” Shefflette said, “including the Abington Library, free tutoring at the Learning Center, the campus bookstore and many cultural and recreational activities.”
While the campus was originally located inside the gate of the Little Rock Air Force Base, in 2011, the school moved to the Jacksonville-Little Rock AFB University Center, which is still on base property but outside the fenced-in perimeter. The center hosts six regionally accredited university programs — including ASU-Beebe — and was jointly funded by $5 million of Jacksonville sales-tax revenue and $10 million of Air Force funding. No special access is required to go to the University Center.
Shefflette — who is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel — has been director of ASU-Beebe’s Little Rock AFB campus for 15 years, and she said the move to the University Center four years ago has made the campus much more accessible so that civilians in the area can take classes.
“Now that we’re out here, the general public can come in and take these classes and exams,” she said. “It benefits the Air Force members, and it benefits the general public as well.”
The ASU-Little Rock AFB campus will celebrate the 50-year anniversary with a reception from 1-6 p.m Oct. 22 at the Jacksonville-Little Rock AFB University Center. The reception is open to the public. Current and former students, graduates, faculty, staff and prospective students, as well as Little Rock Air Force Base and Jacksonville and North Pulaski County employees and residents, are especially encouraged to attend.
For more information, visit the ASU-Little Rock AFB office at the Jacksonville-Little Rock AFB University Center, Suite 115, or call (501) 988-4151 or email lrafb@asub.edu.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.