CONWAY -- It's been seven years since Tom Courtway agreed to lead the University of Central Arkansas through one of its most difficult and challenging periods -- which was far worse than he had realized when he took the job.
Named interim president on Aug. 28, 2008, moments after Lu Hardin tendered his resignation after months of contention, Courtway has seen the university go from being millions of dollars in the hole to having tens of millions in reserve.
Along the way, Courtway lost the "interim" title and became the school's 10th president.
Courtway said he didn't realize how bad the school's finances were when he took over.
"It was very, very serious," he said during an interview last week.
"It would have been doomsday if we couldn't have gotten ... advances from the state. So, we were on the brink," he said.
After UCA's vice president for finance retired, Courtway went to a former state banking commissioner, Bunny Adcock, and asked him to help out as interim vice president for finance for eight months, starting in November 2008.
Adcock won't easily forget the day Courtway called him and said, "'The bank just called and said they're wanting their line of credit paid off.'"
That line of credit, it turned out, was for $8 million at an Arkansas bank. "No one knew about it," Adcock said.
"A lot of stuff we didn't know about," he said.
Adcock got on the phone with the bank, learned that the banker was new on the job and then used his past as banking commissioner and co-founder of Centennial Bank to get more time to pay the debt.
"He said, 'Don't worry about it. I know you're all right. ... I know you will pay it off in due time.' I said, 'We will,'" Adcock said.
UCA did, indeed, pay the debt.
"Things like that really came out of left field," taking him and Courtway by surprise, Adcock said.
"We didn't even know what was committed out there. Promises were made to people we didn't know about," Adcock added.
"Every day I walked in, I'd think, 'What's going to happen today?' ... Every day, I'd go down to [Courtway's] office and say, 'I have some more bad news for you.'"
Courtway said one of the first things he did as president was meet in Little Rock with state officials at the time, including Gov. Mike Beebe.
The state soon agreed to advance $3.6 million of the money UCA was set to get later in the year, "to help level out our cash flow," Courtway said. "That was the most pressing problem we had."
The advance was interest-free.
Adcock also remembered a call he got advising him if UCA paid its bills that were already 30 days past due, it couldn't meet its payroll obligations that week. That was on a Wednesday. Payroll was Friday.
Once again, Adcock got on the phone with the creditors and persuaded them to give the school more time, and UCA paid its workers.
Along the way, a tuition increase trustees had approved the previous May took effect and began raising cash. Also helped by salary and hiring freezes, Courtway announced that December the school's financial situation had gradually begun improving.
UCA soon halted its discretionary, contentious and costly presidential scholarships. It cut back drastically on the concurrent enrollment of high school students, limited travel by faculty and staff members, and let faculty and staff representatives know just how bad things were so they'd better understand why they weren't getting the pay raises they might have received otherwise.
By the time Diane Newton joined UCA as vice president for finance and administration in January 2010, the worst was over. But plenty of work remained.
"Beginning with the June 30, 2010, financials, both Unrestricted Net Assets and cash were positive and have remained that way," Newton said in an email last week.
"The credit belongs to the entire university," Newton added. "Once the situation was communicated to the faculty, staff and students by then Interim President Courtway, it became a joint effort to right the ship. Credit also goes to various state officials and legislators who worked with UCA."
Among the many "little things" that also helped, Newton said, were voluntary, temporary pay cuts taken by some administrators and "employees forgoing reimbursements for portions of their cell phone plans."
UCA's June 30, 2014, financial statements put its unrestricted net assets at $47.2 million, with total cash and investments of $68.8 million, Newton said. Statements for fiscal 2015 have not been audited yet, she said.
By comparison, the unrestricted net assets for fiscal 2008 were a negative $10.2 million, with total cash and investments totaling a negative $2.6 million, she said. Further, that cash included an outstanding line of credit of $4.5 million, Newton said.
The hard times brought more than budget tightening and stability, though.
Courtway is convinced that those times also created "a greater sense of shared governance, a greater sense of 'We're all in this together,' a greater sense of pulling together, and a greater awareness ... that we have a good institution."
"Once you go through ... times when you have to re-examine things, you gain a lot of pride and perspective on what you're doing, and I think that's happened," he said.
Another result, he said, has been "a resolve to be as transparent as [we] can."
"The more information that is out there," the better off the university is, he said.
Adcock said those times "got everyone's attention."
"Everyone had just been taking money for granted out there," Adcock said. "That is not the case anymore ... from the trustees all the way [down] to the staff and faculty who are constantly asking questions about the money. ... It's not a bad thing; it's a good thing."
NW News on 09/07/2015