Hyneman to head UA trustees board
Ben Hyneman will again lead the 10-member University of Arkansas System board of trustees starting in March.
Typically, the vice chairman of the board is next in line to become chairman the year before his term expires. That would be former U.S. Sen. and former Arkansas Gov. David Pryor, who suffered a stroke last year and has been going through rehabilitation services. Pryor had not attended the trustees' annual November meeting in Fayetteville. He went to one of the two-day January meetings that ended Thursday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
On Thursday, the board voted to elect Hyneman -- the president of Southern Pioneer Property & Casualty Insurance Company -- as its chairman. Hyneman is from Jonesboro. He will replace Reynie Rutledge, the chairman and CEO of First Security Bank in Searcy.
Mark Waldrip, the owner and president of East Arkansas Seeds Inc. & Armor Seed LLC, will become vice chairman. He is from Moro. Morril Harriman, an attorney from Little Rock, will again serve as secretary, and Kelly Eichler, Gov. Asa Hutchinson's director of policy, will serve as assistant secretary. She is from Little Rock.
UALR adds transfers in social work study
Students at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana and Pulaski Technical College students studying social work will have an easier time transferring to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's program.
University of Arkansas System trustees approved the "2+2" agreements Thursday.
UALR signed agreements with the two community colleges that will allow students studying in that field to finish a bachelor's degree in Little Rock. To apply, students have to fill out an application and include three letters of reference to the UALR's program in the spring semester before the fall semester in which they plan to enroll.
Students can apply after passing one of three prerequisite courses: the introduction to social work, introduction to sociology or psychology, and the human experience. Texarkana students must also be on track to finishing or finish 45 credit hours, while Pulaski Tech students need 50.
Before beginning the bachelor program, students must pass all three prerequisite courses and have at least a 2.5 cumulative grade-point average, along with the same minimum GPA in social work prerequisite courses. Students are also required to earn an associate of arts from the Texarkana campus or an associate of science in liberal arts and sciences from the North Little Rock campus before starting at UALR.
UALR creates early entries for masters
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has created four "4+1" programs, which allow undergraduates to get a head start on master's-level coursework.
The university will offer the new early entry programs for the master of public administration, the master of science in information science, the master of science in construction management and the master of science in information quality. The programs -- which were OK'd by the University of Arkansas System board on Thursday -- will help students earn their graduate degrees at a faster pace, documents show.
All four programs require a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 and allow 12 graduate hours taken to complete the master's degree to count toward students' undergraduate degrees. The public administration degree is the only one of the four that allows any undergraduate students to apply. For the other three, undergraduate students must be enrolled in bachelor-degree programs in that field.
Graduate-level courses for information science and information quality are also offered 100 percent online, so students can participate remotely. Those courses are also webcast live and recorded.
Metro on 01/27/2017