It's the best natural resource to have: young minds. And it appears as though Arkansas is siphoning them off from our neighbors to the north. No hard feelings, y'all, we just have a lot to offer in these latitudes.
On hearing that folks in Missouri, specifically at its largest public university, are blaming Arkansas for its enrollment woes, many Arkies probably would own up to a feeling of pride, if that weren't a deadly sin. Reporters for Arkansas' Newspaper got word from precincts north that lawmakers there were blaming Arkansas first. As did a state rep from the western part of the Show-Me State at a budget hearing earlier this month:
"In Kansas City, they are taking a lot of our students." They being us. Things are so tight in Missouri that the governor's budget calls for cutting universities and two-year schools by $68.2 million.
Initial thoughts:
First, is cutting higher education funding by $68.2 million any way to increase enrollment? Seems to some of us that's a sure way to eat your seed corn.
Second, let's not underplay how far this state's flagship university has come in just the last few years. The University of Arkansas is the 10th fastest growing public university in the nation. The Fayetteville campus has a Top 20 honors program. And, some of us feel, it happens to be in the prettiest state in the Union. We haven't even talked about its architecture program, its school of art, its business college, the costs of attending compared to other universities . . . .
What's not to like?
Then there is Mizzou.
There's another factor not to underplay here, and we didn't read about it in the papers last week, and we didn't see any state reps from Missouri talking about it, either. Over the last few years, the University of Missouri has been surrounded by chaos on all sides. And that's not the fault of anybody in Arkansas.
In 2015, in the racially charged atmosphere after the shooting and protests in Ferguson, Mo., the Mizzou student body president at the time said on Facebook--where else?--that some people riding in the back of a pickup truck shouted racial slurs at him. That led to protests by students who said they were upset about a lack of concern from administration officials. They later held a "Racism Lives Here" rally.
During a homecoming parade that same fall, students blocked off the system chancellor's car when he wouldn't stop to engage them. A student group issued a list of demands, including the removal of said chancellor. Back on campus, somebody else was said to have used feces to draw a swastika on a residence hall. Another student went on a hunger strike.
Then, smack dab in the middle of football season, the football team quit. Actually, they announced they would "boycott" games and practices until the chancellor was removed. He resigned a few days later. In the South, getting in the way of football can be a fire-able offense.
And let's not forget the communications professor who, during one of the protests, called for "some muscle" to take out a student videotaping the crowd. And she was supposed to be the adult in the room.
Is it any surprise that the Columbia campus has experienced an enrollment drop in the two years since? How much of a drop is of debate, but we've seen reports from a 14.3 percent dip to a 35 percent free-fall. Depending on your political leanings, Mizzou is either a hotbed of liberalism hell-bent on protest, or a hotbed of racism protected by the brass. Would you want to send your kid there?
Before the outcry in 2015, the university was building new dorms, hiring new professors, and generally growing. Now the university has had to cut more than 400 positions and is renting out dorm rooms. The library is asking for donations. Over the summer, the New York Times wrote a story on the troubles with this headline: "Long After Protests, Students Shun the University of Missouri."
Talk about a nightmare headline for the PR types at Mizzou. How do you spin that?
It's true, Arkansas does offer "new Arkansan" scholarships to students from Missouri (and other states). And the administration at the UofA does pride itself on getting a mix of kids from in-state and beyond.
But officialdom in Missouri, who are casting about in an attempt to find what's wrong with its Columbia campus, need to look closer to home. And perhaps get more adults on that campus, not fewer.
Editorial on 02/25/2018