Steve Rook and I are finishing our fried okra at a table in the back of Keeney's Food Market at Malvern and talking about the future of this part of the state. Keeney's was one of three restaurants inducted into the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame earlier this year, and business is brisk on a rainy Wednesday.
Rook knows several of those having lunch. Local residents go from table to table to visit with each other in this tight-knit community.
Rook is the president of College of the Ouachitas, a two-year institution that began life as Ouachita Vocational Technical School in 1972. He soon will be the chancellor of the most recent addition to the 23,000-student ASU system, which has its flagship institution at Jonesboro along with two-year campuses in cities such as Heber Springs, Beebe, Mountain Home, Newport and West Memphis.
Last month, the merger of COTO into the ASU System was announced. The merger will be effective Jan. 1 following approval by the Higher Learning Commission, the entity that accredits the institutions.
For the first time, ASU has ventured into the southern part of the state. That reinforces something I've written before--if any area south of the Little Rock metro region is going to grow steadily, it's likely to be the triangle defined by Hot Springs, Malvern and Arkadelphia. Though Arkansas' population is growing overall, that growth is largely limited to three areas--northwest Arkansas, the Little Rock metro area and the Jonesboro-Paragould corridor.
More than two-thirds of the state is losing population. No area south of Saline County is growing at a brisk rate. To reach its potential, Arkansas needs at least one strong growth area in the southern half of the state that's outside the Little Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area. That MSA ends at the Saline County and Grant County lines.
The triangle I outlined has the best chance of being that area due to several upsides--a national park, the only resort state park, Interstate 30, four popular lakes and, if it comes to fruition, the largest private investment in Arkansas history--the $1.8 billion Sun Bio pulp mill south of Arkadelphia.
In south Arkansas--at a time when towns such as Camden and El Dorado have lost thousands of residents since 1990--even slow growth is considered progress. Hot Springs has grown slightly from 33,625 residents in 1990 to an estimated 37,000 residents today. Arkadelphia also has grown slightly from 10,264 residents in 1990 to about 10,700 residents today. From a percentage standpoint, Malvern has had the strongest growth of the three. It has gone from 9,357 residents in 1990 to an estimated 10,900 people today.
The most compelling reason for being bullish on this triangle is the fact that it has four institutions of higher learning. There are a couple of two-year institutions--COTO at Malvern and National Park College at Hot Springs. There are two four-year institutions--Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University at Arkadelphia. As an Arkadelphia native, I can attest to the fact that the toughest task will be getting the three communities to work together. ASU, however, sees the benefit of having a presence here. Chuck Welch, the ASU System president, is a former Henderson president.
Rook, an Arkansas native who came to COTO in 2016, accurately describes Malvern as "a former blue-collar town whose people have an independent spirit." He says there's a new generation of leadership that realizes the advantages of partnerships and a regional approach to economic development. The first conversations about COTO becoming part of a bigger system began in 2001.
"This is something that has been discussed for almost two decades," Rook says. "Our board gave me time to get my feet wet after coming here, and then the discussions got serious."
Being a part of ASU gives COTO additional legal, political and information technology support along with increased brand recognition and cooperative buying opportunities. After agreeing in December to seek a partner, members of the COTO board came to Little Rock and visited the home offices of the ASU System and the University of Arkansas System.
"Both were great potential partners," Rook says. "Our board just felt that an affiliation with ASU would give us more local control. It seemed like a better fit. Small, rural community colleges have a hard time making it anymore without partners."
Welch was on the Malvern campus visiting with faculty and staff members within days of the announcement. He has already spoken to the Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis clubs in Malvern to build support.
Rook, meanwhile, talks excitedly about having the flexibility he needs to train truck drivers, nurses and the like. The old Ouachita Vocational Technical School was designed to serve students in Hot Spring, Clark, Dallas, Grant and Saline counties. Classes first met in the Wilson High School building, which was Malvern's black school prior to integration. The name was changed to Ouachita Technical College in 1991 as part of a statewide effort to convert vocational-technical schools into two-year colleges. Malvern voters later approved a one-cent sales tax that allowed the school to construct a 35,000-square-foot facility that opened in 1999. Another building opened in 2003 to train nurses.
The name of the college was changed to College of the Ouachitas in July 2011. The newest name for the school will be announced this fall.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 03/23/2019