I'm walking around Mule Kick on North Jackson Street in Magnolia, and all I can think is this: "It's something I would expect to find in a much larger town."
There's ice cream from Little Rock's Loblolly Creamery. There's an extensive collection of Arkansas craft beers from breweries such as Bike Rack, Core, Lost Forty, Diamond Bear, Ozark, Rebel Kettle and Superior Bathhouse. There are specially sourced coffees, pizzas, salads, homemade pastries and more. I hear about Vinyl Night each Monday, Trivia Night each Wednesday, and the groups of students who walk over from the Southern Arkansas University campus.
In an era when much of south Arkansas is losing population, Magnolia has a different feel. Since 1990, nearby El Dorado has seen its population drop from 23,000 to 18,000 despite tens of millions of dollars spent on initiatives such as the El Dorado Promise scholarship program and the Murphy Arts District. During that same period, Camden's population dropped from 15,000 to 11,000. Magnolia, meanwhile, has held its own. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the population increased slightly from 11,300 to 11,500. In south Arkansas these days, holding your own is a victory.
The thing that sets Magnolia apart is the presence of SAU and the leadership of Trey Berry, the school's president. SAU has had strong enrollment growth the past five years at a time when most colleges and universities in the state are losing enrollment. Following a recent address to the Magnolia Rotary Club, I accompanied Berry around town to see what SAU is doing to make itself an economic and cultural engine. Berry hails from a college town (Arkadelphia) and understands the importance of a four-year university to a community. It's why he was insistent on opening a store known as SAU Beyond the Campus on the downtown square.
The same person who designed the courthouse square at Magnolia designed the square in booming Oxford, Miss. Berry, who came to SAU in 2011 as a professor of history and dean of the College of Liberal and Performing Arts, became the university's 12th president in 2015. Berry, who earned his master's degree and doctorate from Ole Miss, saw how the energy of the Oxford square helped school officials when it came to recruiting students. Along with SAU, a strength of Magnolia is that it still has a vibrant downtown business district.
The store is in a 3,400-square-foot building. It carries products and apparel promoting the SAU brand. The front half is devoted to retail while the back half has a meeting room with a full kitchen that can be leased for various activities.
The building was donated in July 2017 by Bobbie Ruth Webb, a 1949 graduate. Her grandfather had operated a grocery store there. Graduate students manage the store, which opened in August 2018. They learn skills such as supply management.
Along with connecting to the community, a key to SAU's success has been the establishment of programs that are popular with students. Our next stop was the engineering building, which was dedicated in October 2016. What had been an Arkansas National Guard armory was given to the university in 2015. That led to a $1.4 million renovation project. The building houses the only accredited engineering program south of Little Rock. The program, which started in the fall of 2014, has seen steady enrollment growth. There are now about 220 engineering majors, and Berry says the program places 100 percent of its graduates in jobs.
The interior of the facility was named for Robert and Edna Cook Norvell. Edna Norvell gave $1 million to the school to honor those who had helped her at what was known as Magnolia A&M when she was a student. Areas of emphasis for the SAU engineering program include mechanical engineering, engineering technology and a welding engineering technology program that's one of the few of its kind in the country. The program provides highly skilled welding supervisors for the region's defense, aerospace and oil and gas industries.
In 1909, the state established four district agricultural high schools. One became SAU. The others became the University of Arkansas at Monticello, Arkansas State University at Jonesboro and Arkansas Tech University at Russellville.
At the time the schools were established, Ben Laney was a 13-year-old living with 10 brothers and sisters. He was born at Jones Chapel in Ouachita County, attended Hendrix College at Conway in 1915-16, left to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War I and graduated from what's now the University of Central Arkansas at Conway in 1924. Laney returned to south Arkansas in 1927 and became involved in oil, banking and farming. He was Camden's mayor from 1935-39 and Arkansas' governor from 1945-49. Laney, who died in 1977, spent his later years on a farm near Magnolia. Those 700 acres were donated to SAU.
In another bid to attract students, the farm is being transformed into a world-class trapshooting facility, and SAU has established a shooting team. The team competes in the Association of College Unions International Collegiate Clay Targeting Program. When work is completed, the Laney farm will feature a clubhouse and three shooting ranges, with each range consisting of five concrete lanes with high and low skeet houses. It's the same kind of innovative thinking that led SAU to establish a bass fishing team along with men's and women's disc golf teams.
In what's otherwise a grim period economically for south Arkansas, the SAU Muleriders are kicking it.
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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 01/18/2020