LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Baptist College plans to spend $18 million to continue the revitalization of a campus and community blighted by poverty and crime in recent years, officials said Thursday.
A federal tax-credit program, combined with financing through First Security Bank of Little Rock, supports the campaign.
Arkansas Baptist President Fitz Hill said Thursday that the money will help complete the school’s Old Main renovation, construct a 190-bed residence hall, open a new general education building and purchase more boarded-up buildings in the neighborhood adjacent to the campus.
Hill said the private college will use separate funding to build a new studentunion, complete with a coffee shop, food court, loungestudy area, conference space and loft apartments for students.
“We no longer want this to be the broken-ankle community of Little Rock,” Hill said at an announcement inside the school’s gymnasium. “We are going to change this community.”
When Hill took the reins at the college in 2006, he openly acknowledged that the school and its surrounding neighborhood were in “crisis mode.”
Arkansas Baptist had only 150 students and was on the verge of losing its accreditation.
There was no annual budget, no strategic plan, and the college struggled to meet its monthly payroll obligations. The school’s credit was so poor that its bank wouldn’t allow Arkansas Baptist to offer employees direct deposit.
The neighborhood - an area south of the intersection of Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive - was not safe, officials said.
In 2006 there were 26 boarded-up houses within a two-block radius of campus and 87 reports of violent crime, including rapes, assaults and robberies. The neighborhood was so dicey that the previous college president had converted his campus home into offices and moved to west Little Rock.
Today, the college and neighborhood are far from perfect, but things are looking up.
Enrollment has grown to 750 students, and the school’s annual budget is up from less than $2 million to more than $13 million.
Through fundraising and grants - including a $2.5 million donation in 2008 from former Alltel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Scott Ford - the college has demolished or renovated 20 dilapidated houses, purchased 12 more houses and lots and acquired three neighborhood businesses.
The school has already started renovating Old Main, built new student housing and meeting space and opened GED and student services centers.
Reports of violent crime in the neighborhood were down to 33 last year.
“There used to be dope dealers,” Hill said. “But [at] Arkansas Baptist College, we are hope dealers.”
One of the biggest trouble spots for crime was the former Wheels and Grills carwash at the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Drive and Wright Avenue. In 2006, the police reported 35 incidents at the carwash.
The college bought the property and reopened the refurbished carwash as Auto Baptism, run under student management.
Last year, police handled only one call at the carwash.
“People commit crime because they’ve lost hope,” Little Rock Police Department Assistant Chief Eric Higgins said. “Here, you are dealing in hope.”
Part of the college’s rapid growth is because of its openadmissions policy.
Hill said the school is trying to return to its roots. The institution opened in 1884 to educate former slaves.
Today, Hill markets the school to black youth, particularly those from the inner city. Hill even welcomes high school dropouts.
Hill said he met a dropout at McDonald’s on Thursday morning and guaranteed him admission to Arkansas Baptist’s summer session.
“Do you think in 1884 those slaves from the plantation had a high GPA? You think they signed up to take the ACT?” Hill said. “No, they didn’t. But they had a high ‘want to,’ and that’s what we are looking for.”
The campus is currentlymaxed out in terms of classroom space. Arkansas Baptist has to hold evening classes at nearby Dunbar Middle School.
The building projects will expand the college’s classroom space so it can expand to 1,200 students by 2014.
“It’s a proud day for all of us,” said Lonnie Williams, chairman of the Arkansas Baptist Board of Trustees. “God has a plan for this institution.”
Two of Arkansas Baptist’scurrent students are Rhinah Ondiso and Zeytun Guyo from Kenya.
The pair are on full scholarship and were unable to afford higher education in their native country.
Both are studying accounting. Their plan is to get their degrees, go to graduateschool in the United States and ultimately return home to Kenya.
They want to help empower other women in a country where women often take a back seat to men, they said.
“I’m a role model in my community now,” Guyo said. “I want to see how maybe I can help change lives in Kenya.”
The college plans to pay down the project’s debt within seven years with help fromthe New Markets Tax Credit program, created in 2000 by the U.S. Treasury Department. The program aims to spur investment in low-income communities.
Under the program, Arkansas Capital Corp. will sell tax credits to investors on behalf of Arkansas Baptist. The tax credits will ultimately reduce the amount of debt the college owes to First Security Bank.
Sam Walls III, senior vice president at Arkansas Capital Corp., said the federal tax-credits program - which is a competitive, application-based program - has helped fund about $15 billion in projects nationally since 2000 but only about $20 million in Arkansas during the same period.
“This is like a poster child” for the Treasury Department program, Walls said. “This will be on our resume when we go back for more credits.”
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said Hill’s enthusiasm for transforming Arkansas Baptist is key to the good work done so far.
Hill, a former assistant football coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks and former head coach at San Jose State University, has a passion for the college that rubs off on others, Stodola said.
“It’s really infectious,” Stodola said.
“We should all be so lucky to catch the virus of Dr. Fitz Hill.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/19/2010