An area near the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in northeast Arkansas is going to get a bit of a touch-up.
Workers will renovate grain bins across from the museum in Tyronza, work that would restore the historic character of the Tyronza Commercial Historic District.
The Arkansas State University board of trustees approved the renovation project at a meeting Thursday in Beebe.
"The grain bins will serve as a large-scale exhibit of agricultural history and methods that would add new depth to the interpretation of the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum," according to the Arkansas State University System. The interior of the largest grain bin would house critical visitor services, including accessible restroom facilities.
ASU received a grant of $1,916,383 from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council, which will cover the renovation, according to the ASU System.
The museum -- which has exhibits that focus on the farm labor movement in the South and the tenant farming and sharecropping system of agriculture -- opened in 2006 in the historic Mitchell-East Building in Tyronza.
The building once housed the dry cleaning business of H.L. Mitchell and the service station of Clay East, two of the organizers of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in 1934. It was the unofficial headquarters for the union until it relocated to Memphis for safety, according to the museum's website.
Mitchell and East organized the union to press for benefits for farmers. The union was a federation of tenant farmers with the immediate aim of reforming the crop-sharing system of sharecropping and tenant farming.
"The facts that the [Southern Tenant Farmers Union] was integrated, that women played a critical role in its organization and administration, and that fundamentalist church rituals and regional folkways were basic to the union's operation dramatically foreshadowed the post-war civil rights era," according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
The museum is one of the facilities connected with the Arkansas State University Heritage Sites, which include the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center in Piggott; the Historic Dyess Colony: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home in Dyess; and the Rohwer Japanese American Relocation Center in McGehee.
In other business, ASU System trustees:
Approved expansion of the Bloodworth Nursing Building on the Searcy campus of Arkansas State University-Beebe. The expansion will add 6,100 square feet to accommodate additional nursing students, according to the ASU System. The project -- expected to begin this summer and finish next spring -- will be paid for through federal grant funds of $1.5 million and institutional reserves of $66,150.
Approved finishing renovations of the Ritz Theatre at Arkansas State University Three Rivers. The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council funded the first three phases of the project, and its latest grant -- of $1,261,977 -- will allow for completion of the renovation, according to the ASU System. That's expected to be finished by the end of next year. The theatre project "has been one of the smoothest construction projects I've ever been a part of," and -- with this latest grant -- "we can see light at the end of the tunnel," said Chancellor Steve Rook.
Approved the third phase of the Caddo Center renovation at Henderson State University, turning the center into a "one-stop shop" for students. HSU received a grant of $1,191,606 from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council, which will be used to adapt the shell of the building, allow preservation of the historic center and provide space for admissions, financial aid, housing, advising, student accounts and tutoring, according to the ASU System. The third phase is set for completion by April 30, 2024. The Caddo Center will make college "easier for students," and it's "an inviting place," said Chancellor Chuck Ambrose.
The ASU System trustees approved some certificate programs.
Arkansas State University-Newport will offer a Technical Certificate in Advanced Manufacturing Technology (Industrial Controls Technician), a Certificate of Proficiency in Corrections, and a Certificate of Proficiency in Pre-Health Professions. Each will be offered this fall, and no new funding is required.
The corrections certificate would provide work-ready training and credentials so students could enter the field of corrections as young as 18, and Jackson County -- where ASU-Newport is located -- is home to a pair of state prisons, according to the college.
The pre-health professions certificate will allow students to earn a certificate while completing prerequisites for entry into programs like Licensed Practical Nursing, Traditional Registered Nursing, Surgical Technology, Physical Therapy Assistant, and Occupational Therapy Assistant.
The new certificates at ASU-Newport are another example of ASU System schools looking for new ways "to meet the needs of business and industry in our communities," said Chuck Welch, the ASU System president.
Trustees also granted a request from Arkansas State University Mid-South to offer two certificates -- a Certificate of Proficiency in Cybersecurity Specialist and a Technical Certificate in Information Systems Technology -- within the recently reconfigured Associate of Applied Science degree in Information Systems Technology.
The change takes effect this month, and no new funding is required.
The new certificates at ASU Mid-South are "critical with everything going on in the world right now" in terms of cybersecurity and technology, Welch said.