University of Arkansas at Little Rock
The merger with the University of Arkansas System allowed the
once privately-funded LRU to reduce tuition and expand research.
More importantly, UALR could soon meet the community's demand
for graduate education in central Arkansas. In 1975, UALR began
offering graduate and professional programs and opened the UALR
School of Law. Under the leadership of Chancellors G. Robert Ross
(1973-1982) and James H. Young (1982-1992), UALR grew to a student
body of more than 10,000 and a full-time faculty of nearly 500.
UALR is the state's only metropolitan university and in this
role works with community partners to address the challenges whose
resolution will ultimately benefit society as a whole. According
to Chancellor Charles E. Hathaway (1993 - present), "By choosing
to fit into the metropolitan university model, a university accepts
the added responsibility to extend its resources to the surrounding
region, to provide leadership in addressing regional needs, and
to work cooperatively with the region's schools, municipalities,
businesses, and industries."
In the '90s, UALR expanded its role as an intellectual resource
for the community. The Friday Sturgis Fellows Leadership Program
is a scholarship program that exemplifies UALR's service learning
emphasis, through which students use classroom knowledge to improve
the community.
The University also began an aggressive outreach program with
the neighborhoods surrounding its campus. The Oak Forest Initiative
combines faculty and staff expertise with student volunteerism
and community participation to revitalize Little Rock's Oak Forest
neighborhood. The UALR Share America Program addresses the educational,
health, and social needs of more than 1,700 at-risk children through
tutoring and homework assistance, health assessments, and summer
enrichment programs.
In recent years, the University has established a reputation
as a valuable partner to state and local government. The Little
Rock School District report, which helped the troubled district
resolve some of its most critical long-time problems and is still
being used by the district today; the Water For Our Future project,
which led to the eventual merger of the Little Rock and North
Little Rock water systems and proposed long-term solutions that
other Central Arkansas communities are now beginning to use as
a model; and work on the Empowerment Zone proposal, which helped
Pulaski County gain millions of dollars in potential tax credits,
are just a few ways UALR has worked with local government to create
solutions to meet our community's needs.
UALR has emerged over the past decade as Arkansas' leader in
providing an education for the new technology-driven economy.
Through a variety of innovative degree programs, UALR students
are graduating with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in
the 21st century workplace.
In 1998, UALR created the Donaghey College of Information Science
and Systems Engineering - better known as the Donaghey CyberCollege
- to help meet the state's need for college graduates who are
prepared to work in emerging technology industries. The CyberCollege's
academic programs, ranging from systems engineering to a minor
in information technology for students majoring in non-technical
studies, were developed with extensive input from some of the
nation's leading knowledge-based companies.
But UALR's technology focus is not just for students pursuing
knowledge-based degrees. At UALR, technology is a common thread
found in nearly every degree program across campus.
UALR's College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences opened
its multimedia technology center in 2000. This state-of-the-art
facility adds a high-tech component to many of the college's classes,
effectively enhancing the marketability of UALR students upon
graduation. Because this college is home to core courses, most
UALR students receive part of their education in the latest high-tech
learning environment.
The College of Education also has charted new territory through
technology-enhanced education in recent years. The college's online
master's degree in rehabilitation counseling was created to meet
a critical regional and national need. The degree program, the
only one of its kinds in the state and one of only a handful in
the nation, helps rehabilitation counselors across the country
meet federal accreditation requirements while continuing their
full-time careers.
UALR is ahead of the game in offering the latest in distance education
opportunities. By implementing cutting-edge, online classroom
technologies, hundreds of courses are offered at least partially
online, giving UALR's large non-traditional student population
flexibility in completing their degrees.
The newest of UALR's campus buildings give further evidence of
the University's commitment to tapping into the advantages of
technology. Included among UALR's 40 campus buildings are H. Tyndall
Dickinson Hall - one of the most technologically advanced facilities
in the region - and the brand-new Donald W. Reynolds Center for
Business and Economic Development, which features wireless Internet
access and worldwide conferencing abilities. The newly-opened
Dr. Ted and Virginia Bailey Alumni and Friends Center offers a
technology-equipped service learning center in addition to serving
as a central gathering place for campus and community events.
The institution that began in 1927 as Little Rock Junior College
is today a university helping to move the state ahead in the economy
of the new century. From that first class of 100 students, the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock has grown to an enrollment
of some 11,000. The college that began in a few spare classrooms
in the local high school is now located on a beautiful 150-acre
campus that includes 40 permanent buildings. The original two-year
liberal arts curriculum has evolved to more than 100 majors, three
doctoral programs, and a juris doctorate degree. And the institution
that was founded to meet central Arkansas' higher education needs,
today remains an active and integral community partner, meeting
the needs of the citizens of central Arkansas and beyond.
