Construction professionals, engineers, and executives from numerous central Arkansas companies participated in the first Facilities Education Scholarship Golf Fest – destined to be an annual event – for the UALR Department of Facilities Management Educational Scholarship. The fund will supplement UALR’s employee tuition discount for groundskeepers, skilled trade’s workers, and custodians.

“The tournament is all about providing the funds we need to make up the difference between the generous benefit that UALR already provides for tuition,” said Dave Millay, associate vice chancellor for facilities management.

A committee of presidents, CEOs, and other administrators of local general contracting, architectural and engineering firms organized the tournament held at Chenal Country Club on Tuesday, Sept. 27, drawing 37 four-person teams. Athletic Director Chris Peterson joined in, as did several university professors and other university employees.

Currently, 20 employees in Millay’s 155-employee division are taking higher education classes. UALR offers its employees a tuition discount, but it doesn’t cover the full cost of tuition, fees, and books.

“The tournament is all about providing the funds we need to make up the difference between the generous benefit that UALR provides for tuition help, and the out of pocket expense required to take courses” Millay said. “For some people, that $200 to $400 difference to take a class can make the difference between putting food on the table or paying the gas bill, or taking a course to improve themselves. The whole idea is to provide the funding we need to offer tuition assistance to make up that difference.”

Millay’s office surveyed employees to see if a tuition supplement would increase the number of workers interested in taking classes.

“We asked, ‘if you could take a class at UALR absolutely free, would you’,” Millay said. “Of the 92 responding, 70 percent said yes.”

Currently, the Facilities Management Scholarship Fund offers some assistance for application fees, testing fees, book vouchers, and other costs. The program also offers cash incentives for employees working towards a degree, offering $50 and $100 for maintaining a grade point average of 3.0 and 3.5.

Any full-time Facilities Management employee can apply for the scholarship. They must maintain a 2.0 for up to 30 credit hours and a 2.5 for more than 30 hours to maintain the scholarship. Scholarship applications are reviewed by the Facilities Management Employee Focus Group. The Employee Focus Group is a self directed team of representatives from all Facilities Management departments and who have been the primary architects of the scholarship program among other initiatives.

Members of the UALR GolfFEST Tournament Committee and their affiliations are:

• David Sargent, Witsell Evans Rasco
• Lloyd Garrison, CDI Contractors
• David Porter, Polk Stanley Wilcox
• Mark Wright, Development Consultants, Inc.
• Alan Hope, Powers of Arkansas
• Clay Gordon, Nabholz Construction
• Vince Rodgers, UALR
• Mike McClellan, Trane Arkansas
• Ed Tinsley, TME, Inc.
• Bill Gray, Taggart Foster Currence Gray
• Greg Cockmon, Cromwell
• Van Tilbury, East Harding Construction
• Jake Nabholz, Nabholz Construction
• Dan Beranek, McClelland Engineers
• David Millay, UALR
• Tricia Strayhorn, UALR