Arkansas education officials consider workforce development, higher ed legislation
Arkansas education leaders praised components of a new higher education overhaul law that will help high schoolers transition to college and reaffirmed their commitment to supporting all students during a roundtable discussion at the Fayetteville Town Center Wednesday.
University of Central Arkansas President Houston Davis, NorthWest Arkansas Community College President Dennis Rittle and University of Arkansas Chancellor Charles Robinson participated in the conversation, which was organized by the Northwest Arkansas Council and focused on higher education's role in workforce and regional development.
'We're not talking about degrees, we're talking about making sure that students have the skills that they need that are marketable and that align with our regional economies whether it's here or Central Arkansas or otherwise,' NWA Council President Nelson Peacock told a crowd of roughly 350 guests.
Workforce preparedness has been a priority for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who in March signed into law Arkansas ACCESS, a 123-page bill that will make changes to the state's higher education funding model, scholarships, course credits and the admissions process, among other things.
What is Arkansas ACCESS?
Participants considered the impact of Act 341 throughout the hour-long conversation, including Davis. He said he appreciated the legislation's connections between K-12 and post-secondary education, which he said will make university officials think about how to reach out to feeder schools and make sure they're removing barriers.
Additionally, Davis said he appreciated the legislation's support for noncredit activities, such as the coding and aviation academies offered at UCA.
'Knowing that the state has a nod toward and there's a place for that and there's encouragement for universities and community colleges to be in that noncredit space, I think that's a win for workforce, that's a win for business and industry,' Davis said.
Robinson lauded Arkansas ACCESS' support of concurrent credit courses, which he said would better prepare students for post-graduation activities. Robinson also praised doubling the first-year award for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship Program to $2,000.
'I know the state was doing what it thought was right, but that $1,000 doesn't cover books,' he said. 'So you need more money going to kids early on, and hopefully we'll continue to look for ways to increase the support from the state for the students, because again, that helps them to be able to afford the opportunity that they're seeking to better themselves and ultimately to better the state.'
Colleges and universities are also taking steps to increase access to higher education through their own scholarships. The University of Arkansas, for example, announced Wednesday a $1 million donation by alumnus Will Feland to the Land of Opportunity Scholarship campaign, a three-year initiative to increase educational access for students from the state's 75 counties 'by addressing the critical funding gap often limiting those opportunities,' according to a press release.
Roundtable participants were also asked about some of the more controversial components of Arkansas ACCESS, which include prohibitions on excused absences for college students who attend political protests and collecting and reporting information about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for institutional accreditation purposes.
In terms of free speech, Robinson said he didn't see the challenge in the new law because academic freedom wasn't injured and the legislation 'doesn't prevent us from teaching what we need to teach.'
Regarding DEI, the new higher education law prohibits things like requiring students and staff to submit a diversity statement or conditioning enrollment based on race, ethnicity, sex, color or national origin. While that may be happening in other institutions around the country, it's not an issue at UCA, according to Davis, who said 'those elements of the bill make something illegal that we're not doing already.'
Critics of the law's prohibitions on 'indoctrination' and DEI have voiced concerns about the potential impact on students from minority groups. All 10,000 of UCA's students are unique individuals, Davis said, and it's his administration's job to figure out what about their background makes them special and what they hope to get out of their college experience.
'A friend of mine…says, 'no one can tell you you can't love a student and love who they are and be there for them as they walk their journey,' and that's all we're doing,' Davis said. 'And the reality is, if you want to divide that up into 10,000 pieces, go right ahead. We're going to keep meeting students where they are.'
Rittle echoed those sentiments, noting that they love their students at NWACC 'and when you love them, there's no laws against that.'
Progress and change come with challenges, but Rittle said he sees it as an opportunity for reinvention as the school continues serving its students.
'We don't get too tripped up [with] what happens in other ways. If you tell me we've got to stop doing our mission, that's a different conversation,' he said. 'But as long as we can do our mission, we figure it out and we keep serving. And we have students from every different demographic as well at NWACC, just like all the institutions represented here on this platform, and the reality is our service to them, if anything, it's just like, game on.'
State Rep. Denise Garner, a Fayetteville Democrat and member of the House Education Committee who attended Wednesday's discussion, said there were some great parts of Arkansas ACCESS, but she's also worried about other components of the massive legislation.
'My biggest concern is to make sure we have all of the stakeholders at the table so that we're making good decisions, and we'll watch to make sure that happens,' Garner said.
Details of the law's various components will be fleshed out during the rulemaking process, which often includes feedback from stakeholders and can take several months to complete.
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