The activities of faculty and the services provided by the university go far beyond the excellent instructional programs offered to a remarkably complex student body. Here are a few examples of the numerous instances of public service by individual faculty members at UALR. For faculty members, public service involves the sharing and application of their professional expertise in an academic discipline to issues or needs external to the campus. More often than not, university students assist in and learn much from these activities.
For 17 years a member of the Department of English has led the Student Literacy Corps in which UALR students tutor students who have difficulty reading.
A faculty member in the School of Mass Communication noted the need for more local Hispanic programming to meet the needs of the growing Hispanic population. He worked with UALR students and faculty to produce a 30-minute show, "De Todo un Poco" (A Little Bit of Everything), a series with cultural, community, and university segments.
A biology faculty member and three students helped the city fight the West Nile Virus by identifying and monitoring mosquito breeding grounds so the areas could be treated by the city and the insects tested for the virus.
For 8 years a Shakespeare expert at UALR has led an annual Shakespeare Scene Festival in the university's Theatre for the Performing Arts in which—at 30-minute intervals—high school, middle school, and elementary school students from area schools stage some portion, adaptation, or spoof of the works of William Shakespeare.
In advance of the launching of the Clinton School a UALR political science professor developed and offered the first course on the Clinton Presidency which was also the first semester-long college course aired nationally on C-SPAN2. The former president, several members of his administration, and a number of prominent opponents and critics met with the class during the course of the semester.
UALR faculty assisted in numerous ways in planning and launching the UA Clinton School of Public Service. Two emeritus faculty and 15 current faculty from UALR were appointed as inaugural faculty members of the school.
A member of the social work faculty has assisted advocacy groups for the homeless by conducting a survey of the homeless in central Arkansas to achieve a better estimate of the number of the homeless population and increased understanding of their needs. Undergraduate students assisted in the research.
A faculty member in the Department of Music has organized a Community Orchestra that has given the rare opportunity to rehearse and play in an orchestra to music lovers who otherwise would never have the experience. Among others young and old, an octogenarian has been able to continue her lifetime love of the violin by playing in the Community Orchestra.
A UALR geologist used her expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to assist first responders in Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. She volunteered to help develop maps that detailed road conditions, power outages, and facilities with hazardous materials—information used by the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Her work was noted on CNN Radio.
Here are several examples of public service activities based in academic programs at UALR. In most of these instances, university students assist in and learn much from these activities.
The Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology provides diagnostic services, treatment, and rehabilitation benefiting young and old—the young child with speech or hearing deficits as well as senior citizens who have suffered strokes. The clinic provides services to clients and valuable training for students.
The Community School of the Arts in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences provides non-credit, after-school, pre-collegiate programs in the visual and performing arts for school children.
The William H. Bowen School of Law features three in-practice legal clinics, making it possible for students with faculty supervision to represent low-income clients while in law school.
Evenings with History has been a remarkably successful outreach program for two decades. Members of the history faculty themselves, usually six each year, present public lectures based on their individual research specialties to a regular audience of approximately one hundred. Each session includes refreshments and an opportunity for informal conversation among friends and guests. Those who attend the lectures pay an annual subscription to the History Institute, which was formed in 1987, to respond to community interest in history and to develop community support for the department.
Through its Business Forum begun in 1979, the College of Business each year presents five prominent speakers who address major state, national, and international issues. Attendance averages 165. This is an annual subscription program for business and civic leaders.
Faculty and students in the Department of Health Sciences started the Prescription Assistance Line for Seniors (PALS) which offers information on locating prescription medication assistance for low-income seniors. The savings for hundreds of individuals have been substantial.
During World War II, 110,000 Japanese Americans were removed from the west coast and interned in 10 camps, with 16,000 Japanese Americans sent to camps in Arkansas at Jerome and Rohwer. With the encouragement of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and with grant funding from the Foundation that exceeded $2.5 million, UALR faculty in the Public History graduate program, in partnership with the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, undertook a project named Life Interrupted. The faculty and their partners developed a whole set of print and electronic educational materials, a traveling exhibit, and a documentary about these camps which historians have largely ignored and about which most Arkansans were unaware. A conference in Little Rock in September 2004 capped the project, and was attended by 1,300 people with seven out of ten of them from out of state.
A quarter-century ago UALR's faculty in the College of Education started the state's first graduate program in gifted and talented education. Through an outgrowth of the graduate program, now thousands of area youngsters have had their summers enriched through educational experiences in Summer Laureate/University for Youth (SLUFY) programs. Two weeks in length, these programs do more than provide enrichment experiences for young people. They also provide required professional development experiences for UALR students pursuing degrees in teaching.
Faculty in the gifted and talented program in the College of Education each year offer the Advanced Placement Summer Institute to hundreds of Arkansas teachers to help make the rigorous and popular advanced placement courses available to students in schools across the state.
Wanting to assist a larger number of Arkansas high school graduates to be calculus-ready and therefore prepared to move without delay into rigorous engineering and science curricula, the CyberCollege initiated an on-line pre-calculus course. In fall 2004, 362 high school students were enrolled in the course in 17 participating high schools across the state.
--Each summer since 2001, faculty in CyberCollege have offered the CyberTeachers Program to equip 25 teachers from the Little Rock School District to be very knowledgeable and proficient in the use of the computer-based instructional technology now available to educators.
UALR's faculty in reading have helped thousands of teachers in Arkansas and across the nation become more effective teachers of reading, thus addressing one of the root issues in student achievement. UALR has provided national leadership in researching the impact of the Reading Recovery approach and has significantly assisted state education efforts in developing and implementing a comprehensive literacy model. This model has been studied and copied by schools in other states. Each year the College of Education organizes a nationally recognized conference in Little Rock that is usually attended by 800 persons involved in reading education.
Peace and progress in a community require success in addressing major community issues, which usually are divisive issues. The university has shown a willingness to assist the larger metropolitan community in addressing a number of its foremost issues, drawing on the ability of the university to conduct research, to provide good information, and to facilitate discussion and debate in a neutral setting. Of the following examples, the first two are repeated each year; the others were specific projects of limited duration.
In the history of Arkansas, race, particularly black-white relations, has been the mega issue that has most retarded the development of the state. To encourage the community to give sustained attention to this persistent issue, the Institute of Government conducts an annual survey of racial attitudes in Pulaski County and hosts a half-day conference at the time of the release of the survey results.
In the highly competitive global economy of the 21st Century, the competitiveness of businesses and the standards of living of communities everywhere are at risk. For leaders in the 11 counties included in the Metro Little Rock Alliance of central Arkansas, UALR holds an annual conference on regionalism as the university endeavors to raise the vision of civic and business leaders to the better day that can be enjoyed with the laying aside of old rivalries.
In 1996, at the request of the governor and of the director of the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), UALR conducted a study of the roles of the ADE and its organization, operations, and internal communications, a politically sensitive undertaking. The study team included UALR administrators, faculty, staff, and also business people and public school administrators. The Arkansas Board of Education used the report as a basis for major changes in the department.
In 1997, UALR released Plain Talk: The Future of Little Rock's Public Schools, an in-depth study of the litigation-plagued school district conducted by an interdisciplinary team of eight faculty members. A former Mississippi governor and member of President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race Commission, said, "It is the best study that I have seen on this intractable problem that involves so many complex facets."3
At the request of the two mayors and two water commission chairs, an interdisciplinary team of six UALR faculty members studied and helped resolve decades of controversy over water issues between Little Rock and North Little Rock with recommendations that led to the merger of the water utilities of the two cities.
At the request of the County Judge and other leaders of Saline County, probably the most litigious county in the state in regard to water issues, an interdisciplinary team of seven faculty members and one graduate student studied and helped resolve decades of controversy among 14 different water purveyors in Saline County with recommendations that they jointly establish a Saline Watershed Regional Water Distribution District, a plan which was adopted, which received court approval, and which now is in place.
In 2003, an interdisciplinary team of nine faculty members and one graduate student conducted a study of central Arkansas transit issues at the request of the Pulaski County Judge and the mayors of the five municipalities that constitute Metroplan, the regional planning agency. The benchmarking and evaluation provided in the team's report produced a better understanding of the needs and the quality of service of CATA, the joint public transit agency. The team also provided recommendations for an expanded, better funded transit system.
UALR's organizational structure includes a number of organizational units that have extension or outreach missions.
The Institute for Economic Advancement (IEA) is the largest outreach unit with a budget of $3 million and 48 employees who provide research, data, and training. IEA provides a regular state economic forecast which is an important component in the state government's official revenue forecast. It is a source of an immense amount of census data and provides technical assistance in the use of the data. IEA conducts economic research on specific issues for governmental units, businesses, labor organizations, and communities. It further supports statewide economic development by offering the Certified Economic Developer program to train persons who can work with communities, economic development districts, and chambers of commerce. IEA initiated and manages Web sites for almost fifty Arkansas cities and municipalities, with an average of 400 pages of information about each. It also has a Geographic Information System which enables it to display the geographic distribution of demographic and other data. IEA's Workplace Skills Enhancement Program offers bilingual job-readiness and other training programs for Hispanics and communications training for a number of businesses with significant numbers of Hispanic customers.
The Arkansas Small Business Development Center, funded approximately 50/50 by the university and the U.S. Small Business Administration, was established in 1980 and is the state's only economic development entity that provides face-to-face assistance to Arkansas businesses in their local communities through a network of seven offices located around the state. In addition to face-to-face consulting, it provides numerous classes and short courses on starting a business, cash flow, loan proposals, marketing, business planning, and government contracting. It has an outstanding record in guiding clients to financing for start-ups or expansions. An economic impact study in 2004 by a Mississippi State University researcher found an annual impact of $73 million in increased sales and $3.3 million in tax revenues for Arkansas.
The Institute of Government, besides being the home of the Master of Public Administration program, offers applied research to a variety of external organizations. It also includes a survey research unit. The institute houses the Arkansas Public Administration Consortium, a joint program of UALR, Arkansas State University, and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, that provides a variety of training and certificate programs for workers in government offices and agencies and non-profit organizations.
UALR Public Radio includes two stations. KLRE-FM 90.5 is a 40,000 watt station broadcasting classical music 24 hours a day. KUAR-FM 89.1, a 100,000 watt station, is a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate with a focus on news and information. The two stations offer numerous locally-produced programs on Arkansas events, people, politics, culture, history, and the arts. The stations, which have won numerous awards, are commercial-free and reach 70,000 listeners each week. They inform, enrich, and entertain; and they regularly provide hands-on opportunities to UALR students interested in careers in broadcasting.
The Intensive English Language Program (IELP), offering English language education to international students and other limited English speakers, has been especially helpful to persons wanting to study in the United States but whose English is inadequate for university-level study. A majority of the students who come to the IELP to study English matriculate at UALR.
The Mid-South Summer School of the College of Professional Studies has for over three decades provided training for professionals in the areas of alcohol abuse, addiction, and child welfare. Attendance for the week-long school typically exceeds 800. The MidSOUTH Training Academy operates with 65 employees out of 6 regional offices around the state and provides training for the child welfare service workforce in Arkansas.
The Office of Community Engagement helps students, faculty, and staff find volunteer opportunities with local organizations. For example, it assists juniors and seniors in the Friday-Sturgis leadership program find volunteer opportunities to satisfy the 130 hours of community service required by the program.
In 1994, UALR started the Oak Forest Initiative in the neighborhood immediately east and north of the campus with funding assistance from both the Federal level and the City of Little Rock. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city, and Habitat for Humanity, five houses have been rehabilitated and ten new houses have been built, the first new additions to housing stock in this area in several decades. The dilapidated baseball field in Curran Conway Park, a city park, has been renovated by the UALR Department of Athletics with major private donations. The baseball Trojans now play their games in one of the best baseball facilities in the Sunbelt Conference.
The centerpiece of the neighborhood initiative has been UALR Children International (previously UALR Share America), made possible by grant funding from Kansas City-based Children International, better known for its humanitarian programs for children and families in poverty outside the United States. The grant funding over the last decade has totaled over $5 million. Approximately 1800 children in Little Rock are served each year by UALR Children International programs.
Since 1994, a cluster of programs serving low-income children and families has been developed that reach beyond the Oak Forest neighborhood. The multi-faceted initiative has included the after-school Neighborhood Homework Center with tutoring and summer camps for neighborhood children. Some 14 UALR units have participated, with academic departments often developing service-learning opportunities for their students. For example, construction management faculty and students have built two playgrounds and renovated the UALR Children International director's office. After-school programs at three sites include educational enrichment programs taught by certified teachers and UALR students with a focus on mathematics and literacy. (Last year's assessment showed a 72 percent performance improvement from pre-test to post-test.) The Department of Nursing's faculty and students have for eight years provided annual health screenings to children in the Children International program. The Labor Education Program has offered neighborhood parents a computer training and job-readiness program. Since 2000, 91 parents have completed the program, resulting in 22 percent gaining employment and 66 percent receiving job promotions.
The scope and success of programs based in UALR Children International have been possible only because numerous organizations, both public and private—31 in all—have joined as Partners in Service. Perhaps most noteworthy has been the health services, particularly the dental services, made available to low-income children. During the last year a dental clinic was opened at Wakefield Elementary School.
The profile of the university given in this chapter supports the proposition of the preceding chapter—that the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a complex, hybrid institution of higher education.
Here are planning implications of this chapter:
As research increases in importance, UALR faculty and administrators should integrate teaching and research to maintain and enrich the tradition of excellent classroom teaching.
A first order of business for a university with a comprehensive set of programs of study is to maintain, update, and enhance the quality of those existing programs, paying particular attention to those that serve critical public needs and to those that can achieve national prominence.
With 115 programs of study, faculty and administrators should proceed cautiously when initiating new programs. Periodic program review could identify programs that should be discontinued, freeing resources for high priority areas.
For a student body with a sizable majority of students who hold jobs and often have family responsibilities, offering convenience in schedules, facilities, business operations, and a variety of policies and procedures is not a luxury. Convenience, to the extent achievable, enables students to complete their education goals sooner rather than later.
Among universities in Arkansas, UALR clearly has a niche—transfer students. If enrollment continues to increase at two-year campuses in the state, enrollment of transfer students is likely to increase at UALR. This niche and its potential for growth make careful attention to the policies and procedures that facilitate or delay the progress of transfer students an obvious priority.
1 Arkansas Higher Education Plan: 1989-1994, Adopted by the Arkansas State Board of Higher Education, 1989, p. 149.
2 "Status of Doctoral Education in Arkansas," An Arkansas Department of Higher Education Report to the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board, April 2004, p. 17.
3 Letter from William F. Winter, former Governor of Mississippi, to UALR Chancellor Charles E. Hathaway, August 13, 1997.