Arkansas Department of Higher Education Director Maria Markham attended Wednesday's monthly meeting of the National Park College Board of Trustees as a special guest.
Markham noted the early success of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's new Arkansas Future Grant program, known as ArFuture. The program is using $9 million per year in general revenue from two existing grant programs to pay tuition and mandatory fees for students at public two-year colleges or technical schools in high-demand fields.
Also in attendance were university partners from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. All of the college's university partners were invited to provide a display area in the National Park University Transfer Center.
Henderson Provost Steve Adkison and Brandie Benton, associate provost, represented the university at Wednesday's meeting. The college and the university continue as close partners with a joint presence in the Hot Springs Downtown Education Center.
"It really does speak to the efficiencies we have been asked to achieve for higher education," Markham said. "When I came into this role, it was all about finding a way to deliver the services, create access and do it for less. Having a university presence in Hot Springs really opens the door for students who are either geographically or financially unable to access that university degree."
A grand opening for the Transfer Center is planned for Oct. 6 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. University advisers and recruiters will make periodic visits to campus through the initiative, which has established 69 transfer degrees.
Former ADHE Director Brett Powell left the position in early 2016 to become vice president for finance and administration at Henderson. Markham was hired from her position as vice chancellor at Cossatot Community College in De Queen to become the ADHE's youngest director at the age of 35 in July 2016.
The college hosted Markham on campus less than six weeks later. She joined the college in March to celebrate the opening of its Innovative Technologies Center on Albert Pike.
Markham praised the establishment of the new Arkansas Workforce Challenge Scholarship with excess proceeds from the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. She said she expects more than $4 million to benefit students by the fall of 2018.
"That is something we always struggle with," Markham said. "We have this odd dynamic in Arkansas, and I guess it is everywhere, where workforce training is kind of funded out of a hodgepodge of different things."
NPC President John Hogan said previous estimates of the college's local impact were too low. He said he formerly reported a total of about 5,000 lives were touched each year through college enrollment, concurrent, noncredit, workforce, adult education and high school programs. He recently learned the annual total is more than 7,500 people.
"If there was ever any doubt, rest assured that National Park College makes a huge impact on this community," Hogan said.
Kelli Albrecht, vice president for workforce and strategic initiatives, presented an update on the campus' high-priority objectives, which are used as an internal measurement of success, allowing the college to benchmark growth in key areas. Eight HPOs measure performance in student success, workforce, underserved students, credentials earned, enrollment, fundraising, transfer and fiscal responsibility.
"The high priority objectives are metrics and statistics, but there are student lives that are impacted by success on those metrics," Hogan said. "The fundraising and efficiency support student success and every other metric is tied to student success. Our eight highest priorities here at National Park College, they are all about how students can be more successful. I am very proud of that."
Janet Brewer, vice president for human resources, introduced participants for the 2017-18 Leadership Academy: Ferris Allen, director of music programs; Donny Caudill, Child Care Aware accounting assistant; Nannette Crane-Post, English instructor; Ana Hunt, registrar; Miles Morton, information systems manager; Cassandra Parks, external affairs coordinator; Stephanie Rizzo, academic adviser; Jennifer Seward, high school advertising and design instructor for National Park Technology Center; and Brian Theroux, math instructor.
The yearlong leadership development program is meant to prepare participants for future management opportunities with a focus on themes of foundations of leadership, policy and governance, administration and finance, teaching and learning, student services and development, and leadership for change. Participants are required to organize service projects. The first class in 2016-17 organized a resource fair, a food pantry on campus and a college simulation day for NPTC students.
Jerry Thomas, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, noted the college's increase of full-time equivalent for college students from 1,797 last year to 1,899 for the fall semester with an increase in total semester credit hours from 26,875 to 28,485. He said the college continues to transition to more students of a traditional college age.
"We know from most of the research that students who are full-time spend more time on campus, they use campus resources, they are in the tutor center, advising center, they are engaging with faculty and they are also spending time with other students," Thomas said. "All of these elements and activities increase the probability these students will finish on time."
The increase includes a 7.3 percent bump from 1,678 students in 84 online classes last year to 1,801 students in 87 classes this fall. The college invested in Quality Matters training this year for online faculty and plans to expand it next year.
Local on 09/28/2017