SAU's History

Modified: 2023-10-24 10:33 PM CDST

Modern American Universities

• Seminary Model
  • Generalist faculty taught wide variety of subjects
  • Goal was to produce clergy
  • Many US universities began as seminaries:
    • Harvard, Yale (Puritan), Princeton (Presbyterian), Hendrix (Methodist)
• German University Model
  • Specialist faculty organized into colleges and departments
  • Apply science broadly
  • Johns Hopkins (1876), University of Chicago (1891)
• Morrill Land Grant Act Universities (1862)
  • 69 original universities (many labelled A&M):
    • Map
      • Notice that the U. of Arkansas and LSU are land grant universities.

SAU and Other Arkansas Universities

• History
  • Southern Arkansas/Mulerider Name
    • Coach Turrentine greets his "muleriders" (1912) after Fordyce game
    • Officially adopted in 1922-23
    • Mules used in Southern agriculture
    • Symbolic of status inversion (only poor people rode mules)
  • Act 100 Schools (1909)
    • All promoted by the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union
      • Arkansas State University (First DAS)
        • First District A&M
        • Arkansas State Colleg
        • Arkansas State University
      • Arkansas Tech University (Second DAS)
        • Arkansas Polytechnic College
        • Arkansas Tech University
      • University of Arkansas at Monticello (Fourth DAS)
        • Arkansas A&M
        • Merged with UA
      • Southern Arkansas University (Third DAS)
        • Magnolia A&M
        • Southern State College
        • Southern Arkansas University
  • Brief history
    • Columbia County won the right to host TDAS
      • Cornerstone laid on August 24, 1910
    • Magnolia A&M
      • Elevated to two-year college in 1925
    • Southern State College (1950)
      • Began four-year college program
    • Southern Arkansas University (1976)
      • Later added SAU Tech and SAU El Dorado (both two-year school) to SAU System
        • SAU El Dorado left system in 1992 to become South Arkansas Community College
    • Walz Photos
    • SAU Colleges
      • Rankin College of Business
        • Mission
          • The Rankin College of Business at Southern Arkansas University equips future business leaders to succeed locally and globally through innovative, engaging, and relevant programs, scholarship, and pedagogy. We positively impact our students’ personal and professional growth and our community.
      • College of Education and Human Performance
        • Mission
          • The College of Education and Human Performance, guided by the University’s vision and mission, primarily meets the needs of candidates from south-central and southwest Arkansas communities and serves candidates from across the state, nation, and world. Candidates are served through the College’s teaching, research, service, and outreach programs. Our aim is to ensure that all College of Education and Human Performance candidates develop the ability to be creative and critical thinkers who are able to make appropriate decisions relative to their professional roles and responsibilities as citizens of a democratic nation and a global community.
      • Dempsey College of Liberal and Performing Arts
        • The mission of the College of Liberal and Performing Arts is to foster students’ ability to think critically, become tolerant of diversity, adhere to ethical values, communicate effectively, cooperate successfully, and become responsible citizens in a changing global society. In addition, the College seeks to instill in each student an appreciation of literature, languages, history, politics, geography, music, theatre, and art, and to provide the campus and region with opportunities for participation in these disciplines.
      • College of Science and Engineering
        • Mission
          • The mission of Southern Arkansas University is to educate students for productive and fulfilling lives in a global environment by providing opportunities for intellectual growth, individual enrichment, skill development, and meaningful career preparation. The University believes in the worth of the individual and accepts its responsibility for developing in its students those values and competencies essential for effective citizenship in an ever-changing, free, and democratic society. Further, the University provides an environment conducive to excellence in teaching and learning, scholarship, creative endeavors, and service.
      • Honors College
        • Mission
          • The SAU Honors College was founded in 2003 by Dr. David Rankin, president of SAU. Dr. Lynne Belcher served as founding director and retired from SAU. The Honors College seeks and admits qualified students who seek to pursue a serious academic program with equally gifted peers and committed teachers. Honors classes are small and provide academically enriching opportunities for students and the faculty who teach them.
      • Graduate Studies
        • Mission
          • The mission of the Southern Arkansas University School of Graduate Studies is to prepare individuals for positions of leadership in a variety of professions by providing advanced and specialized education. The curricula and instructional technologies are designed to meet the needs of students and to prepare them to compete in a diverse and dynamic society.
    • Majors (Degree Programs)
      • Over 100 undergraduate degree programs
      • One doctoral program: Rural and Diverse Educational Leadership (Education)
      • 19 Masters degree programs
        • Rankin College of Business: 6
        • College of Education: 6
        • College of Science and Engineering: 5
        • Dempsey College of Liberal and Performing Arts: 2
    • Recent News and Accomplishments
      • Record breaking enrollment, Fall 2023: 5218 students (1876 graduate students)
      • Record breaking enrollment for Honors College: 65 students
      • 14% increase in first-year students
      • 1800 students living on campus (4.5% increase)
    • Future Challenges
      • The demographic cliff
        • Dropping birthrate
        • Bigger effect on regional bachelor's institutions (e.g., SAU)
        • Budgets will be affected
          • less tuition
          • growing expenses for operation and salaries
        • Honors Colleges
          • "With increasingly tight budgets because of economic
            challenges and the “demographic cliff ” caused by declining rates
            of fertility, even more institutions may explore the honors college
            model as a way to compete in the larger marketplace, but we may
            also see a slowing in this trend as institutions redirect resources and
            focus on other priorities. Another unknown factor in the expansion
            of the honors college model is the degree to which honors colleges
            will have an impact on the national landscape of honors education
            and how administrative and curricular structures might evolve. In
            light of how we have seen the greatest growth in the honors col-
            lege model at Research and Master’s Universities, it is unlikely that
            the honors college model will replace the honors program model at
            Baccalaureate Colleges or Associate’s Colleges. It remains to be seen
            whether we will see honors colleges fully integrate into all Research
            and Master’s Universities, as Cobane once predicted."

          Cognard-Black, A. J., & Smith, P. J. (2003). Characteristics of 21st century honors students, NCHC Monographs Series, 44.

      • Remote location
        • SW Arkansas and Four-state region
          • "The population of the Southwest Arkansas planning area increased by a net 73,985
            people, or 21.1 percent, from 349,988 in 1969 to 423,973 in 2002. Of the 18 counties in the
            planning area, the following 6 experienced net population declines from 1969 to 2002:
            Columbia, Dallas, Lafayette, Nevada, Ouachita, and Union. Because of strong population
            growth in Northwest Arkansas and Central Arkansas, the proportion of the state’s population
            living in the Southwest Arkansas planning area decreased from 18.3 percent to 15.6 percent.
            The population of the Southwest Arkansas planning area is projected to increase by
            13,329 people, or 3.1 percent, to 437,302 by 2010 and by 41,578 people, or 9.8 percent, to
            465,551 by 2025. The region’s population is projected to be between 426,360 and 448,601 in
            2010 and between 442,341 and 490,440 in 2025. If the baseline projections are realized, the
            proportion of the state’s population living in the Southwest Arkansas planning area will be 14.9
            percent in 2010 and 13.4 percent in 2025."

          Adam Cole, Center for Business and Economic ResearchReynolds Center Building 217
          Sam M. Walton College of Business
          1 University of Arkansas
          F, ayetteville, Arkansas 72701-1201
          (479) 575-4151
          http://cber.uark.edu
          e-mail: cberinfo@cavern.uark.edu

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