North Arkansas College Eyes Merger with UA System

Northark President Rick Massengale with a map of all campuses affiliated with the University of Arkansas System. (Provided)

About a year ago, North Arkansas College in Harrison considered joining the University of Arkansas System, but its administrators still needed some convincing.

By January, they were ready to join a trend, according to Rick Massengale, the two-year college’s president. He and the school’s cabinet decided to follow several other community colleges and began talks about merging with the system.

“There were kids in all parts of the state that were getting opportunities by being a member of the system with the U of A that we just couldn’t provide them, and we weren’t doing them a favor,” Massengale told Arkansas Business.

One of the key benefits is giving two-year college students access to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville transfer scholarship program. That program lets students who earn associate degrees from a UA System school transfer to UA-Fayetteville while still paying their community colleges’ tuition rates rather than the higher UA-Fayetteville rates.

The North Arkansas College board still has to approve the merger, and then it must be approved by the UA System board, a step that could take place as early as May. The merger also will require regulatory approval.

A community town hall to discuss the merger is set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on the campus in Harrison.

If North Arkansas College joins the UA System, it will be the ninth community college to do so. Last year, East Arkansas Community College of Forrest City joined the UA System, and it has received several benefits, from better prices on equipment to expanded benefits for its employees, said Cathie Cline, the school’s chancellor.

As a result, the college, which was renamed UA-East Arkansas Community College in Forrest City, reported an employee turnover rate of 3%; in previous years, it had been 10%, Cline said.

In addition, its 2024 fall enrollment jumped 11.5% from the previous year to 1,399 students.

Cline said she attributes the record enrollment to the positive publicity surrounding the merger with the UA System, its brand name, and “the fact that there’s this great optimism about this transfer scholarship,” she said.

Cline said that after the COVID-19 pandemic, “all of us in higher ed have been spending a lot of time talking about the future.”

She said the school considered scenarios that looked 10 years into the future and beyond.

“In running all of those types of scenarios, it was our belief that this was going to be our best bet to strengthen the institution and provide more to students,” Cline said.

University of Arkansas System’s Two-Year Colleges

*It has campuses in DeWitt, Helena-West Helena and Stuttgart.

Cost Savings

Pulaski Technical College of North Little Rock became a member of the University of Arkansas System in 2017.

“The UA System, of course, is older. It’s larger. It’s more diverse in its holdings,” said Summer DeProw, chancellor of the school, which was renamed the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College.

DeProw said Pulaski Tech has seen cost savings from uniting with the UA consortium.

For example, it gets better rates for services like Blackboard, a learning management software system, she said.

The two-year college also saves money on cybersecurity services. Pulaski Tech can also tap the UA System’s attorneys for help with contracts or interpreting and understanding legislation that affects high education, DeProw said.

“My favorite part, of course, is the benefits of the students,” she said.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock also offers Pulaski Tech students who receive their associate degree the same tuition rates as Pulaski Tech.

She said that after she speaks to a group of prospective students and parents, the parents ask if the tuition program is true. She assures them that it is.

Benefits also extend to Pulaski Tech employees, who can take undergraduate classes at a UA System school for half the cost of the university’s tuition, she said.

The number of students at Pulaski Tech rose 7.3%, to 4,451, in the fall of 2024 from the previous year, and the school had more returning students than new students.

“It is a correlation of the prestige of being in that UA System and the opportunities that the system is trying to create for students,” DeProw said.

UA System Benefits

The University of Arkansas System is constantly in talks with colleges outside the system about collaboration, said Chris Thomason, vice president for planning and development at the UA System.

Sometimes those partnerships lead to discussions about mergers.

“The students are always first and foremost in our thought process, not just the current students, but the future students, and how we’re going to positively impact their opportunities,” Thomason said.

He also said the UA System wants to make sure that community stakeholders are involved in merger discussions.

“They’re the ones that created these campuses in the first place,” Thomason said. “We want to be able to hear from them what their vision for service of that campus is going forward with their direct partnership with the University of Arkansas System.”

He said there’s no fee to join the UA System. “It’s more about how effective the partnership is going to be serving Arkansans,” he said.

It’s difficult to estimate what percentage in cost savings community colleges that join the system will see, Thomason said. But because of the UA System’s size, colleges are able to receive lower prices.

Still, when a community college merges with UA, that two-year college’s board gives up some decision-making authority and becomes a board of visitors. The UA System’s board of trustees becomes the governing body for the community college.

Cline, at UA-East Arkansas Community College, said local board members continue to advise her about decisions for the school.

“For example, I’m going to run my budget past my board of visitors before I send it on to the UA board,” she said. The UA System “will want to know, does your local community, as reflected in your local board of visitors, support what you’re trying to do?”

HLC Approval

A two-year college that wants to merge with the UA System also must receive approval from the Higher Learning Commission of Chicago.

In a September 2024 report about East Arkansas Community College’s merger, the HLC praised the UA System’s handling of the merger.

It said that the system “is well-accustomed to forging collaborative partnerships with regional institutions such as EACC. The UA System’s effort to incorporate EACC into the system is distinguished by a resolve to preserve EACC’s identity and its local autonomy so that it may maintain its relevance in the community.”

The report added that the UA’s record of working with other colleges “indicates a strategic dedication to improving education in the state and a determination to ensure that higher education will have a favorable impact on Arkansas’ workforce and the quality of life for its residents.”

‘A Good Partner’

Massengale, North Arkansas College’s president, said the community members to whom he’s talked are excited about the possibility of a UA System merger.

“The only thing that has really come up in any conversation, … is they want to make sure that Northark stays prominent in the name,” he said. And he said that shouldn’t be a problem.

Meanwhile, the school’s enrollment has been growing and its finances are healthy.

“Our academic programs are solid and expanding,” he said. “Our community outreach is growing, but we just need a good partner. And the U of A System seems to be that partner that we need in this area.”