The Pulaski Technical College board of trustees unanimously approved a motion to enter into a formal partnership with the University of Arkansas System at a special meeting on Wednesday.
The University of Arkansas System’s board of trustees must also approve the merger. It will likely be considered at the board’s May 25-26 meeting, which takes place at Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas in DeQueen.
At the Pulaski Tech board meeting on Wednesday, Chairman Ronald Dedman emphasized that the mission of the school will not change.
Pulaski Tech has struggled with enrollment in recent years as it slumped to 7,650 in the fall of 2015 after reaching nearly 12,000 in the fall of 2011.
“I would hope that if this does go through, having this partnership would in some way positively impact enrollment,” Pulaski Tech President Margaret Ellibee said during discussion at the meeting, prior to the vote.
Despite the many positives that the board believes the change could bring, in areas such as IT, human resources and easier transfers for students, Dedman said that the school still has a lot of work ahead.
“The University of Arkansas System is not going to come here and be our savior,” Dedman said. “We’ll benefit but we still have a school to run. We still have to figure out how to get students here … The state of higher education is changing and we have to evolve with it.”
In a special meeting on March 28, UA System President Donald Bobbitt discussed with the board the possibility of joining the system. According to Ellibee, Bobbitt informally initiated the discussion about a potential merger with her and she then passed the baton to Dedman and the board of trustees.
Sherry Young, associate vice president for human resources and employee relations, addressed a concern about retirement plans and benefits. She said that employees currently enrolled in one of Pulaski Tech’s plans would likely be able to keep those plans while new employees could enroll in the UA System’s plans, which have a lower matching rate.
Young said that the health insurance available through the UA System is cheaper and more facilities out of state are considered “in network.”
Elibee said that she believes by joining the UA System, Pulaski Tech would be able to “enhance the quality of education this college provides.”
She offered the example of the school’s Blackboard system, a technology service that students and faculty utilize regularly. Currently, the school pays $185,000 every two years for access to three of the program’s nine suites. By joining the UA System, the school would have access to all nine suites for the same cost.
“Joining the UA provides us with savings and resources we do not have today,” Ellibee said. “We see and we know that revenues are not coming in. We have to be innovative because cost is increasing and revenue is staying the same.”
Trustee Kent Walker said that by joining the UA System, he believes that solving problems would become more efficient through partnership.
“We’re not competitors if we’re part of the UA System and if we’re working together to grab those students,” Walker said. “ Pulaski Tech is kind of its own island right now in how we solve things.”
Multiple board members emphasized the importance of the school preserving its identity even within the system and making sure they negotiate to reach the best agreement for Pulaski Tech.
“Maintaining our individuality is important to me,” Vice Chair James Herzfeld said. “Joining a system means you have to listen to what they say, so we need to make the very best deal we can.”
Should the UA board approve the partnernership, the merger would still likely take a long time to complete, but those details have yet to be ironed out.
“If they approve it at that point I think we would look at a fairly lengthy process in actually getting things changed over,” Associate Vice President Tim Jones told Arkansas Business last week. “I would anticipate the month of June being a time period when a lot of work would get done to hash out exactly what this means. There are a lot of details to figure out with a college our size.”
Last month, Rich Mountain Community College in Mena unanimously voted to join the UA System, effective July 1, if the UA’s board of trustees gives final approval at that same May 25-26 meeting.
Should both Rich Mountain and Pulaski Tech join the UA System, the system will include seven community colleges and 13 total campuses.
“I’m a guy that’s not crazy about change, but sometimes you have to embrace change to not be left behind,” Dedman said. “We will fight to make sure Pulaski Tech will not lose its identity.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
