PAR T I I I : T H E COMMU N I T Y COL L EGE ER A , 1974- 1998
After the millage passed, people asked, “Where are you going to put the University Center?” Of course, the University Center was a concept as much as a place; courses are taught wherever they need to be taught. Westark officials wanted to give some public presence to the University Center, however, so the administrative offices were placed in the MathScience Building instead of Vines, as visible proof to the citizens of how their money was being spent. The building was then officially named the MathScience/University Center. Although the University Center was created in 1989, there was no funding of personnel to run it. The following year Stubblefield, Hudson, and several local business people including Ross Pendergraft, Bob Nunley, Jim Hanna, and others met with Governor Clinton to discuss funding. They forgot to leave a written summary with him, and Clinton mistakenly understood that Westark wanted $300,000 for the biennium, exactly half of what was needed. After reviewing an audio tape of the conversation, Hudson realized that the discussion with Clinton was indeed vague. Westark officials then had to struggle to get the state to agree to amend the bill to $300,000 for each year so that the University Center could begin operations. Clinton came up with an idea to use general improvement funds (which are normally one-year funds) as an emergency funding measure for the first year. The second year Governor Clinton gave $50,000 from his emergency fund. Thereafter, the Center received $400,000 funding for the University Center each year. One fourth went to operations at Westark, and the remaining portion went to the participating universities.
Growth of the University Center With the legislation passed, Stubblefield selected Sandi Sanders, then director of community service and continuing education, to become director of the University Center. She was the ideal choice because of both her administrative skills and her proven ability to develop student enrollment. Sanders conducted surveys of program needs, visited major Arkansas universities, and met with presidents, chancellors, and vice presidents to talk about plans for the Center. The officials were warm and friendly, but did not commit to anything. She later learned
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Dr. Sandi Sanders came to the institution as director of community service and continuing education in 1979. She became the first director of university center operations in 1989 and vice president for student services and university center operations in 1990. Sanders was named provost and chief operating officer in 1998. While serving as senior vice chancellor and chief of staff in 2005, she was named Interim Chancellor of the University. She is credited with many behind-the-scenes achievements including the development of noncredit enrollment to over 14,000 students, the development of an operational model for a university center, negotiation of contracts with universities to offer four-year programs on campus, and coordination and supervision of many programs and national accreditations. Working with the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce, she was instrumental in developing Leadership Fort Smith.
that they had all agreed that this plan was not going to work and that none of them would participate. However, they wanted to hedge their bets and behind the scenes told President Stubblefield, “Don’t leave us out; we want to be a part of this.” They did not want Westark’s getting involved in upper-level course instruction, but nor did they wish to be left out. Westark selected elementary education as the first program in the University Center, not because it was the most requested (business and accounting were), but because it did not require as many labs and as much equipment to get started. Several universities submitted proposals: the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), Arkansas Tech University (ATU), and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas wanted to double tuition, and that made it easy to narrow the list. After investigating the quality of the graduates from the two remaining programs, and learning that the schools would be willing to conduct the program on Westark’s terms ATU was selected. The fact that ATU was willing to run the program the first year without any funding appealed to Westark administrators.