Tuition Increases, Campus-Wide Changes Addressed by Assembly

Editor-in-Chief

   The University of Arkansas-Monticello Assembly concluded another academic year with an announcement of an increase in tuition and fees during its final meeting for the semester Thursday, April 28.

   Chancellor Jack Lassiter announced plans to request to the board a 6 percent increase in tuition and fees for the university. Even with the increase, Lassiter assures UAM “will still be the lowest-cost institution in the state.”

   He said when the tuition and fees are raised, institutional scholarships will be raised as well to accommodate the increase.

Changes for Students

   Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Jay Hughes announced changes for the university which would impact students on the campus in the fall.

   According to Hughes, the university plans to implement an increase in the number of declining balance dollars on students’ meal plans. He said new “swipe sites” will be placed in the new Java City going in the Fred J. Taylor Library and Technology Center, and at the concession stands at both football and basketball games.

   “We think that will be a big plus for our students,” Hughes said.

   In addition to the use of swipe sites, he said the university’s food service, Aramark, has developed a pizza delivery package. The declining balance dollars can be used to have pizza delivered to a student’s residence hall.

   Also on the subject of residence halls, Hughes said renovations will be made to residence halls over the summer. He said the second floor of Bankston Hall will be renovated the same way as the first floor and everything would be replaced in Horsfall Hall.

   He said more renovations will be made the following summer.

   Hughes also announced plans to look for other vendors for the university’s emergency notification system. He said there continues to be problems with the current system, ACIC, which were noticed during the issuing of a notification of Drew County being under a tornado warning Wednesday morning.

   He said email notifications work well for faculty and staff but not for students.

   “The key to emergency alerts for a student perspective, it’s the SMS messages. If we don’t text these young people, they’re not getting it. That’s the bottom line,” he said. “We’ve got to have texting capability.”

   Hughes said he plans to have a new system in place by the fall.

Changes for Faculty and Staff

   Hughes also announced technology changes which should please faculty and staff members. According to Hughes, the university has plans to make the email system better as far as the netlist goes. The university is creating “several different distribution lists at various levels.”

   He gave examples of members of the Executive Council having one list, and the deans and unit heads having a list. He also said a listserv would be set up including all faculty and staff members, but they would have the option to withdraw from the list if they did not want to be included.

   He said he plans to have the new lists ready in July.

   Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Jay Jones gave an additional announcement regarding email for faculty and staff. He said the university has not limited the size of email inboxes for faculty and staff, but due to limited space, they will begin to limit the space in the inboxes.

Announcements

   Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs David Ray reminded attendees there would be two commencement ceremonies Friday, May 13, and that the university was “trying something new,” by getting out of the heat and moving into a cooler place, the Steelman Fieldhouse. He said the participating schools for each ceremony can be found on the UAM website.

   According to Ray, a trial run of providing a live stream of the ceremonies on the website will take place. He said it would also be recorded to go on the website providing the live stream test did not succeed.

   He said 473 students are eligible for degrees for May’s commencement, but only 268 students confirmed to attend the ceremony. He said the thinks the number will increase by May 13.

   In additional news for enrollment through pre-registration, Ray said the Office of Admissions hosted Scholar’s Day Monday, April 25 and over 200 high school seniors planning to attend UAM enrolled in classes for the fall.

   Through traditional pre-registration, Ray said 408 students had preregistered for the intercession term, 1,098 for the Summer I term and 761 for the Summer II term.

   Ray also announced UAM would soon have its first online program, a Master’s in Physical Education and Coaching. More information regarding this program would be announced later.

Elections

   With no opposing candidates, Assembly members re-elected the current officers to serve for the 2011-2012 academic year.

   Assembly officers are:

• Chair – Scott Lykens, assistant professor of art
• Vice Chair – Donna Hunnicutt, master of arts in teaching coordinator
• Secretary – Greg Borse, assistant professor of English
• Parliamentarian – Richard Clubb, professor of psychology

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©The Voice 2011