By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees signed off today on $59.1 million worth of renovations to aging facilities on the Fayetteville campus of the system’s flagship university.
The trustees also approved the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s first-ever doctoral program — in aquaculture and fisheries — and authorized the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to enter into an agreement to create a research park.
The board approved a resolution of intent to issue up to $59.1 million in bonds for renovations to Fayetteville campus facilities including several fraternity buildings, Peabody Hall, Davis Hall, Darby Hall, the Bud Walton Hall Complex, the Wilson Sharp House, Pomfrey Honors Quarters and the Old Health Center.
The money also will be used to buy equipment and upgrade the campus’ utility infrastructure. The university will repay the bonds largely through tuition and student fees.
Chancellor David Gearhart told the board the university hopes to move its nursing school to the old Washington Regional Medical Center building, but if that proves impossible the Old Health Center could be an alternative site.
The university wants to renovate Darby Hall, which has been unoccupied for several years, for use by the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, Gearhart said.
The Wilson Sharp House will be renovated to serve as the new home of the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, he said.
Also today, the board approved a resolution authorizing the Pine Bluff campus to offer a doctorate in aquaculture and fisheries. UAPB’s aquaculture and fisheries program, widely considered one of the top such programs in the country, currently offers a master’s degree but not a Ph.D.
The program is expected to be taught by 13 faculty members with Ph.D.s and to start in the fall of 2010 with five students, growing to 15 after three years. The proposal still needs the approval of the state Department of Higher Education.
The board also authorized the Little Rock campus and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to join with Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and the city of Little Rock to create a research park in Little Rock to capitalize on researchers’ work.
“We are acquiring more and more patents, starting young companies — we have started about 25 at UAMS — and they don’t have any place to graduate to,” UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson told the board.
The agreement calls for each of the five partners to contribute $125,000 to start the project. The park will be controlled by a five-member board including one representative from each entity.
The board also approved a resolution supporting UAMS’ application to become a Level 1 trauma center.
Wilson will retire Oct. 31 after 23 years at UAMS, the last nine as chancellor. The trustees adopted a resolution today naming Wilson chancellor emeritus and presented him with a framed copy of the resolution.
“I thank you all for the opportunity to do what I’ve done, to have a wonderful life here in Arkansas,” Wilson said.
Dan Rahn, president of the Medical College of Georgia and senior vice chancellor for health and medical programs for the University System of Georgia, will take over as UAMS chancellor on Nov. 1.
