story by Michael Tilley
mtilley@thecitywire.com
With student and program growth at Arkansas’ leading universities capture most of the headlines, one may be forgiven for not knowing of the almost 33% enrollment growth and the broad expansion of workforce related education programs since 2010 at the Ozark campus of Arkansas Tech University.
Bruce Sikes, the chancellor of ATU-Ozark, credits former ATU-Ozark Chancellor Jo Blondin, the leadership at Arkansas Tech University’s main campus in Russellville and leaders in and around Ozark for much of the campus growth. Blondin resigned in early 2013 to accept the presidency at Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio.
Fall enrollment at the campus has grown from 1,636 in 2010 to 2,172 in 2014, up 32.7%. From 2006 to May 2014, enrollment at ATU-Ozark has increased more than 560% and more than 17 new academic and technical programs have been added. In fall 2012, enrollment at ATU-Ozark rose above 2,000 students for the first time.
The second decade of the century opened with the completion of the $1.73 million Alvin F. Vest Student Union on the ATU-Ozark campus. The facility, opened in September 2010, includes a bookstore, library, food area with coffee shop and a computer lab. The building was part of $4.7 million in campus additions that began in the fall of 2008.
Campus growth has continued. University officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 23 for a new $4 million allied health building. The proposed 20,273 square-foot allied health building will house five of the campus’ allied health programs including paramedic, health information technology, physical therapist assistant, practical nursing and registered nursing.
ATU-Ozark offers health care options in health information technology, physical therapist assistant, cardiovascular technology, occupational therapy assistant, medical assisting, nursing assistant, practical nursing, registered nursing, emergency medical technician, paramedic and human services.
HEALTH CARE SUPPORT
Providing health care training was one of the primary ways ATU-Ozark responded when significant job losses hit the Fort Smith following the Great Recession. Much of the immediate job losses came from the regional manufacturing sector. Whirlpool closed its Fort Smith refrigerator plant in June 2012. There were about 1,000 jobs lost when the plant closed, but employment at the plant was around 4,500 in 2006.
The size of the Fort Smith regional workforce during November was 126,795 well below the peak of 140,253 in June 2007 – meaning the November workforce size is down 9.6% from the peak number.
The Fort Smith area manufacturing sector employed an estimated 17,800 in November, down more than 37% from a decade ago when November 2004 manufacturing employment in the metro area stood at 28,600. Annual average monthly employment in manufacturing has fallen from 28,900 in 2005, 19,200 in 2012, and to 18,300 in 2013.
ATU-Ozark began in 2012 to provide air conditioning and refrigeration classes as an option for dislocated workers. The classes were held at Chaffee Crossing.
Following are some of the health sector programs – in addition to the allied health building addition – established at ATU-Ozark in recent years.
• An RN program at ATU-Ozark was approved in January 2012 by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE).
• An occupational therapy program through ATU-Ozark began in 2012, with classes held in Russellville.
• The ADHE approved in 2013 a cardiovascular technology program. Classes began in August 2013, with classes held at Chaffee Crossing to provide better access to students from the Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas areas.
• In 2013, the medical assisting program moved under ATU-Ozark from Arkansas Tech University.
The health services sector in the Fort Smith metro gained jobs as the manufacturing sector declined. Jobs in the Fort Smith metro Education and Health Services sector averaged 15,200 in 2007, and grew to an average of 16,800 in 2013. Based on trends for the first 11 months of 2014, the sector average is likely to fall to around 16,400 in 2014.
HIGH SCHOOL, ADULT ED SUPPORT
The Ozark campus also in the past few years has broadened its program connections to area high school students. In 2011, the Russellville Area Career and Technical Center in merged with ATU-Ozark to form Arkansas Tech Career Center (ATCC). The center now provided career and workforce training to more than 500 students from 11 area high schools in Pope, Johnson and Yell counties, with students eligible to receive concurrent college credits.
Other program additions and expansions include:
• In 2012, the Johnson County Adult Education Center joined the ATU-Ozark Adult Education program;
• Adult Education classes expand to the Charleston-Franklin County Adult Education Center, with adult ed centers located in Booneville, Charleston, Clarksville, Ozark and Paris;
• The ADHE in 2012 ADHE approved the Associate of Applied Science in Human Services;
• The ADHE in 2012 approved the Supply Chain Management option under business technology;
• ASU-Mountain Home partnered with ATU-Ozark to offer in January 2013 ASUMH Funeral Science program courses at Ozark;
• Arkansas State Board of Career Education approves proposal to establish a satellite career-education system for high school students in Paris; and
• A partnership approved in 2014 between ATU-Ozark and Pea Ridge Public Schools allows Pea Ridge students to enroll in credit classes in industrial control systems and welding.
• The new programs and enrollment gains have been good, obviously, for rural Franklin County. Data and analysis from the University of Arkansas and Arkansas Tech University was presented in 2012 that indicated the ATU-Ozark campus has an estimated annual economic impact of $18.2 million on Franklin County, which is 7.6% of its gross domestic product.