Location: West Memphis, Arkansas
Founded: 1992
President: Dr. Glen F. Fenter
Enrollment: Fall 2006 -- 1,584
Spring 2007 -- 1,529
Campus Size: 77.37 acres
MID-SOUTH COMMUNITY COLLEGE
History
Few institutions of higher education have come into being quite so dramatically as Mid-South Community College.
In late 1978, at the request of Arkansas State Representative Lloyd McCuiston and State Senator W.K. “Bill” Ingram, a delegation of local legislators and citizens, chaired by Alex Coulter, publisher of the Evening Times, was organized to lay a cornerstone of plans for development of a vocational-technical school in Crittenden County. The institution would be established for the purpose of affording the residents of eastern Arkansas an opportunity to acquire technical skills and knowledge for job entry, upgrading, and updating for advancement in trade and technical occupations.
In early 1979, the Arkansas Legislature approved the establishment of Mid-South Vocational Technical School, and the institution selected a 30-acre tract on U.S. Highway 70, just off
Airport Road, for construction of the facility. On October 30, 1980, MSVTS broke ground for the new school, and eventual U.S. President Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, attended the ceremony.
The school opened on March 2, 1982, with two buildings housing nine classrooms. The vo-tech offered eleven-month courses were in the areas of accounting, secretarial work, clerk/typing, licensed practical nursing, welding and diesel truck mechanics. MSVT also provided an eight-week course in truck driving.
| Underfunded and “unchampioned” in the highly-politicized vocational system, Mid-South Vo-Tech served fewer than 100 students annually and was primarily known throughout the county as a center for GED testing, truck driver training and a site of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Hunter Education courses. MSVT operated for a decade before more legislation, again co-sponsored by McCuiston, allowed it to upgrade to a technical college. In September 1988, the Arkansas Business Council Foundation, a group of 19 prominent Arkansas business and industry leaders, issued a report entitled In Pursuit of Excellence that called for "reform of and increased support for our state's system of elementary, secondary, vocational, and higher education." The report's recommendations included transfer of postsecondary vocational programs from the State Board of Education to the State Board of Higher Education, expansion of general education programs in the vocational-technical schools, development of more sophisticated technical training in close cooperation with business and industry, conversion of the existing vocational-technical schools into technical colleges or comprehensive community colleges, and support for funding to implement these recommendations. Three years later the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 1244 of 1991, known as the “Two-Year Postsecondary Education Reorganization Act,” in an effort to enact many of the foundation’s recommendations. The legislation focused on converting or “upgrading” the state’s vocational-technical schools into technical colleges or branches of four-year institutions. The upgrade would include easily-accessible, highly-responsive educational programs for people in need of training or retraining to meet the needs of the workplace. Lawmakers selected Mid-South Vocational Technical School for “conversion,” and upon transfer from the State Board of Education to the State Board of Higher Education on July 1, 1991, the institution became Mid-South Technical College. The governor appointed a seven-member board of trustees, and Alex Coulter, who had chaired the vo-tech effort more than a decade earlier, was elected to chair the group. That same month, MSTC entered into an agreement with East Arkansas Community College in Forrest City to enable the latter institution to provide developmental and college-level general education courses on the Mid-South campus. In April 1992, the Mid-South Board of Trustees hired Dr. Glen F. Fenter as the College’s first chief executive officer. Dr. Fenter, who was serving as principal of West Memphis High School at the time, brought to the college not only a strong academic background but an understanding and insight into the educational needs of the Delta and its people. Later that year, the Board and College administration determined that the future viability of the institution would hinge upon conversion to a community college, as provided for in Section 22 of Act 1244, and made plans to seek local millage to provide the necessary funding. MSTC submitted the conversion application and received approval from the State Board of Higher Education on October 23, 1992. A representative, county-wide Steering Committee began to investigate local funding options and reached the conclusion that a four-mill levy would be needed to establish the college. It submitted its findings to the Mid-South Technical College Board of Trustees which ratified the proposal, and the millage issue was placed on the ballot for February 16, 1993. The millage campaign focused on a number of key issues: the historic absence of higher education opportunities in Crittenden County; the distance to other state-supported institutions; the alarmingly low college-going rate for the county; the sluggish local economy; difficulties encountered by civic leaders in recruiting new businesses to the county; and the pronounced need for bold initiatives addressing literacy, adult education, and job training. The campaign worked to near perfection as the success of the millage referendum surprised even the most vigorous proponents of the community college. By a margin of 2,884 to 1,137 (three to one), voters agreed to pay one of the highest millages in the state to create a community college district consisting of Crittenden County. With local funding established, Mid-South Community College began to move forward in its efforts to provide high-quality, affordable education to the people of Crittenden and surrounding counties. |
