LITTLE ROCK
Two Arkansas universities want to shift money set aside by a statewide bond issue to help fund improvements to their nursing programs, as enrollment and interest climbs in the field.
Both Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia have asked the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board for funding for nursing school buildings. The funding, $1.79 million for Henderson and $1 million for Southern Arkansas, had been earmarked for the two schools out of a $250 million bond package approved by state voters last year.
Both schools will be before the higher education board Wednesday to discuss their requests.
Arkansas Tech University in Ozark also plans to ask the higher education board permission to switch about $400,000 set aside for a maintenance building to a new 10,000-square-foot building to house its offices of admission, financial aid and fiscal services.
At Henderson, officials want about $1.8 million to build a new, 11,000-square-foot building to house classes and laboratories for nursing students. Charles Dunn, the school’s president, said the new building will be part of a planned swap that would put the university’s admissions office and welcome center in its president’s home, out of Foster Hall, which it shares with the nursing program.
