President Of Arkansas Tech example essay topic

History of Arkansas Tech University Est. 1909 Arkansas ranked 42nd out of the 46 states in annual per capita school funds at a mere $4.97 per student. Citizens started to feel the need for secondary education for their children most ardently. The Washington County Farmers' Union started the concept of agricultural boarding schools. H.S. Mobley was one of the most fluent spokesman for the Union. He believed in vocational education, and he pleaded for schools where students might learn partly by working with their hands at practical farm work under trained instructors. In 1908, the Arkansas Democratic platform endorsed the idea of "farmer's schools" and George W. Donaghey advocated four such schools in his campaign for governor.

The bill that was introduced to the Senate was referred to the agriculture committee, which reported the bill back to the House of Representatives on January 30, 1909, with the recommendation that it be passed. The bill passed the House on February 5, 1909, and the Senate on March 23, 1909. It was signed into law as Act 100 by Governor Donaghey on April 1, 1909. By September 30, 1909, the board members had been appointed. The town wishing to be considered as the location for one of the four schools must offer a minimum of $40,000 and a site of not less than 200 acres. The citizens of Russellville were very interested in meeting these bid conditions.

A story in the January 1910 Courier Democrat stated that Atkins had raised $30,000 and 320 acres of land toward a bid for the school, apparently only four towns were in the final bidding; Fort Smith with $40,000 and 200 acres of land; Ozark with $40,000 and 200 acres of land; Russellville with $40,000 and 220 acres of land; and Morrilton with $46,000 and 200 acres of land. It originally appeared that Morrilton went to Ozark with the best bid. However, apparently at the last moment the Russellville delegation led by Judge R.B. Wilson raised its bid by offering free lights and water for three years. Russellville was also favored because of its healthfulness of location, its railroad connections with Dardanelles, Ola, Little Rock, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, its quality of soil, its central location in the district, its proposed site close to town, and its location directly on the water and light lines coming from the dam. February 10, 1910, was a great day in Russellville. Bells and whistles greeted the news from Ozark that the Second District Agricultural School would be established in Russellville.

The first order of business for the Second District School Board of Trustees to do was elect someone to run the school. They elected A.K. Short, instructor of animal husbandry at the University of Arkansas, as principal of the new school. His duties were to issue and sign all requisitions, control all books of the school, direct all labor, have the entire supervision of the faculty, and make a report to the board at the end of each month. The next thing that the trustees did was select the site for the school and the location of the first school buildings. The Board of Trustees postponed the opening of the fall term until October 26, 1910. But, when October 26th arrived, the buildings were still unfinished.

Despite this, the students were allowed to register and classes were begun. There was no heat in the classrooms. The water main to supply Russellville with water had not yet been completed. Since Russellville had promised free water to the school for three years, it fulfilled its commitment by installing a pump in a shallow well on the campus (the Russellville water system was finally put into operation in May 1912). Suddenly in September of 1911, in his letter of resignation, Principal Short stated that under the present management of the board he had little if any control of the school.

Therefore his work could not reach the efficiency of the prior years and he felt compelled to submit his resignation as principal of the school. In the same announcement of the beginning of the fall term of school in 1911 came the announcement of the election of George A. Cole as temporary principal to take the place of A.K. Short. Two weeks later, the Board of Trustees announced the election of George A. Cole as president for a term of four years. Even though Cole received more supervision from the board than he would have liked, he seemed to cope fairly well. The Pope County Farmers' Union passed a resolution praising President Cole in his work at the Second District Agricultural School. The Union said that not only was Cole giving the best of training to the young men and women, but he was also growing the greatest variety of crops ever grown in the county.

Where weeds had grown before, he was producing the best of cotton, corn, peas, peanuts, kaffir corn, and every variety of garden truck. In early 1916, the board of the Second District School appointed Charles E. Scott as president of the school to succeed George A. Cole. His approach was resented by the Aggie students from the beginning, and his tenure was one of turmoil and soon resulted in open revolt. The Board of Trustees held meetings and interviewed students and faculty members. President Scott felt that the board was meddling and not supporting him so he resigned in disgust. In June 1916, the board selected Charles G. Lueker as head of the agronomy department and acting president of the school to succeed President Scott.

A major task of the Aggie school administration and its supporters was obtaining funds from the state. In February 1917, a group of Russellville citizens went to Little Rock to lobby the Legislature for funds for the Second District School. The results were positive on this occasion. The state Senate did pass a millage tax for the state-supported school. In March 1917, Acting President Lueker was made president. During his administration, he was a good man and did his best, but war clouds were hovering and enrollment was dwindling.

From an enrollment of 350 in 1914-15 the enrollment dropped to 110 in 1917-18. Although President Lueker served for the year 1917-18, he resigned before the year was out. Because of the unsettled condition of the times, the morale of the faculty, students, and patrons was low. The Board of Trustees felt that unless they could find an unusual leader that the days of the school might be numbered. Their search was fortunate. They elected Hugh Critz and he began his presidential duties in August 1918.

Hugh Critz was the answer to their prayer because he was a dynamic personality and a promoter. He had an excellent ability for publicity and public relations. He employed unique methods of discipline and soon became popular with the students, faculty, citizens, and press. Under his leadership, the enrollment began to climb. One of the problems that President Critz had to solve was the administrative overlap between the Board of Trustees and the president of the school. Soon after Hugh Critz became president, Col. Henry Stroupe, president of the board, visited the campus as had been his custom.

Critz had some boys at work. Passing later, President Critz observed that a boy was not following his instructions. He asked for an explanation. The boy told him that Colonel Stroupe had told him to do the job a different way. Critz hurried to find Stroupe and when he found him he said, "Do you see that ditch? That ditch is the boundary of this campus.

When you cross that boundary and see something that needs to be done, you call me. I am the only man here to whom you can give orders". In 1919, the enrollment climbed to 300. Administration rocked along with miscellaneous happenings for the next few years.

An outstanding feature of the Critz era at Tech was the tremendous school spirit exhibited by the students, president, faculty, and the citizens of Russellville. The spirit was exemplified in President Critz who could and would do almost anything on the farm from castrating a pig to canning turnip greens. In 1923, the hopes to upgrade the Second District School into an agricultural and mechanical college failed. During this same year, complaints came to the board that some school employees were making local debts and not paying them promptly. The board stated that it thought that the school was paying the employees adequately, and therefore admonished the employees to meet their debts promptly. At the same time, Tech was also short on money and the board had to obtain a loan of $5,000 from the Bank of Russellville to continue farming operations.

Tech's monetary situation finally improved some after the Legislature passed a tax on cigarettes and cigars in 1924. On March 17, 1925, D.G. Armstrong was selected by the board to serve as president of the school. Armstrong was an experienced school administrator from Louisiana who was at the time serving as superintendent of the North Little Rock public schools. His term was to begin on July 1, 1925. At this same time, Act 45, a bill to change the names of all the District Agriculture Schools had been passed by the General Assembly and approved by Gov. Thomas J. Terra on February 10, 1925.

This act changed the name of the Second District State Agriculture School, Second District to Arkansas Polytechnic College. Naturally, there was opposition to this bill. The reasons given by these opposition legislators was that they did not feel these schools which were created as secondary schools should be raised to college level because the state was not financially able to sustain them. It was also during this time that the board directed that the college would no longer furnish rooms in the dormitories for members of the faculty, that the faculty members would have to move off campus before the beginning of the school year in August 1925. In January 1926, Arkansas Tech received a laudatory report from the state auditor, J. Carroll Cone. After examining the books at Tech, Auditor Cone stated that an earlier announced apparent shortage in the maintenance fund was an error.

A warrant on the student-labor fund had been erroneously charged to the maintenance fund which accounted for the apparent discrepancy. Further, he said with the exception of two small warrants that had been charged to wrong funds, the books were completely accurate. Moreover, the auditor said that no institution with which he had compared records had spent its funds so judiciously. Therefore he wholeheartedly recommended a $10,000 supplemental appropriation to augment the Tech maintenance fund which was really not sufficient for the remainder of the fiscal year.

In April 1926, a report was received that President Armstrong's health was improving and that he would probably be able to resume active presidential duties in about six months. At the May 1926 board meeting, since the condition of President Armstrong's health was questionable, the board decided to have him appear. At this time, he stated that his health was not sufficiently improved for him to resume active leadership of the college. He therefore tendered his resignation to the board, which decided to accept President Armstrong's resignation effective August 1, 1926, in order to have time to select a replacement prior to the beginning of the fall semester. After receiving his resignation, the board immediately contacted Dr. James R. Grant of the state department of education staff. The board offered him the presidency of Tech, which he accepted without delay and agreed to begin his duties on July 1, 1926.

Dr. James R. Grant made a statement in which he asserted that he thought that he would be particularly helpful to Tech because of his background in preparing rural teachers. He maintained that the Arkansas educational problem was largely rural. During 1926, there was a record enrollment at Tech, an upgrading of and increase in the faculty, and improvements to the buildings and the grounds. The Dad's Day in October 1926 also had an unusual quality. At this program, prizes were awarded to the dad with the biggest head, baldest head, largest waist line, largest hands, youngest age, oldest age, and greatest miles traveled to get to Arkansas for the occasion.

Obsolete textile machinery and untrained personnel proved to be greater obstacles than could be overcome. The phasing out of the unfortunate textile program was scheduled to be completed by late 1928. The president was directed to sell the textile equipment for an amount in excess of $5,000. However, the best offer received was $1,500. The board refused this offer. Eventually the board disposed of the obsolete textile machinery but received nothing for it.

With the stock market crash of October 1929, the state's relatively poor economic status sank still more. Arkansas Tech therefore was faced with even more limited resources. The board moved that the governor be petitioned to issue a deficit proclamation of $34,000 for Arkansas Tech in order that the college could obtain money to pay off the balance of $23,000 due on a purchase of land and $11,000 for repairs and re roofing of some of Arkansas Tech's buildings. The governor refused to issue the deficit proclamation, but the board still tried to re roof some of the buildings. In October 1930, President Grant established a college council for the first time in the history or the college. The council was organized for the purpose of advising with the president on all matters pertaining to college administration.

Sadly, in August 1931, the attorney general informed the board that because Dr. Grant did not have an agricultural degree, he was not legally qualified to be president of Arkansas Tech. As a result, he tendered his resignation to the Tech Board of Trustees to be effective immediately. Board member John E. Chambers was most influential in the selection of J.W. Hull as president of Arkansas Tech. Chambers stated that he did not believe it took a good academician to be president of the college. Although the depression waned, the economic crunch at Arkansas Tech lessened, but the budget was perennially tight during the Hull period. The Tech administration continually attempted to obtain federal funds to supplement its meager budget.

By January of 1937, Tech was feeling confident enough about its financial situation that the Tech Board of Trustees went on record as opposing proposed legislation, advocated by several state colleges, to have approximately $4,000,000 worth of state college debts assumed by the taxpayers of Arkansas. After Dr. George L.B. Pratt's assumption of duties as president of the college in the summer of 1967, his first actions related to routine general and academic administration. Then Pratt began to hint at what he envisioned the emphasis and thrust of Arkansas Tech should be. He noted that the Arkansas Power and Light nuclear generating plant under construction represented a major asset to the college instructional program. At a board meeting in late January, Dr. Pratt submitted his resignation as president, effective as of June 1972, and it was accepted by the board. The primary reason Dr. Pratt gave for his decision was that his administration had been undermined in part by an "unhealthy influence over the governance by a few individuals in the local community who had been closely allied with the previous administration and some faculty and staff members".

After months of considering applicants, the board felt that Dr. Kersh was the best qualified person to serve as president of Arkansas Tech. Dr. Kersh's background in education and training were sound and his personality traits would bring out the best of everything at Tech. In June of 1976, despite Dr. Kersh's original objections, he recommended university status for Tech and the board approved after enabling legislation from the State Legislature and the approval of the State Department of Education had been obtained. Tech received its official new title of Arkansas Tech University as July 1, 1976. Tech's sister colleges took similar steps.