MENA — The group of Mena and University of Arkansas at Rich Mountain have “a ton of momentum” underway, Chancellor Phillip Wilson stated final week.

Athletics have been integral to the faculty’s latest momentum, they usually’ve been a income generator and a software for pupil recruitment, Wilson stated.

“We have to do things differently — think like a private college while being public — nimble and agile,” he stated.

Wilson made the feedback to the UA System board of trustees, which wrapped up its two-day assembly Thursday.

As host campus, Rich Mountain had the chance to speak about itself.

The school is predicated in Mena, on the west-central fringe of Arkansas, amid small, winding roads. It is roughly 1.5 hours from any bigger metropolis.

At 679 college students, it had the smallest enrollment of any two-year public school in Arkansas, in line with the state Division of Higher Education report on enrollment for the autumn 2022 semester.

Rich Mountain, initially established by what was then the state Department of Vocational Education as a vocational-technical faculty in 1973, began providing vocational-technical training lessons in 1975.

In 1976, Henderson State University partnered with Rich Mountain to supply two years of common training. Rich Mountain grew to become a group school in 1983. It joined the UA System in 2017.

The school now has a dozen athletic applications for women and men, together with esports — which is able to debut this fall — and can add capturing sports activities within the fall of 2025, that are “big” within the state and group, Wilson stated throughout the assembly final week. The school can also be including on-campus housing for athletes, and “we’ll ultimately be able to house 190 students.”

“Academics come first,” he stated, including that UA-Rich Mountain is sending extra switch college students to different colleges than ever earlier than whereas additionally retaining college students on the highest price in 5 years, he stated. The school can also be leaning into vocational training once more, as a result of “that is what puts people to work.”

For two-year colleges, UA-Rich Mountain reported the very best on-time commencement price with the latest cohort, fall 2020, at practically 48%, far outpacing the state’s different group faculties. The second-best price was Arkansas State University Mid-South’s 30.8%, in line with the Arkansas Division of Higher Education.

Mena goals to develop into the “downhill, gravity-fed mountain biking capital of the country, [with] world class-level trails,” which is able to draw vacationers, Wilson stated. “It thrills me that my institution will be in the middle of this, and it will grow my institution.”

Every UA System faculty has to deal with its distinctive worth proposition, and UA-Rich Mountain is doing that adroitly, stated trustee Ted Dickey. It’s leveraging sports activities to draw college students, the naturally stunning environment additionally assist in recruitment, and the applications provided by the faculty result in high quality jobs, which makes it invaluable.